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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
10
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17
18 Temporary note:
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
23
24 \f
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.2
26
27 ** New configure options for Emacs developers
28 These are not new features; only the configure flags are new.
29
30 *** --enable-profiling builds Emacs with profiling enabled.
31 This might not work on all platforms.
32
33 *** --enable-checking[=OPTIONS] builds emacs with extra runtime checks.
34
35 * Changes in Emacs 23.2
36
37 ** New completion-style `initials' to complete M-x lch to list-command-history.
38
39 ** Unibyte sessions are declared obsolete.
40 I.e. the use of the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE, or command line
41 arguments --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
42 is deprecated. Similarly for custom-izing enable-multibyte-characters, or
43 setting default-enable-multibyte-characters.
44
45 ** The default value of `trash-directory' has changed to nil, which
46 means that `move-file-to-trash' trashes files according to
47 freedesktop.org specifications, the same method used by the Gnome,
48 KDE, and XFCE desktops. (This change has no effect on Windows, which
49 uses `system-move-file-to-trash' for trashing.)
50
51 +++
52 ** Emacs frames can be maximized.
53 The command line arguments -mm/--maximized and the value maximized to the
54 frame parameter fullscreen makes the Emacs frame maximized.
55
56 +++
57 ** New frame parameter sticky makes Emacs frames sticky in virtual desktops.
58
59 ** The pointer now becomes invisible when typing.
60 Customize make-pointer-invisible to turn it off.
61
62 ---
63 ** On MS-Windows, `display-time' now displays the system load average
64 as well as the time, as it does on GNU and Unix.
65
66 ** Killing a buffer with a running process now asks a confirmation.
67 You can remove this query in two ways: either removing
68 `process-kill-buffer-query-function' from `kill-buffer-query-functions' or
69 setting the appropriate process flag with `set-process-query-on-exit-flag'.
70
71 +++
72 ** If `select-active-regions' is t, any active region automatically
73 becomes the primary selection (for interaction with other window
74 applications). If you enable this, you might want to bind
75 `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
76
77 ** The variable `load-in-progress' won't get corrupted by binding it
78 with `let'. In certain situations, loading an Emacs Lisp file from
79 source while in the midst of loading another file (e.g., with
80 `require' or `autoload') could cause the value of `load-in-progress'
81 to be corrupted once the outer load completed. Most code doesn't care
82 about this, but some (like c-mode) may check it.
83
84 ** When `save-interprogram-paste-before-kill' is non-nil, emacs will not
85 clobber the the interprogram paste when something is killed in it by
86 saving the former in the `kill-ring' before the latter.
87
88 ** When `kill-do-not-save-duplicates' is non-nil, identical subsequent
89 kills are not duplicated in the `kill-ring'.
90
91 ** File-local variable changes
92
93 *** Specifying a minor mode as a local variables enables that mode,
94 unconditionally. The previous behavior, toggling the mode, was
95 neither reliable nor generally desirable.
96
97 *** New commands for adding and removing file-local variables:
98 `add-file-local-variable', `delete-file-local-variable',
99 `add-file-local-variable-prop-line', and
100 `delete-file-local-variable-prop-line'.
101
102 *** New commands for adding and removing directory-local variables,
103 and copying them to and from file-local variable lists:
104 `add-dir-local-variable', `delete-dir-local-variable',
105 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals',
106 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals-prop-line' and
107 `copy-file-locals-to-dir-locals'.
108
109 ** New coding system `utf-8-hfs' is available in
110 international/ucs-normalize.el. It is suitable for
111 default-file-name-coding-system on Mac OS X.
112
113 \f
114 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.2
115
116 +++
117 ** The default value for `blink-matching-paren-distance' has been increased.
118
119 \f
120 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
121
122 ** .calc.el and .abbrev_defs obey user-emacs-directory.
123
124 ** Calc graphing commands (`g f' etc.) now work on MS-Windows,
125 if you have the native Windows port of Gnuplot version 3.8 or later
126 installed.
127
128 ** FIXME mail-user-agent change
129 This probably affects a lot of documentation.
130
131 ** FIXME gdb-mi
132
133 ** Info
134
135 *** The new command `Info-virtual-index' bound to "I" displays a menu of
136 matched topics found in the index.
137
138 *** The new command `info-finder' replaces finder.el with a virtual Info
139 manual that generates an Info file which gives the same information
140 through a menu structure.
141
142 +++
143 ** New connection methods in Tramp.
144 The new connection method "rsyncc" has been introduced. On systems
145 which support GVFS-Fuse, Tramp offers also the new connection methods
146 "dav", "davs", "obex" and "synce".
147
148 +++
149 ** Autorevert Tail mode
150 Autorevert Tail mode works now for remote files.
151
152 ** VC and related modes
153
154 *** When a file is not found, VC will not try to check it out of RCS anymore.
155
156 *** vc-git changes
157
158 **** The new variable vc-git-add-signoff can be used to add a
159 Signed-off-by line when committing.
160
161 **** vc-dir displays the stash status
162
163 *** log-edit-strip-single-file-name controls whether or not single filenames
164 are stripped when copying text from the ChangeLog to the *VC-Log* buffer.
165
166 ** Calendar and diary
167
168 *** The fancy diary display enables view-mode.
169
170 ---
171 *** The command `calendar-current-date' accepts an optional argument
172 giving an offset from today.
173
174 ** Desktop
175
176 ---
177 *** The default value for `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is nil.
178 This means Desktop will try restoring all buffers, when you restart
179 your Emacs session. Also, `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is only
180 effective for buffers that have no associated file. If you want to
181 exempt buffers that do correspond to files, customize the value of
182 `desktop-files-not-to-save' instead.
183
184 ** Miscellaneous
185
186 *** The new command `async-shell-command' bound globally to `M-&' executes
187 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand to
188 the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
189 Command*'.
190
191 ---
192 *** Elint now uses compilation-mode, and recognizes more built-in
193 functions and variables.
194
195 \f
196 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
197
198 ** js.el is a new major mode for JavaScript files.
199
200 \f
201 * Lisp changes in Emacs 23.2
202
203 ** New macro with-silent-modifications to tweak text properties without
204 affecting the buffer's modification state.
205 ** All the default-FOO variables that hold the default value of the FOO
206 variable, are now declared obsolete.
207
208 ** read-key is a function halfway between read-event and read-key-sequence.
209 It reads a single key, but obeys input and escape sequence decoding.
210
211 ** start-process-shell-command start-file-process-shell-command only
212 take a single `command' argument any more.
213
214 ** The variable `process-file-side-effects' shall be bound to nil, if
215 a `process-file' call does not change a remote file. By this, file
216 name handlers like Tramp can apply optimizations.
217
218 ** Hash tables have a new printed representation that is readable.
219 The feature `hashtable-print-readable' identifies this new
220 functionality.
221
222 ** Functions performing Unicode normalization are added. They are:
223 ucs-normalize-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-NFD-string,
224 ucs-normalize-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-NFC-string,
225 ucs-normalize-NFKD-region, ucs-normalize-NFKD-string,
226 ucs-normalize-NFKC-region, ucs-normalize-NFKC-string,
227 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-string,
228 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-string.
229
230 ** completion-annotate-function specifies how to compute annotations
231 for completions displayed in *Completions*.
232
233 +++
234 ** Face aliases can now be marked as obsolete, using the macro
235 `define-obsolete-face-alias'.
236
237 ---
238 ** Changing the file-names generated by byte-compilation by redefining
239 the function `byte-compile-dest-file' before loading bytecomp.el is obsolete.
240 Instead, customize byte-compile-dest-file-function.
241
242 \f
243 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
244
245 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
246 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
247 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
248
249 ** New font code.
250 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
251 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
252
253 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
254 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
255
256 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
257 where Emacs is running).
258
259 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
260
261 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
262 OpenType fonts.
263
264 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
265
266 ** Changes to image support
267
268 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
269 a GIF library.
270
271 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
272
273 *** Emacs now supports multi-page TIFF images.
274
275 ** New NeXTSTEP-based port
276 This provides support for GNUstep (via the GNUstep libraries) and Mac
277 OS X (via the Cocoa libraries).
278
279 Specify --with-ns to configure for this. By default, a self-contained
280 app will be built (containing all lisp). To install/share lisp with
281 other emacsen (e.g. X11 build) use --disable-ns-self-contained. See
282 nextstep/README and nextstep/INSTALL in the Emacs source directory.
283
284 ** Mac OS X is no longer supported via Carbon.
285 Use the NeXTSTEP port, described above.
286
287 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
288 bindings for Emacs.
289
290 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
291 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
292
293 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
294
295 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
296
297 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
298
299 ** The following platforms will be removed in a future Emacs version:
300 If you are still using Emacs on one of these platforms, please email
301 emacs-devel@gnu.org to inform the Emacs developers.
302
303 *** Old GNU/Linux systems based on libc version 5.
304
305 *** Old FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems based on the COFF
306 executable format.
307
308 *** Solaris versions 2.6 and below.
309
310 *** Solaris on IBM RS6000 machines.
311
312 *** UNIX System V (the original SysV, not later platforms based on it).
313
314 *** Unixware on non-x86 machines.
315
316 *** Platforms not supporting shared libraries (i.e., requiring the
317 NO_SHARED_LIBS compilation flag).
318
319 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
320 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
321 you need control over which C compiler is used.
322
323 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
324
325 ** The manuals are now licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License v1.3,
326 or any later version.
327
328 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
329 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
330 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
331 \f
332 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
333
334 ** Improved X Window System support
335
336 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
337 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
338 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
339 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
340 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
341 There may be problems if a display exits unexpectedly and Emacs is compiled
342 with Gtk+, see etc/PROBLEMS.
343
344 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
345 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
346
347 *** Emacs starts in the background, as a daemon, when given the
348 --daemon command line argument. It disconnects from the terminal and
349 starts the server. Clients can connect and create graphical or
350 terminal frames using emacsclient.
351
352 **** emacsclient starts emacs in daemon mode and connects to it when
353 --alternate-editor="" is used (or when the evironment variable
354 ALTERNATE_EDITOR is set to "") and emacsclient cannot connect to an
355 emacs server.
356
357 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
358 remote display. There are some bugs for Gtk+. See etc/PROBLEMS.
359
360 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
361 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
362 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
363 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
364 for details about XEmbed.
365
366 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
367 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
368 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
369 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, on Mac
370 OS X, or on Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
371
372 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
373 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
374 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
375 active frame and INACTIVE is the opacity of non-active frames.
376
377 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
378 opacity; the default is 20.
379
380 ** Internationalization changes
381
382 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
383 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
384
385 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
386 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs' (`emacs-internal' is an alias
387 for this). This encoding is backward-compatible with Unicode's UTF-8
388 encoding. The internal encoding previously used by Emacs,
389 `emacs-mule', is still available for reading and writing files.
390
391 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
392 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
393 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
394 or 22 are loaded correctly as `emacs-mule' (whether or not they
395 contain multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it
396 may be worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be
397 shared with older Emacsen.
398
399 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
400
401 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
402 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
403 as tables of unicodes.
404
405 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
406 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
407 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
408
409 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
410 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
411
412 *** `ucs-insert' is bound to `C-x 8 RET' and in addition to hex numbers
413 accepts numbers in hash notation (e.g. #o21430 for octal, or #10r8984 for
414 decimal). It also accepts Unicode character names with completion.
415
416 *** The `cyrillic-translit' input method supports many new characters.
417 Common typographical characters available from Unicode were added to
418 `cyrillic-translit': punctuation marks, accented characters, fractions,
419 and others.
420
421 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
422 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
423 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
424 the mode-line mouse menu.
425
426 ** Menu Bar changes
427
428 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
429 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
430 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
431 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
432 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
433
434 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
435 "Save Options" item is used.
436
437 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
438 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
439 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
440
441 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
442 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
443 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
444 the new word wrapping behavior (see Editing Changes, below).
445
446 *** Improvements to menus for major and minor modes
447 More major and minor modes now have a mode specific menu, and existing
448 mode menus have been improved to include more functionality.
449
450 ** Mode-line changes
451
452 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
453 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
454
455 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
456 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
457
458 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
459 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
460
461 *** The mode-line tooltips have been improved to provide more details.
462
463 *** The VC, line/colum number and minor mode indicators on the mode
464 line are now interactive: mouse-1 can be used on them to pop up a menu.
465
466 ** File deletion can make use of the Recycle Bin or system Trash folder.
467 Set `delete-by-moving-to-trash' non-nil to use this. Deleted files
468 and directories will then be sent to the Recycle Bin on Windows, and
469 to `trash-directory' on other systems.
470
471 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
472 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-locals.el for directory-local
473 variables. For more information, see `dir-locals-set-directory-class'
474 and `dir-locals-set-class-variables'.
475
476 ** Emacs can now use `auth-source' for authentication.
477 `smtpmail' and `url' (Tramp and Gnus also) use `auth-source' to obtain
478 login names and passwords. The match, if found, is reported
479 in *Messages* with the password blanked out.
480
481 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
482
483 \f
484 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
485
486 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
487 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
488 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
489 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
490 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
491
492 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
493 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
494 file or directory.
495
496 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
497 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
498 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
499 following arguments.
500
501 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
502
503 ** Emacs now supports invocation by an X session manager.
504 It can save a session and restore it later. See the documentation of
505 the functions `emacs-session-save' and `emacs-session-restore'.
506 (Actually, this feature was introduced with Emacs 22, but it was not
507 documented.)
508 \f
509 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
510
511 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
512 on the regexp command prefix map.
513
514 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
515 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
516 the history list.
517
518 ** In Isearch mode, a special case of typing `C-w' at the beginning of
519 the minibuffer that toggles word search (i.e. using key sequences
520 `C-s RET C-w' or `C-s M-e C-w') is obsolete. You can use the global key
521 `M-s w' to start word search, or type `M-s w' in Isearch mode to
522 toggle word search. To start nonincremental word search you can now use
523 `M-s w RET' and `M-s w C-r RET' instead of `C-s RET C-w' and `C-r RET C-w'.
524
525 ** In Info, `Info-search' is unbound from `M-s' to allow using `M-s w'
526 for word search as well as other search commands from the global prefix
527 key `M-s'. `Info-search' is still bound to `s', and also incremental
528 search commands `C-s', `C-M-s', `C-r', `C-M-r' are available for searching
529 through multiple Info nodes, together with their nonincremental versions
530 `C-s RET', `C-r RET', `C-M-s RET', `C-M-r RET', `M-s w RET'.
531
532 ** In Text mode, `center-line' and `center-paragraph' are rebound from
533 `M-s' and `M-S' to global keys `M-o M-s' and `M-o M-S' on the global
534 prefix map `M-o', which is intended for such formatting commands.
535
536 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
537 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
538 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
539 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
540 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
541 identical.
542
543 \f
544 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
545
546 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
547 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
548 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
549 behavior (i.e., motion by logical lines based on buffer contents
550 alone).
551
552 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
553 invokes `suspend-frame'. These changes are for compatibility with the
554 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
555
556 ** Mark changes
557
558 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
559
560 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
561
562 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
563 activating it.
564
565 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
566 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
567
568 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
569 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
570 word at point.
571
572 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
573 region is active.
574
575 *** The variable `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty
576 active region in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on
577 that empty region.
578
579 ** Temporarily active regions
580
581 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
582 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
583 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
584 region, similar to mouse-selection.
585
586 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
587 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
588 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
589 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
590 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
591 buffer).
592
593 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
594
595 *** Emacs may ask for confirmation before opening a non-existent file
596 or buffer. By default, Emacs requests confirmation if you type RET
597 immediately after TAB, and the resulting input is not an existing file
598 or buffer; this usually happens when the minibuffer input did not
599 complete far enough and you entered RET by mistake. In that case,
600 Emacs puts the message "[Confirm]" in the minibuffer; type RET again
601 to create the file or buffer.
602
603 The new variable confirm-nonexistent-file-or-buffer determines whether
604 Emacs asks for confirmation. The default value is `after-completion'.
605 If you change it to t, Emacs always asks for confirmation; if you
606 change it to nil, Emacs never asks for confirmation.
607
608 *** The rules for performing completion have been changed.
609 When generating completion alternatives, Emacs now takes the
610 minibuffer text after point, if any, into account: this text is
611 treated as a substring of the remaining part of the completion
612 alternative (i.e., the part not matched by the minibuffer text before
613 point). If no completion alternatives are found this way, Emacs
614 attempts to perform partial-completion. If still no completion
615 alternatives are found, we fall back on the Emacs 22 rules for
616 performing completion.
617
618 The new variable `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your
619 favorite completion style.
620
621 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
622 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
623 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
624 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
625 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
626 searching minibuffer completion items.
627
628 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
629
630 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
631 name of the current buffer.
632
633 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
634 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
635 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
636 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
637 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
638
639 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
640 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
641 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last Isearch
642 regexp, the last Isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
643
644 *** When enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil, operations which use
645 switch-to-buffer (such as C-x b and C-x C-f) do not fail any more when
646 used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they fallback on
647 using pop-to-buffer, which will use some other window. This change
648 has no effect when enable-recursive-minibuffers is nil (the default).
649
650 *** Isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
651 Reverse Isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
652 history elements, and forward Isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
653 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
654 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
655 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
656 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
657
658 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
659 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
660
661 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
662 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
663
664 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
665 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
666
667 *** If `completion-auto-help' is `lazy', Emacs shows the completions
668 buffer only on the second attempt to complete. This was already
669 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
670
671 ** Face changes
672
673 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
674 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
675 via face remapping (see Lisp changes, below).
676
677 *** New commands to change the default face size in the current buffer.
678 To increase it, type `C-x C-+' or `C-x C-='. To decrease it, type
679 `C-x C--'. To restore the default (global) face size, type `C-x C-0'.
680 These work via Text Scale mode, a new minor mode.
681
682 The final key in the above commands may be repeated without the
683 leading `C-x', e.g. `C-x C-= C-= C-=' increases the face height by
684 three steps. Each step scales the height of the default face by the
685 value of the variable `text-scale-mode-step'.
686
687 *** The commands buffer-face-mode and buffer-face-set can be used to
688 remap the default face in the current buffer. See "Buffer Face mode",
689 under New Modes and Packages.
690
691 ** Primary selection changes
692
693 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
694 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
695
696 ** Continuation lines can now be wrapped at word boundaries
697 (word-wrapping). This is controlled by the new per-buffer variable
698 `word-wrap'. Word wrapping does not take place if continuation lines
699 are not shown, e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil. The most convenient
700 way to enable word-wrapping is using the new minor mode Visual Line
701 mode; in addition to setting `word-wrap' to t, this rebinds some
702 editing commands to work on screen lines rather than text lines. See
703 New Modes and Packages, below.
704
705 ** Window management changes
706
707 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
708 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
709 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 50.
710
711 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
712 vertically and horizontally.
713
714 *** pop-to-buffer now always sets input focus when the popped-to window
715 is on a different frame.
716
717 ** Miscellaneous changes:
718
719 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
720 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
721 successive invocations.
722
723 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
724
725 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
726 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
727 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
728
729 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
730 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
731 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
732
733 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
734 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
735 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
736 run processes remotely.
737
738 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
739 matches a regexp.
740
741 *** The value of comment-style now defaults to `indent'.
742 Thefore, comment-start markers are inserted at the current indentation
743 of the region to comment, rather than the leftmost column.
744
745 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
746 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
747
748 *** The new command `set-file-modes' allows to set file's mode bits.
749 The mode bits can be specified in symbolic notation, like with GNU
750 Coreutils, in addition to an octal number. `chmod' is a new
751 convenience alias for this function.
752
753 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
754 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
755 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
756
757 *** When typing in a password in the echo area, C-y yanks the current
758 kill into the password.
759
760 *** Tooltip frame parameters `font' and `color' in `tooltip-frame-parameters'
761 are ignored. Customize the `tooltip' face instead.
762
763 *** `mkdir' is a new convenience alias for `make-directory'.
764 \f
765 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
766
767 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
768 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
769 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
770
771 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
772
773 ** Buffer Face mode is a minor mode for remapping the default face in
774 the current buffer. The variable `buffer-face-mode-face' specifies
775 the face to remap to. The command `buffer-face-set' prompts for a
776 face name, sets `buffer-face-mode-face' to it, and enables
777 buffer-face-mode. See "Face changes", under Editing Changes, for a
778 description of face remapping.
779
780 ** butterfly flips the desired bit on the drive platter.
781 See http://xkcd.com/378/
782
783 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
784
785 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
786 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
787 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
788
789 ** DocView mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
790 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
791 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
792
793 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
794
795 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
796 the postscript file.
797
798 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
799 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
800 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
801 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
802
803 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
804 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
805
806 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
807 current buffer.
808
809 ** mairix.el is an interface to mairix, a free tool for indexing and
810 searching locally stored mail. It allows you to query mairix and
811 display the search results with Rmail, Gnus and VM. Note that there
812 is an existing Gnus back end, nnmairix.el, which should be used with
813 Maildir/MH setups.
814
815 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
816
817 ** nXML Mode
818 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
819 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
820 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
821
822 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
823 any invalid parts of your document.
824
825 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
826 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
827 allowed by the schema in that context.
828
829 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on
830 processes. Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the
831 current processes. You can use the normal Emacs commands to move
832 around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the
833 processes listed. It is currently only functional on GNU/Linux,
834 MS-Windows and Solaris.
835
836 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
837 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
838 Manual.
839
840 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing reStructuredText files.
841
842 ** Ruby mode is a major mode for Ruby files.
843
844 ** Visual Line mode provides support for editing by visual lines.
845 It turns on word-wrapping in the current buffer, and rebinds C-a, C-e,
846 and C-k to commands that operate by visual lines instead of logical
847 lines. This is a more reliable replacement for longlines-mode.
848 This can also be turned on using the menu bar, via
849 Options -> Line Wrapping in this Buffer -> Word Wrap
850
851 ** xesam.el is an implementation of Xesam, an interface to (desktop)
852 search engines like Beagle, Strigi, and Tracker. The Xesam API
853 requires D-Bus for communication.
854
855 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
856 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
857 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
858 which have installed this software.
859
860 ** There is a new `whitespace' package.
861 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to `old-whitespace'.)
862 Now, besides reporting bogus blanks, the whitespace package has a
863 minor mode and a global minor mode to visualize blanks (TAB, (HARD)
864 SPACE and NEWLINE). The visualization is made via faces and/or display
865 table. It can also indicate lines that extend beyond a given column,
866 trailing blanks, and empty lines at the start or end of a buffer.
867 See `whitespace-style' for more details. The `whitespace-action' option
868 specifies what to do when a buffer is visited, killed, or written.
869
870 \f
871 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
872
873 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
874
875 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
876 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
877
878 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
879
880 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
881 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
882
883 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
884
885 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
886
887 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
888 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
889
890 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
891 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
892 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
893
894 ** Apropos
895
896 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
897
898 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
899
900 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
901 Note, however, that the free version of the unrar command only handles
902 versions 1 and 2 of the Rar format.
903
904 ** BibTeX mode
905
906 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
907
908 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
909 `string', disabled by default.
910
911 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
912 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
913
914 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
915
916 ** Calendar and diary
917
918 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
919 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
920 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
921 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
922
923 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
924 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
925 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
926 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
927 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
928 using the new names.
929
930 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
931 See the variables:
932 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
933 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
934
935 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
936 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
937
938 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
939 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
940
941 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
942 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
943
944 ** Change Log mode
945
946 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
947 associated with the current log entry.
948
949 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
950 source code associated with a log entry.
951
952 ** Compile and grep modes
953
954 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
955 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
956 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
957
958 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
959 the first error encountered during compilations.
960
961 *** compilation-scroll-output accepts a new value, `first-error', which
962 says to stop auto scrolling at the first error that occurs.
963
964 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
965 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
966 C++ sources and headers.
967
968 ** Copyright
969
970 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
971 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
972 considered for update.
973
974 *** Copyrights can be at the end of the buffer.
975 This is controlled by `copyright-at-end-flag' (used by, e.g., change-log-mode).
976
977 ** Custom
978
979 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
980 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
981
982 ** Diff mode
983
984 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
985 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
986 diff-auto-refine-mode. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
987
988 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
989 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
990 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
991
992 *** Turning on `whitespace-mode' in a diff buffer will show trailing
993 whitespace problems in the modified lines.
994
995 ** Dired
996
997 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
998 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
999 saving changes.
1000
1001 *** `&' runs the command `dired-do-async-shell-command' that executes
1002 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand
1003 to the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
1004 Command*'.
1005
1006 *** `M-s f C-s' and `M-s f M-C-s' run Isearch that matches only at file names.
1007 When a new user option `dired-isearch-filenames' is t, then even ordinary
1008 Isearch started with `C-s' and `C-M-s' matches only at file names in the
1009 Dired buffer. When `dired-isearch-filenames' is `dwim' then activation of
1010 file name Isearch depends on the position of point - if point is on a file
1011 name initially, then Isearch matches only file names, otherwise it matches
1012 everywhere in the Dired buffer. You can toggle file names matching on or
1013 off by typing `M-s f' in Isearch mode.
1014
1015 *** `M-s a C-s' and `M-s a M-C-s' run multi-file Isearch on the marked files.
1016 They visit the first marked file in the sequence and display the usual Isearch
1017 prompt for a string or a regexp where all Isearch commands are available.
1018
1019 *** `Q' in Dired provides two new keys for multi-file replacement.
1020 The upper case key `Y' replaces all remaining matches in all remaining files
1021 with no more questions. The upper case key `N' stops doing replacements
1022 in the current file and skips to the next file. These multi-file keys
1023 are available for all commands that use `tags-query-replace'
1024 including `dired-do-query-replace-regexp', `vc-dir-query-replace-regexp',
1025 `reftex-query-replace-document'.
1026
1027 ** Fortran
1028
1029 *** The line length of fixed-form Fortran is not fixed at 72 any more.
1030 Customize the variable `fortran-line-length' to change it.
1031
1032 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
1033 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
1034
1035 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
1036
1037 ** Gnus
1038
1039 *** The Gnus package has been updated
1040 There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
1041 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
1042
1043 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
1044 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
1045 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
1046 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
1047
1048 *** Passwords are consistently loaded through `auth-source'
1049 Gnus can use `auth-source' for POP and IMAP passwords. Also see that
1050 `smtpmail' and `url' support `auth-source' for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS/RSS
1051 authentication respectively.
1052
1053 ** Help mode
1054
1055 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
1056 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
1057
1058 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
1059 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
1060
1061 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits one to specify a new
1062 position for point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
1063
1064 ** Isearch
1065
1066 *** New command `isearch-forward-word' bound globally to `M-s w' starts
1067 incremental word search. New command `isearch-toggle-word' bound to the
1068 same key `M-s w' in Isearch mode toggles word searching on or off
1069 while Isearch is active.
1070
1071 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r' in Isearch
1072 mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer') with the current
1073 search string as its regexp argument. The same key `M-s h r' and
1074 other keys on the `M-s h' prefix are bound globally to the command
1075 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands.
1076
1077 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in Isearch mode
1078 runs `occur' with the current search string. The same key `M-s o'
1079 is bound globally to the command `occur'.
1080
1081 *** Isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
1082 When running Isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
1083 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
1084 if there is one (e.g. going from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
1085 This is enabled if multi-isearch-search is non-nil.
1086
1087 *** Two new commands to start Isearch on a list of marked buffers
1088 for buff-menu.el and ibuffer.el are bound to the keys `M-s a C-s' and
1089 `M-s a M-C-s'.
1090
1091 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
1092 `isearch-fail' face.
1093
1094 *** `C-h C-h' in Isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
1095 `C-h b' displays all Isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
1096 documentation of the given Isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
1097 documentation of Isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit Isearch mode
1098 and execute their global definitions.
1099
1100 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
1101 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
1102
1103 ** MH-E
1104
1105 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.2. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1106
1107 ** Python
1108 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
1109 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
1110
1111 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
1112 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
1113 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
1114 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
1115
1116 ** Recentf
1117
1118 *** The default value of `recentf-keep' prevents from checking of
1119 remote files, if there is no established connection to the
1120 corresponding remote host.
1121
1122 ** Rmail
1123
1124 *** Rmail no longer converts the messages to Babyl format.
1125 Instead, it uses UNIX mbox format, both on disk and in Rmail buffers,
1126 and does conversion and decoding when a message is displayed.
1127
1128 The first time you visit an Rmail file in Babyl format, Rmail
1129 automatically converts it to mbox format. This is a one-time
1130 conversion, but it can take a few minutes, depending on how fast is
1131 your machine and on the size of the file. You should find the rest of
1132 Rmail usage unaltered.
1133
1134 However, M-x set-rmail-inbox-list now lasts only for one session
1135 because there is no way to save the list of inbox files in an
1136 mbox-format file.
1137
1138 Also, whereas with Babyl format M-x find-file would switch to Rmail
1139 mode, with mbox format this is no longer the case (there being no way
1140 to add an "-*- rmail-*-" cookie to an mbox file). Use C-u M-x rmail
1141 instead.
1142
1143 If you have written any extensions to Rmail, they are likely to need
1144 updating. Conceptually, the Rmail buffer that you see is no longer
1145 just a narrowed portion of the whole. So you cannot access the whole
1146 of a message (or message collection) by a simple save-restriction and
1147 widen. Instead, there are two buffers: the rmail-buffer, and the
1148 rmail-view-buffer. The former is the buffer that you see, the latter
1149 is invisible. Most of the time, the invisible `view' buffer contains
1150 the full contents of the Rmail file, and the Rmail buffer contains a
1151 decoded copy of the current message (with only a subset of the
1152 headers). In this state, Rmail is said to be `swapped'.
1153
1154 You may find the following functions useful:
1155
1156 `rmail-get-header' and `rmail-set-header' get or set the value of a
1157 message header, whether or not it is currently visible.
1158
1159 `rmail-apply-in-message' is a general purpose function that calls a
1160 function (with arguments) which you specify on the full text of a given
1161 message. To further narrow to just the headers, search forward for "\n\n".
1162
1163 *** The new command `rmail-mime' displays MIME messages.
1164 It is bound to `v' in Rmail buffers and summaries. It displays plain
1165 text and multipart messages in a temporary buffer, and offers buttons
1166 to save attachments.
1167
1168 *** The command `rmail-redecode-body' no longer accepts the optional arg RAW.
1169 Since Rmail now holds messages in their original undecoded form in a
1170 separate buffer, `rmail-redecode-body' no longer encodes the original
1171 message, and therefore there should be no need to avoid encoding it.
1172
1173 *** The o command is now `rmail-output'. It is an all-purpose command
1174 for copying messages from Rmail and appending them to files. It
1175 handles Babyl-format files as well as mbox-format files, and it
1176 handles both kinds properly when they are visited in Emacs. It always
1177 copies the full headers of the message.
1178
1179 *** The C-o command is now `rmail-output-as-seen'. It uses
1180 the message as displayed, appending it to an mbox file.
1181
1182 *** The modified status of the Rmail buffer is reported in the mode-line.
1183 Previously, this information was hidden.
1184
1185 ** TeX modes
1186
1187 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
1188 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
1189 by escaped parens.
1190
1191 ** T-mouse Mode
1192
1193 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
1194 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
1195 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
1196 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
1197 minibuffer.
1198
1199 ** Tramp
1200
1201 *** New connection methods.
1202 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
1203 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
1204 "tunnel" and "socks".
1205
1206 *** IPv6 addresses.
1207 IPv6 addresses are supported now as host names. They must be embedded
1208 in square brackets, like in "/ssh:[::1]:".
1209
1210 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
1211 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead, multi hops
1212 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
1213
1214 *** More default settings.
1215 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
1216 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
1217
1218 *** Connection information is cached.
1219 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
1220 connections is kept persistently in a file. The name of this file is
1221 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
1222
1223 *** Control of remote processes.
1224 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
1225 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
1226
1227 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
1228 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
1229 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
1230
1231 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
1232 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
1233 necessary.
1234
1235 ** VC and related modes
1236
1237 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
1238 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
1239 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
1240 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
1241 a single changeset.
1242
1243 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
1244 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
1245 directory or a set of files/directories.
1246
1247 *** VC switches are no longer appended, rather the first non-nil value is used.
1248 (This was for the most part true in Emacs 22, but was not advertised).
1249 This is because there is an increasing variety of VC systems, and they
1250 do not all accept the same "common" options. For example, a CVS diff
1251 command used to append the values of `vc-cvs-diff-switches',
1252 `vc-diff-switches', and `diff-switches'. Now the first non-nil value
1253 from that sequence is used. The special value `t' means "no switches".
1254
1255 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
1256
1257 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
1258
1259 *** In VC Annotate mode, the key bindings have changed to use lower
1260 case keys instead of the upper case keys used in the past.
1261
1262 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1263 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1264 by typing the D key. Using the "Show changeset diff of revision at
1265 line" menu entry does the same thing.
1266
1267 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
1268
1269 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
1270 the current line.
1271
1272 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
1273 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
1274 active.
1275
1276 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
1277 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
1278 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
1279
1280 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1281 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1282 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
1283
1284 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
1285
1286 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
1287
1288 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of a maintainer able
1289 to update it to the new VC.
1290
1291 ** Miscellaneous
1292
1293 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
1294 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
1295 on the corresponding remote system.
1296
1297 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
1298 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
1299
1300 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
1301 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
1302 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
1303
1304 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
1305 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
1306
1307 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
1308 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
1309
1310 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
1311
1312 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
1313 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
1314
1315 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
1316 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
1317
1318 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
1319
1320 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
1321 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
1322
1323 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
1324 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
1325
1326 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
1327
1328 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
1329
1330 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
1331 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see
1332 smerge-auto-refine-mode.
1333
1334 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
1335
1336 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
1337 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
1338 several time zones.
1339
1340 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
1341 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
1342 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
1343 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
1344
1345 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
1346 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
1347
1348 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
1349 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
1350
1351 \f
1352 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
1353
1354 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
1355 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
1356 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
1357 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
1358 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
1359
1360 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
1361 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
1362 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
1363 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
1364 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
1365
1366 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
1367 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
1368 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
1369
1370 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
1371 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
1372 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
1373 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
1374 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
1375
1376 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
1377 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
1378 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
1379 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
1380 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
1381
1382 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
1383 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
1384 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
1385 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
1386 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
1387 for the list of extra keys that are available.
1388
1389 ** BDF fonts no longer supported on MS-Windows.
1390 The font backend was completely rewritten for this release. The focus
1391 on Windows has been getting acceptable performance and full unicode
1392 support, including complex script shaping for native Windows fonts. A
1393 rewrite of the BDF font support has not happened due to lack of time
1394 and developers. If demand still exists for such a backend even with
1395 the improved language support for native Windows fonts, future
1396 development in this direction will most likely be based on the
1397 freetype library, giving access to a wider range of font formats.
1398
1399 \f
1400 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1401
1402 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1403
1404 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1405 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1406
1407 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
1408 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
1409 that range have the same value.
1410
1411 ** Process changes
1412
1413 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1414
1415 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
1416 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
1417 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
1418 obsolete.
1419
1420 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
1421 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
1422 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
1423 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
1424 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
1425 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
1426 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
1427
1428 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1429 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1430
1431 ** The function x-font-family-list has been removed.
1432 Use the new function font-family-list (see Lisp Changes, below).
1433
1434 ** Internationalization changes
1435
1436 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1437
1438 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1439 have been removed.
1440
1441 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
1442 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
1443 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
1444
1445 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
1446 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
1447 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
1448
1449 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1450 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1451
1452 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1453 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1454
1455 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1456 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1457
1458 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1459 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1460
1461 *** The meaning of NAME argument of `set-fontset-font' is changed.
1462 Previously nil is accepted as the default fontset. Now, nil is for
1463 the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the default fontset.
1464
1465 *** The meaning of FONTSET argument of `print-fontset' is changed.
1466 Now, nil is for the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the
1467 default fontset.
1468
1469 ** If a function in write-region-annotate-functions returns with a
1470 different buffer current, Emacs no longer kills that buffer
1471 automatically. This behavior existed in previous versions of Emacs,
1472 but was undocumented. To kill a buffer after write-region, give the
1473 variable `write-region-post-annotation-function' a buffer-local value
1474 of `kill-buffer'.
1475
1476 ** The variable temp-file-name-pattern has been removed.
1477 This variable was only used by call-process-region, which now uses
1478 temporary-file-directory instead.
1479
1480 ** The COUNT and SYSTEM-FLAG arguments to define-abbrev have been
1481 removed. The function now takes extra arguments for specifying
1482 arbitrary abbrev properties.
1483
1484 ** end-of-defun-function is now guaranteed to work only when called
1485 from the start of a defun. It must now leave point exactly at the end
1486 of defun, since `end-of-defun' now itself moves forward over
1487 whitespace after calling it.
1488
1489 \f
1490 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1491
1492 ** The new variable `generate-autoload-cookie' controls the magic comment
1493 string used by `update-file-autoloads' to find autoloaded forms. The
1494 variable `generated-autoload-file' similarly controls the name of the
1495 file where `update-file-autoloads' writes the calls to `autoload'.
1496 The default values are ";;;###autoload" and `loaddefs.el',
1497 respectively.
1498
1499 ** New primitives `list-system-processes' and `process-attributes'
1500 let Lisp programs access the processes that are running on the local
1501 machine. See the doc strings of these functions for more details.
1502 Not all platforms support accessing this information; on those that
1503 don't, these primitives will return nil.
1504
1505 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1506 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1507
1508 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
1509 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
1510 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
1511
1512 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1513 the selected frame.
1514
1515 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
1516 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
1517 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
1518 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
1519
1520 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1521
1522 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
1523 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
1524 strings on the kill ring.
1525
1526 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1527 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1528 like this:
1529
1530 (condition-case nil
1531 (foo bar)
1532 ((debug error) nil))
1533
1534 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1535
1536 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count given to
1537 `beginning-of-defun'. (N.B. `end-of-defun-function' doesn't take any
1538 arguments.)
1539
1540 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1541 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1542 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1543 remote connection has been established already.
1544
1545 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1546 undefined functions.
1547
1548 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1549
1550 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
1551 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
1552 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
1553
1554 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
1555 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
1556 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
1557
1558 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1559 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
1560 interactive forms to subroutines.
1561
1562 ** Region changes
1563
1564 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
1565 an active region that they should operate on.
1566
1567 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
1568 enabled and the mark is active. Most commands that act specially on
1569 the active region in Transient Mark mode should use `use-region-p'
1570 instead of `region-active-p', because `use-region-p' obeys the new
1571 user option `use-empty-active-region' (see Editing Changes, above).
1572
1573 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
1574 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
1575 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
1576 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
1577 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
1578
1579 ** Emacs session information
1580
1581 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
1582 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
1583
1584 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
1585
1586 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
1587 Emacs initialization.
1588
1589 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
1590
1591 *** display-buffer tries to be smarter when splitting windows.
1592 The new option split-window-preferred-function lets you specify your own
1593 function to pop up new windows. Its default value split-window-sensibly
1594 can split a window either vertically or horizontally, whichever seems
1595 more suitable in the current configuration. You can tune the behavior
1596 of split-window-sensibly by customizing split-height-threshold and the
1597 new option split-width-threshold. Both options now take the value nil
1598 to inhibit splitting in one direction. Setting split-width-threshold to
1599 nil inhibits horizontal splitting and gets you the behavior of Emacs 22
1600 in this respect. In any case, display-buffer may now split the largest
1601 window vertically even when it is not as wide as the containing frame.
1602
1603 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
1604 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
1605
1606 *** select-frame and set-frame-selected-window have a new optional
1607 argument NORECORD. If non-nil, this will avoid messing with the order
1608 of recently selected windows and the buffer list.
1609
1610 ** Window parameters can now be defined.
1611 These are analogous to frame parameters, but are associated with
1612 individual windows.
1613
1614 *** The new functions window-parameters, window-parameter, and
1615 set-window-parameter are used to query and set window parameters.
1616
1617 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1618
1619 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
1620 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
1621 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
1622 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
1623 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
1624
1625 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
1626 regexp defaults (string at point, last Isearch/replacement regexp/string)
1627 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
1628
1629 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1630 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1631
1632 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts the new
1633 values `confirm-only' and `confirm-after-completion'.
1634
1635 ** Search and replacement changes
1636
1637 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1638
1639 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
1640 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
1641
1642 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
1643 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string. The
1644 function it specifies is called by `perform-replace' when its 4th
1645 argument is nil.
1646
1647 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
1648 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
1649 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
1650 `map-query-replace-regexp'. The function it specifies is called by
1651 `perform-replace' when its 4th argument is non-nil.
1652
1653 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
1654 for search related commands.
1655
1656 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
1657 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
1658
1659 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
1660 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
1661
1662 *** New functions `word-search-forward-lax' and `word-search-backward-lax'.
1663 These are like `word-search-forward and `word-search-backward', except
1664 that the end of the search string need not match a word boundary,
1665 unless it ends in whitespace.
1666
1667 ** File handling changes
1668
1669 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
1670 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
1671
1672 *** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
1673 variables defined in the current buffer.
1674
1675 ** Face-remapping
1676
1677 *** Each face can be remapped to a different face definition using the
1678 variable `face-remapping-alist'. This is an alist that maps faces to
1679 replacement definitions (which can be face names, lists of face names,
1680 or attribute/value plists. If this variable is buffer-local, the
1681 remapping occurs only in that buffer.
1682
1683 *** text-scale-mode remaps the default face to a larger or smaller
1684 size in the current buffer. This feature is used by the Buffer Face
1685 menu and the new `C-x C-+', `C-x C--', and `C-x C-0' commands (see
1686 Editing Changes, above).
1687
1688 *** New functions:
1689
1690 **** `face-remap-add-relative' adds a face remapping entry to the
1691 current buffer.
1692
1693 **** ``face-remap-remove-relative' removes a face remapping entry from
1694 the current buffer.
1695
1696 **** `face-remap-reset-base' restores a face to its global definition.
1697
1698 **** `face-remap-set-base' sets the base remapping of a face.
1699
1700 ** Process changes
1701
1702 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1703 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1704 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1705 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1706 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1707
1708 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1709 returns its output as a list of lines.
1710
1711 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
1712
1713 *** In multibyte buffers and strings, characters are represented by
1714 UTF-8 byte sequences. The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF
1715 with no gap; code points 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the
1716 same code points, while code points 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit
1717 bytes.
1718
1719 *** Generic characters no longer exist.
1720
1721 *** The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may
1722 belong to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
1723 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
1724
1725 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
1726 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
1727
1728 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
1729 characters for display.
1730
1731 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
1732 positional codes instead of just 2.
1733
1734 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
1735
1736 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
1737 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
1738
1739 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
1740 priorities of charsets.
1741
1742 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
1743 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
1744 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
1745 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
1746 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
1747 `titlecase'.
1748
1749 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
1750 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
1751 entries in that range of characters.
1752
1753 *** Use of `translation-table-for-input' for character code unification
1754 is now obsolete, since Emacs 23.1 and later uses Unicode as basis for
1755 internal representation of characters.
1756
1757 *** New functions:
1758
1759 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
1760 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
1761
1762 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
1763
1764 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
1765
1766 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
1767
1768 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
1769
1770 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
1771
1772 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
1773
1774 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
1775 a character code property.
1776
1777 *** New variables:
1778
1779 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
1780 search for a word boundary.
1781
1782 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
1783
1784 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
1785
1786 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
1787 property on printing a string.
1788
1789 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
1790
1791 ** Code conversion changes
1792
1793 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
1794 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
1795
1796 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
1797 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
1798 conversion should go.
1799
1800 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
1801 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
1802 of conversion.
1803
1804 *** The new variable `inhibit-null-byte-detection' controls whether to
1805 consider text with null bytes as binary data. By default, it is
1806 `nil', and Emacs uses `no-conversion' for any text containing null
1807 bytes.
1808
1809 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
1810
1811 *** New functions:
1812
1813 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
1814 coding system priority order.
1815
1816 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
1817 encodable by the specified coding systems.
1818
1819 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
1820
1821 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
1822 by a coding system.
1823
1824 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
1825 ordered by their priorities.
1826
1827 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
1828
1829 **** `coding-system-from-name' returns a coding system matching with
1830 the argument name.
1831
1832
1833 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
1834 It has three functionalities:
1835 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
1836 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
1837 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
1838 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
1839
1840 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
1841
1842 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
1843
1844 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
1845 as an input method.
1846
1847 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
1848 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
1849 character.
1850
1851 ** Changes related to the new font backend
1852
1853 *** Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource
1854 "FontBackend". For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
1855
1856 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
1857
1858 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
1859 available on your graphic device.
1860
1861 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
1862 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
1863 currently `x' and `xft'.
1864
1865 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
1866 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
1867 set the font.
1868
1869 *** New functions:
1870
1871 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
1872
1873 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
1874
1875 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
1876
1877 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
1878
1879 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
1880
1881 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
1882
1883 **** `find-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
1884
1885 **** `font-family-list' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
1886
1887 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
1888 entity, or font object.
1889
1890 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
1891
1892 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
1893
1894 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
1895 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
1896
1897 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
1898
1899 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
1900 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
1901 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
1902 takes a frame argument.
1903
1904 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1905 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
1906
1907 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
1908 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
1909
1910 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
1911 session.
1912
1913 *** A new `terminal' data type.
1914 The functions `get-device-terminal', `terminal-parameters',
1915 `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter' use this data type.
1916
1917 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
1918 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
1919 which is not used directly any more.
1920
1921 *** New hooks:
1922
1923 **** before-hack-local-variables-hook is called after setting new
1924 variable file-local-variables-alist, and before actually applying the
1925 file-local variables.
1926
1927 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
1928 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
1929 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
1930 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
1931
1932 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
1933 deleting a terminal.
1934
1935 *** New functions:
1936
1937 **** `delete-terminal'
1938
1939 **** `suspend-tty'
1940
1941 **** `resume-tty'.
1942
1943 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1944
1945 ** Redisplay changes
1946
1947 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
1948 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
1949
1950 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
1951 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
1952 This is convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer
1953 position (e.g. in before/after-strings).
1954
1955 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
1956
1957 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
1958 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
1959 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
1960 times the default column width.
1961
1962 *** redisplay-end-trigger-functions, set-window-redisplay-end-trigger,
1963 and window-redisplay-end-trigger are obsolete. Use `jit-lock-register'
1964 instead.
1965
1966 *** The new variables `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' specify display
1967 specs which are appended at display-time to every continuation line
1968 and non-continuation line, respectively. In addition, Emacs
1969 recognizes the `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' text or overlay
1970 properties; these have the same effects as the variables of the same
1971 name, but take precedence.
1972
1973 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
1974
1975 ** Miscellaneous new functions
1976
1977 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
1978
1979 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
1980 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
1981
1982 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' produces a single string from a list of strings
1983 sticking a separator string in between each pair, and quoting those
1984 strings that include the separator as their substring. Useful for
1985 consing shell command lines from the individual arguments.
1986
1987 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
1988 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
1989
1990 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
1991 attributes of a given face.
1992
1993 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
1994 string of days, hours, etc.
1995
1996 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
1997 specification.
1998
1999 *** `locate-user-emacs-file' helps packages to select the appropriate
2000 place to save user-specific files. It defaults to `user-emacs-directory'
2001 unless the file already exists at $HOME.
2002
2003 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
2004
2005 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
2006 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
2007
2008 *** `split-string-and-unquote' splits a string into a list of substrings
2009 on the boundaries of a given delimiter, and unquotes the substrings that
2010 are quoted. Useful for taking apart shell commands.
2011
2012 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
2013 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
2014 the match data.
2015
2016 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
2017 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
2018 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
2019
2020 ** Miscellaneous new variables
2021
2022 *** `auto-save-include-big-deletions', if non-nil, means auto-save is
2023 not turned off automatically after a big deletion.
2024
2025 *** `read-circle', if nil, disables the reading of recursive Lisp
2026 structures using the #N= and #N# syntax.
2027
2028 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
2029 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
2030
2031 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
2032 marker used for window-point.
2033
2034 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
2035 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
2036 relevant data.
2037
2038 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
2039 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
2040
2041 \f
2042 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
2043
2044 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
2045
2046 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
2047 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
2048
2049 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
2050
2051 ** The package misearch.el has been added. It allows Isearch to search
2052 through multiple buffers. A variable `multi-isearch-next-buffer-function'
2053 defines the function to call to get the next buffer to search in the series
2054 of multiple buffers. Top-level commands `multi-isearch-buffers',
2055 `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp', `multi-isearch-files' and
2056 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' accept a single argument that specifies
2057 a list of buffers/files to search for a string/regexp.
2058
2059 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
2060 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
2061
2062 \f
2063 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2064 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2065
2066 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2067 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2068 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2069 (at your option) any later version.
2070
2071 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2072 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2073 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2074 GNU General Public License for more details.
2075
2076 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2077 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2078
2079 \f
2080 Local variables:
2081 mode: outline
2082 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
2083 end:
2084
2085 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2