1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-08-14
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
9 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
11 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
13 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
14 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
16 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
17 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
20 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
21 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
23 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
24 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
26 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
27 support 64-bit executables. See etc/MACHINES for instructions.
30 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
32 * When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
33 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
35 ** Polish and German translations of Emacs' reference card have been
36 added. They are named `refcard-pl.tex' and `refcard-de.tex'.
37 Postscript files are included.
39 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
42 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
43 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
45 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
46 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
47 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
48 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
49 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
50 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
52 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
53 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
54 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
55 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
57 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable because it contains
58 a version-dependent component.
60 ** The <delete> function key is now bound to `delete-char' by default.
61 Note that this takes effect only on window systems. On TTYs, Emacs
62 will receive ASCII 127 when the DEL key is pressed. This
63 character is still bound as before.
65 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
68 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
69 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to executable-chmod.
71 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
72 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
73 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
74 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
75 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
76 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
77 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
79 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
80 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
81 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
82 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
83 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
84 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
85 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
86 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
87 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
89 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
90 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
92 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
93 point in a pop-up window.
95 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
96 displays all characters in that character set.
98 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
99 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
101 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
104 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
106 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
107 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
109 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
110 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
111 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
112 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
114 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
115 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
116 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
117 You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
119 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
120 on the display using several methods
122 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
123 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
124 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
126 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
127 equivalent ot specifying the frame parameter.
129 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
131 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
132 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
134 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
135 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
136 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
137 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
139 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
140 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
141 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
143 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
144 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
146 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
147 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
150 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
151 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
154 ** New X resources recognized
156 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
157 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
158 is useful for debugging X problems.
162 emacs.synchronous: true
164 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
165 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
166 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
167 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
168 visual class names are
177 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
178 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
181 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
182 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
183 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
188 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
190 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
191 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
192 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
193 resource values are `true' or `on'.
197 emacs.privateColormap: true
199 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
200 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
201 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
203 ** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
204 display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
205 shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
208 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
210 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
211 all frames except the selected one.
213 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
214 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
216 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
217 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
218 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
219 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
221 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
222 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
224 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
225 read mail from the menu etc.
227 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
228 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
230 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
232 ** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
236 -------------------------
243 ** Changes in Outline mode.
245 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
246 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
247 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
249 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
251 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
252 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
253 use. Default is 1000.
255 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
256 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
258 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either M-x clone-buffer
259 or C-u m <entry> RET. M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and
260 several other special buffers.
262 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
263 under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
266 The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
267 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
269 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
270 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
271 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
273 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
274 is running in batch mode. For example,
276 (message "%s" (read t))
278 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
281 ** Faces and frame parameters.
283 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
284 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
285 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
286 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
287 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
288 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
289 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
291 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
292 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
293 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
294 `default' face and vice versa.
298 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
299 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
300 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
302 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
304 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
305 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
306 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
307 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
309 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
310 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
311 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
313 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
316 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
318 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
319 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
320 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
321 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
324 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
326 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
327 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
328 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
329 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
332 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
333 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
334 under Lisp changes, below.
336 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
338 ** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
339 its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
342 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
343 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
344 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
345 customizing face `fringe'.
347 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
348 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
352 Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
353 need a version 0.88.1 or later.
355 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
357 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
358 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
359 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
360 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
361 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
364 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
365 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
366 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
367 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
368 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
369 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
371 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
372 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
373 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
374 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
375 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
376 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
378 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
379 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
380 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
381 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
382 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
384 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
386 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
387 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
388 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
390 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
392 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
393 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
394 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
395 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
396 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
401 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
402 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
406 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
407 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
408 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
411 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
413 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
414 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
415 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
418 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
419 have to do anything to activate it.
421 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
423 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
424 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
425 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
426 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
428 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
430 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
432 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
434 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
437 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
440 ** Hscrolling in C code.
442 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
443 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
448 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
449 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
451 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
453 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
454 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
455 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
456 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
457 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
459 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
461 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
464 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
465 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
467 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
469 - Mouse-2 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
470 toggles the read-only status.
472 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
474 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
476 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
477 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
480 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
482 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
483 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
484 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
485 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
486 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
487 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
492 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
493 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
494 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
496 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
497 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
498 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
499 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
500 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
501 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
503 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
505 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
507 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
508 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
509 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
511 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
512 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
514 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
515 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
516 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
518 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
520 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
521 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
522 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
523 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
525 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
526 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
527 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
528 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
530 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
531 notably at the end of lines.
533 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
534 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
536 There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
538 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
539 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
540 after each match to get the replacement text.
542 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
543 you edit the replacement string.
545 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', let's
546 you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
547 lisp-complete-symbol.
549 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
551 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
552 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the minibuffer window unless
553 it is on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum minibuffer
554 window size by setting the following variable:
556 - User option: max-mini-window-height
558 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
559 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
560 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
564 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
566 ** Changes to hideshow.el
568 Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
569 selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
571 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
573 A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
574 (both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
575 which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
576 `forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
577 point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
578 (which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
580 If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
581 i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
582 backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
583 the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
585 *** Isearch support for updating mode line
587 During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
588 blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
589 line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
590 portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
591 is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
593 To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
594 something like this in your .emacs.
596 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
598 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
600 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
602 If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
603 entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
604 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
606 New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
607 buffer, fixing old-style date formats if necessary.
609 Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
610 if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
612 The search for a file's version number is performed based on regular
613 expressions from `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be
614 cutomized. Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of
617 ** Changes in Font Lock
619 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
620 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
623 ** Comint (subshell) changes
625 By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp' to
626 distiguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which parts of
627 the text were output by the process, and which entered by the user, and
628 attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use this information.
629 Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line, respect field
630 boundaries in a fairly natural manner.
631 To disable this feature, and use the old behavior, set the variable
632 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields' to a non-nil value.
634 Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
635 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
637 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
638 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
639 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
641 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
642 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
643 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
645 Packages based on comint.el like shell-mode, and scheme-interaction-mode
646 now highlight user input and program prompts, and support choosing
647 previous input with mouse-2. To control these feature, see the
648 user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
650 ** Changes to Rmail mode
652 *** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
653 set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
654 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
655 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
656 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
659 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
660 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
661 regexp matching your mail addresses.
663 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
664 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
665 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
666 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
667 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
669 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
672 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
673 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
676 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
677 in which folder to put messages automatically.
679 ** Changes to TeX mode
681 The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
684 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
686 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
687 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
688 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
689 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
690 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
691 can be edited from that buffer.
693 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
694 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
695 `A' to use all marked entries).
697 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
698 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
700 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
701 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
702 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
705 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
706 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
707 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
708 in column 1 are always made leaves.
710 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
711 has the following new features:
713 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
714 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
715 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
716 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
718 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
719 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
720 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
721 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
722 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
725 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
730 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
731 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
732 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
734 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
735 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
736 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
737 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
741 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
742 `State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
743 cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
745 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
746 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
749 *** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
750 between custom options. Example:
752 (defcustom default-input-method nil
753 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
754 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
755 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
757 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
758 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
760 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
761 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
762 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
764 ** New features in evaluation commands
766 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
767 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
768 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
769 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
770 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
772 *** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
773 code when called with a prefix argument.
777 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
778 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
779 spell-checks the current buffer.
783 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
784 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
785 is, delete only empty directories.
787 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
788 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
789 copy directories recursively.
791 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
792 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
793 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
795 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
796 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
799 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `w') shows
800 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
801 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
802 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
803 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
805 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
808 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
809 use the -f option when sending mail.
813 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
814 current user setups (although it's believed that these
815 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
816 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
817 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
818 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
821 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
822 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
823 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
824 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
825 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
828 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
829 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
830 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
831 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
832 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
833 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
835 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
836 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
837 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
838 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
839 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
840 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
841 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
842 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
844 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
845 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
846 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
847 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
850 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
851 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
852 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
853 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
854 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
855 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
856 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
857 function documentation for more info.
859 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
860 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
861 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
862 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
863 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
864 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
865 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
866 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
868 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
870 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
871 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
873 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
874 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
875 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
876 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
877 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
880 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
881 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
882 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
885 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
886 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
887 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
888 chapter about this in the manual.
890 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
891 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
892 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
893 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
894 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
896 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
897 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
898 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
900 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
901 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
903 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
904 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
905 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
908 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
909 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
910 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
911 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
914 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
915 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
916 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
919 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
920 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
921 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
922 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
925 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
926 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
927 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
928 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
931 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
932 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
933 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
935 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
937 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
938 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
939 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
940 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
942 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
943 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
944 the column specified by comment-column.
946 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
947 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
948 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
949 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
950 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
951 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
953 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
954 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
957 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
959 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
960 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
961 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
962 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
965 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
967 ** Makefile mode changes
969 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
971 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
972 Fontlock mode is active.
976 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
977 so that searches can be resumed.
979 *** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
980 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
981 that started the search.
983 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
984 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
986 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
988 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
989 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
990 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
991 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
992 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
993 `secondary-selection'.
995 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
996 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
997 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
998 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
999 usual snappy response.
1001 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
1002 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
1003 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
1004 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
1006 ** Changes in sort.el
1008 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
1009 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
1010 new user-option sort-numberic-base can be used to specify a default
1013 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
1015 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
1016 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
1017 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
1019 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
1020 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
1022 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
1023 output ^M at the end of lines.
1025 ** Shell script mode changes.
1027 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
1028 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
1029 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
1033 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
1035 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
1036 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
1037 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
1038 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
1039 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
1041 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
1042 declarations when given the --declarations option.
1044 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
1045 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
1047 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
1050 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
1052 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
1054 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
1057 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
1058 variables are tagged.
1060 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
1062 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
1065 ** Changes in etags.el
1067 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
1068 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
1069 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
1071 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
1072 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
1074 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
1075 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
1076 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
1077 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
1079 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
1081 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
1082 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
1084 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
1086 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
1087 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
1088 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
1090 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
1091 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
1093 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
1094 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
1096 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1097 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1098 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1100 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1101 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1102 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1103 There is currently no specific input method support for them.
1105 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
1106 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
1107 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
1109 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
1111 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
1113 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignore-regexps'
1114 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
1115 expression from that list, are not checked.
1117 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
1118 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
1119 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
1120 the buffer, just like for the local files.
1122 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
1124 ** New modes and packages
1126 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
1127 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
1128 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
1129 on certain projects.
1131 *** The new package hi-lock.el, text matching interactively entered
1132 regexp's can be highlighted. For example,
1134 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
1136 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
1137 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
1138 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
1139 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
1140 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
1141 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
1142 corresponding file is read.
1144 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
1147 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
1148 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
1150 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
1151 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
1152 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
1154 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
1155 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
1156 separate Texinfo file.
1158 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine
1159 or by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
1160 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS.
1161 It comes with log-view-mode to view RCS and SCCS logs and log-edit-mode
1162 used to enter checkin log messages.
1164 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
1165 without invoking external programs.
1167 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
1168 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
1169 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
1170 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
1171 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
1173 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
1174 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
1176 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
1177 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
1179 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
1180 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
1181 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
1182 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
1183 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
1186 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
1187 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
1188 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
1189 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
1191 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
1192 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1193 actually modifying content of a buffer.
1195 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1198 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1200 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1202 ; comment (until end of line)
1206 $A default non-terminal
1207 $"C" default terminal
1208 $?C? default special
1209 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1210 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1211 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1212 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1213 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1214 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1215 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1216 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1217 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1218 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1219 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1220 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1221 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1222 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1223 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1225 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1227 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1228 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1229 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1230 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1231 equal signs of assignments.
1233 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1234 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1236 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1237 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1238 buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1239 customize the package.
1241 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
1243 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1244 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1245 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1246 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1247 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1248 which answers different needs.
1250 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1251 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1252 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1253 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1254 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1257 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1258 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1260 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1262 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1264 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1266 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1269 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1272 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1274 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1276 *** whitespace.el ???
1278 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1279 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1280 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1281 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1282 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1283 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1284 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1286 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1288 Here is an example of columns:
1291 dog pineapple car EXTRA
1292 porcupine strawberry airplane
1294 Doing the following settings:
1296 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1297 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1298 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1299 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1302 Selecting the lines above and typing:
1304 M-x delimit-columns-region
1308 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
1309 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1310 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1312 delim-col has the following options:
1314 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1317 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1318 between each column.
1320 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1323 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1326 delim-col has the following commands:
1328 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1329 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1331 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1332 were operated on recently.
1334 M-x recentf-mode RET toggles recentf mode.
1336 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET can be used to enable
1337 recentf at Emacs startup.
1339 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-menu-filter RET to specify a menu
1340 filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the recent
1341 file list can be displayed:
1343 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
1344 - sorted by file pathes, file names, ascending or descending.
1345 - showing pathes relative to the current default-directory
1347 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
1348 dynamically change the menu appearance.
1350 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1353 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
1354 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1355 specific to Message mode.
1357 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1358 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1359 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1361 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1362 interface to access directory servers using different directory
1363 protocols. It has a separate manual.
1365 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1366 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1368 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1370 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
1371 minibuffer with completion.
1373 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1374 with the diary features.
1376 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1377 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1379 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
1382 ** Withdrawn packages
1384 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1385 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
1387 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1389 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
1392 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
1393 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
1395 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
1396 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
1399 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
1402 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
1404 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
1405 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
1407 - Function: remq ELT LIST
1409 Return a copy of LIST with all occurences of ELT removed. The
1410 comparison is done with `eq'.
1412 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
1414 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
1417 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
1418 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
1419 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
1421 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
1422 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
1424 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
1425 function was declared obsolete.
1427 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
1428 retained as an alias).
1430 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
1431 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
1432 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
1434 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
1436 - Function: window-list &optional WINDOW MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES
1438 Return a list of windows in canonical order. The parameters WINDOW,
1439 MINIBUF and ALL-FRAMES are defined like for `next-window'.
1441 ** There's a new function `some-window' defined as follows
1443 - Function: some-window PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
1445 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
1447 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
1448 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
1449 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
1450 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
1453 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
1454 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
1455 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
1456 minibuffer even if it is active.
1458 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
1459 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
1460 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
1461 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
1462 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
1463 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
1465 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
1466 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
1467 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
1468 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
1469 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
1470 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
1471 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
1473 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
1474 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
1475 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
1477 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
1478 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
1479 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
1480 Default value is nil.
1482 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
1485 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
1486 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
1487 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
1489 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information on the argument list
1492 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
1493 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
1494 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
1495 than replacing the local map.
1497 ** The obsolete variables before-change-function and
1498 after-change-function are no longer acted upon and have been removed.
1500 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
1502 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments, as
1505 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
1507 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1509 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1510 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1511 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1512 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1514 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
1515 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
1516 when it finds 8-bit characters. Previously, it included `ascii' in a
1517 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
1519 *** The functions `set-buffer-modified', `string-as-multibyte' and
1520 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer if it
1521 contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
1523 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
1524 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
1525 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
1526 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
1527 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
1528 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
1529 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
1532 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
1534 A fontset can now be specified for for each independent character, for
1535 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
1536 character set as previously.
1538 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
1539 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
1540 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
1542 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
1543 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
1544 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
1545 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
1547 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
1548 name of a font and REGSITRY is a registry name of a font.
1550 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
1551 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
1554 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
1555 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
1557 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
1558 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
1559 buffers and strings.
1561 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
1562 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
1563 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
1564 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
1565 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
1566 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
1567 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
1570 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
1571 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
1572 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
1574 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
1575 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
1576 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
1577 may differ between buffer and string text.
1579 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
1580 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
1582 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
1583 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
1584 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
1585 `composition' from STRING.
1587 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
1588 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
1590 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
1593 ** The new character set `mule-unicode-0100-24ff' is introduced for
1594 Unicode characters of the range U+0100..U+24FF. Currently, this
1595 character set is not used.
1597 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
1598 `japanese-jisx0213-2' are introduced for the new Japanese standard JIS
1599 X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
1602 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
1603 are introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
1604 0xA0..0xFF respectively.
1607 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
1608 that offset in the file before writing.
1610 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
1611 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
1613 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
1614 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
1615 from which the command was issued.
1617 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
1618 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
1619 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
1620 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
1623 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
1624 to `window-buffer-height'.
1626 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
1628 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
1629 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
1630 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
1632 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
1635 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
1636 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
1638 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
1639 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
1640 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
1642 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
1643 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
1644 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
1645 is currently displayed in some window.
1647 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
1648 argument function's results.
1650 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
1651 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
1653 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
1654 header is the list of headers passed to it.
1656 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
1657 ignores differences in case and text representation.
1659 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
1660 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
1663 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
1664 nil don't display a cursor
1665 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
1666 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
1667 others display a box cursor.
1669 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
1670 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
1671 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
1672 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
1674 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
1675 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
1676 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
1677 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
1681 (string-to-syntax "()")
1684 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
1687 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
1688 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
1695 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
1700 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
1705 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
1712 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
1713 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
1716 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
1717 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
1718 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
1719 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
1722 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
1724 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
1725 for a regexp in a string.
1727 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
1728 `mouse-position-function'.
1730 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
1731 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
1733 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
1734 Keywords are now always considered constants.
1737 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
1740 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
1741 returned by function `recent-keys'.
1744 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
1745 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
1746 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
1747 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
1751 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
1752 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
1755 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
1756 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
1757 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
1758 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
1761 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
1762 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
1763 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
1764 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
1767 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
1768 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
1769 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
1772 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
1773 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
1776 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
1778 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
1779 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
1780 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
1784 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
1785 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
1788 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
1789 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
1792 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
1793 instead of being optional.
1796 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
1797 modify read-only text.
1800 ** New functions and variables for locales.
1802 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
1803 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
1804 time functions like strftime. The new variables
1805 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
1806 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
1808 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
1809 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
1810 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
1811 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
1812 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
1813 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
1814 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
1817 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
1818 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
1819 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
1823 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
1824 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
1827 ** New function `propertize'
1829 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
1830 strings with text properties.
1832 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
1834 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
1835 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
1836 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
1837 specified value of that property. Example:
1839 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
1842 ** push and pop macros.
1844 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
1845 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
1846 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
1848 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
1849 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
1850 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
1852 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
1854 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
1855 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
1857 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
1858 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
1859 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
1860 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1862 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
1863 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
1864 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
1865 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1868 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
1869 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
1871 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
1872 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
1873 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
1874 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
1875 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
1877 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
1879 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
1880 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1881 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1882 [:alpha:] matches letters.
1883 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1884 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1885 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
1886 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
1887 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
1888 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
1889 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1890 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
1891 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
1892 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
1893 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
1896 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
1898 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
1900 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
1902 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
1903 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
1907 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
1908 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
1909 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
1913 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
1914 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
1916 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
1918 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
1919 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
1920 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
1921 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
1922 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
1924 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
1926 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
1927 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
1928 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
1932 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
1933 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
1934 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
1935 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
1936 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
1938 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
1940 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
1942 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
1944 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
1946 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
1948 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
1951 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
1953 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
1955 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1957 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
1959 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
1961 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
1963 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1965 Returns the size of TABLE.
1967 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
1969 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
1971 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
1973 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
1975 - Function: clrhash TABLE
1979 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
1981 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
1984 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
1986 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
1987 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
1989 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
1991 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
1993 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
1995 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
1996 arguments KEY and VALUE.
1998 - Function: sxhash OBJ
2000 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
2002 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
2004 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
2005 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
2006 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
2007 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
2008 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
2010 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
2012 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
2013 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
2014 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
2016 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
2017 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
2019 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
2020 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
2022 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
2023 (sxhash (upcase a)))
2025 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
2026 'case-fold-string-hash))
2028 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
2031 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
2033 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
2034 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
2035 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
2038 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
2040 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
2041 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
2044 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
2045 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
2046 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
2047 is too short to reach that column.
2050 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
2051 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
2052 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
2053 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
2055 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
2056 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
2057 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
2060 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
2061 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
2064 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
2065 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
2068 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
2069 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
2070 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
2071 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
2072 temporary-file-directory instead.
2075 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
2076 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
2077 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
2078 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
2081 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
2082 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
2085 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
2087 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
2088 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
2089 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
2092 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
2094 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
2095 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
2096 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
2097 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
2098 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
2099 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
2101 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
2102 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
2103 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
2104 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
2107 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
2109 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
2110 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
2111 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
2114 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
2115 string where arguments appear in the result string.
2119 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
2121 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
2122 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
2125 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
2128 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
2130 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
2131 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
2134 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
2136 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
2137 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
2143 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
2144 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
2146 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
2147 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
2148 to enable sound support.
2150 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
2151 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
2152 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
2153 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
2154 sound to play, before playing the sound.
2156 The following sound properties are supported:
2160 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
2161 searched relative to `data-directory'.
2165 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
2166 may be present, but not both.
2170 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
2171 0..1. This property is optional.
2173 Other properties are ignored.
2175 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
2177 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
2180 ** Changes to garbage collection
2182 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
2183 of live and free strings.
2185 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
2186 strings that have been consed so far.
2189 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
2193 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
2195 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
2198 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
2200 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
2202 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
2203 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
2204 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
2205 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
2206 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
2208 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
2209 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
2212 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
2215 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center'.
2217 When this property is specified, the image is vertically centered
2218 around a centerline which would be the vertical center of text drawn
2219 at the position of the image, in the manner specified by the text
2220 properties and overlays that apply to the image.
2223 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
2225 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2226 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2227 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2228 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2230 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
2231 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
2233 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
2234 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
2235 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
2236 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
2237 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
2238 just display it black instead.
2240 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
2243 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
2247 ** New face implementation.
2249 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
2250 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
2255 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
2257 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
2259 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
2260 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
2262 3. Font height in 1/10pt
2264 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
2266 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
2268 6. Foreground color.
2270 7. Background color.
2272 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
2274 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
2276 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
2278 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
2280 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
2283 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
2284 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
2286 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
2287 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
2288 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
2289 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
2290 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
2291 attributes mentioned above.
2293 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
2294 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
2297 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
2298 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
2304 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
2305 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
2306 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
2307 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
2308 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
2309 results in a fully-specified face.
2312 *** Face realization.
2314 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
2315 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
2316 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
2317 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
2318 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
2319 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
2321 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
2322 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
2323 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
2324 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
2326 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
2327 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
2328 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
2329 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
2330 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
2332 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
2333 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
2334 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
2335 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
2336 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
2339 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
2340 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
2341 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
2342 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
2345 **** Clearing face caches.
2347 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
2348 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
2354 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
2355 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
2356 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
2358 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
2359 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
2360 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
2361 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
2362 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
2364 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
2365 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
2366 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
2368 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
2370 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
2371 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
2372 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
2373 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
2374 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
2375 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
2376 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
2378 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
2379 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
2385 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
2386 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
2389 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
2390 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
2391 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
2392 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
2393 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
2396 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
2398 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
2401 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
2403 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
2405 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
2406 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
2407 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
2409 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
2410 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
2411 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
2412 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
2413 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
2414 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
2415 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
2416 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
2417 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
2418 of the face font sort order.
2420 - Function: x-font-family-list
2422 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
2423 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
2424 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
2425 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
2427 - Variable: font-list-limit
2429 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
2430 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
2431 matching font. The default is currently 100.
2434 *** Setting face attributes.
2436 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
2437 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
2438 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
2441 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
2442 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
2444 The following attributes are recognized:
2448 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
2449 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
2450 and `?' are allowed.
2454 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
2455 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
2456 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
2457 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
2461 VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
2466 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
2467 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
2468 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
2472 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
2473 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
2476 `:foreground', `:background'
2478 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
2482 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
2483 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
2484 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
2489 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
2490 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
2491 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
2496 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
2497 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
2498 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
2499 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
2503 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
2504 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
2505 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
2506 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
2507 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
2508 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
2509 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
2510 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
2511 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
2512 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
2513 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
2514 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
2515 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
2516 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
2517 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
2518 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
2523 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
2524 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
2528 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
2529 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
2530 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
2531 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
2532 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
2533 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
2535 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
2536 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
2540 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
2541 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
2542 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
2545 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
2546 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
2547 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
2549 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
2552 *** Face attributes and X resources
2554 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
2557 Face attribute X resource class
2558 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
2559 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
2560 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
2561 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
2562 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
2563 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
2564 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
2565 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
2566 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
2567 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
2568 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
2569 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
2570 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
2571 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
2572 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
2573 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
2574 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2575 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
2576 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
2577 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2580 *** Text property `face'.
2582 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
2583 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
2584 specification can be
2586 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
2588 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
2589 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
2590 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
2591 for face attribute names.
2593 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
2594 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
2595 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
2598 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
2600 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
2601 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
2602 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
2603 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
2604 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
2605 used to clear the mapping table.
2607 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
2609 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
2610 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
2611 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
2612 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
2613 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
2614 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
2615 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
2616 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
2617 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
2618 modify their color-related behavior.
2620 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
2623 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
2625 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
2626 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
2627 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
2628 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
2629 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
2630 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
2631 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
2632 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
2633 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
2636 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
2638 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
2640 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
2641 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
2642 Otherwise, it returns zero.
2644 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
2646 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
2647 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
2648 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
2650 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
2651 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
2652 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
2653 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
2654 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
2655 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
2656 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
2659 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
2660 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
2661 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
2663 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
2665 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
2667 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
2669 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2670 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
2671 constrained position if that is is different.
2673 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
2674 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
2675 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
2676 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
2677 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2678 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
2679 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
2680 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
2681 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
2683 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
2684 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
2685 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
2686 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
2687 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
2689 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
2690 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
2692 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
2694 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
2696 Delete the field surrounding POS.
2697 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2698 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2700 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2702 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
2703 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2704 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2705 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
2706 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
2708 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2710 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
2711 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2712 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2713 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
2714 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
2716 - Function: field-string &optional POS
2718 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
2719 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2720 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2722 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
2724 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
2725 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2726 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2731 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
2732 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
2733 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
2734 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
2736 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
2737 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
2738 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
2739 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
2742 IMAGE is an image specification.
2744 *** Image specifications
2746 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
2747 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
2748 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
2749 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
2750 described below are ignored.
2752 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
2756 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
2757 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
2758 to use for its ascent.
2760 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
2761 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
2763 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
2764 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
2765 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
2766 overlays that apply to the image.
2770 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
2771 margin around the image. Default is 0.
2775 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
2780 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
2781 be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
2782 supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
2783 which is intended to display images "disabled."
2785 `:heuristic-mask BG'
2787 If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
2788 background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
2789 determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
2790 corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
2791 the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
2792 be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
2793 background of the image.
2797 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
2798 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
2799 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
2800 may be present in the image specification.
2804 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
2805 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
2806 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
2807 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
2809 *** Supported image types
2811 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
2813 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
2814 properties supported are
2818 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
2819 is the frame's foreground.
2823 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
2824 the frame's background color.
2826 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
2827 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
2828 instead of a `:file' property.
2832 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
2836 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
2842 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
2843 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
2845 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
2847 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
2850 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
2851 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
2854 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
2856 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
2857 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
2858 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
2859 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
2861 Additional image properties supported are:
2863 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
2865 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
2866 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
2869 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
2870 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
2872 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
2873 to display compressed images.
2875 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
2877 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
2878 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
2881 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
2883 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
2884 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
2887 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
2889 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
2890 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2893 **** GIF, image type `gif'
2895 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
2896 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
2898 Additional image properties supported are:
2902 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
2903 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
2905 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
2906 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
2907 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
2910 (defun show-anim (file max)
2911 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
2912 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
2914 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
2917 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
2920 (goto-char (point-min))
2921 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
2922 (insert-image img "x"))
2923 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
2925 **** PNG, image type `png'
2927 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
2928 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2931 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
2933 Additional image properties supported are:
2937 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
2938 integer. This is a required property.
2942 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
2943 must be a integer. This is an required property.
2947 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
2948 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
2949 files. This is an required property.
2951 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
2956 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
2957 which are supported in the current configuration.
2959 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
2960 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
2961 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
2962 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
2963 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
2965 *** Simplified image API, image.el
2967 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
2968 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
2969 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
2970 define an image based on available image types. The functions
2971 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
2977 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
2980 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
2981 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
2982 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
2983 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
2984 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2985 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2986 of the display margins.
2988 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
2989 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
2990 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
2991 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
2997 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
2998 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
2999 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
3000 that have a `help-echo' property.
3002 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
3003 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
3004 the window in which the help was found.
3006 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
3007 `help-echo' text property was found.
3009 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
3010 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
3012 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
3013 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
3016 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
3017 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
3019 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
3020 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
3021 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
3022 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
3023 used as help string.
3025 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
3026 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
3027 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
3030 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
3032 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
3033 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
3035 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
3036 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
3037 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
3038 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
3041 (global-set-key [A-down]
3044 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3045 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
3046 (global-set-key [A-up]
3049 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3050 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
3053 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
3055 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
3056 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
3057 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
3058 is called with one argument, POS.
3060 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
3061 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
3062 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
3063 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
3064 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
3067 ** Tool bar support.
3069 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
3070 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
3071 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
3072 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
3073 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
3074 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
3076 *** Tool bar item definitions
3078 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
3079 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
3080 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
3082 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
3083 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
3084 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
3085 property (see below).
3087 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
3088 binding are currently ignored.
3090 The following properties are recognized:
3094 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
3099 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
3103 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
3104 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
3105 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
3107 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
3109 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
3110 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
3114 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
3115 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
3116 meaning of each of the four elements:
3118 Index Use when item is
3119 ----------------------------------------
3120 0 enabled and selected
3121 1 enabled and deselected
3122 2 disabled and selected
3123 3 disabled and deselected
3125 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
3126 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
3128 `:help HELP-STRING'.
3130 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
3131 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
3133 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
3135 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
3136 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
3137 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
3139 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
3140 raised when the mouse moves over them.
3142 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
3143 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
3144 pixels. Default is 1.
3146 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
3147 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
3149 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
3151 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
3154 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
3155 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
3156 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
3158 is the original tool bar item definition, then
3160 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
3162 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
3165 ** Mode line changes.
3168 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3170 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
3171 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
3172 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
3174 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
3175 a `local-map' text property.
3177 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
3178 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
3180 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
3181 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
3182 `local-map' property.
3184 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
3185 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
3188 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
3189 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
3192 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
3193 variable mode-line-format to nil.
3196 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
3198 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
3199 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
3200 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
3201 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
3204 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
3207 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
3208 position in the header-line.
3211 ** Text property `display'
3213 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
3214 also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
3215 `display' property should be a display specification, as described
3216 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
3218 *** Variable width and height spaces
3220 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
3221 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
3222 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
3223 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
3224 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
3225 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
3226 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
3228 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
3229 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
3230 properties described below.
3232 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
3233 characters having the `display' property.
3237 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
3238 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
3240 - :relative-width FACTOR
3242 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
3243 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
3244 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
3245 width of that character by FACTOR.
3249 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
3250 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
3252 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
3256 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
3259 - :relative-height FACTOR
3261 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
3262 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
3266 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
3267 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
3268 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
3271 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
3275 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
3276 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
3277 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
3278 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
3279 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
3280 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
3281 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
3282 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
3283 as display specification.
3285 *** Other display properties
3287 - :space-width FACTOR
3289 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
3290 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
3295 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
3297 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
3298 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
3299 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
3300 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
3301 a font is available counts as a step.
3303 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
3304 as tall as the frame's default font.
3306 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
3307 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
3309 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
3310 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
3314 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
3315 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
3316 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
3317 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
3318 `:height' subproperty.
3320 *** Conditional display properties
3322 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
3323 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
3324 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
3325 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
3326 the text having the `display' property.
3328 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
3332 ** New menu separator types.
3334 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
3335 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
3336 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
3337 to specify other menu separator types.
3339 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
3341 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
3344 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
3346 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
3348 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
3350 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
3352 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
3354 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3356 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
3358 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3360 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
3362 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
3363 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
3365 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
3367 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
3369 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
3371 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
3373 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
3375 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
3377 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
3379 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3381 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
3383 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
3385 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
3387 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3389 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
3391 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
3393 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
3394 the corresponding single-line separators.
3397 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
3399 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
3400 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
3401 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
3402 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
3403 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
3404 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
3405 default foreground is black.
3407 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
3408 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
3409 `ScrollBarBackground').
3411 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
3412 settings for scroll bar colors.
3415 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
3416 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
3419 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
3420 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
3421 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
3422 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
3423 the original window start.
3426 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
3427 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
3428 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
3431 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
3433 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
3434 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
3435 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
3436 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
3438 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
3439 fixed-width and fixed-height.
3441 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
3443 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
3444 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
3445 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
3446 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
3447 temporarily to nil, for example
3449 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
3450 (enlarge-window 10))
3452 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
3453 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
3455 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
3456 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
3457 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
3458 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
3459 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
3460 support a vertical-bar cursor).
3464 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
3466 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
3469 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
3471 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
3473 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
3474 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
3475 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
3476 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
3477 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
3479 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
3483 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
3485 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
3488 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
3490 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
3491 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
3493 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
3495 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
3497 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
3498 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
3499 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
3501 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
3502 is the one that is used.
3504 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
3505 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
3506 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
3507 separate from the command's regular output.
3508 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
3509 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
3510 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
3513 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
3514 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
3515 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
3516 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
3518 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
3519 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
3520 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
3521 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
3523 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
3524 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
3525 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
3526 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
3528 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
3529 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
3530 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
3531 they never ignore case.
3533 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
3534 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
3535 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
3536 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
3537 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
3538 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
3539 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
3541 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
3542 the same format that was used in the file before.
3544 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
3545 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
3547 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
3548 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
3549 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
3551 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
3552 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
3553 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
3554 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
3555 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
3556 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
3557 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
3559 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
3560 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
3561 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
3562 format. You can now customize these variables.
3564 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
3565 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
3566 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
3567 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
3569 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
3570 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
3571 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
3573 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
3574 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
3575 doesn't have any effect.
3577 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
3580 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
3581 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
3582 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
3584 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
3585 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
3586 `auto-show-mode' command.
3588 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
3589 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
3590 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
3591 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
3592 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
3594 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
3595 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
3597 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
3598 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
3599 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
3601 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
3602 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
3603 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
3604 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
3606 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
3608 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
3609 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
3610 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
3611 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
3612 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
3614 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
3615 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
3617 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
3618 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
3619 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
3620 `?' on other systems.
3622 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
3623 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
3626 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
3627 current codepage when it starts.
3631 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
3632 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
3633 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
3634 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
3635 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
3636 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
3640 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
3641 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
3643 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
3644 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
3645 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
3646 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
3647 buffer-file-coding-system.
3649 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
3650 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
3653 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
3654 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
3655 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
3656 list of possible coding systems.
3660 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
3661 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
3662 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
3663 docstring for details.
3665 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
3666 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
3667 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
3668 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
3669 lineup functions use this feature currently.
3671 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
3672 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
3674 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
3675 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
3677 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
3678 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
3679 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
3680 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
3683 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
3684 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
3686 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
3687 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
3688 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
3689 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
3691 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
3692 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
3693 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
3694 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
3695 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
3697 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
3699 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
3701 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
3702 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
3704 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
3706 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
3707 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
3708 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
3709 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
3710 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
3714 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
3715 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
3716 Gnus manual for the full story.
3718 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
3719 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
3720 group, which is created automatically.
3722 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
3725 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
3727 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
3728 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
3730 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
3733 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
3735 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
3736 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
3738 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
3740 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
3741 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
3743 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
3744 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
3746 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
3747 control over simplification.
3749 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
3751 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
3754 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
3756 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
3758 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
3759 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
3760 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
3762 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
3763 `a' forces normal posting method.
3765 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
3768 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
3771 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
3772 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
3774 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
3777 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
3779 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
3781 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
3782 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
3784 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
3785 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
3787 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
3789 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
3792 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
3793 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
3795 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
3796 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
3798 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
3800 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
3802 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
3804 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
3806 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
3807 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
3808 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
3810 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
3811 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
3812 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
3813 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
3814 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
3816 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
3817 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
3818 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
3819 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
3821 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
3822 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
3823 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
3826 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
3828 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
3829 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
3831 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
3832 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
3833 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
3834 removed from the label.
3836 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
3837 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
3839 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
3840 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
3842 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
3843 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
3846 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
3848 ** New/deleted modes and packages
3850 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
3851 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
3853 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
3854 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
3855 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
3857 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
3858 changes with a special face.
3860 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
3861 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
3862 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
3864 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
3866 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
3867 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
3868 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
3869 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
3870 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
3872 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
3873 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
3874 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
3876 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
3877 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
3878 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
3879 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
3880 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
3881 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
3882 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
3883 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
3884 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
3886 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
3887 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
3888 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
3889 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
3890 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
3893 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
3894 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
3895 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
3896 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
3897 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
3898 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
3900 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
3901 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
3902 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
3903 was not documented clearly before.
3905 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
3906 This includes Tetris and Snake.
3908 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
3910 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
3911 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
3912 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
3913 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
3915 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
3916 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
3917 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
3919 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
3921 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
3922 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
3924 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
3925 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
3928 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
3929 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
3930 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
3931 file names and attributes are returned.
3933 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
3934 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
3935 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
3936 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
3939 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
3940 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
3942 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
3944 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
3945 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
3946 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
3949 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
3950 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
3953 The new function process-running-child-p
3954 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
3955 terminal to its own child process.
3957 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
3958 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
3959 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
3960 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
3962 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
3963 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
3965 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
3966 :included is an alias for :visible.
3968 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
3969 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
3970 to move or copy menu entries.
3972 ** Multibyte editing changes
3974 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
3975 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
3976 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
3977 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
3978 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
3979 (setq char (sref str idx)
3980 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
3981 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
3983 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
3984 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
3985 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
3987 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
3988 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
3989 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
3991 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
3993 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
3994 across the boundary.
3996 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
3997 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
3998 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
3999 contains 8-bit characters.
4000 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
4001 contains invalid characters.
4003 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
4004 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
4005 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
4006 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
4009 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
4010 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
4011 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
4012 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
4014 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
4015 compose Thai characters in a string.
4017 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
4018 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
4019 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
4020 menus should always use the third argument.
4022 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
4023 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
4024 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
4025 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
4027 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
4028 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
4029 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
4030 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
4032 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
4033 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
4034 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
4037 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
4039 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
4040 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
4041 requested feature cannot be loaded.
4043 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
4044 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
4045 means to clear out that attribute.
4047 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
4048 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
4050 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
4051 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
4052 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
4053 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
4055 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
4056 the gap of the current buffer.
4058 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
4059 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
4062 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
4063 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
4064 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
4065 it back in after any modifications have been made.
4067 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
4069 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
4070 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
4071 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
4072 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
4073 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
4075 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
4076 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
4077 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
4078 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
4079 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
4081 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
4082 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
4083 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
4085 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
4086 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
4087 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
4088 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
4089 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
4092 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
4093 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
4094 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
4095 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
4097 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
4099 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
4100 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
4101 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
4102 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
4104 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
4105 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
4106 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
4107 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
4108 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
4109 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
4110 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
4113 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
4116 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
4117 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
4118 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
4119 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
4120 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
4122 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
4123 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
4124 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
4125 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
4127 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
4128 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
4129 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
4130 something that most users not do.
4132 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
4133 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
4134 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
4137 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
4140 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
4141 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
4142 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
4143 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
4146 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
4147 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
4148 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
4149 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
4150 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
4153 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
4154 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
4155 to be confused by TeX commands.
4157 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
4158 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
4159 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
4160 of various alternative replacements and actions.
4162 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
4163 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
4164 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
4165 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
4166 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
4168 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
4169 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
4171 ** Changes in input method usage.
4173 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
4174 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
4177 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
4179 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
4180 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
4182 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
4183 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
4185 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
4187 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
4189 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
4190 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
4192 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
4193 given in the following case:
4194 o When you are using a complex input method.
4195 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
4197 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
4198 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
4199 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
4200 setting it to t is helpful.
4202 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
4204 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
4206 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
4207 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
4208 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
4209 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
4212 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
4213 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
4214 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
4217 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
4219 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
4221 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
4222 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
4224 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
4225 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
4226 its owner and group.
4228 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
4229 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
4231 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
4232 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
4234 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
4235 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
4236 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
4237 by the left edge of the rectangle.
4239 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
4240 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
4241 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
4242 for writing keyboard macros.
4244 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
4245 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
4246 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
4247 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
4248 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
4251 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
4253 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
4254 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
4257 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
4258 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
4259 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
4260 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
4262 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
4263 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
4264 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
4266 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
4267 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
4268 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
4269 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
4271 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
4272 failure if the command produces no output.
4274 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
4275 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
4278 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
4279 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
4280 function and variable names.
4282 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
4283 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
4284 file-coding-system-alist.
4286 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
4287 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
4288 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
4289 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
4290 according to the current fontset.
4292 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
4294 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
4295 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
4296 nonascii-insert-offset.
4298 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
4299 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
4300 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
4301 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
4303 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
4304 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
4306 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
4307 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
4309 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
4310 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
4313 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
4314 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
4316 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
4317 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
4318 all variables that have documentation.
4320 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
4321 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
4322 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
4323 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
4324 it should show; the default is 20.
4326 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
4327 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
4330 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
4331 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
4332 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
4333 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
4334 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
4335 Newly added options are included as well.
4337 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
4338 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
4339 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
4341 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
4344 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
4345 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
4347 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
4348 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
4351 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
4352 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
4355 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
4356 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
4357 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
4358 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
4361 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
4363 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
4364 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
4365 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
4367 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
4368 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
4369 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
4374 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
4375 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
4377 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
4378 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
4380 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
4381 read and post multi-lingual articles.
4383 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
4384 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
4385 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
4386 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
4387 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
4388 made invisible again.
4390 ** Mail reading and sending changes
4392 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
4393 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
4394 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
4397 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
4398 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
4399 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
4400 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
4401 rmail-default-body-file.
4403 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
4404 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
4405 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
4407 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
4408 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
4409 is evaluated to insert the signature.
4411 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
4412 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
4413 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
4414 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
4415 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
4416 especially interested in trying feedmail.
4418 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
4419 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
4420 provided by feedmail are:
4422 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
4423 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
4424 there is also a queue for draft messages
4426 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
4427 be prompted for confirmation
4429 **** does smart filling of address headers
4431 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
4432 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
4433 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
4435 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
4436 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
4437 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
4438 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
4442 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
4443 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
4445 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
4446 run Dired on the directory name at point.
4448 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
4449 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
4450 for a specified regexp.
4454 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
4457 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
4458 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
4461 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
4462 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
4463 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
4464 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
4466 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
4467 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
4468 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
4469 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
4470 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
4472 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
4473 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
4474 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
4475 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
4476 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
4478 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
4479 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
4480 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
4481 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
4483 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
4484 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
4485 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
4487 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
4488 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
4489 session to resolve them.
4491 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
4492 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
4493 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
4496 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
4497 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
4498 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
4499 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
4500 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
4501 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
4504 ** Changes in Font Lock
4506 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
4507 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
4508 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
4509 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
4510 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
4512 ** Frame name display changes
4514 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
4515 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
4516 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
4517 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
4519 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
4520 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
4523 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4525 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
4526 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
4527 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
4529 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
4531 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
4532 that is, the line after the last line you got.
4533 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
4535 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
4536 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
4539 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
4540 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
4541 previously sent input.
4543 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
4544 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
4545 as the search string.
4547 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
4548 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
4552 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
4553 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
4554 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
4557 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
4558 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
4559 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
4560 style is still the default however.
4562 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
4564 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
4565 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
4566 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
4568 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
4569 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
4571 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
4572 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
4574 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
4575 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
4577 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
4578 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
4580 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
4581 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
4582 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
4583 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
4585 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
4587 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
4588 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
4589 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
4591 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
4592 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
4593 expanding dynamically.
4595 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
4596 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
4598 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
4599 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
4600 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
4601 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
4603 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
4605 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
4607 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
4608 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
4609 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
4610 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
4611 against the first word in the title.
4613 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
4614 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
4615 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
4616 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
4617 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
4618 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
4620 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
4621 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
4622 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
4623 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
4625 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
4627 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
4628 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
4629 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
4630 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
4631 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
4632 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
4634 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
4635 Editing group once the package is loaded.
4637 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
4638 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
4639 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
4641 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
4642 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
4646 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
4647 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
4648 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
4650 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
4651 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
4652 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
4653 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
4656 o URLs are automatically skipped
4657 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
4659 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
4661 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4663 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
4664 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
4665 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
4666 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
4668 *** New recursive parser.
4670 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
4671 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
4672 recursive parser scans the individual files.
4674 *** Parsing only part of a document.
4676 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
4677 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
4678 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
4680 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
4682 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
4684 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
4686 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
4688 *** Using multiple selection buffers
4690 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
4691 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
4693 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
4695 *** References to external documents.
4697 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
4698 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
4699 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
4700 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
4701 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
4702 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
4703 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
4705 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
4707 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
4708 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
4710 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
4711 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
4713 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
4715 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
4716 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
4718 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
4720 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
4721 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
4722 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
4723 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
4724 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
4725 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
4728 *** Support for the varioref package
4730 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
4734 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
4735 and citations are created. These hooks are
4736 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
4737 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
4739 *** Citations outside LaTeX
4741 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
4742 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
4744 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
4746 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
4747 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
4750 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
4752 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
4753 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
4754 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
4755 directories that contain the same file name.
4757 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
4758 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
4759 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
4760 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
4761 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
4762 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
4763 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
4766 ** New modes and packages
4768 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
4769 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
4770 it, but some do not.
4772 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
4775 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
4776 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
4779 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
4781 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
4782 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
4783 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
4784 established system of notation similar to Chess.
4786 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
4787 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
4788 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
4790 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
4791 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
4792 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
4793 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
4794 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
4797 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
4798 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
4800 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
4801 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
4802 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
4803 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
4805 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
4807 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
4808 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
4809 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
4810 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
4811 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
4812 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
4813 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
4814 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
4815 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
4816 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
4817 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
4819 Platform-specific modes:
4821 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
4822 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
4823 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
4824 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
4825 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
4826 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
4827 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
4828 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
4829 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
4831 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4833 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
4834 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
4835 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
4836 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
4838 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
4839 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
4840 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
4842 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
4843 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
4844 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
4845 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
4847 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
4848 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
4849 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
4852 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
4853 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
4854 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
4855 current input method for reading this one event.
4857 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
4858 now control whether to output certain characters as
4859 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
4860 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
4861 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
4862 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
4864 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4866 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
4867 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
4869 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
4870 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
4871 always increases point by 1.
4873 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
4874 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
4876 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
4878 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
4879 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
4880 default value changed. For example,
4882 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
4887 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
4890 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
4891 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
4892 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
4893 `:version' in the top level group.
4895 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
4897 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
4898 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
4900 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
4901 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
4902 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
4905 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
4906 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
4909 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
4910 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
4911 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
4913 ** Frame-local variables.
4915 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
4916 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
4917 local bindings for that variable.
4919 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
4920 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
4921 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
4924 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
4925 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
4926 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
4927 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
4929 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
4930 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
4931 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
4932 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
4934 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
4935 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
4936 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
4937 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
4938 See the documentation in sregex.el.
4940 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
4941 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
4942 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
4943 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
4945 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
4946 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
4948 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
4949 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
4950 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
4952 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
4953 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
4954 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
4955 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
4957 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
4958 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
4961 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
4962 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
4963 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
4964 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
4965 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
4967 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
4968 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
4969 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
4970 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
4972 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
4973 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
4974 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
4975 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
4976 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
4978 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
4979 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
4980 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
4981 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
4983 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
4984 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
4985 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
4987 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
4988 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
4989 was directed to display this buffer.
4991 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
4992 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
4993 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
4994 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
4995 set-window-configuration.
4997 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
4998 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
4999 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
5000 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
5002 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
5003 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
5004 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
5006 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
5007 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
5008 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
5010 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
5011 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
5013 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
5014 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
5016 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
5017 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
5018 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
5020 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
5021 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
5022 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
5023 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
5027 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
5028 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
5031 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
5032 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
5033 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
5034 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
5035 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
5037 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
5039 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
5040 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
5041 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
5042 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
5045 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
5046 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
5047 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
5048 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
5049 The supported properties include
5051 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5053 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5054 item should appear in the menu.
5056 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
5057 which will be REAL-BINDING.
5058 It should return a binding to use instead.
5060 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
5061 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
5062 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
5063 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
5064 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
5067 This means that the command normally has no
5068 keyboard equivalent.
5069 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
5070 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
5071 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
5072 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
5073 value says whether this button is currently selected.
5075 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
5076 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
5078 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
5082 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
5083 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
5084 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
5085 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
5087 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
5089 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5090 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
5091 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
5092 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
5093 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
5094 forward, away from the user.
5096 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5098 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
5099 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
5100 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
5101 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
5102 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
5104 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
5106 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5107 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
5108 that were dragged and dropped.
5110 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5112 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
5114 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
5115 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
5116 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
5118 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
5119 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
5120 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
5122 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
5123 in Emacs 19 and before.
5125 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
5126 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
5128 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
5129 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
5130 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
5131 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
5133 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
5134 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
5135 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
5136 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
5137 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
5139 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
5140 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
5141 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
5142 consistent with the new representation.
5144 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
5145 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
5146 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
5147 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5149 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
5150 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
5151 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
5153 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
5154 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
5155 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5157 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
5158 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
5159 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
5161 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5162 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
5164 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5165 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
5167 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
5168 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
5169 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
5170 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
5172 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
5173 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
5175 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
5176 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
5177 buffer or string being searched.
5179 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
5180 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
5181 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
5182 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
5183 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
5184 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
5185 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
5187 *** Structure of coding system changed.
5189 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
5190 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
5191 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
5192 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
5193 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
5194 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
5195 define-coding-system-alias.
5197 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
5198 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
5199 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
5200 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
5201 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
5202 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
5203 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
5206 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
5207 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
5208 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
5209 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
5211 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
5212 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
5213 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
5214 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
5216 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
5217 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
5218 This function requires a user interaction.
5220 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
5221 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
5222 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
5223 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
5224 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
5225 select-safe-coding-system.
5227 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
5228 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
5229 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
5232 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
5233 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
5234 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
5236 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
5237 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
5238 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
5239 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
5241 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
5242 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
5243 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
5246 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
5247 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
5249 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
5250 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
5251 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
5252 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
5253 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
5254 range of characters.
5256 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
5257 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
5259 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
5260 in the current buffer at position POS.
5262 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
5263 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
5264 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
5265 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
5266 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
5267 binding input-method-function to nil.
5269 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
5270 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
5271 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
5272 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
5273 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
5275 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
5276 subsequent events of a key sequence.
5278 *** You can customize any language environment by using
5279 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
5281 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
5282 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
5283 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
5284 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
5285 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
5287 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
5289 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
5290 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
5291 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
5294 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
5295 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
5297 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
5298 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
5299 in your .emacs file.)
5301 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
5302 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
5304 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
5305 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
5307 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
5308 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
5311 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
5312 delete the character before point, as usual.
5314 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
5315 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
5316 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
5318 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
5319 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
5320 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
5321 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
5322 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
5325 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
5326 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
5327 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
5328 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
5329 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
5331 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
5332 and is an alias for it.
5334 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
5335 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
5337 ** Scrolling changes
5339 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
5340 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
5342 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
5343 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
5346 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
5347 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
5348 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
5349 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
5351 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
5352 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
5353 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
5354 recenters the window.
5356 ** International character set support (MULE)
5358 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
5359 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
5360 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
5361 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
5362 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
5363 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
5365 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
5366 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
5367 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
5368 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
5369 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
5371 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
5372 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
5373 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
5374 language, to make it possible to type them.
5376 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
5377 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
5379 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
5380 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
5382 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
5384 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
5386 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
5387 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
5388 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
5389 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
5390 characters for their work until they want to change.
5394 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
5395 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
5396 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
5397 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
5398 support several input methods.
5400 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
5401 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
5404 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
5405 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
5406 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
5407 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
5408 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
5411 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
5412 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
5413 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
5414 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
5415 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
5417 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
5418 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
5419 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
5420 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
5422 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
5423 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
5424 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
5425 the first guess is wrong.
5427 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
5428 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
5430 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
5431 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
5432 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
5433 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
5435 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
5436 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
5437 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
5438 translate automatically to and from either one.
5440 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
5442 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
5443 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
5444 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
5447 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
5448 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
5449 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
5450 multibyte characters in that buffer.
5452 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
5453 character conversion as well.
5455 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
5457 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
5458 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
5459 requires using many fonts.
5461 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
5462 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
5464 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
5465 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
5466 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
5467 you would use a font.
5469 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
5470 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
5471 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
5473 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
5474 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
5475 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
5476 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
5477 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
5479 *** Defining fontsets.
5481 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
5482 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
5483 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
5485 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
5486 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
5487 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
5488 standard fontset are created automatically.
5490 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
5491 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
5492 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
5493 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
5494 name is `fontset-startup'.
5496 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
5497 The resource value should have this form:
5498 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
5499 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
5500 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
5501 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
5502 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
5503 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
5504 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
5505 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
5506 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
5508 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
5509 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
5510 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
5512 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
5513 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
5515 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
5516 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
5517 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
5518 Here is the substitution rule:
5519 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
5520 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
5521 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
5522 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
5523 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
5525 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
5526 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
5527 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
5529 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
5530 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
5531 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
5532 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
5535 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
5536 defaults for a particular choice of language.
5538 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
5539 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
5540 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
5541 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
5542 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
5543 system for new files that you create.
5545 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
5546 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
5547 whole Emacs session.
5549 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
5550 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
5551 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
5553 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
5554 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
5555 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
5556 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
5557 coding systems that Emacs supports.
5559 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
5560 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
5561 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
5562 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
5563 is used for *the immediately following command*.
5565 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
5566 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
5568 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
5569 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
5571 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
5572 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
5574 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
5575 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
5576 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
5577 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
5580 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
5581 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
5582 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
5583 translated into that character code.
5585 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
5586 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
5588 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
5590 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
5591 the coding system for keyboard input.
5593 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
5594 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
5595 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
5597 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
5599 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
5600 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
5601 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
5602 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
5603 designed to work with terminals.
5605 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
5606 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
5607 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
5608 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
5609 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
5610 in the corresponding buffer.
5612 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
5614 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
5615 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
5616 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
5618 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
5619 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
5620 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
5623 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
5624 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
5626 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
5627 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
5628 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
5629 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
5631 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
5632 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
5633 related information.
5635 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
5636 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
5639 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
5640 information about the support for a particular language.
5641 You specify the language as an argument.
5643 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
5644 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
5647 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
5648 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
5649 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
5650 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
5652 A alternativnyj (Russian)
5654 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
5655 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
5656 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
5657 E euc-japan (Japanese)
5658 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5659 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
5660 K euc-korea (Korean)
5663 S shift_jis (Japanese)
5666 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
5667 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5668 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
5672 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
5673 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
5674 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
5675 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
5677 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
5678 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
5680 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
5681 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
5682 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
5683 Rmail files themselves.
5685 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
5686 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
5688 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
5691 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
5692 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
5693 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
5694 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
5695 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
5697 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
5698 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
5699 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
5702 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
5703 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
5704 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
5705 without any conversion.
5707 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
5708 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
5709 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
5710 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
5712 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
5713 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
5715 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
5716 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
5718 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
5719 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
5721 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
5722 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
5723 in the buffer before point.
5725 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
5726 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
5729 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
5730 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
5732 ** File locking works with NFS now.
5734 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
5735 in the same directory as FILENAME.
5737 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
5738 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
5739 can become a bottleneck.
5741 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
5742 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
5743 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
5744 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
5745 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
5746 so useful that the change is worth while.
5748 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
5749 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
5750 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
5751 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
5753 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
5754 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
5757 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
5758 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
5759 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
5761 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
5762 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
5763 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
5765 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
5766 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
5767 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
5769 ** Changes in View mode.
5771 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
5772 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
5774 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
5775 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
5777 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
5780 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
5781 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
5783 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
5784 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
5785 not just the selected window.
5787 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
5788 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
5789 turns View mode on or off.
5791 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
5792 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
5793 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
5795 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
5796 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
5798 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
5799 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
5800 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
5801 which version to compare with.
5803 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
5804 blocks if a match is inside the block.
5806 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
5807 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
5808 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
5809 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
5811 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
5812 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
5813 blocks, all of them or none.
5815 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
5816 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
5819 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
5820 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
5821 However, the mode will not be changed if
5822 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
5823 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
5824 not suitable for ordinary files, or
5825 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
5827 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
5829 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
5830 these commands do not change the major mode.
5832 ** M-x occur changes.
5834 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
5835 it performs a case-sensitive search.
5837 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
5838 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
5839 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
5841 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
5842 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
5843 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
5844 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
5845 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
5847 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
5848 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
5849 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
5850 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
5852 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
5853 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
5854 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
5856 ** Outline mode changes.
5858 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
5860 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
5862 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
5863 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
5864 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
5867 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
5868 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
5871 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
5872 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
5874 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
5876 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
5877 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
5878 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
5879 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
5881 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
5882 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
5883 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
5885 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
5886 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
5889 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
5890 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
5891 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
5892 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
5894 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
5895 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
5896 can be. The default value is 30.
5898 ** Changes in Mail mode.
5900 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
5901 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
5902 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
5903 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
5904 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
5907 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
5908 compose-mail-other-frame.
5910 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
5911 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
5912 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
5913 buffer that shows the original message.
5915 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
5916 with separator lines around the contents.
5918 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
5919 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
5920 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
5921 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
5923 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
5925 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
5926 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
5927 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
5928 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
5930 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
5931 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
5934 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
5935 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
5938 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
5939 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
5940 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
5941 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
5943 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
5944 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
5945 be taken to be magic.
5947 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
5948 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
5949 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
5951 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
5952 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
5954 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
5955 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
5957 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
5959 new key dired.el binding old key
5960 ------- ---------------- -------
5961 * c dired-change-marks c
5963 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
5964 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
5965 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
5967 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
5968 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
5969 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
5970 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
5971 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
5972 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
5976 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
5977 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
5978 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
5979 each time you run it.
5981 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
5982 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
5984 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
5985 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
5986 means to move in the opposite direction.
5988 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
5989 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
5991 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
5992 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
5993 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
5994 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
5999 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
6001 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
6004 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
6005 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
6007 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
6010 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
6012 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
6014 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
6016 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
6017 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
6018 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
6020 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
6022 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
6024 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
6025 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
6027 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
6028 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
6029 used to pick articles.
6031 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
6032 another have been added.
6034 `M-x gnus-change-server'
6036 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
6037 generating lines in buffers.
6039 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
6042 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
6044 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
6046 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
6048 *** Scores can be decayed.
6050 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
6052 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
6053 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
6055 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
6058 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
6060 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
6061 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
6063 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
6065 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
6066 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
6068 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
6069 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
6071 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
6074 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
6075 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
6077 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
6079 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
6081 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
6083 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
6085 Use the `Y c' command.
6087 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
6089 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
6091 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
6093 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
6094 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
6096 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
6098 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
6100 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
6101 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
6103 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
6105 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
6106 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
6107 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
6108 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
6111 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
6112 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
6113 particular news group. This can be done by:
6115 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
6117 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
6118 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
6119 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
6120 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
6121 for reading and posting).
6123 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
6124 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
6125 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
6126 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
6129 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
6130 default. Here are some of these default settings:
6132 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
6133 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
6134 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
6135 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
6136 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
6138 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
6139 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
6143 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
6144 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
6145 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
6146 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
6147 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
6150 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
6151 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
6152 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
6153 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
6154 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
6155 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
6157 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
6158 of the current buffer.
6160 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
6161 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
6162 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
6164 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
6165 style that the Python developers like.
6167 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
6168 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
6169 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
6173 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
6174 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
6175 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
6177 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
6178 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
6181 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
6182 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
6184 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
6185 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
6186 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
6187 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
6189 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
6190 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
6192 ** Calendar changes.
6194 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
6195 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
6196 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
6200 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
6202 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
6204 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
6205 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
6206 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
6207 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
6208 It defaults to `letter'.
6209 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
6211 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
6212 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
6213 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
6215 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
6216 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
6219 *** Horizontal layout
6221 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
6222 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
6223 All are measured in points.
6227 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
6228 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
6229 All are measured in points.
6233 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
6234 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
6235 margin above the text.
6237 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
6238 framing box is printed around the header.
6240 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
6241 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
6243 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
6244 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
6245 `ps-header-font-size'.
6249 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
6250 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
6251 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
6252 elements to this alist.
6254 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
6255 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
6257 ** hideshow changes.
6259 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
6262 *** Support for java-mode added.
6264 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
6265 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
6267 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
6268 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
6269 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
6271 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
6272 robust and a lot faster.
6274 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
6276 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
6277 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
6278 documentation for more details.
6280 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
6282 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
6283 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
6284 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
6285 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
6286 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
6288 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
6289 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
6290 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
6291 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
6297 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
6298 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
6299 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
6300 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
6301 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
6302 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
6304 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
6306 *** Maximum decoration
6308 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
6309 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
6310 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
6311 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
6312 to get the old behavior.
6316 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
6318 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
6319 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
6321 *** Configurable support
6323 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
6324 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
6325 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
6326 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
6327 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
6328 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
6329 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
6331 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
6332 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
6333 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
6335 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
6337 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
6338 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
6341 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
6343 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
6349 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
6350 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
6351 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
6352 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
6354 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
6356 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
6357 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
6358 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
6360 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
6362 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
6363 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
6364 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
6365 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
6366 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
6367 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
6368 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
6370 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
6371 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
6372 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
6373 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
6374 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
6375 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
6377 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
6379 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
6380 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
6381 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
6382 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
6384 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
6387 ** Ada mode changes.
6389 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
6390 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
6391 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
6392 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
6395 *** There are two new commands:
6396 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
6397 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
6399 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
6400 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
6401 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
6403 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
6404 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
6405 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
6407 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
6408 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
6409 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
6410 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
6412 ** Scheme mode changes.
6414 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
6415 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
6416 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
6417 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
6420 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
6421 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
6422 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
6423 variables as buffer-local variables.
6425 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
6428 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
6430 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
6431 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
6432 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
6433 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
6435 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
6436 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
6439 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
6440 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
6441 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
6442 option takes precedence.
6444 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
6445 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
6446 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
6448 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
6449 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
6452 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
6453 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
6455 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
6456 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
6459 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
6460 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
6461 these register values no longer become completely useless.
6462 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
6463 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
6464 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
6466 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
6467 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
6468 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
6469 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
6471 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
6472 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
6473 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
6474 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
6475 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
6477 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
6478 since it applies only to the current frame.
6480 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
6481 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
6482 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
6484 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
6485 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
6486 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
6487 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
6488 instead of just the file you are editing.
6492 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
6493 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
6494 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
6495 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
6496 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
6499 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
6500 knows which kind of label is needed.
6502 C-c ) reftex-reference
6503 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
6504 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
6506 C-c [ reftex-citation
6507 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
6508 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
6510 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
6511 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
6514 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
6515 can quickly jump to every section.
6517 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
6518 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
6519 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
6520 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
6521 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
6523 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6525 *** Info documentation is now available.
6527 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
6528 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
6530 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
6531 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
6533 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
6534 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
6536 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
6537 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
6538 appropriate functions.
6540 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
6541 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
6543 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
6546 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
6547 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
6549 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
6552 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
6553 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
6554 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
6556 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
6557 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
6558 prefixed with `ALT'.
6560 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
6561 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
6562 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
6565 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
6566 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
6567 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
6569 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
6570 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
6572 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
6573 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
6574 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
6576 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
6578 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
6580 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
6583 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
6584 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
6587 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
6590 *** Added support for imenu.
6592 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
6593 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
6594 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
6595 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
6597 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
6598 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
6600 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
6602 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
6604 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
6605 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
6606 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
6609 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
6610 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
6612 ** browse-url changes
6614 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
6615 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
6616 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
6617 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
6618 customization variables.
6620 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
6622 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
6623 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
6624 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
6628 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
6629 pops up the Info file for this command.
6631 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
6632 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
6633 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
6636 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
6637 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
6638 files in the same directory.
6640 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
6641 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
6642 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
6646 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
6647 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
6649 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
6650 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
6651 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
6652 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
6653 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
6654 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
6655 color when Viper is in insert state.
6656 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
6657 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
6658 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
6662 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
6663 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
6664 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
6665 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
6666 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
6668 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
6670 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
6671 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
6673 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
6674 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
6675 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
6677 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
6678 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
6679 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
6680 methods and protocols.
6682 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
6683 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
6684 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
6687 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
6688 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
6689 at least M times and as many as N times.
6691 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
6692 in files has changed slightly.
6694 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
6695 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
6696 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
6697 with old time-stamp-format values.
6699 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
6700 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
6701 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
6704 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
6705 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
6706 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
6707 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
6708 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
6709 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
6711 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
6712 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
6713 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
6715 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
6716 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
6717 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
6718 recommended now will continue to work then.
6720 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
6723 ** There are some additional major modes:
6725 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
6726 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
6727 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
6729 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
6730 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
6733 ** New Lisp packages include:
6735 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
6737 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
6738 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
6740 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
6742 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
6745 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
6746 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
6749 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
6750 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
6751 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
6752 strings or comments.
6754 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
6755 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
6756 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
6757 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
6760 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
6761 can visit them by short forms of their names.
6763 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
6764 Emacs Lisp function at point.
6766 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
6768 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
6769 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
6771 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
6773 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
6775 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
6777 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
6778 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
6780 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
6781 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
6782 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
6783 original place after inserting the copy.
6785 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
6788 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
6789 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
6790 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
6792 Enable mouse-drag with:
6793 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
6795 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
6797 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
6798 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
6800 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
6801 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
6805 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
6806 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
6807 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
6808 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
6809 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
6810 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
6811 instance) and vice versa.
6813 To use this package load it using
6814 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
6815 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
6816 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
6817 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
6818 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
6819 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
6821 *** Interface to ph.
6823 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
6825 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
6826 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
6829 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
6831 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
6832 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
6833 while the real cursor does not move.
6835 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
6836 for visiting your favorite web sites.
6838 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
6839 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
6843 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
6844 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
6845 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
6846 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
6848 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
6850 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
6852 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
6854 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
6855 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
6856 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
6857 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
6858 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
6860 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
6861 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
6862 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
6863 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
6864 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
6865 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
6867 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
6869 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
6870 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
6871 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
6872 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
6874 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
6875 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
6877 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
6878 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
6881 ** Basic Lisp changes
6883 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
6884 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
6886 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
6887 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
6890 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
6892 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
6894 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
6895 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
6897 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
6898 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
6901 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
6903 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
6905 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
6907 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
6908 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
6909 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
6912 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
6913 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
6914 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
6916 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
6917 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
6918 adding one of these suffixes.
6920 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
6921 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
6922 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
6924 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
6925 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
6927 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
6929 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
6930 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
6932 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
6933 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
6935 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
6937 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
6938 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
6940 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
6941 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
6942 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
6943 works using `save-current-buffer'.
6945 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
6946 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
6949 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
6950 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
6951 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
6954 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
6955 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
6958 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
6960 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
6961 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
6962 Then it returns that string.
6964 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
6966 (with-output-to-string
6967 (princ "The buffer is ")
6968 (princ (buffer-name)))
6970 returns "The buffer is foo".
6972 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
6975 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
6976 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
6977 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
6979 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
6980 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
6982 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
6983 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
6984 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
6985 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
6986 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
6987 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
6989 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
6990 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
6991 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
6994 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
6995 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
6996 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
6997 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
6998 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
7000 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
7001 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
7002 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
7003 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
7005 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
7006 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
7008 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
7010 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
7011 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
7012 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
7013 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
7016 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
7017 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
7020 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
7022 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
7023 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
7024 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
7025 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
7026 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
7028 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
7030 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
7031 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
7032 more than the number of characters.
7034 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
7035 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
7036 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
7037 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
7038 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
7039 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
7041 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
7042 and returns a string containing those characters.
7044 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
7045 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
7046 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
7047 character, sref signals an error.
7049 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
7050 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
7051 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7053 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
7054 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
7055 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7057 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
7058 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
7059 to a vector of the characters in it.
7061 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
7062 of a string. You call it as follows:
7064 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
7066 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
7067 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
7068 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
7069 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
7070 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
7072 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
7073 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7075 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
7076 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7078 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
7079 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
7080 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
7081 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
7083 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
7085 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
7087 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
7088 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
7089 are not included in the resulting value.
7091 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
7092 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
7093 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
7094 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
7096 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
7097 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
7098 character extends across that column), then the padding character
7099 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
7100 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
7101 column START-COLUMN.
7103 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
7104 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
7105 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
7106 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
7107 changed text, before the change.
7109 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
7110 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
7111 one character set for each script, not for each language.
7113 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
7115 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
7117 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
7118 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
7120 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
7121 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
7122 which identify the character within that character set.
7124 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
7125 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
7126 opposite of split-char.
7128 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
7129 of all the characters between BEG and END.
7131 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
7132 of all the characters in a string.
7134 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
7135 and specifying coding systems.
7137 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
7138 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
7139 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
7140 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
7141 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
7142 as what to do about code conversion.)
7144 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
7145 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
7147 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7148 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7149 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
7151 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7152 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
7153 to match against a file name.
7155 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7156 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7157 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7158 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7159 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7160 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7162 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7163 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7165 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
7166 the coding system to use for network sockets.
7168 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7169 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
7170 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
7173 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7174 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7175 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7176 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7177 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7178 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7180 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7181 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7183 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7184 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7185 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
7186 start the subprocess.
7188 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
7189 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
7190 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
7191 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
7192 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
7194 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
7195 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
7198 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
7199 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
7200 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
7201 connection permanently or until overridden.
7203 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
7204 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
7205 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
7206 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
7207 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
7208 system for one operation at a time.
7210 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
7211 files, subprocesses or network connections.
7213 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
7214 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
7215 The value is a cons cell,
7216 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
7217 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
7218 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
7219 input to the subprocess.
7221 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
7222 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
7224 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
7225 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
7226 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
7228 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
7229 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
7230 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
7231 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
7234 Thus, instead of writing
7236 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
7237 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
7239 you would now write this:
7241 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
7242 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
7246 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
7247 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
7248 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
7249 for a description of them.
7251 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
7252 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
7254 (defgroup ispell nil
7255 "Spell checking using Ispell."
7258 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
7259 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
7260 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
7261 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
7262 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
7264 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
7265 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
7266 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
7267 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
7268 first-level subgroups.
7270 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
7272 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
7273 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
7277 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
7278 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
7279 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
7280 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
7281 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
7282 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
7284 ** Text property changes
7286 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
7289 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
7290 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
7291 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
7292 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
7293 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
7295 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
7296 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
7297 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
7298 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
7300 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
7301 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
7302 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
7304 ** Changes in invisibility features
7306 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
7307 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
7308 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
7309 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
7310 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
7311 make the overlay visible.
7313 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
7314 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
7315 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
7316 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
7317 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
7318 t when it should hide it.
7320 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
7322 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
7323 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
7324 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
7325 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
7326 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
7327 Here is an example of how to do this:
7329 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
7330 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7331 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
7332 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7335 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
7338 ;; When done with the overlays:
7339 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7341 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7343 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
7345 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
7346 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
7347 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
7348 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
7350 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
7351 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
7352 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
7354 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
7355 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
7357 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
7358 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
7360 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
7361 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
7362 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
7364 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
7365 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
7366 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
7367 determine the syntax type of the character.
7369 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
7370 of the current buffer.
7372 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
7373 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
7374 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
7376 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
7377 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
7378 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
7379 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
7380 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
7382 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
7385 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
7386 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
7387 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
7389 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
7390 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
7391 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
7392 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
7393 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
7395 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
7396 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
7397 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
7399 ** Changes in face features
7401 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
7402 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
7404 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
7405 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
7407 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
7408 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
7410 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
7411 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
7413 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
7414 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
7415 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
7416 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
7419 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
7420 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
7422 ** Changes in file-handling functions
7424 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
7425 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
7426 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
7427 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
7429 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
7432 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
7433 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
7435 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
7436 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
7438 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
7439 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
7441 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
7442 character code conversion as well as other things.
7444 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
7445 (formerly it did not).
7447 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
7448 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
7450 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
7451 instead of constant strings.
7453 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
7454 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
7455 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
7457 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
7458 in the same way as before.
7460 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
7461 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
7462 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
7464 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
7465 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
7466 else, and returns nil.
7468 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
7469 directory cannot be listed.
7471 ** Changes in minibuffer input
7473 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
7474 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
7475 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
7476 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
7479 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
7480 It is available through the history command M-n.
7482 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
7483 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
7484 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
7485 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
7486 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
7488 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
7489 argument in this way.
7491 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
7492 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
7493 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
7495 ** Echo area features
7497 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
7498 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
7499 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
7500 after the echo area is cleared.
7502 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
7503 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
7505 ** Keyboard input features
7507 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
7508 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
7510 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
7511 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
7514 ** Frame-related changes
7516 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
7517 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
7518 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
7520 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
7521 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
7522 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
7524 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7525 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
7526 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
7527 in the selected frame.
7529 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
7530 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
7531 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
7533 ** X Windows features
7535 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
7536 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
7537 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
7539 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
7540 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
7542 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
7543 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
7544 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
7546 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
7547 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
7549 ** Subprocess features
7551 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
7552 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
7555 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
7556 and returns the output from the command as a string.
7558 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
7559 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
7561 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
7562 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
7564 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
7565 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
7566 goes after the other menu items.
7568 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
7569 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
7570 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
7573 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
7574 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
7576 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
7577 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
7580 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
7581 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
7582 but its hook is still run.
7584 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
7585 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
7587 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
7588 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
7589 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
7591 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
7592 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
7593 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
7596 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
7597 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
7599 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
7600 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
7601 functions like display-time.
7603 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
7604 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
7606 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
7607 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
7608 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
7610 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
7611 if there is an error in compilation.
7613 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
7614 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
7615 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
7616 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
7618 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
7619 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
7620 the *scratch* buffer.
7622 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
7623 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
7624 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
7625 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
7627 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
7628 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
7629 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
7631 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
7632 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
7633 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
7634 and compose-mail-other-frame.
7636 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
7637 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
7638 full name of the specified user will be returned.
7640 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
7641 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
7642 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
7643 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
7644 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
7647 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
7648 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
7649 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
7650 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
7652 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
7653 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
7654 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
7655 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
7657 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
7659 ** imenu.el changes.
7661 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
7662 item from menu created by imenu.
7664 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
7665 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
7666 select one of those items.
7668 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
7670 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
7672 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
7673 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
7675 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
7676 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
7677 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
7679 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
7681 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
7682 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
7684 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
7685 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
7686 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
7687 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
7688 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
7691 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
7692 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
7694 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
7695 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
7696 as in previous Emacs versions.
7698 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
7699 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
7700 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
7703 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
7704 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
7705 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
7706 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
7709 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
7710 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
7711 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
7712 line and then executing the macro.
7714 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
7716 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
7717 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
7718 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
7723 *** Font Lock support modes
7725 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
7726 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
7727 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
7728 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
7729 Font Lock mode is enabled.
7731 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
7733 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
7739 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
7740 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
7741 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
7742 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
7743 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
7744 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
7745 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
7747 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
7749 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
7751 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
7753 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7755 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
7758 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
7763 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
7764 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
7765 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
7766 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
7768 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
7769 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
7771 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
7772 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
7775 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
7776 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
7778 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
7780 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
7782 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
7784 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
7787 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
7789 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
7791 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
7793 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
7795 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
7798 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
7800 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
7802 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
7804 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
7806 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
7808 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
7810 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
7812 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
7815 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
7817 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
7820 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
7822 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
7823 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
7825 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
7827 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
7829 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
7831 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
7833 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
7836 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
7838 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
7839 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
7841 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
7842 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
7843 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
7845 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
7846 articles with the `*' command.
7848 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
7850 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
7852 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
7854 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
7856 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
7857 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
7859 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
7862 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
7864 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
7866 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
7868 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
7870 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
7872 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
7874 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
7876 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
7878 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
7880 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
7881 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
7883 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
7886 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
7888 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
7889 buffer to allow easier treatment.
7891 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
7893 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
7895 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
7897 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
7900 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
7902 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
7904 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
7905 cited text to hide is now customizable.
7907 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
7909 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
7911 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
7913 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
7915 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
7917 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
7920 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
7922 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
7923 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
7924 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
7927 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
7930 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
7933 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
7934 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
7937 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
7938 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
7939 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
7940 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
7941 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
7944 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
7946 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
7948 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
7949 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
7950 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
7951 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
7952 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
7954 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
7955 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
7956 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
7958 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
7960 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
7961 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
7962 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
7963 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
7964 chapter of the manual for details.
7966 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
7967 customization variables take effect.
7969 ** Marking with the mouse.
7971 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
7972 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
7973 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
7975 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
7977 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
7979 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
7980 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
7982 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
7983 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
7984 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
7985 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
7986 applications, these problems are significant.
7988 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
7989 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
7990 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
7991 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
7992 other DOS application as a subprocess.
7994 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
7995 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
7997 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
7998 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
7999 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
8000 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
8001 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
8002 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
8004 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
8006 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
8007 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
8008 minibuffer contains.
8010 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
8012 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
8013 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
8014 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
8015 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
8017 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
8018 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
8019 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
8020 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
8022 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
8023 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
8025 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
8026 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
8027 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
8029 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
8030 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
8031 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
8032 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
8034 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
8036 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
8037 to replace the characters it "deletes".
8039 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
8041 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
8042 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
8043 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
8044 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
8045 immediately after the selected one.
8047 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
8048 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
8050 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
8052 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
8053 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
8054 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
8055 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
8058 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
8059 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
8062 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
8063 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
8064 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
8065 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
8066 now that the bug is fixed.
8068 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
8070 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
8071 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
8072 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
8073 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
8075 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
8076 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
8077 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
8078 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
8080 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
8081 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
8082 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
8084 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
8085 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
8086 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
8087 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
8090 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
8091 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
8093 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
8094 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
8095 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
8096 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
8098 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
8099 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
8100 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
8101 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
8102 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
8103 `mail-directory-stream'.)
8105 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
8106 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
8107 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
8108 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
8110 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
8111 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
8112 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
8114 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
8115 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
8116 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
8117 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
8118 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
8119 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
8120 to a limitation in font-lock).
8122 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
8124 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
8125 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
8126 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
8129 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
8130 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
8132 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8134 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
8136 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
8138 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
8140 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
8141 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
8142 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
8143 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
8144 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
8145 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
8147 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
8150 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
8151 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
8153 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
8158 *** Global Font Lock mode
8160 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
8161 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
8162 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
8163 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
8164 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
8166 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
8168 (global-font-lock-mode t)
8172 *** Local Refontification
8174 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
8175 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
8176 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
8177 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
8179 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
8180 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
8181 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
8182 above and below point.
8184 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
8188 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
8189 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
8190 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
8191 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
8192 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
8195 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
8197 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
8198 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
8200 ** hide-show changes.
8202 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
8203 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
8206 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
8207 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
8209 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
8210 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
8211 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
8215 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
8216 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
8218 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
8219 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
8221 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
8223 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
8224 pressing both mouse buttons.
8226 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
8227 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
8230 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
8233 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
8235 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
8236 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
8238 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
8240 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
8242 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
8244 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
8246 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
8248 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
8250 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
8251 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
8252 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
8253 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
8254 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
8256 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
8258 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
8259 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
8260 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
8263 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
8266 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
8268 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
8269 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
8271 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
8272 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
8274 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
8275 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
8276 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
8278 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
8279 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
8282 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8284 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
8285 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
8286 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
8288 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
8289 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
8290 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
8292 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
8293 up if too much time passes.
8295 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
8297 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
8298 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
8299 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
8302 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
8303 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
8304 call looks like this:
8306 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8308 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
8309 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
8310 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
8313 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
8314 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
8317 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
8318 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
8319 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
8320 each time Emacs becomes idle.
8322 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
8323 idle for SECS seconds.
8325 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
8326 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
8327 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
8330 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
8331 there is no answer within a certain time.
8333 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
8335 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
8336 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
8337 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
8339 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
8340 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
8341 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
8342 arguments in between are ignored.
8344 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
8345 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
8347 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
8348 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
8349 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
8350 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
8353 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
8354 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
8355 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
8356 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
8357 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
8358 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
8360 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
8361 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
8362 systems with limited file name syntax.
8364 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
8365 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
8366 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
8369 (defvar save-completions-file-name
8370 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
8371 "*The filename to save completions to.")
8373 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
8374 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
8375 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
8376 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
8377 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
8379 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
8380 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
8381 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
8383 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
8384 marker from its buffer position.
8386 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
8387 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
8388 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
8390 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
8391 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
8392 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
8393 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
8394 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
8395 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
8397 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
8398 errors that happen often during editing.
8400 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
8401 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
8402 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
8404 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
8405 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
8407 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
8408 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
8409 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
8410 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
8411 and not get-buffer-window.
8413 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
8414 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
8415 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
8417 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
8418 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
8419 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
8420 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
8421 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
8422 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
8423 over and over for the same text.
8425 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
8427 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
8428 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
8430 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
8433 in addition to the normal
8437 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
8438 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
8439 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
8443 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
8445 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
8446 Copyright information:
8448 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8450 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8451 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8452 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8453 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8455 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8456 of this document, or of portions of it,
8457 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8458 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8462 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"