1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-03-15
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 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 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
10 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
11 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
15 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.3
17 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
18 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
22 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
23 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
26 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
29 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
32 ** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
33 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
34 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
35 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
36 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
37 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
38 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
39 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
40 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
43 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
45 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
46 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
47 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
48 screen size. (For now, this works only on GNU and Unix systems, and
49 not with every window manager.)
51 ** Info-index finally offers completion.
53 ** Controlling the left and right fringe widths.
55 The left and right fringe widths can now be controlled by setting the
56 `left-fringe' and `right-fringe' frame parameters to an integer value
57 specifying the width in pixels. Setting the width to 0 effectively
58 removes the corresponding fringe.
60 The actual fringe widths may deviate from the specified widths, since
61 the combined fringe widths must match an integral number of columns.
62 The extra width is distributed evenly between the left and right fringe.
63 For force a specific fringe width, specify the width as a negative
64 integer (if both widths are negative, only the left fringe gets the
67 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
68 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
69 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
70 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
72 ** Changes in C-h bindings:
74 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
76 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
79 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
80 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
82 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
83 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
85 ** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
86 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
87 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
88 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
90 ** In GUD mode when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
91 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
93 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
94 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
95 changes the behavior of motion commands line C-e and C-p.
97 ** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
98 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
99 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
100 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
101 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
102 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
104 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
105 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
106 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
107 is only rarely needed.
109 ** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
111 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
112 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
113 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
114 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
116 ** If you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp) repeatedly, the marked region
117 will now be extended each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with
118 M-C-SPC M-C-SPC, for example.
120 ** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
121 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
124 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
125 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
126 affects the initial frame.
129 ** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
130 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
131 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
134 ** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
137 ** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
138 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
139 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
140 directory listing into a buffer.
142 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
143 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
145 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on
146 your current locale settings. If it turns out that your terminal
147 does not support the encoding implied by your locale (for example,
148 it inserts non-ASCII chars if you hit M-i), you will need to add
150 (set-keyboard-coding-system nil)
152 to your .emacs to revert to the old behavior.
154 ** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
155 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
156 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
159 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
160 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
161 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
162 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
163 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
165 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
166 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
169 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
172 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
173 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
177 *** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
179 *** In Perl, packages are tags. Subroutine tags are named from their
180 package. You can jump to sub tags as you did before, by the sub name, or
181 additionally by looking for package::sub.
183 *** New language PHP: tags are functions, classes and defines. If
184 the --members option is specified to etags, tags are vars also.
187 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
188 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
190 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
191 with a space, if they visit files.
193 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
194 filling can break lines. We provide two sample predicates,
195 fill-single-word-nobreak-p and fill-french-nobreak-p.
197 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
198 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry will always
199 start a new record regardless of when the last record is.
201 ** New user option `sgml-xml'.
202 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
203 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
204 When not customized, it becomes buffer-local when it can be inferred
205 from the file name or buffer contents.
207 ** New user option `isearch-resume-enabled'.
208 This option can be disabled, to avoid the normal behaviour of isearch
209 which puts calls to `isearch-resume' in the command history.
211 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
212 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
213 instead of using default-major-mode.
215 ** Byte compiler warning and error messages have been brought more
216 in line with the output of other GNU tools.
218 ** Lisp-mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
220 ** perl-mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
222 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
223 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
226 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
227 much pure storage it will approximately need.
229 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
230 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
231 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
234 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
235 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
236 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
237 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
238 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
239 candidate is a directory.
241 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
242 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
243 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
245 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
247 ** When using M-x revert-buffer in a compilation buffer to rerun a
248 compilation, it is now made sure that the compilation buffer is reused
249 in case it has been renamed.
251 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
252 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
253 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
255 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
256 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
258 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
259 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
260 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
261 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
264 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
267 ** A French translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
269 ** New modes and packages
272 *** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
274 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
275 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
276 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
277 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
280 *** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
282 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
283 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
284 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
285 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
287 *** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
290 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
291 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
292 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
293 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
295 *** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
296 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
297 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
300 *** The reveal.el package provides the minor modes `reveal-mode' and
301 `global-reveal-mode' which will make text visible on the fly as you
302 move your cursor into hidden region of the buffer.
303 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
304 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
306 *** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
307 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
309 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
310 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
311 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
314 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
315 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
318 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
321 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
322 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
324 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
327 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.3
330 ** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
331 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
332 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
333 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
335 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
337 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
338 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
339 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
342 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
344 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
345 the time it takes to convert the format.
347 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
350 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
351 over minor mode keymaps.
353 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
354 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
356 ** The position after an invisible, intangible character
357 is considered an unacceptable value for point;
358 intangibility processing effectively treats the following character
359 as part of the intangible region even if it is not itself intangible.
361 Thus, point can go before an invisible, intangible region, but not
362 after it. This prevents C-f and C-b from appearing to stand still on
366 ** define-abbrev now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG. If
367 non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means that
368 it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the abbrevs.
369 Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always specify this
372 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
374 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
376 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
377 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
378 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
379 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
380 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
381 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
383 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
384 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
385 bindings of the parent keymap.
387 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
388 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
389 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
390 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
391 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
392 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
400 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
401 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
402 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
403 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
405 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
406 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
408 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
409 (the last group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
411 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
412 it receives a request from emacsclient.
414 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
415 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
416 than 3 levels of nesting.
418 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
419 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
420 in Indented-Text mode.
422 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
423 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
426 ** If you set `query-replace-skip-read-only' non-nil,
427 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
428 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
430 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
431 properties from surrounding text.
433 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
435 - Function: buffer-local-value variable buffer
437 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
438 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
439 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
441 ** The default value of `paragraph-start' and `indent-line-function' has
442 been changed to reflect the one used in Text mode rather than the one
443 used in Indented Text mode.
445 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
446 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
449 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
450 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
451 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP@ VAL2 ...) so you can set
452 other properties than `face'.
453 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
454 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
456 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
457 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
458 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
460 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
461 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
462 and run any code associated with the provided feature.
464 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
465 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
468 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
469 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
470 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
472 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
473 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
474 accepts a float as UID parameter.
476 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
478 ** `define-derived-mode' now accepts nil as the parent.
480 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
482 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
484 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
486 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
487 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
489 ** Variable aliases have been implemented
491 - Macro: defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR
493 This defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for symbol
494 BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR returns
495 the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR changes the
498 - Function: indirect-variable VARIABLE
500 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
501 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
502 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
504 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
505 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
507 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
508 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
510 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
511 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
513 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
514 have been moved from the CL package to the core.
516 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
517 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
518 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
522 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
523 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
525 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
526 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
528 *** The new package Ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
529 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
532 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
534 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
535 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
536 charsets in this release.
538 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
540 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
542 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
543 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
546 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
547 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
548 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
549 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
550 necessary changes to unexec.
552 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
553 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
555 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
556 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
558 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
559 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
561 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
562 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
563 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
564 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
565 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
567 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
568 new display features described below.
571 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
573 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
575 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
576 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
577 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
578 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
581 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
583 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
584 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
585 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
586 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
589 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
590 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
591 under Lisp changes, below.
593 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
595 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
596 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
597 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
598 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
599 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
600 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
603 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
604 supported on character terminals.
606 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
607 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
608 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
609 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
611 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
615 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
616 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
617 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
618 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
621 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
623 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
624 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
625 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
626 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
628 - User option: max-mini-window-height
630 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
631 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
632 specifies a number of lines.
636 - User option: resize-mini-windows
638 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
639 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
640 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
643 Default is `grow-only'.
647 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
648 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
650 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
652 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
653 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
656 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
658 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
659 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
660 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
662 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
664 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
665 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
666 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
667 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
668 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
671 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
672 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
673 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
674 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
675 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
676 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
678 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
679 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
680 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
681 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
682 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
683 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
685 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
686 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
687 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
688 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
689 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
693 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
694 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
695 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
696 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
697 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
700 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
701 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
705 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
706 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
707 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
709 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
710 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
711 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
712 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
714 ** Automatic Hscrolling
716 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
717 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
720 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
721 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
722 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
723 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
724 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
726 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
727 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
728 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
729 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
730 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
731 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
733 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
734 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
735 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
736 customizing face `fringe'.
738 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
739 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
740 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
741 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
742 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
743 the window to be partially obscured.)
745 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
746 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
747 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
748 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
750 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
752 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
753 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
754 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
755 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
756 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
759 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
761 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
763 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
765 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
766 `*') toggles the status.
768 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
772 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
773 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
777 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
778 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
779 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
782 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
784 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
785 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
786 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
789 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
790 have to do anything to activate it.
792 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
794 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
795 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
797 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
798 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
799 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
800 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
801 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
802 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
803 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
804 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
806 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
807 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
808 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
809 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
810 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
811 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
813 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
814 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
816 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
817 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
820 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
821 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
822 beginning and end of the buffer.
824 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
825 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
828 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
829 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
831 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
832 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
835 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
836 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
839 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
841 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
842 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
843 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
845 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
846 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
847 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
849 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
852 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
854 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
855 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
856 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
857 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
858 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
861 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
862 all frames except the selected one.
864 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
865 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
867 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
868 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
869 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
870 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
871 `Info-use-header-line'.
873 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
874 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
875 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
877 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
879 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
880 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
883 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
884 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
885 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
886 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
888 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
890 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
891 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
892 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
893 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
895 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
896 point in a pop-up window.
898 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
899 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
900 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
902 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
903 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
905 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
906 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
907 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
908 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
910 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
912 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
913 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
915 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
916 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
917 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
919 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
920 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
923 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
924 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
925 file that is already visited under a different name.
927 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
928 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
930 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
931 and displays information about that.
933 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
934 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
936 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
937 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
938 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
939 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
940 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
941 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
943 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
944 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
946 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
947 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
948 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
949 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
950 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
951 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
952 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
954 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
955 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
957 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
958 system for keyboard input.
960 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
961 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
962 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
963 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
964 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
965 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
966 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
967 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
968 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
970 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
971 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
973 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
974 displays all characters in that character set.
976 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
977 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
979 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
980 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
981 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
983 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
984 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
985 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
986 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
987 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
988 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
991 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
992 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
995 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
996 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
997 Lisp Coding Convention".
999 new command old-binding
1000 --- ------- -----------
1001 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
1002 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
1003 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
1005 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
1006 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
1007 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
1009 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
1010 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
1011 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
1012 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
1013 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
1014 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
1016 ** There are new Leim input methods.
1017 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
1018 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
1021 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
1022 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
1023 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
1024 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
1025 "`", you must type "=q".
1027 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
1028 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
1029 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
1030 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
1031 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
1034 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
1035 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
1036 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
1037 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
1039 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
1040 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
1041 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
1042 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
1044 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
1045 on the display using several methods
1047 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
1048 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
1049 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
1051 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
1052 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
1054 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
1056 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
1057 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
1059 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
1060 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
1061 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
1062 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
1064 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
1065 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
1066 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
1068 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
1069 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
1071 ** New X resources recognized
1073 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
1074 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
1075 is useful for debugging X problems.
1079 emacs.synchronous: true
1081 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
1082 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
1083 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
1084 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
1085 visual class names are
1094 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
1095 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
1098 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
1099 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
1100 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
1105 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
1107 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
1108 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
1109 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
1110 resource values are `true' or `on'.
1114 emacs.privateColormap: true
1116 ** Faces and frame parameters.
1118 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
1119 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
1120 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
1121 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
1122 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
1123 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
1124 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
1126 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
1127 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
1128 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
1129 `default' face and vice versa.
1133 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
1135 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
1137 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
1138 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
1139 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
1140 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
1142 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
1143 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
1144 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
1146 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
1149 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
1151 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
1152 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
1153 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
1154 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
1156 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
1158 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
1160 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
1162 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
1165 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
1168 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
1170 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
1171 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
1172 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
1174 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
1175 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
1177 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
1178 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
1179 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
1181 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
1183 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
1184 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
1185 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
1186 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
1188 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
1189 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
1190 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
1191 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
1193 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
1194 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
1195 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
1198 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
1200 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
1201 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
1202 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
1204 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
1205 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
1206 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
1207 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
1208 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
1209 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
1211 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
1213 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
1214 notably at the end of lines.
1216 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
1217 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
1219 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
1221 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
1222 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
1224 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
1225 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
1226 after each match to get the replacement text.
1228 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
1229 you edit the replacement string.
1231 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
1232 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
1233 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
1235 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
1237 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
1238 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
1240 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
1241 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
1242 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
1243 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
1246 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
1247 read mail from the menu etc.
1249 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
1250 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
1251 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
1252 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
1254 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
1255 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
1257 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
1258 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
1259 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
1260 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
1261 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
1264 ** Customize changes
1266 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
1267 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
1268 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
1269 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
1270 earlier versions of Emacs.
1272 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
1273 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
1276 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
1277 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
1278 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
1279 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
1282 ** New features in evaluation commands
1284 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
1285 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
1286 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
1287 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
1288 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
1290 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
1291 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
1292 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
1293 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
1296 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
1297 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
1299 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
1300 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
1302 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
1303 code when called with a prefix argument.
1307 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
1308 current user setups (although it's believed that these
1309 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
1310 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
1311 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
1312 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
1315 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
1316 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
1317 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
1320 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
1321 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
1322 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
1323 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
1325 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
1326 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
1328 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
1329 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
1331 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
1332 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
1333 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
1334 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
1336 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
1337 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
1338 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
1339 earlier statement. An example:
1341 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
1343 res += a[i]->offset;
1346 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
1347 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
1348 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
1349 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
1352 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
1355 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
1356 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
1357 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
1358 documentation or other natural language text.
1360 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
1361 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
1362 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
1363 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
1364 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
1365 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
1366 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
1368 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
1369 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
1370 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
1371 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
1373 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
1374 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
1375 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
1376 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
1379 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
1380 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
1381 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
1382 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
1383 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
1384 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
1385 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
1386 is reported afterwards.
1388 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
1389 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
1390 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
1392 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
1393 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
1394 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
1395 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
1396 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
1397 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
1400 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
1401 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
1402 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
1403 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
1404 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
1407 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
1408 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
1409 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
1410 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
1411 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
1412 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
1414 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
1415 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
1416 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
1417 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
1418 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
1419 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
1420 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
1421 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
1423 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
1424 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
1425 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
1426 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
1429 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
1430 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
1431 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
1432 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
1433 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
1434 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
1435 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
1436 function documentation for more info.
1438 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
1439 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
1440 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
1441 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
1442 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
1443 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
1444 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
1445 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
1447 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
1449 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
1450 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
1452 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
1453 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
1454 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
1455 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
1456 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
1459 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
1460 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
1461 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
1464 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
1465 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
1466 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
1467 chapter about this in the manual.
1469 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
1470 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
1471 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
1472 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
1473 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
1475 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
1476 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
1477 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
1479 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
1480 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
1482 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
1483 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
1484 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
1487 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
1488 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
1489 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
1490 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
1493 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
1494 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
1495 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
1496 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
1497 they were before the filling.
1499 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
1500 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
1501 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
1504 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
1505 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
1506 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
1507 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
1510 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
1511 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
1512 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
1513 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
1514 Thanks to Eric Eide.
1516 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
1517 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
1518 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
1520 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
1522 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
1523 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
1524 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
1525 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
1527 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
1528 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
1529 the column specified by comment-column.
1531 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
1532 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
1533 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
1534 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
1535 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
1536 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
1538 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
1539 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
1542 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
1544 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
1545 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
1546 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
1547 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
1550 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
1554 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
1555 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
1556 is, delete only empty directories.
1558 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
1559 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
1560 copy directories recursively.
1562 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
1563 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
1564 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
1566 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
1567 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
1570 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
1571 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
1572 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
1573 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
1574 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
1576 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
1579 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
1580 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
1581 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
1582 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
1586 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
1587 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
1588 internationalization and mail-fetching.
1590 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
1591 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
1593 If you used procmail like in
1595 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
1596 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
1597 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
1598 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
1600 this now has changed to
1603 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
1606 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
1607 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
1609 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
1610 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
1611 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
1612 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
1614 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
1615 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
1616 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
1618 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
1619 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
1620 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
1621 now just a compatibility layer.
1623 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
1626 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
1627 called to position point.
1629 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
1630 summary buffers and NOV files.
1632 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
1633 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
1635 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
1636 subtly different manner.
1638 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
1639 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
1640 ever-changing layouts.
1642 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
1644 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
1646 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
1648 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
1652 -------------------------
1656 C-c C-c q @quotation
1658 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
1661 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
1663 ** Changes in Outline mode.
1665 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
1666 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
1667 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
1669 ** Changes to Emacs Server
1671 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
1672 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
1673 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
1674 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
1675 buffers to kill, as before.
1677 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
1678 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
1681 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
1682 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
1684 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
1686 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
1687 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
1688 use. Default is 1000.
1690 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
1691 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
1693 ** Changes to hideshow.el
1695 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
1697 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
1698 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
1699 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
1700 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
1702 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
1703 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
1704 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
1707 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
1708 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
1709 the normal block-hiding function.
1711 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
1713 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
1714 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
1715 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
1716 for `hs-minor-mode'.
1718 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
1719 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
1721 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
1723 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
1724 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
1725 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
1727 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
1730 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
1733 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
1734 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
1735 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
1736 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
1737 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
1738 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
1740 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
1742 ** Changes to cmuscheme
1744 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
1745 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
1747 ** Changes in Font Lock
1749 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
1750 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
1752 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
1753 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
1755 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
1756 the face used for each string/comment.
1758 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
1759 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
1761 ** Changes to Shell mode
1763 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
1764 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
1765 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
1766 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
1768 ** Comint (subshell) changes
1770 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
1771 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
1773 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
1774 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
1775 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
1776 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
1777 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
1778 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
1780 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
1781 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
1782 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
1783 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
1784 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
1785 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
1786 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
1787 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
1789 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
1790 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
1792 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
1793 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
1794 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
1796 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
1797 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
1798 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
1800 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
1801 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
1802 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
1804 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
1805 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
1806 argument, it appends to the file.
1808 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
1809 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
1812 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
1815 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
1816 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
1817 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
1819 ** Changes to Rmail mode
1821 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
1822 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
1823 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
1824 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
1825 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
1828 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
1829 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
1830 regexp matching your mail addresses.
1832 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
1833 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
1834 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
1835 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
1836 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
1838 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
1841 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
1842 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
1845 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
1846 in which folder to put messages automatically.
1848 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
1849 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
1850 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
1852 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
1853 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
1855 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
1856 use the -f option when sending mail.
1858 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
1859 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
1860 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
1861 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
1862 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
1863 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
1865 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
1866 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
1867 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
1869 ** Changes to TeX mode
1871 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
1874 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
1876 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
1878 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
1880 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
1882 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
1883 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
1884 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
1885 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
1886 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
1887 can be edited from that buffer.
1889 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
1890 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
1891 `A' to use all marked entries).
1893 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
1894 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
1896 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
1897 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
1898 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
1901 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
1902 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
1903 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
1904 in column 1 are always made leaves.
1906 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
1907 has the following new features:
1909 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
1910 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
1911 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
1912 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
1914 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
1915 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
1916 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
1917 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
1918 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
1921 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
1926 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
1927 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
1928 spell-checks the current buffer.
1930 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
1933 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
1934 correction is made and re-checked.
1936 *** An Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definition has been added.
1938 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
1941 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
1944 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
1947 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
1949 ** Makefile mode changes
1951 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
1953 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
1954 Fontlock mode is active.
1958 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
1959 so that searches can be resumed.
1961 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
1962 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
1963 that started the search.
1965 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
1966 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
1968 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
1970 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
1971 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
1972 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
1973 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
1974 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
1975 `secondary-selection'.
1977 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
1978 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
1979 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
1980 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
1981 usual snappy response.
1983 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
1984 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
1985 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
1986 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
1990 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
1991 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
1992 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
1993 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
1994 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
1995 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
1996 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
1997 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
1998 file is registered in that backend.
2000 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
2001 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
2002 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
2003 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
2004 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
2005 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
2007 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
2008 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
2009 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
2010 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
2011 where it doesn't make sense.)
2013 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
2014 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
2015 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
2019 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
2020 checks are always done now.
2022 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
2025 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
2026 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
2027 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
2029 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
2030 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
2031 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
2032 the working file (``merge news'').
2034 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
2035 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
2038 *** Multiple Backends
2040 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
2041 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
2042 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
2043 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
2046 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
2047 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
2048 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
2049 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
2051 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
2052 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
2053 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
2054 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
2055 current revision number from the more remote backend.
2057 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
2058 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
2059 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
2060 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
2062 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
2063 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
2064 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
2065 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
2069 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
2070 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
2071 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
2072 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
2073 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
2074 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
2075 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
2077 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
2078 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
2079 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
2080 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
2081 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
2082 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
2083 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
2084 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
2085 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
2086 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
2087 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
2090 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
2091 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
2092 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
2093 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
2094 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
2095 entire directory tree.
2097 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
2098 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
2099 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
2100 "watched" by other developers.)
2102 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
2103 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
2104 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
2105 starting at the given directory.
2107 *** Lisp Changes in VC
2109 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
2110 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
2111 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
2112 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
2113 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
2114 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
2115 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
2116 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
2117 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
2119 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
2120 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
2121 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
2122 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
2124 ** New modes and packages
2126 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
2127 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
2128 the default is not applicable.
2130 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
2131 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
2132 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
2136 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
2137 drawn, like this: | \ /
2141 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
2142 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
2143 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
2144 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
2145 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
2148 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
2149 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
2151 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
2154 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
2155 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
2156 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
2157 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
2159 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
2160 also do without the mouse.
2162 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
2163 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
2164 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
2165 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
2166 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
2168 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
2170 lines straight-lines
2172 poly-lines straight poly-lines
2174 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
2175 spray-can setting size for spraying
2176 vaporize line vaporize lines
2177 erase characters erase rectangles
2179 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
2180 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
2181 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
2184 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
2185 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
2186 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
2187 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
2189 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
2192 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
2193 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
2194 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
2195 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
2196 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
2197 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
2198 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
2199 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
2200 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
2202 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
2203 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
2204 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
2205 on certain projects.
2207 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
2208 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
2210 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
2212 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
2213 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
2214 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
2215 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
2216 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
2217 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
2218 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
2219 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
2221 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
2224 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
2225 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
2227 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
2228 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
2230 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
2231 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
2232 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
2233 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
2234 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
2236 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
2237 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
2238 separate Texinfo file.
2240 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
2241 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
2242 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
2243 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
2244 enter check-in log messages.
2246 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
2247 without invoking external programs.
2249 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
2250 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
2251 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
2252 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
2253 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
2255 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
2256 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
2258 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
2259 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
2261 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
2262 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
2263 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
2264 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
2265 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
2268 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
2269 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
2270 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
2271 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
2273 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
2274 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
2275 actually modifying content of a buffer.
2277 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
2280 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
2282 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
2284 ; comment (until end of line)
2288 $A default non-terminal
2289 $"C" default terminal
2290 $?C? default special
2291 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
2292 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
2293 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
2294 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
2295 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
2296 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
2297 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
2298 C+ one or more occurrences of C
2299 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
2300 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
2301 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
2302 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
2303 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
2304 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
2305 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
2307 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
2309 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
2310 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
2311 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
2312 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
2313 equal signs of assignments.
2315 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
2316 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
2318 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
2319 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
2320 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
2322 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
2324 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
2325 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
2326 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
2327 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
2328 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
2329 which answers different needs.
2331 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
2332 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
2333 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
2334 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
2335 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
2338 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
2339 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
2341 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
2343 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
2344 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
2345 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behaviour in all buffers.
2347 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
2349 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
2350 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
2351 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
2352 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
2353 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
2354 and background colors.
2356 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
2359 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
2362 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
2364 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
2366 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
2367 whitespace in a file.
2369 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
2370 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
2371 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
2372 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
2373 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
2374 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
2375 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
2377 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
2379 Here is an example of columns:
2382 dog pineapple car EXTRA
2383 porcupine strawberry airplane
2385 Doing the following settings:
2387 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
2388 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
2389 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
2390 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
2393 Selecting the lines above and typing:
2395 M-x delimit-columns-region
2399 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
2400 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
2401 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
2403 delim-col has the following options:
2405 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
2408 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
2409 between each column.
2411 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
2414 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
2417 delim-col has the following commands:
2419 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
2420 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
2422 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
2423 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
2424 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
2425 recent file list can be displayed:
2427 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
2428 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
2429 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
2431 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
2432 dynamically change the menu appearance.
2434 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
2437 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
2438 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
2439 specific to Message mode.
2441 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
2442 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
2443 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
2445 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
2446 interface to access directory servers using different directory
2447 protocols. It has a separate manual.
2449 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
2450 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
2452 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
2454 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
2455 minibuffer with completion.
2457 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
2458 with the diary features.
2460 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
2461 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
2463 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
2466 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
2467 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
2468 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
2469 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
2471 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
2472 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
2475 ** Changes in sort.el
2477 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
2478 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
2479 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
2482 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
2484 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
2485 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
2486 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
2488 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
2489 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
2491 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
2492 output ^M at the end of lines.
2494 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
2495 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
2497 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
2498 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
2501 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
2504 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
2505 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
2508 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
2509 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
2510 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
2511 nil -- just delete one character.
2513 Default value is `untabify'.
2515 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
2517 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
2518 symbol, not double-quoted.
2520 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
2521 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
2522 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
2523 moved to lisp/obsolete.
2525 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
2526 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
2527 `auto-compression-mode' command.
2529 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
2530 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
2531 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
2533 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
2534 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
2536 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
2537 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
2539 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
2540 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
2542 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
2543 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
2544 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
2545 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
2546 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
2547 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
2549 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
2550 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
2552 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
2554 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
2555 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
2557 ** Shell script mode changes.
2559 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
2560 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
2561 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
2565 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
2567 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
2568 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
2569 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
2570 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
2571 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
2573 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
2574 declarations when given the --declarations option.
2576 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
2577 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
2579 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
2580 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
2581 `template' keywords.
2583 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
2584 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
2586 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
2589 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
2591 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
2593 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
2596 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
2598 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
2599 variables are tagged.
2601 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
2603 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
2606 ** Changes in etags.el
2608 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
2609 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
2610 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
2612 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
2613 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
2615 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
2616 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
2617 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
2618 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
2620 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
2622 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
2623 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
2625 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
2627 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
2628 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
2629 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
2631 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
2632 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
2634 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
2635 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
2637 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
2638 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
2639 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
2640 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
2641 point will go to the beginning of the file.
2643 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
2644 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
2645 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
2647 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
2648 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
2649 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
2651 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
2652 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
2653 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
2655 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
2657 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
2659 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
2660 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
2661 expression from that list, are not checked.
2663 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
2664 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
2665 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
2666 the buffer, just like for the local files.
2668 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
2670 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
2671 displays local abbrevs, only.
2673 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
2674 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
2676 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
2677 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
2678 is measured in pixels.
2680 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
2681 to be visited as images.
2683 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
2684 were added to compile.el.
2686 ** Withdrawn packages
2688 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
2689 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
2691 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
2693 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
2696 * Incompatible Lisp changes
2698 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
2699 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
2700 See the sections below for details.
2702 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
2703 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
2704 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
2705 to remove the properties of the copy.
2707 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
2708 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
2709 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
2710 these properties are active.
2712 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
2713 ranges may affect some code.
2715 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
2716 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
2717 make a difference to some code.
2719 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
2720 operates on the minibuffer.
2722 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
2723 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
2724 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
2725 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
2726 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
2727 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
2728 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
2729 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
2730 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
2731 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
2732 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
2733 the buffer as multibyte characters.
2735 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
2736 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
2737 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
2739 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
2740 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
2741 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
2743 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
2746 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
2749 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
2750 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
2751 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
2752 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
2753 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
2754 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
2755 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
2756 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
2758 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
2759 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
2760 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
2761 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
2762 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
2763 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
2764 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
2765 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
2766 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
2767 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
2770 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
2771 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
2773 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
2775 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
2776 allows the animated display of strings.
2778 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
2779 interactive form of a function.
2781 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
2782 between custom options. Example:
2784 (defcustom default-input-method nil
2785 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
2786 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
2787 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
2789 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
2790 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
2792 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
2793 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
2794 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
2796 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
2797 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
2798 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
2799 (signal or normal termination).
2801 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
2802 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
2804 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
2805 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
2807 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
2808 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
2810 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
2812 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
2813 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
2816 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
2818 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
2819 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
2820 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
2821 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
2822 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
2825 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
2826 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
2829 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
2830 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
2832 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
2833 with the more general `:mask' property.
2835 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
2837 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
2840 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
2841 is running in batch mode. For example,
2843 (message "%s" (read t))
2845 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
2848 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
2849 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
2851 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
2852 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
2855 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
2858 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
2860 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
2861 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
2863 - Function: remq ELT LIST
2865 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
2866 comparison is done with `eq'.
2868 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
2870 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
2871 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
2872 `key-and-value', in addition the `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
2874 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
2875 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
2876 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
2878 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
2879 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
2881 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
2882 function was declared obsolete.
2884 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
2885 retained as an alias).
2887 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
2888 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
2889 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
2891 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
2893 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
2895 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
2896 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
2897 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
2898 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
2899 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
2900 means never include the minibuffer window.
2902 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
2904 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
2906 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
2908 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
2909 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
2910 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
2911 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
2914 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
2915 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
2916 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
2917 minibuffer even if it is active.
2919 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
2920 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
2921 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
2922 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
2923 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
2924 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
2926 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
2927 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
2928 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
2929 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
2930 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
2931 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
2932 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
2934 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
2935 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
2936 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
2938 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
2939 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
2940 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
2941 Default value is nil.
2943 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
2946 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
2947 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
2948 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
2950 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
2951 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
2952 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
2954 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
2955 list of a primitive.
2957 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
2959 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
2960 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
2961 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
2962 than replacing the local map.
2964 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
2965 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
2966 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
2969 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
2971 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
2972 as promised long ago.
2974 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
2976 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
2977 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
2978 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
2981 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
2983 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
2984 regular expressions.
2986 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
2988 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
2992 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
2994 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
2998 matches string STRING literally.
3001 matches character CHAR literally.
3004 matches any character except a newline.
3007 matches any character
3010 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
3011 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
3017 matches any character not in SET
3020 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
3021 in the text being matched
3024 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
3027 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
3028 string being matched against.
3031 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
3032 string being matched against.
3035 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
3036 buffer being matched against.
3039 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
3040 buffer being matched against.
3043 matches the empty string, but only at point.
3046 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
3050 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
3053 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
3056 `(not word-boundary)'
3057 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
3061 matches 0 through 9.
3064 matches ASCII control characters.
3067 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
3070 matches space and tab only.
3073 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
3077 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
3081 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3082 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
3085 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3086 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
3089 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
3092 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
3095 matches anything lower-case.
3098 matches anything upper-case.
3101 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3102 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
3105 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
3108 matches anything that has word syntax.
3111 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
3112 of the following symbols.
3114 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
3115 `punctuation' (\\s.)
3118 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
3119 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
3120 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
3121 `string-quote' (\\s\")
3122 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
3124 `character-quote' (\\s/)
3125 `comment-start' (\\s<)
3126 `comment-end' (\\s>)
3128 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
3129 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
3131 `(category CATEGORY)'
3132 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
3133 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
3135 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
3137 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
3138 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
3142 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
3144 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
3145 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
3146 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
3147 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
3148 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
3149 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
3150 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
3151 `indian-tow-byte' (\\cI)
3152 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
3153 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
3154 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
3163 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
3167 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
3174 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
3175 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
3177 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3178 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
3180 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3181 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
3182 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
3184 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3185 another name for `submatch'.
3187 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3188 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
3189 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
3192 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
3193 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
3194 zero or more occurrances of something are \"greedy\" in that they
3195 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
3196 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
3198 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
3199 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
3201 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
3202 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
3205 like `zero-or-more'.
3208 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
3211 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
3213 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
3214 matches one or more occurrences of A.
3220 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
3223 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
3225 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
3226 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
3232 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
3235 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
3238 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
3241 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
3244 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
3248 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
3250 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
3252 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
3253 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
3254 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
3255 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
3257 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
3258 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
3259 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
3260 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
3262 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
3263 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
3264 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
3266 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
3267 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
3268 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
3269 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
3270 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
3271 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
3272 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
3275 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
3277 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
3278 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
3279 character set as previously.
3281 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
3282 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
3283 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
3285 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
3286 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
3287 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
3288 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
3290 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
3291 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
3293 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
3294 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
3297 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
3298 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
3300 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
3301 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
3302 buffers and strings.
3304 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
3305 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
3306 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
3307 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
3308 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
3309 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
3310 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
3313 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
3314 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
3315 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
3317 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
3318 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
3319 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
3320 may differ between buffer and string text.
3322 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
3323 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
3325 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
3326 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
3327 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
3328 `composition' from STRING.
3330 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
3331 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
3333 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
3336 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
3337 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
3339 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
3340 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
3341 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
3342 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
3344 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
3345 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
3346 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
3347 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
3348 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
3349 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
3351 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
3352 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
3353 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
3355 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
3356 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
3357 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
3359 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
3360 have been introduced.
3362 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
3363 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
3364 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
3365 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
3366 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
3367 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
3368 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
3369 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
3370 their multibyte equivalent.
3372 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
3373 that offset in the file before writing.
3375 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
3376 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
3378 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
3379 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
3380 from which the command was issued.
3382 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
3383 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
3384 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
3385 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
3388 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
3389 to `window-buffer-height'.
3391 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
3393 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
3394 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
3395 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
3397 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
3400 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
3401 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
3403 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
3404 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
3405 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
3407 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
3408 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
3409 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
3410 is currently displayed in some window.
3412 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
3413 argument function's results.
3415 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
3416 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
3417 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
3418 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
3421 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
3422 header in the list of headers passed to it.
3424 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
3425 ignores differences in case and text representation.
3427 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
3428 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
3431 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
3432 nil don't display a cursor
3433 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
3434 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
3435 others display a box cursor.
3437 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
3438 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
3439 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
3440 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
3442 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
3443 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
3444 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
3445 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
3449 (string-to-syntax "()")
3452 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
3455 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
3456 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
3463 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
3468 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
3473 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
3480 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
3481 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
3484 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
3485 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
3486 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
3487 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
3489 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
3491 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
3492 for a regexp in a string.
3494 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
3495 `mouse-position-function'.
3497 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
3498 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
3500 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
3501 Keywords are now always considered constants.
3503 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
3506 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
3507 returned by function `recent-keys'.
3509 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
3510 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
3511 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
3512 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
3515 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
3516 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
3518 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
3519 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
3520 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
3521 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
3524 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
3525 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
3526 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
3527 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
3529 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
3530 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
3531 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
3533 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
3534 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
3537 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
3539 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
3540 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
3541 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
3544 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
3545 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
3546 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
3547 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
3548 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
3550 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
3551 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
3553 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
3554 instead of being optional.
3556 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
3557 modify read-only text.
3559 ** New functions and variables for locales.
3561 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
3562 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
3563 time functions like strftime. The new variables
3564 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
3565 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
3567 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
3568 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
3569 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
3570 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
3571 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
3572 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
3573 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
3575 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
3576 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
3577 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
3580 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
3581 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
3583 ** New function `propertize'
3585 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
3586 strings with text properties.
3588 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
3590 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
3591 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
3592 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
3593 specified value of that property. Example:
3595 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
3597 ** push and pop macros.
3599 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
3600 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
3601 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
3603 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
3604 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
3605 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
3607 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
3609 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
3610 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
3612 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
3613 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
3614 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
3615 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
3617 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
3618 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
3619 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
3620 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
3622 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
3623 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
3624 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
3627 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
3628 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
3629 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
3630 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
3631 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
3633 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
3635 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
3636 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3637 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
3638 [:alpha:] matches letters.
3639 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3640 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
3641 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
3642 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
3643 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
3644 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
3645 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3646 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
3647 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
3648 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
3649 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
3651 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
3653 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
3655 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
3657 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
3658 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
3662 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
3663 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
3664 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
3668 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
3669 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
3671 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
3673 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
3674 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
3675 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
3676 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
3677 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
3679 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
3681 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
3682 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
3683 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
3687 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
3688 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
3689 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
3690 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
3691 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
3693 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
3695 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
3697 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
3699 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
3701 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
3703 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
3706 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
3708 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
3710 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
3712 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
3714 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
3716 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
3718 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
3720 Returns the size of TABLE.
3722 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
3724 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
3726 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
3728 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
3730 - Function: clrhash TABLE
3734 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
3736 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
3739 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
3741 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
3742 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
3744 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
3746 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
3748 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
3750 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
3751 arguments KEY and VALUE.
3753 - Function: sxhash OBJ
3755 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
3757 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
3759 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
3760 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
3761 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
3762 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
3763 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
3765 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
3767 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
3768 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
3769 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
3771 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
3772 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
3774 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
3775 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
3777 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
3778 (sxhash (upcase a)))
3780 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
3781 'case-fold-string-hash))
3783 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
3785 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
3787 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
3788 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
3789 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
3791 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
3793 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
3794 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
3796 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
3797 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
3798 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
3799 is too short to reach that column.
3801 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
3802 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
3803 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
3804 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
3806 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
3807 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
3808 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
3810 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
3811 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
3813 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
3814 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
3816 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
3817 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
3818 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
3819 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
3820 temporary-file-directory instead.
3822 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
3823 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
3824 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
3825 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
3827 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
3828 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
3830 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
3832 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
3833 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
3834 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
3836 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
3838 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
3839 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
3840 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
3841 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
3842 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
3843 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
3845 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
3846 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
3847 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
3848 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
3850 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
3852 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
3853 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
3854 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
3857 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
3858 string where arguments appear in the result string.
3862 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
3864 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
3865 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
3868 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
3870 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
3872 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
3873 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
3876 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
3878 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
3879 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
3884 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
3885 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
3887 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
3888 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
3889 to enable sound support.
3891 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
3892 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
3893 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
3894 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
3895 sound to play, before playing the sound.
3897 The following sound properties are supported:
3901 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
3902 searched relative to `data-directory'.
3906 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
3907 may be present, but not both.
3911 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
3912 0..1. This property is optional.
3916 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
3917 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
3919 Other properties are ignored.
3921 An alternative interface is called as
3922 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
3924 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
3926 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
3929 ** Changes to garbage collection
3931 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
3932 of live and free strings.
3934 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
3935 strings that have been consed so far.
3938 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
3941 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
3944 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
3945 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
3946 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
3948 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
3950 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
3952 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
3955 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
3957 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
3959 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
3960 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
3961 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
3962 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
3963 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
3965 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
3968 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
3970 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
3971 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
3972 or omitted means use the selected frame.
3974 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
3975 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
3977 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
3980 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
3984 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
3986 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
3987 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
3989 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
3990 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
3991 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
3992 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
3993 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
3994 just display it black instead.
3996 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
3999 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
4003 ** New face implementation.
4005 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
4006 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
4010 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
4012 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
4014 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
4015 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
4017 3. Font height in 1/10pt
4019 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
4021 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
4023 6. Foreground color.
4025 7. Background color.
4027 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
4029 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
4031 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
4033 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
4035 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
4038 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
4039 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
4041 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
4042 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
4043 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
4044 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
4045 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
4046 attributes mentioned above.
4048 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
4049 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
4052 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
4053 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
4058 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
4059 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
4060 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
4061 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
4062 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
4063 results in a fully-specified face.
4065 *** Face realization.
4067 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
4068 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
4069 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
4070 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
4071 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
4072 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
4074 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
4075 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
4076 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
4077 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
4079 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
4080 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
4081 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
4082 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
4083 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
4085 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
4086 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
4087 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
4088 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
4089 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
4092 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
4093 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
4094 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
4095 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
4097 **** Clearing face caches.
4099 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
4100 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
4105 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
4106 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
4107 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
4109 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
4110 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
4111 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
4112 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
4113 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
4115 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
4116 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
4117 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
4119 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
4121 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
4122 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
4123 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
4124 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
4125 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
4126 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
4127 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
4129 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
4130 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
4133 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
4134 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
4137 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
4140 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
4145 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
4146 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
4149 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
4150 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
4151 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
4152 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
4153 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
4156 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
4158 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
4160 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
4162 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
4164 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
4165 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
4166 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
4168 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
4169 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
4170 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
4171 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
4172 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
4173 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
4174 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
4175 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
4176 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
4177 of the face font sort order.
4179 - Function: x-font-family-list
4181 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
4182 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
4183 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
4184 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
4186 - Variable: font-list-limit
4188 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
4189 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
4190 matching font. The default is currently 100.
4192 *** Setting face attributes.
4194 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
4195 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
4196 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
4199 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
4200 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
4202 The following attributes are recognized:
4206 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
4207 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
4208 and `?' are allowed.
4212 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
4213 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
4214 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
4215 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
4219 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
4220 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
4221 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
4222 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
4226 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
4227 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
4228 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
4232 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
4233 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
4236 `:foreground', `:background'
4238 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
4242 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
4243 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
4244 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
4249 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
4250 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
4251 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
4256 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
4257 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
4258 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
4259 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
4263 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
4264 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
4265 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
4266 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
4267 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
4268 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
4269 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
4270 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
4271 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
4272 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
4273 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
4274 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
4275 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
4276 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
4277 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
4278 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
4283 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
4284 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
4288 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
4289 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
4290 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
4291 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
4292 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
4293 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
4295 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
4296 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
4300 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
4301 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
4302 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
4305 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
4306 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
4307 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
4309 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
4314 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
4315 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
4316 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
4318 *** Face attributes and X resources
4320 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
4323 Face attribute X resource class
4324 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
4325 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
4326 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
4327 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
4328 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
4329 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
4330 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
4331 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
4332 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
4333 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
4334 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
4335 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
4336 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
4337 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
4338 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
4339 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
4340 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
4341 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
4342 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
4343 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
4345 *** Text property `face'.
4347 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
4348 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
4349 specification can be
4351 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
4353 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
4354 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
4355 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
4356 for face attribute names.
4358 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
4359 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
4360 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
4362 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
4364 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
4365 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
4366 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
4367 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
4368 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
4369 used to clear the mapping table.
4371 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
4373 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
4374 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
4375 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
4376 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
4377 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
4378 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
4379 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
4380 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
4381 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
4382 modify their color-related behavior.
4384 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
4387 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
4389 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
4390 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
4391 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
4392 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
4393 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
4394 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
4395 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
4396 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
4397 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
4399 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
4400 display can display image files.
4402 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
4404 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
4405 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
4406 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
4407 `Inviolable' option.
4409 The function minibuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
4410 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
4411 Otherwise, it returns zero.
4413 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
4415 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
4416 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
4417 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
4419 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
4420 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
4421 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
4422 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
4423 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
4424 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
4425 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
4428 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
4429 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
4430 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
4432 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
4434 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
4436 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
4438 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4439 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
4440 constrained position if that is different.
4442 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
4443 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
4444 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
4445 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
4446 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
4447 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
4448 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
4449 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
4450 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
4452 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
4453 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
4454 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
4455 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
4456 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
4458 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
4459 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
4461 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
4463 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
4465 Delete the field surrounding POS.
4466 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4467 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4469 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
4471 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
4472 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4473 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4474 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
4475 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
4477 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
4479 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
4480 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4481 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4482 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
4483 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
4485 - Function: field-string &optional POS
4487 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
4488 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4489 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4491 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
4493 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
4494 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4495 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4499 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
4500 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
4501 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
4502 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
4504 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
4505 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
4506 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
4507 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
4510 IMAGE is an image specification.
4512 *** Image specifications
4514 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
4515 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
4516 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
4517 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
4518 described below are ignored.
4520 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
4524 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
4525 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
4526 to use for its ascent.
4528 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
4529 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
4531 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
4532 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
4533 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
4534 overlays that apply to the image.
4538 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
4539 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
4540 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
4544 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
4549 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
4551 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
4552 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
4554 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
4555 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
4556 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
4557 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
4558 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
4559 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
4560 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
4561 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
4564 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
4566 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
4568 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
4569 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
4570 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
4571 of the factors' absolute values.
4573 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
4579 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
4585 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
4590 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
4591 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
4592 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
4593 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
4594 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
4595 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
4596 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
4599 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
4600 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
4605 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
4606 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
4607 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
4608 may be present in the image specification.
4612 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
4613 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
4614 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
4615 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
4617 *** Supported image types
4619 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
4621 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
4622 properties supported are
4626 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
4627 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground.
4631 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
4632 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
4634 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
4635 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
4636 instead of a `:file' property.
4640 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
4644 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
4650 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
4651 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
4653 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
4655 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
4658 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
4659 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
4662 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
4664 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
4665 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
4666 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
4667 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
4669 Additional image properties supported are:
4671 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
4673 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
4674 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
4677 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
4678 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
4680 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
4681 to display compressed images.
4683 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
4685 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
4686 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
4691 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
4692 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground.
4696 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
4697 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
4699 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
4701 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
4702 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
4705 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
4707 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
4708 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
4711 **** GIF, image type `gif'
4713 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
4714 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
4716 Additional image properties supported are:
4720 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
4721 multi-image GIF file. An error is signaled if INDEX is too large.
4723 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
4724 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
4725 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
4728 (defun show-anim (file max)
4729 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
4730 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
4732 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
4735 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
4738 (goto-char (point-min))
4739 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
4740 (insert-image img "x"))
4741 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
4743 **** PNG, image type `png'
4745 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
4746 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
4749 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
4751 Additional image properties supported are:
4755 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
4756 integer. This is a required property.
4760 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
4761 must be a integer. This is an required property.
4765 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
4766 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
4767 files. This is an required property.
4769 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
4774 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
4775 which are supported in the current configuration.
4777 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
4778 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
4779 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
4780 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
4781 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
4783 *** Simplified image API, image.el
4785 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
4786 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
4787 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
4788 define an image based on available image types. The functions
4789 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
4794 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
4797 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
4798 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
4799 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
4800 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
4801 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
4802 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
4803 of the display margins.
4805 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
4806 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
4807 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
4808 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
4813 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
4814 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
4815 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
4816 that have a `help-echo' property.
4818 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
4819 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
4820 the window in which the help was found.
4822 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
4823 `help-echo' text property was found.
4825 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
4826 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
4828 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
4829 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
4832 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
4833 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
4835 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
4836 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
4837 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
4838 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
4839 used as help string.
4841 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
4842 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
4843 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
4845 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
4847 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
4848 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
4850 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
4851 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
4852 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
4853 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
4856 (global-set-key [A-down]
4859 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
4860 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
4861 (global-set-key [A-up]
4864 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
4865 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
4867 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
4869 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
4870 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
4871 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
4872 is called with one argument, POS.
4874 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
4875 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
4876 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
4877 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
4878 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
4880 ** Tool bar support.
4882 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
4883 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
4884 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
4885 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
4886 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
4887 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
4889 *** Tool bar item definitions
4891 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
4892 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
4893 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
4895 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
4896 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
4897 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
4898 property (see below).
4900 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
4901 binding are currently ignored.
4903 The following properties are recognized:
4907 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
4912 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
4916 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
4917 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
4918 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
4920 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
4922 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
4923 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
4927 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
4928 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
4929 meaning of each of the four elements:
4931 Index Use when item is
4932 ----------------------------------------
4933 0 enabled and selected
4934 1 enabled and deselected
4935 2 disabled and selected
4936 3 disabled and deselected
4938 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
4939 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
4941 `:help HELP-STRING'.
4943 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
4944 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
4946 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
4947 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
4948 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
4951 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
4952 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
4953 buffer-locally to override the global map.
4955 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
4957 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
4958 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
4959 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
4961 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
4962 raised when the mouse moves over them.
4964 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
4965 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
4966 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
4967 vertical margins . Default is 1.
4969 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
4970 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
4972 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
4974 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
4977 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
4978 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
4979 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
4981 is the original tool bar item definition, then
4983 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
4985 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
4988 ** Mode line changes.
4990 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
4992 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
4993 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
4994 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
4996 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
4997 a `local-map' text property.
4999 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
5000 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
5002 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
5003 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
5004 `local-map' property.
5006 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
5007 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
5010 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
5011 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
5013 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
5014 variable mode-line-format to nil.
5016 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
5018 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
5019 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
5020 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
5021 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
5024 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
5027 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
5028 position in the header-line.
5030 ** Text property `display'
5032 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
5033 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
5034 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
5035 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
5036 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
5038 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
5040 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
5041 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
5043 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
5044 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
5045 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
5046 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
5047 simpler form STRING as property value.
5049 *** Variable width and height spaces
5051 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
5052 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
5053 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
5054 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
5055 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
5056 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
5057 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
5059 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
5060 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
5061 properties described below.
5063 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
5064 characters having the `display' property.
5068 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
5069 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
5071 - :relative-width FACTOR
5073 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
5074 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
5075 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
5076 width of that character by FACTOR.
5080 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
5081 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
5083 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
5087 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
5090 - :relative-height FACTOR
5092 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
5093 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
5097 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
5098 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
5099 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
5102 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
5106 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
5107 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
5108 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
5109 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
5110 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
5111 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
5112 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
5113 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
5114 as display specification.
5116 *** Other display properties
5118 - (space-width FACTOR)
5120 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
5121 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
5126 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
5128 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
5129 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
5130 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
5131 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
5132 a font is available counts as a step.
5134 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
5135 as tall as the frame's default font.
5137 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
5138 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
5140 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
5141 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
5145 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
5146 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
5147 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
5148 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
5149 `height' subproperty.
5151 *** Conditional display properties
5153 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
5154 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
5155 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
5156 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
5157 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
5158 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
5159 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
5160 different when object is a string.
5162 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
5165 ** New menu separator types.
5167 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
5168 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
5169 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
5170 to specify other menu separator types.
5172 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
5174 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
5177 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
5179 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
5181 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
5183 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
5185 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
5187 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
5189 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
5191 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
5193 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
5195 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
5196 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
5198 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
5200 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
5202 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
5204 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
5206 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
5208 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
5210 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
5212 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
5214 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
5216 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
5218 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
5220 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
5222 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
5224 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
5226 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
5227 the corresponding single-line separators.
5229 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
5231 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
5232 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
5233 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
5234 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
5235 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
5236 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
5237 default foreground is black.
5239 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
5240 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
5241 `ScrollBarBackground').
5243 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
5244 settings for scroll bar colors.
5246 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
5247 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
5249 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
5250 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
5251 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
5252 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
5253 the original window start.
5255 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
5256 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
5257 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
5259 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
5261 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
5262 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
5263 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
5264 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
5266 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
5267 fixed-width and fixed-height.
5269 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
5271 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
5272 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
5273 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
5274 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
5275 temporarily to nil, for example
5277 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
5278 (enlarge-window 10))
5280 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
5281 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
5283 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
5284 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
5285 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
5286 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
5287 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
5288 support a vertical-bar cursor).
5292 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
5294 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
5297 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
5299 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
5301 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
5302 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
5303 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
5304 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
5305 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
5307 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
5311 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
5313 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
5317 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
5319 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
5320 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
5322 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
5324 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
5326 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
5327 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
5328 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
5330 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
5331 is the one that is used.
5333 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
5334 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
5335 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
5336 separate from the command's regular output.
5337 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
5338 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
5339 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
5342 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
5343 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
5344 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
5345 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
5347 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
5348 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
5349 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
5350 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
5352 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
5353 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
5354 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
5355 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
5357 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
5358 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
5359 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
5360 they never ignore case.
5362 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
5363 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
5364 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
5365 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
5366 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
5367 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
5368 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
5370 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
5371 the same format that was used in the file before.
5373 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
5374 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
5376 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
5377 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
5378 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
5380 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
5381 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
5382 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
5383 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
5384 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
5385 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
5386 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
5388 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
5389 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
5390 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
5391 format. You can now customize these variables.
5393 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
5394 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
5395 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
5396 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
5398 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
5399 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
5400 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
5402 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
5403 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
5404 doesn't have any effect.
5406 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
5409 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
5410 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
5411 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
5413 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
5414 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
5415 `auto-show-mode' command.
5417 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
5418 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
5419 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
5420 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
5421 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
5423 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
5424 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
5426 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
5427 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
5428 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
5430 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
5431 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
5432 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
5433 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
5435 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
5437 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
5438 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
5439 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
5440 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
5441 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
5443 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
5444 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
5446 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
5447 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
5448 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
5449 `?' on other systems.
5451 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
5452 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
5455 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
5456 current codepage when it starts.
5460 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
5461 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
5462 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
5463 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
5464 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
5465 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
5469 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
5470 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
5472 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
5473 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
5474 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
5475 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
5476 buffer-file-coding-system.
5478 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
5479 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
5482 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
5483 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
5484 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
5485 list of possible coding systems.
5489 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
5490 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
5491 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
5492 docstring for details.
5494 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
5495 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
5496 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
5497 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
5498 lineup functions use this feature currently.
5500 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
5501 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
5503 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
5504 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
5506 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
5507 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
5508 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
5509 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
5512 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
5513 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
5515 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
5516 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
5517 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
5518 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
5520 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
5521 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
5522 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
5523 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
5524 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
5526 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
5528 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
5530 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
5531 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
5533 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
5535 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
5536 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
5537 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
5538 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
5539 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
5543 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
5544 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
5545 Gnus manual for the full story.
5547 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
5548 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
5549 group, which is created automatically.
5551 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
5554 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
5556 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
5557 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
5559 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
5562 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
5564 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
5565 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
5567 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
5569 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
5570 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
5572 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
5573 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
5575 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
5576 control over simplification.
5578 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
5580 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
5583 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
5585 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
5587 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
5588 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
5589 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
5591 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
5592 `a' forces normal posting method.
5594 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
5597 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
5600 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
5601 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
5603 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
5606 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
5608 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
5610 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
5611 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
5613 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
5614 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
5616 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
5618 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
5621 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
5622 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
5624 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
5625 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
5627 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
5629 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
5631 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
5633 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
5635 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
5636 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
5637 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
5639 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
5640 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
5641 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
5642 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
5643 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
5645 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
5646 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
5647 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
5648 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
5650 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
5651 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
5652 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
5655 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
5657 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
5658 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
5660 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
5661 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
5662 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
5663 removed from the label.
5665 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
5666 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
5668 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
5669 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
5671 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
5672 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
5675 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
5677 ** New/deleted modes and packages
5679 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
5680 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
5682 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
5683 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
5684 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
5686 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
5687 changes with a special face.
5689 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
5690 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
5691 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
5693 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
5695 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
5696 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
5697 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
5698 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
5699 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
5701 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
5702 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
5703 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
5705 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
5706 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
5707 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
5708 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
5709 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
5710 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
5711 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
5712 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
5713 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
5715 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
5716 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
5717 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
5718 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
5719 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
5722 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
5723 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
5724 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
5725 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
5726 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
5727 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
5729 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
5730 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
5731 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
5732 was not documented clearly before.
5734 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
5735 This includes Tetris and Snake.
5737 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
5739 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
5740 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
5741 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
5742 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
5744 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
5745 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
5746 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
5748 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
5750 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
5751 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
5753 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
5754 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
5757 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
5758 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
5759 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
5760 file names and attributes are returned.
5762 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
5763 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
5764 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
5765 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
5768 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
5769 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
5771 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
5773 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
5774 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
5775 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
5778 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
5779 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
5782 The new function process-running-child-p
5783 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
5784 terminal to its own child process.
5786 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
5787 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
5788 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
5789 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
5791 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
5792 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
5794 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
5795 :included is an alias for :visible.
5797 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
5798 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
5799 to move or copy menu entries.
5801 ** Multibyte editing changes
5803 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
5804 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
5805 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
5806 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
5807 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
5808 (setq char (sref str idx)
5809 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
5810 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
5812 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
5813 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
5814 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
5816 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
5817 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
5818 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
5820 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
5822 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
5823 across the boundary.
5825 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
5826 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
5827 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
5828 contains 8-bit characters.
5829 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
5830 contains invalid characters.
5832 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
5833 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
5834 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
5835 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
5838 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
5839 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
5840 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
5841 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
5843 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
5844 compose Thai characters in a string.
5846 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
5847 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
5848 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
5849 menus should always use the third argument.
5851 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
5852 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
5853 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
5854 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
5856 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
5857 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
5858 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
5859 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
5861 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
5862 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
5863 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
5866 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
5868 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
5869 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
5870 requested feature cannot be loaded.
5872 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
5873 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
5874 means to clear out that attribute.
5876 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
5877 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
5879 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
5880 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
5881 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
5882 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
5884 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
5885 the gap of the current buffer.
5887 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
5888 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
5891 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
5892 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
5893 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
5894 it back in after any modifications have been made.
5896 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
5898 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
5899 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
5900 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
5901 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
5902 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
5904 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
5905 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
5906 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
5907 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
5908 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
5910 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
5911 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
5912 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
5914 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
5915 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
5916 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
5917 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
5918 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
5921 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
5922 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
5923 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
5924 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
5926 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
5928 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
5929 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
5930 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
5931 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
5933 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
5934 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
5935 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
5936 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
5937 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
5938 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
5939 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
5942 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
5945 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
5946 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
5947 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
5948 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
5949 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
5951 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
5952 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
5953 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
5954 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
5956 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
5957 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
5958 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
5959 something that most users not do.
5961 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
5962 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
5963 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
5966 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
5969 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
5970 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
5971 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
5972 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
5975 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
5976 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
5977 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
5978 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
5979 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
5982 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
5983 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
5984 to be confused by TeX commands.
5986 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
5987 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
5988 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
5989 of various alternative replacements and actions.
5991 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
5992 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
5993 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
5994 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
5995 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
5997 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
5998 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
6000 ** Changes in input method usage.
6002 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
6003 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
6006 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
6008 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
6009 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
6011 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
6012 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
6014 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
6016 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
6018 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
6019 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
6021 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
6022 given in the following case:
6023 o When you are using a complex input method.
6024 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
6026 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
6027 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
6028 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
6029 setting it to t is helpful.
6031 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
6033 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
6035 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
6036 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
6037 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
6038 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
6041 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
6042 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
6043 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
6046 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
6048 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
6050 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
6051 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
6053 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
6054 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
6055 its owner and group.
6057 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
6058 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
6060 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
6061 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
6063 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
6064 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
6065 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
6066 by the left edge of the rectangle.
6068 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
6069 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
6070 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
6071 for writing keyboard macros.
6073 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
6074 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
6075 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
6076 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
6077 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
6080 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
6082 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
6083 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
6086 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
6087 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
6088 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
6089 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
6091 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
6092 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
6093 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
6095 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
6096 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
6097 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
6098 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
6100 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
6101 failure if the command produces no output.
6103 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
6104 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
6107 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
6108 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
6109 function and variable names.
6111 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
6112 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
6113 file-coding-system-alist.
6115 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
6116 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
6117 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
6118 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
6119 according to the current fontset.
6121 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
6123 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
6124 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
6125 nonascii-insert-offset.
6127 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
6128 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
6129 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
6130 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
6132 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
6133 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
6135 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
6136 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
6138 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
6139 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
6142 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
6143 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
6145 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
6146 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
6147 all variables that have documentation.
6149 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
6150 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
6151 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
6152 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
6153 it should show; the default is 20.
6155 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
6156 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
6159 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
6160 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
6161 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
6162 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
6163 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
6164 Newly added options are included as well.
6166 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
6167 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
6168 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
6170 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
6173 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
6174 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
6176 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
6177 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
6180 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
6181 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
6184 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
6185 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
6186 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
6187 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
6190 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
6192 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
6193 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
6194 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
6196 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
6197 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
6198 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
6203 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
6204 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
6206 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
6207 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
6209 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
6210 read and post multi-lingual articles.
6212 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
6213 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
6214 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
6215 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
6216 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
6217 made invisible again.
6219 ** Mail reading and sending changes
6221 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
6222 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
6223 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
6226 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
6227 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
6228 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
6229 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
6230 rmail-default-body-file.
6232 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
6233 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
6234 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
6236 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
6237 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
6238 is evaluated to insert the signature.
6240 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
6241 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
6242 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
6243 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
6244 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
6245 especially interested in trying feedmail.
6247 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
6248 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
6249 provided by feedmail are:
6251 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
6252 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
6253 there is also a queue for draft messages
6255 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
6256 be prompted for confirmation
6258 **** does smart filling of address headers
6260 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
6261 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
6262 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
6264 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
6265 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
6266 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
6267 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
6271 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
6272 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
6274 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
6275 run Dired on the directory name at point.
6277 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
6278 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
6279 for a specified regexp.
6283 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
6286 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
6287 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
6290 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
6291 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
6292 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
6293 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
6295 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
6296 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
6297 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
6298 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
6299 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
6301 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
6302 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
6303 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
6304 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
6305 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
6307 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
6308 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
6309 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
6310 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
6312 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
6313 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
6314 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
6316 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
6317 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
6318 session to resolve them.
6320 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
6321 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
6322 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
6325 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
6326 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
6327 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
6328 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
6329 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
6330 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
6333 ** Changes in Font Lock
6335 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
6336 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
6337 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
6338 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
6339 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
6341 ** Frame name display changes
6343 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
6344 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
6345 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
6346 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
6348 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
6349 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
6352 ** Comint (subshell) changes
6354 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
6355 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
6356 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
6358 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
6360 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
6361 that is, the line after the last line you got.
6362 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
6364 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
6365 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
6368 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
6369 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
6370 previously sent input.
6372 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
6373 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
6374 as the search string.
6376 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
6377 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
6381 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
6382 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
6383 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
6386 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
6387 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
6388 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
6389 style is still the default however.
6391 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
6393 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
6394 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
6395 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
6397 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
6398 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
6400 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
6401 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
6403 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
6404 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
6406 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
6407 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
6409 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
6410 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
6411 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
6412 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
6414 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
6416 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
6417 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
6418 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
6420 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
6421 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
6422 expanding dynamically.
6424 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
6425 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
6427 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
6428 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
6429 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
6430 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
6432 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
6434 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6436 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
6437 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
6438 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
6439 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
6440 against the first word in the title.
6442 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
6443 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
6444 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
6445 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
6446 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
6447 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
6449 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
6450 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
6451 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
6452 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
6454 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
6456 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
6457 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
6458 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
6459 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
6460 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
6461 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
6463 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
6464 Editing group once the package is loaded.
6466 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
6467 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
6468 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
6470 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
6471 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
6475 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
6476 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
6477 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
6479 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
6480 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
6481 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
6482 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
6485 o URLs are automatically skipped
6486 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
6488 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
6490 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
6492 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
6493 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
6494 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
6495 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
6497 *** New recursive parser.
6499 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
6500 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
6501 recursive parser scans the individual files.
6503 *** Parsing only part of a document.
6505 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
6506 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
6507 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
6509 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
6511 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
6513 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
6515 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
6517 *** Using multiple selection buffers
6519 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
6520 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
6522 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
6524 *** References to external documents.
6526 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
6527 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
6528 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
6529 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
6530 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
6531 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
6532 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
6534 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
6536 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
6537 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
6539 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
6540 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
6542 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
6544 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
6545 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
6547 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
6549 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
6550 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
6551 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
6552 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
6553 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
6554 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
6557 *** Support for the varioref package
6559 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
6563 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
6564 and citations are created. These hooks are
6565 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
6566 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
6568 *** Citations outside LaTeX
6570 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
6571 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
6573 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
6575 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
6576 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
6579 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
6581 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
6582 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
6583 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
6584 directories that contain the same file name.
6586 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
6587 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
6588 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
6589 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
6590 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
6591 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
6592 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
6595 ** New modes and packages
6597 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
6598 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
6599 it, but some do not.
6601 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
6604 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
6605 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
6608 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
6610 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
6611 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
6612 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
6613 established system of notation similar to Chess.
6615 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
6616 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
6617 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
6619 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
6620 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
6621 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
6622 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
6623 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
6626 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
6627 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
6629 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
6630 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
6631 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
6632 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
6634 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
6636 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
6637 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
6638 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
6639 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
6640 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
6641 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
6642 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
6643 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
6644 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
6645 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
6646 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
6648 Platform-specific modes:
6650 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
6651 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
6652 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
6653 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
6654 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
6655 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
6656 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
6657 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
6658 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
6660 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
6662 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
6663 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
6664 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
6665 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
6667 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
6668 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
6669 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
6671 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
6672 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
6673 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
6674 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
6676 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
6677 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
6678 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
6681 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
6682 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
6683 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
6684 current input method for reading this one event.
6686 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
6687 now control whether to output certain characters as
6688 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
6689 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
6690 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
6691 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
6693 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
6695 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
6696 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
6698 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
6699 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
6700 always increases point by 1.
6702 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
6703 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
6705 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
6707 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
6708 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
6709 default value changed. For example,
6711 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
6716 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
6719 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
6720 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
6721 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
6722 `:version' in the top level group.
6724 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
6726 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
6727 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
6729 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
6730 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
6731 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
6734 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
6735 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
6738 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
6739 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
6740 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
6742 ** Frame-local variables.
6744 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
6745 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
6746 local bindings for that variable.
6748 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
6749 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
6750 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
6753 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
6754 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
6755 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
6756 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
6758 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
6759 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
6760 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
6761 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
6763 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
6764 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
6765 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
6766 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
6767 See the documentation in sregex.el.
6769 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
6770 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
6771 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
6772 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
6774 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
6775 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
6777 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
6778 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
6779 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
6781 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
6782 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
6783 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
6784 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
6786 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
6787 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
6790 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
6791 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
6792 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
6793 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
6794 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
6796 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
6797 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
6798 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
6799 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
6801 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
6802 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
6803 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
6804 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
6805 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
6807 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
6808 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
6809 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
6810 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
6812 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
6813 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
6814 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
6816 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
6817 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
6818 was directed to display this buffer.
6820 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
6821 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
6822 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
6823 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
6824 set-window-configuration.
6826 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
6827 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
6828 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
6829 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
6831 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
6832 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
6833 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
6835 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
6836 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
6837 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
6839 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
6840 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
6842 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
6843 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
6845 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
6846 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
6847 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
6849 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
6850 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
6851 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
6852 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
6856 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
6857 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
6860 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
6861 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
6862 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
6863 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
6864 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
6866 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
6868 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
6869 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
6870 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
6871 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
6874 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
6875 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
6876 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
6877 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
6878 The supported properties include
6880 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
6882 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
6883 item should appear in the menu.
6885 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
6886 which will be REAL-BINDING.
6887 It should return a binding to use instead.
6889 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
6890 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
6891 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
6892 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
6893 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
6896 This means that the command normally has no
6897 keyboard equivalent.
6898 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
6899 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
6900 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
6901 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
6902 value says whether this button is currently selected.
6904 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
6905 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
6907 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
6911 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
6912 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
6913 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
6914 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
6916 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
6918 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
6919 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
6920 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
6921 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
6922 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
6923 forward, away from the user.
6925 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
6927 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
6928 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
6929 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
6930 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
6931 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
6933 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
6935 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
6936 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
6937 that were dragged and dropped.
6939 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
6941 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
6943 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
6944 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
6945 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
6947 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
6948 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
6949 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
6951 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
6952 in Emacs 19 and before.
6954 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
6955 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
6957 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
6958 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
6959 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
6960 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
6962 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
6963 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
6964 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
6965 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
6966 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
6968 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
6969 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
6970 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
6971 consistent with the new representation.
6973 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
6974 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
6975 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
6976 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
6978 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
6979 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
6980 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
6982 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
6983 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
6984 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
6986 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
6987 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
6988 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
6990 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
6991 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
6993 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
6994 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
6996 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
6997 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
6998 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
6999 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
7001 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
7002 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
7004 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
7005 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
7006 buffer or string being searched.
7008 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
7009 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
7010 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
7011 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
7012 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
7013 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
7014 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
7016 *** Structure of coding system changed.
7018 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
7019 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
7020 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
7021 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
7022 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
7023 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
7024 define-coding-system-alias.
7026 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
7027 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
7028 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
7029 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
7030 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
7031 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
7032 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
7035 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
7036 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
7037 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
7038 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
7040 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
7041 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
7042 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
7043 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
7045 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
7046 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
7047 This function requires a user interaction.
7049 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
7050 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
7051 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
7052 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
7053 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
7054 select-safe-coding-system.
7056 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
7057 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
7058 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
7061 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
7062 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
7063 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
7065 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
7066 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
7067 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
7068 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
7070 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
7071 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
7072 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
7075 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
7076 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
7078 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
7079 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
7080 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
7081 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
7082 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
7083 range of characters.
7085 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
7086 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
7088 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
7089 in the current buffer at position POS.
7091 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
7092 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
7093 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
7094 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
7095 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
7096 binding input-method-function to nil.
7098 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
7099 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
7100 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
7101 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
7102 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
7104 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
7105 subsequent events of a key sequence.
7107 *** You can customize any language environment by using
7108 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
7110 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
7111 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
7112 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
7113 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
7114 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
7116 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
7118 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
7119 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
7120 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
7123 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
7124 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
7126 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
7127 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
7128 in your .emacs file.)
7130 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
7131 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
7133 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
7134 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
7136 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
7137 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
7140 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
7141 delete the character before point, as usual.
7143 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
7144 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
7145 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
7147 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
7148 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
7149 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
7150 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
7151 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
7154 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
7155 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
7156 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
7157 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
7158 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
7160 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
7161 and is an alias for it.
7163 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
7164 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
7166 ** Scrolling changes
7168 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
7169 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
7171 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
7172 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
7175 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
7176 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
7177 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
7178 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
7180 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
7181 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
7182 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
7183 recenters the window.
7185 ** International character set support (MULE)
7187 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
7188 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
7189 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
7190 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
7191 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
7192 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
7194 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
7195 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
7196 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
7197 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
7198 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
7200 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
7201 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
7202 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
7203 language, to make it possible to type them.
7205 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
7206 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
7208 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
7209 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
7211 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
7213 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
7215 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
7216 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
7217 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
7218 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
7219 characters for their work until they want to change.
7223 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
7224 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
7225 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
7226 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
7227 support several input methods.
7229 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
7230 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
7233 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
7234 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
7235 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
7236 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
7237 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
7240 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
7241 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
7242 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
7243 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
7244 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
7246 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
7247 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
7248 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
7249 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
7251 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
7252 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
7253 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
7254 the first guess is wrong.
7256 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
7257 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
7259 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
7260 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
7261 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
7262 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
7264 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
7265 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
7266 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
7267 translate automatically to and from either one.
7269 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
7271 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
7272 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
7273 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
7276 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
7277 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
7278 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
7279 multibyte characters in that buffer.
7281 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
7282 character conversion as well.
7284 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
7286 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
7287 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
7288 requires using many fonts.
7290 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
7291 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
7293 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
7294 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
7295 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
7296 you would use a font.
7298 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
7299 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
7300 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
7302 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
7303 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
7306 *** Defining fontsets.
7308 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
7309 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
7310 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
7312 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
7313 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
7314 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
7315 standard fontset are created automatically.
7317 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
7318 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
7319 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
7320 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
7321 name is `fontset-startup'.
7323 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
7324 The resource value should have this form:
7325 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
7326 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
7327 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
7328 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
7329 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
7330 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
7331 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
7332 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
7333 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
7335 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
7336 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
7337 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
7339 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
7340 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
7342 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
7343 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
7344 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
7345 Here is the substitution rule:
7346 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
7347 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
7348 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
7349 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
7350 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
7352 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
7353 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
7354 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
7356 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
7357 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
7358 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
7359 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
7362 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
7363 defaults for a particular choice of language.
7365 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
7366 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
7367 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
7368 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
7369 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
7370 system for new files that you create.
7372 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
7373 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
7374 whole Emacs session.
7376 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
7377 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
7378 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
7380 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
7381 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
7382 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
7383 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
7384 coding systems that Emacs supports.
7386 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
7387 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
7388 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
7389 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
7390 is used for *the immediately following command*.
7392 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
7393 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
7395 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
7396 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
7398 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
7399 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
7401 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
7402 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
7403 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
7404 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
7407 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
7408 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
7409 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
7410 translated into that character code.
7412 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
7413 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
7415 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
7417 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
7418 the coding system for keyboard input.
7420 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
7421 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
7422 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
7424 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
7426 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
7427 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
7428 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
7429 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
7430 designed to work with terminals.
7432 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
7433 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
7434 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
7435 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
7436 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
7437 in the corresponding buffer.
7439 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
7441 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
7442 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
7443 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
7445 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
7446 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
7447 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
7450 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
7451 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
7453 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
7454 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
7455 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
7456 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
7458 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
7459 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
7460 related information.
7462 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
7463 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
7466 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
7467 information about the support for a particular language.
7468 You specify the language as an argument.
7470 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
7471 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
7474 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
7475 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
7476 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
7477 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
7479 A alternativnyj (Russian)
7481 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
7482 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
7483 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
7484 E euc-japan (Japanese)
7485 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
7486 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
7487 K euc-korea (Korean)
7490 S shift_jis (Japanese)
7493 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
7494 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
7495 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
7499 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
7500 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
7501 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
7502 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
7504 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
7505 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
7507 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
7508 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
7509 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
7510 Rmail files themselves.
7512 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
7513 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
7515 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
7518 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
7519 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
7520 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
7521 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
7522 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
7524 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
7525 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
7526 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
7529 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
7530 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
7531 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
7532 without any conversion.
7534 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
7535 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
7536 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
7537 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
7539 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
7540 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
7542 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
7543 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
7545 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
7546 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
7548 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
7549 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
7550 in the buffer before point.
7552 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
7553 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
7556 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
7557 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
7559 ** File locking works with NFS now.
7561 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
7562 in the same directory as FILENAME.
7564 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
7565 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
7566 can become a bottleneck.
7568 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
7569 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
7570 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
7571 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
7572 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
7573 so useful that the change is worth while.
7575 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
7576 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
7577 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
7578 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
7580 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
7581 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
7584 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
7585 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
7586 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
7588 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
7589 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
7590 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
7592 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
7593 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
7594 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
7596 ** Changes in View mode.
7598 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
7599 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
7601 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
7602 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
7604 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
7607 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
7608 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
7610 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
7611 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
7612 not just the selected window.
7614 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
7615 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
7616 turns View mode on or off.
7618 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
7619 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
7620 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
7622 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
7623 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
7625 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
7626 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
7627 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
7628 which version to compare with.
7630 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
7631 blocks if a match is inside the block.
7633 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
7634 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
7635 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
7636 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
7638 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
7639 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
7640 blocks, all of them or none.
7642 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
7643 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
7646 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
7647 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
7648 However, the mode will not be changed if
7649 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
7650 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
7651 not suitable for ordinary files, or
7652 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
7654 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
7656 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
7657 these commands do not change the major mode.
7659 ** M-x occur changes.
7661 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
7662 it performs a case-sensitive search.
7664 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
7665 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
7666 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
7668 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
7669 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
7670 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
7671 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
7672 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
7674 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
7675 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
7676 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
7677 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
7679 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7680 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
7681 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
7683 ** Outline mode changes.
7685 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
7687 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
7689 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
7690 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
7691 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
7694 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
7695 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
7698 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
7699 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
7701 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
7703 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
7704 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
7705 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
7706 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
7708 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
7709 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
7710 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
7712 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
7713 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
7716 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
7717 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
7718 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
7719 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
7721 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
7722 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
7723 can be. The default value is 30.
7725 ** Changes in Mail mode.
7727 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
7728 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
7729 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
7730 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
7731 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
7734 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
7735 compose-mail-other-frame.
7737 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
7738 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
7739 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
7740 buffer that shows the original message.
7742 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
7743 with separator lines around the contents.
7745 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
7746 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
7747 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
7748 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
7750 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
7752 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
7753 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
7754 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
7755 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
7757 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
7758 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
7761 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
7762 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
7765 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
7766 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
7767 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
7768 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
7770 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
7771 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
7772 be taken to be magic.
7774 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
7775 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
7776 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
7778 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
7779 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
7781 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
7782 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
7784 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
7786 new key dired.el binding old key
7787 ------- ---------------- -------
7788 * c dired-change-marks c
7790 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
7791 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
7792 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
7794 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
7795 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
7796 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
7797 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
7798 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
7799 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
7803 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
7804 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
7805 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
7806 each time you run it.
7808 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
7809 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
7811 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
7812 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
7813 means to move in the opposite direction.
7815 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
7816 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
7818 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
7819 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
7820 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
7821 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
7826 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
7828 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
7831 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
7832 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
7834 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
7837 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
7839 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
7841 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
7843 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
7844 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
7845 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
7847 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
7849 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
7851 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
7852 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
7854 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
7855 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
7856 used to pick articles.
7858 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
7859 another have been added.
7861 `M-x gnus-change-server'
7863 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
7864 generating lines in buffers.
7866 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
7869 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
7871 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
7873 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
7875 *** Scores can be decayed.
7877 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
7879 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
7880 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
7882 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
7885 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
7887 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
7888 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
7890 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
7892 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
7893 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
7895 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
7896 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
7898 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
7901 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
7902 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
7904 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
7906 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
7908 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
7910 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
7912 Use the `Y c' command.
7914 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
7916 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
7918 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
7920 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
7921 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
7923 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
7925 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
7927 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
7928 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
7930 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
7932 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
7933 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
7934 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
7935 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
7938 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
7939 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
7940 particular news group. This can be done by:
7942 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
7944 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
7945 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
7946 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
7947 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
7948 for reading and posting).
7950 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
7951 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
7952 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
7953 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
7956 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
7957 default. Here are some of these default settings:
7959 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
7960 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
7961 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
7962 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
7963 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
7965 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
7966 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
7970 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
7971 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
7972 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
7973 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
7974 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
7977 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
7978 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
7979 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
7980 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
7981 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
7982 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
7984 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
7985 of the current buffer.
7987 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
7988 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
7989 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
7991 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
7992 style that the Python developers like.
7994 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
7995 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
7996 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
8000 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
8001 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
8002 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
8004 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
8005 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
8008 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
8009 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
8011 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
8012 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
8013 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
8014 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
8016 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
8017 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
8019 ** Calendar changes.
8021 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
8022 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
8023 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
8024 following/previous years.
8026 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
8027 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
8028 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
8029 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
8030 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
8031 supposed attribute of God.
8035 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
8038 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
8040 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
8041 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
8042 printer system has this behavior, set variable
8043 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
8045 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
8046 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
8047 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
8049 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
8050 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
8052 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
8053 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
8054 printing for your printer.
8056 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
8057 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
8059 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
8060 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
8062 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
8063 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
8064 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
8065 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
8066 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
8067 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
8068 The default value is nil.
8070 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
8071 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
8073 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
8074 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
8075 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
8076 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
8077 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
8078 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
8079 color). The default is 0 ("black").
8081 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
8082 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
8084 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
8085 The default is 0 ("black").
8087 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
8088 The default is 0 ("black").
8090 border-width Specify the border width.
8093 Any other property is ignored.
8095 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
8096 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
8099 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
8100 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
8101 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
8102 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
8103 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
8104 controlling headers.
8106 *** Color management (subgroup)
8108 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
8111 *** Face Management (subgroup)
8113 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
8114 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
8115 background should be used. Valid values are:
8117 t always use face background color.
8118 nil never use face background color.
8119 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
8121 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
8123 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
8126 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
8127 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
8129 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
8132 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
8133 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
8134 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
8136 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
8140 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
8144 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
8148 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
8152 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
8154 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
8156 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
8159 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
8160 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
8161 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
8163 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
8164 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8165 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8166 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8167 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8171 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8172 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8173 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8176 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8177 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8178 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
8179 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
8180 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
8181 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8182 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8183 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8184 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
8185 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
8186 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
8189 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8191 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
8194 *** Printer management (subgroup)
8196 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
8197 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
8198 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
8199 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
8202 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
8203 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
8204 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
8206 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
8207 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
8210 *** Page settings (subgroup)
8212 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
8213 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
8214 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
8215 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
8216 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
8217 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
8220 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
8221 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
8222 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
8224 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
8225 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
8226 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
8227 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
8228 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
8229 its TO, are ignored.
8231 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
8232 pages. Valid values are:
8234 nil print all pages.
8236 `even-page' print only even pages.
8238 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
8240 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
8241 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
8242 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
8243 print only the even sheet of paper.
8245 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
8246 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
8247 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
8248 only the odd sheet of paper.
8250 Any other value is treated as nil.
8252 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
8253 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
8254 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
8256 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
8258 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
8259 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
8261 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
8262 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
8263 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
8264 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
8265 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
8266 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
8267 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
8269 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
8270 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
8271 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
8272 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
8273 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
8274 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
8275 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
8277 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
8279 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
8280 messages should be sent.
8282 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
8283 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
8284 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
8286 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
8288 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
8289 points for line numbers.
8291 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
8292 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
8294 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
8295 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
8296 to 2, the printing will look like:
8308 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
8309 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
8312 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
8313 zebra stripe is to be printed.
8315 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
8317 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
8318 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
8319 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
8320 3, the output will look like:
8334 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
8335 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
8337 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
8338 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
8341 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
8342 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
8345 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
8347 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
8348 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
8350 ** hideshow changes.
8352 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
8355 *** Support for java-mode added.
8357 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
8358 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
8360 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
8361 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
8362 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
8364 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
8365 robust and a lot faster.
8367 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
8369 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
8370 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
8371 documentation for more details.
8373 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
8375 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
8376 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
8377 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
8378 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
8379 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
8381 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
8382 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
8383 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
8384 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
8390 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
8391 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
8392 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
8393 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
8394 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
8395 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
8397 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
8399 *** Maximum decoration
8401 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
8402 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
8403 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
8404 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
8405 to get the old behavior.
8409 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
8411 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
8412 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
8414 *** Configurable support
8416 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
8417 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
8418 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
8419 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
8420 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
8421 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
8422 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
8424 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
8425 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
8426 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
8428 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
8430 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
8431 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
8434 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
8436 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
8442 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
8443 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
8444 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
8445 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
8447 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
8449 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
8450 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
8451 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
8453 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
8455 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
8456 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
8457 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
8458 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
8459 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
8460 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
8461 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
8463 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
8464 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
8465 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
8466 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
8467 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
8468 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
8470 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
8472 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
8473 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
8474 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
8475 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
8477 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
8480 ** Ada mode changes.
8482 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
8483 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
8484 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
8485 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
8488 *** There are two new commands:
8489 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
8490 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
8492 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
8493 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
8494 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
8496 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
8497 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
8498 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
8500 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
8501 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
8502 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
8503 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
8505 ** Scheme mode changes.
8507 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
8508 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
8509 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
8510 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
8513 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
8514 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
8515 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
8516 variables as buffer-local variables.
8518 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
8521 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
8523 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
8524 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
8525 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
8526 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
8528 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
8529 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
8532 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
8533 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
8534 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
8535 option takes precedence.
8537 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
8538 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
8539 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
8541 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
8542 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
8545 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
8546 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
8548 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
8549 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
8552 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
8553 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
8554 these register values no longer become completely useless.
8555 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
8556 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
8557 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
8559 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
8560 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
8561 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
8562 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
8564 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
8565 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
8566 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
8567 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
8568 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
8570 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
8571 since it applies only to the current frame.
8573 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
8574 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
8575 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
8577 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
8578 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
8579 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
8580 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
8581 instead of just the file you are editing.
8585 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
8586 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
8587 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
8588 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
8589 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
8592 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
8593 knows which kind of label is needed.
8595 C-c ) reftex-reference
8596 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
8597 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
8599 C-c [ reftex-citation
8600 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
8601 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
8603 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
8604 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
8607 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
8608 can quickly jump to every section.
8610 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
8611 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
8612 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
8613 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
8614 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
8616 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8618 *** Info documentation is now available.
8620 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
8621 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
8623 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
8624 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
8626 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
8627 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
8629 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
8630 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
8631 appropriate functions.
8633 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
8634 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
8636 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
8639 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
8640 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
8642 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
8645 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
8646 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
8647 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
8649 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
8650 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
8651 prefixed with `ALT'.
8653 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
8654 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
8655 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
8658 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
8659 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
8660 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
8662 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
8663 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
8665 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
8666 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
8667 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
8669 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
8671 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
8673 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
8676 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
8677 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
8680 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
8683 *** Added support for imenu.
8685 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
8686 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
8687 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
8688 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
8690 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
8691 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
8693 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
8695 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
8697 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
8698 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
8699 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
8702 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
8703 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
8705 ** browse-url changes
8707 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
8708 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
8709 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
8710 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
8711 customization variables.
8713 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
8715 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
8716 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
8717 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
8721 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
8722 pops up the Info file for this command.
8724 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
8725 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
8726 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
8729 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
8730 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
8731 files in the same directory.
8733 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
8734 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
8735 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
8739 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
8740 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
8742 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
8743 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
8744 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
8745 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
8746 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
8747 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
8748 color when Viper is in insert state.
8749 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
8750 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
8751 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
8755 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
8756 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
8757 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
8758 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
8759 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
8761 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
8763 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
8764 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
8766 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
8767 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
8768 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
8770 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
8771 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
8772 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
8773 methods and protocols.
8775 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
8776 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
8777 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
8780 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
8781 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
8782 at least M times and as many as N times.
8784 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
8785 in files has changed slightly.
8787 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
8788 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
8789 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
8790 with old time-stamp-format values.
8792 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
8793 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
8794 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
8797 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
8798 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
8799 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
8800 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
8801 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
8802 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
8804 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
8805 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
8806 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
8808 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
8809 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
8810 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
8811 recommended now will continue to work then.
8813 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
8816 ** There are some additional major modes:
8818 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
8819 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
8820 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
8822 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
8823 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
8826 ** New Lisp packages include:
8828 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
8830 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
8831 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
8833 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
8835 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
8838 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
8839 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
8842 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
8843 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
8844 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
8845 strings or comments.
8847 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
8848 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
8849 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
8850 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
8853 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
8854 can visit them by short forms of their names.
8856 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
8857 Emacs Lisp function at point.
8859 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
8861 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
8862 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
8864 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
8866 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
8868 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
8870 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
8871 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
8873 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
8874 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
8875 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
8876 original place after inserting the copy.
8878 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
8881 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
8882 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
8883 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
8885 Enable mouse-drag with:
8886 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
8888 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
8890 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
8891 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
8893 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
8894 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
8898 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
8899 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
8900 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
8901 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
8902 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
8903 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
8904 instance) and vice versa.
8906 To use this package load it using
8907 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
8908 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
8909 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
8910 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
8911 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
8912 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
8914 *** Interface to ph.
8916 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
8918 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
8919 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
8922 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
8924 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
8925 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
8926 while the real cursor does not move.
8928 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
8929 for visiting your favorite web sites.
8931 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
8932 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
8936 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
8937 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
8938 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
8939 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
8941 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
8943 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
8945 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
8947 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
8948 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
8949 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
8950 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
8951 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
8953 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
8954 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
8955 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
8956 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
8957 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
8958 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
8960 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
8962 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
8963 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
8964 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
8965 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
8967 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
8968 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
8970 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
8971 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
8974 ** Basic Lisp changes
8976 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
8977 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
8979 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
8980 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
8983 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
8985 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
8987 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
8988 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
8990 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
8991 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
8994 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
8996 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
8998 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
9000 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
9001 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
9002 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
9005 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
9006 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
9007 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
9009 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
9010 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
9011 adding one of these suffixes.
9013 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
9014 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
9015 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
9017 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
9018 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
9020 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
9022 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
9023 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
9025 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
9026 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
9028 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
9030 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
9031 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
9033 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
9034 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
9035 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
9036 works using `save-current-buffer'.
9038 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
9039 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
9042 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
9043 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
9044 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
9047 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
9048 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
9051 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
9053 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
9054 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
9055 Then it returns that string.
9057 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
9059 (with-output-to-string
9060 (princ "The buffer is ")
9061 (princ (buffer-name)))
9063 returns "The buffer is foo".
9065 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
9068 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
9069 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
9070 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
9072 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
9073 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
9075 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
9076 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
9077 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
9078 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
9079 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
9080 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
9082 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
9083 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
9084 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
9087 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
9088 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
9089 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
9090 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
9091 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
9093 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
9094 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
9095 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
9096 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
9098 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
9099 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
9101 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
9103 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
9104 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
9105 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
9106 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
9109 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
9110 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
9113 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
9115 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
9116 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
9117 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
9118 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
9119 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
9121 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
9123 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
9124 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
9125 more than the number of characters.
9127 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
9128 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
9129 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
9130 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
9131 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
9132 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
9134 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
9135 and returns a string containing those characters.
9137 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
9138 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
9139 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
9140 character, sref signals an error.
9142 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
9143 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
9144 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
9146 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
9147 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
9148 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
9150 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
9151 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
9152 to a vector of the characters in it.
9154 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
9155 of a string. You call it as follows:
9157 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
9159 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
9160 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
9161 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
9162 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
9163 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
9165 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
9166 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
9168 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
9169 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
9171 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
9172 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
9173 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
9174 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
9176 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
9178 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
9180 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
9181 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
9182 are not included in the resulting value.
9184 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
9185 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
9186 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
9187 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
9189 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
9190 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
9191 character extends across that column), then the padding character
9192 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
9193 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
9194 column START-COLUMN.
9196 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
9197 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
9198 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
9199 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
9200 changed text, before the change.
9202 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
9203 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
9204 one character set for each script, not for each language.
9206 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
9208 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
9210 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
9211 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
9213 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
9214 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
9215 which identify the character within that character set.
9217 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
9218 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
9219 opposite of split-char.
9221 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
9222 of all the characters between BEG and END.
9224 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
9225 of all the characters in a string.
9227 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
9228 and specifying coding systems.
9230 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
9231 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
9232 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
9233 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
9234 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
9235 as what to do about code conversion.)
9237 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
9238 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
9240 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
9241 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
9242 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
9244 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
9245 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
9246 to match against a file name.
9248 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
9249 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
9250 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
9251 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
9252 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
9253 specifies the coding system for encoding.
9255 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
9256 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
9258 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
9259 the coding system to use for network sockets.
9261 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
9262 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
9263 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
9266 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
9267 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
9268 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
9269 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
9270 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
9271 specifies the coding system for encoding.
9273 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
9274 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
9276 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
9277 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
9278 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
9279 start the subprocess.
9281 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
9282 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
9283 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
9284 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
9285 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
9287 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
9288 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
9291 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
9292 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
9293 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
9294 connection permanently or until overridden.
9296 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
9297 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
9298 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
9299 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
9300 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
9301 system for one operation at a time.
9303 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
9304 files, subprocesses or network connections.
9306 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
9307 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
9308 The value is a cons cell,
9309 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
9310 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
9311 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
9312 input to the subprocess.
9314 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
9315 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
9317 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
9318 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
9319 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
9321 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
9322 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
9323 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
9324 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
9327 Thus, instead of writing
9329 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
9330 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
9332 you would now write this:
9334 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
9335 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
9339 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
9340 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
9341 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
9342 for a description of them.
9344 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
9345 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
9347 (defgroup ispell nil
9348 "Spell checking using Ispell."
9351 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
9352 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
9353 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
9354 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
9355 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
9357 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
9358 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
9359 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
9360 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
9361 first-level subgroups.
9363 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
9365 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
9366 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
9370 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
9371 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
9372 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
9373 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
9374 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
9375 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
9377 ** Text property changes
9379 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
9382 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
9383 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
9384 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
9385 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
9386 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
9388 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
9389 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
9390 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
9391 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
9393 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
9394 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
9395 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
9397 ** Changes in invisibility features
9399 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
9400 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
9401 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
9402 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
9403 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
9404 make the overlay visible.
9406 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
9407 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
9408 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
9409 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
9410 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
9411 t when it should hide it.
9413 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
9415 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
9416 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
9417 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
9418 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
9419 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
9420 Here is an example of how to do this:
9422 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
9423 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
9424 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
9425 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
9428 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
9431 ;; When done with the overlays:
9432 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
9434 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
9436 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
9438 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
9439 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
9440 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
9441 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
9443 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
9444 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
9445 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
9447 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
9448 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
9450 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
9451 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
9453 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
9454 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
9455 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
9457 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
9458 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
9459 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
9460 determine the syntax type of the character.
9462 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
9463 of the current buffer.
9465 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
9466 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
9467 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
9469 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
9470 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
9471 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
9472 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
9473 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
9475 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
9478 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
9479 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
9480 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
9482 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
9483 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
9484 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
9485 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
9486 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
9488 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
9489 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
9490 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
9492 ** Changes in face features
9494 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
9495 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
9497 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
9498 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
9500 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
9501 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
9503 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
9504 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
9506 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
9507 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
9508 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
9509 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
9512 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
9513 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
9515 ** Changes in file-handling functions
9517 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
9518 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
9519 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
9520 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
9522 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
9525 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
9526 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
9528 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
9529 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
9531 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
9532 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
9534 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
9535 character code conversion as well as other things.
9537 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
9538 (formerly it did not).
9540 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
9541 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
9543 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
9544 instead of constant strings.
9546 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
9547 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
9548 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
9550 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
9551 in the same way as before.
9553 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
9554 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
9555 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
9557 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
9558 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
9559 else, and returns nil.
9561 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
9562 directory cannot be listed.
9564 ** Changes in minibuffer input
9566 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
9567 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
9568 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
9569 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
9572 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
9573 It is available through the history command M-n.
9575 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
9576 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
9577 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
9578 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
9579 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
9581 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
9582 argument in this way.
9584 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
9585 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
9586 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
9588 ** Echo area features
9590 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
9591 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
9592 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
9593 after the echo area is cleared.
9595 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
9596 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
9598 ** Keyboard input features
9600 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
9601 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
9603 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
9604 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
9607 ** Frame-related changes
9609 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
9610 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
9611 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
9613 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
9614 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
9615 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
9617 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
9618 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
9619 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
9620 in the selected frame.
9622 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
9623 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
9624 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
9626 ** X Windows features
9628 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
9629 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
9630 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
9632 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
9633 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
9635 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
9636 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
9637 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
9639 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
9640 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
9642 ** Subprocess features
9644 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
9645 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
9648 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
9649 and returns the output from the command as a string.
9651 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
9652 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
9654 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
9655 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
9657 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
9658 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
9659 goes after the other menu items.
9661 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
9662 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
9663 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
9666 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
9667 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
9669 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
9670 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
9673 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
9674 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
9675 but its hook is still run.
9677 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
9678 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
9680 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
9681 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
9682 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
9684 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
9685 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
9686 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
9689 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
9690 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
9692 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
9693 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
9694 functions like display-time.
9696 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
9697 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
9699 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
9700 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
9701 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
9703 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
9704 if there is an error in compilation.
9706 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
9707 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
9708 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
9709 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
9711 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
9712 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
9713 the *scratch* buffer.
9715 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
9716 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
9717 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
9718 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
9720 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
9721 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
9722 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
9724 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
9725 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
9726 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
9727 and compose-mail-other-frame.
9729 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
9730 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
9731 full name of the specified user will be returned.
9733 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
9734 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
9735 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
9736 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
9737 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
9740 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
9741 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
9742 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
9743 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
9745 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
9746 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
9747 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
9748 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
9750 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
9752 ** imenu.el changes.
9754 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
9755 item from menu created by imenu.
9757 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
9758 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
9759 select one of those items.
9761 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
9763 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
9764 Copyright information:
9766 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9768 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
9769 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
9770 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
9771 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
9773 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
9774 of this document, or of portions of it,
9775 under the above conditions, provided also that they
9776 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
9780 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"