1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2003-05-21
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 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
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8 `view-emacs-news' with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
11 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
12 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
13 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
14 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
17 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.4
19 ** Emacs includes now support for loading image libraries on demand.
20 (Currently this feature is only used on MS Windows.) You can configure
21 the supported image types and their associated dynamic libraries by
22 setting the variable `image-library-alist'.
25 ** A Bulgarian translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
27 ** You can build Emacs with Gtk+ widgets by specifying `--with-x-toolkit=gtk'
28 when you run configure. This requires Gtk+ 2.0 or newer. This port
29 provides a way to display multilingual text in menus (with some caveats).
32 ** Emacs can now be built without sound support.
34 ** The `emacsserver' program has been removed, replaced with elisp code.
37 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
38 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
42 ** By default, Emacs now uses a setgid helper program to update game
43 scores. The directory ${localstatedir}/games/emacs is the normal
44 place for game scores to be stored. This may be controlled by the
45 configure option `--with-game-dir'. The specific user that Emacs uses
46 to own the game scores is controlled by `--with-game-user'. If access
47 to a game user is not available, then scores will be stored separately
48 in each user's home directory.
51 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
52 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
56 ** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
58 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
59 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
60 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
61 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
64 ** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
67 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
68 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
69 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
70 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
72 ** Support for Cygwin was added.
75 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
78 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on S390 machines was added.
81 ** Support for MacOS X was added.
82 See the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
85 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on X86-64 machines was added.
88 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
91 ** A French translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
92 ** Building with -DENABLE_CHECKING does not automatically build with union
93 types any more. Add -DUSE_LISP_UNION_TYPE if you want union types.
96 * Changes in Emacs 21.4
98 ** Passing resources on the command line now works on MS Windows.
99 You can use --xrm to pass resource settings to Emacs, overriding any
100 existing values. For example:
102 emacs --xrm "Emacs.Background:red" --xrm "Emacs.Geometry:100x20"
104 will start up Emacs on an initial frame of 100x20 with red background,
105 irrespective of geometry or background setting on the Windows registry.
107 ** New features in evaluation commands
110 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) called on defface reinitializes
111 the face to the value specified in the defface expression.
113 *** Typing C-x C-e twice prints the value of the integer result
114 in additional formats (octal, hexadecimal, character) specified
115 by the new function `eval-expression-print-format'. The same
116 function also defines the result format for `eval-expression' (M-:),
117 `eval-print-last-sexp' (C-j) and some edebug evaluation functions.
119 ** New input method chinese-sisheng for inputting Chinese Pinyin
122 ** New command quail-show-key shows what key (or key sequence) to type
123 in the current input method to input a character at point.
125 ** Convenient commands to switch buffers in a cyclic order are C-x <left>
126 (prev-buffer) and C-x <right> (next-buffer).
128 ** Commands winner-redo and winner-undo, from winner.el, are now bound to
129 C-c <left> and C-c <right>, respectively. This is an incompatible change.
131 ** Help commands `describe-function' and `describe-key' now show function
132 arguments in lowercase italics on displays that support it. To change the
133 default, customize face `help-argument-name' or redefine the function
134 `help-default-arg-highlight'.
137 ** The comint prompt can now be made read-only, using the new user
138 option `comint-prompt-read-only'. This is not enabled by default,
139 except in IELM buffers. The read-only status of IELM prompts can be
140 controlled with the new user option `ielm-prompt-read-only', which
141 overrides `comint-prompt-read-only'.
143 The new commands `comint-kill-whole-line' and `comint-kill-region'
144 support editing comint buffers with read-only prompts.
146 `comint-kill-whole-line' is like `kill-whole-line', but ignores both
147 read-only and field properties. Hence, it will always kill entire
148 lines, including any prompts.
150 `comint-kill-region' is like `kill-region', except that it ignores
151 read-only properties, if it is safe to do so. This means that if any
152 part of a prompt is deleted, then the entire prompt must be deleted
153 and that all prompts must stay at the beginning of a line. If this is
154 not the case, then `comint-kill-region' behaves just like
155 `kill-region' if read-only are involved: it copies the text to the
156 kill-ring, but does not delete it.
158 ** You can now use next-error (C-x `) and previous-error to advance to
159 the next/previous matching line found by M-x occur.
161 ** Telnet will now prompt you for a port number with C-u M-x telnet.
164 ** New command line option -Q.
166 This is like using -q --no-site-file, but in addition it also disables
167 the menu-bar, the tool-bar, the scroll-bars, tool tips, the blinking
168 cursor, and the fancy startup screen.
170 ** C-h v and C-h f commands now include a hyperlink to the C source for
171 variables and functions defined in C (if the C source is available).
173 ** When used interactively, `format-write-file' now asks for confirmation
174 before overwriting an existing file, unless a prefix argument is
175 supplied. This behavior is analogous to `write-file'.
177 ** You can now use Auto Revert mode to `tail' a file.
178 If point is at the end of a file buffer before reverting, Auto Revert
179 mode keeps it at the end after reverting. Similarly if point is
180 displayed at the end of a file buffer in any window, it will stay at
181 the end of the buffer in that window. This allows to tail a file:
182 just put point at the end of the buffer and it will stay there. This
183 rule applies to file buffers. For non-file buffers, the behavior may
186 ** Auto Revert mode is now more careful to avoid excessive reverts and
187 other potential problems when deciding which non-file buffers to
188 revert. This matters especially if Global Auto Revert mode is enabled
189 and `global-auto-revert-non-file-buffers' is non-nil. Auto Revert
190 mode will only revert a non-file buffer if the buffer has a non-nil
191 `revert-buffer-function' and a non-nil `buffer-stale-function', which
192 decides whether the buffer should be reverted. Currently, this means
193 that auto reverting works for Dired buffers (although this may not
194 work properly on all operating systems) and for the Buffer Menu.
196 ** If the new user option `auto-revert-check-vc-info' is non-nil, Auto
197 Revert mode reliably updates version control info (such as the version
198 control number in the mode line), in all version controlled buffers in
199 which it is active. If the option is nil, the default, then this info
200 only gets updated whenever the buffer gets reverted.
202 ** New command `Buffer-menu-toggle-files-only' toggles display of file
203 buffers only in the Buffer Menu. It is bound to `T' in Buffer Menu
206 ** M-x compile has become more robust and reliable
208 Quite a few more kinds of messages are recognized. Messages that are
209 recognized as warnings or informational come in orange or green, instead of
210 red. Informational messages are by default skipped with `next-error'
211 (controlled by `compilation-skip-threshold').
213 Location data is collected on the fly as the *compilation* buffer changes.
214 This means you could modify messages to make them point to different files.
215 This also means you can not go to locations of messages you may have deleted.
217 The variable `compilation-error-regexp-alist' has now become customizable. If
218 you had added your own regexps to this, you'll probably need to include a
219 leading `^', otherwise they'll match anywhere on a line. There is now also a
220 `compilation-mode-font-lock-keywords' and it nicely handles all the checks
221 that configure outputs and -o options so you see at a glance where you are.
223 The new file etc/compilation.txt gives examples of each type of message.
225 ** M-x grep has been adapted to new compile
227 Hits are fontified in green, and hits in binary files in orange. Grep buffers
228 can be saved and will again be loaded with the new `grep-mode'.
230 ** M-x diff uses diff-mode instead of compilation-mode.
232 ** M-x compare-windows now can automatically skip non-matching text to
233 resync points in both windows.
235 ** New command `strokes-global-set-stroke-string'.
236 This is like `strokes-global-set-stroke', but it allows you to bind
237 the stroke directly to a string to insert. This is convenient for
238 using strokes as an input method.
243 *** Desktop saving is now a minor mode, desktop-save-mode. Variable
244 desktop-enable is obsolete. Customize desktop-save-mode to enable desktop
247 *** Buffers are saved in the desktop file in the same order as that in the
251 - desktop-revert reverts to the last loaded desktop.
252 - desktop-change-dir kills current desktop and loads a new.
253 - desktop-save-in-desktop-dir saves desktop in the directory from which
256 *** New customizable variables:
257 - desktop-save. Determins whether the desktop should be saved when it is
259 - desktop-file-name-format.
260 - desktop-path. List of directories in which to lookup the desktop file.
261 - desktop-locals-to-save.
262 - desktop-globals-to-clear.
263 - desktop-clear-preserve-buffers-regexp.
265 *** New command line option --no-desktop
268 - desktop-after-read-hook run after a desktop is loaded.
269 - desktop-no-desktop-file-hook run when no desktop file is found.
272 ** The saveplace.el package now filters out unreadable files.
273 When you exit Emacs, the saved positions in visited files no longer
274 include files that aren't readable, e.g. files that don't exist.
275 Customize the new option `save-place-forget-unreadable-files' to nil
276 to get the old behavior. The new options `save-place-save-skipped'
277 and `save-place-skip-check-regexp' allow further fine-tuning of this
280 ** You can have several Emacs servers on the same machine.
282 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "foo")' -f server-start &
283 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "bar")' -f server-start &
284 % emacsclient -s foo file1
285 % emacsclient -s bar file2
287 ** On window systems, lines which are exactly as wide as the window
288 (not counting the final newline character) are no longer broken into
289 two lines on the display (with just the newline on the second line).
290 Instead, the newline now "overflows" into the right fringe, and the
291 cursor will be displayed in the fringe when positioned on that newline.
293 The new user option 'overflow-newline-into-fringe' may be set to nil to
294 revert to the old behaviour of continuing such lines.
296 ** The buffer boundaries (i.e. first and last line in the buffer) may
297 now be marked with angle bitmaps in the fringes. In addition, up and
298 down arrow bitmaps may be shown at the top and bottom of the left or
299 right fringe if the window can be scrolled in either direction.
301 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
302 `indicate-buffer-boundaries' to a non-nil value. The default value of
303 this variable is found in `default-indicate-buffer-boundaries'.
305 If value is `left' or `right', both angle and arrow bitmaps are
306 displayed in the left or right fringe, resp. Any other non-nil value
307 causes the bitmap on the top line to be displayed in the left fringe,
308 and the bitmap on the bottom line in the right fringe.
310 If value is a cons (ANGLES . ARROWS), the car specifies the position
311 of the angle bitmaps, and the cdr specifies the position of the arrow
314 For example, (t . right) places the top angle bitmap in left fringe,
315 the bottom angle bitmap in right fringe, and both arrow bitmaps in
316 right fringe. To show just the angle bitmaps in the left fringe, but
317 no arrow bitmaps, use (left . nil).
319 ** New command `display-local-help' displays any local help at point
320 in the echo area. It is bound to `C-h .'. It normally displays the
321 same string that would be displayed on mouse-over using the
322 `help-echo' property, but, in certain cases, it can display a more
323 keyboard oriented alternative.
325 ** New user option `help-at-pt-display-when-idle' allows to
326 automatically show the help provided by `display-local-help' on
327 point-over, after suitable idle time. The amount of idle time is
328 determined by the user option `help-at-pt-timer-delay' and defaults
329 to one second. This feature is turned off by default.
331 ** New commands `scan-buf-next-region' and `scan-buf-previous-region'
332 move to the start of the next (previous, respectively) region with
333 non-nil help-echo property and display any help found there in the
334 echo area, using `display-local-help'.
337 ** Help mode now only makes hyperlinks for faces when the face name is
338 preceded or followed by the word `face'. It no longer makes
339 hyperlinks for variables without variable documentation, unless
340 preceded by one of the words `variable' or `option'. It now makes
341 hyperlinks to Info anchors (or nodes) if the anchor (or node) name is
342 enclosed in single quotes and preceded by `info anchor' or `Info
343 anchor' (in addition to earlier `info node' and `Info node').
345 ** The max size of buffers and integers has been doubled.
346 On 32bit machines, it is now 256M (i.e. 268435455).
349 ** The -f option, used from the command line to call a function,
350 now reads arguments for the function interactively if it is
351 an interactively callable function.
356 *** The variable `sql-product' controls the highlightng of different
357 SQL dialects. This variable can be set globally via Customize, on a
358 buffer-specific basis via local variable settings, or for the current
359 session using the new SQL->Product submenu. (This menu replaces the
360 SQL->Highlighting submenu.)
362 The following values are supported:
364 ansi ANSI Standard (default)
378 The current product name will be shown on the mode line following the
381 The technique of setting `sql-mode-font-lock-defaults' directly in
382 your .emacs will no longer establish the default highlighting -- Use
383 `sql-product' to accomplish this.
385 ANSI keywords are always highlighted.
387 *** The function `sql-add-product-keywords' can be used to add
388 font-lock rules to the product specific rules. For example, to have
389 all identifiers ending in "_t" under MS SQLServer treated as a type,
390 you would use the following line in your .emacs file:
392 (sql-add-product-keywords 'ms
393 '(("\\<\\w+_t\\>" . font-lock-type-face)))
395 *** Oracle support includes keyword highlighting for Oracle 9i. Most
396 SQL and PL/SQL keywords are implemented. SQL*Plus commands are
397 highlighted in `font-lock-doc-face'.
399 *** Microsoft SQLServer support has been significantly improved.
400 Keyword highlighting for SqlServer 2000 is implemented.
401 sql-interactive-mode defaults to use osql, rather than isql, because
402 osql flushes its error stream more frequently. Thus error messages
403 are displayed when they occur rather than when the session is
406 If the username and password are not provided to `sql-ms', osql is
407 called with the -E command line argument to use the operating system
408 credentials to authenticate the user.
410 *** Postgres support is enhanced.
411 Keyword highlighting of Postgres 7.3 is implemented. Prompting for
412 the username and the pgsql `-U' option is added.
414 *** MySQL support is enhanced.
415 Keyword higlighting of MySql 4.0 is implemented.
417 *** Imenu support has been enhanced to locate tables, views, indexes,
418 packages, procedures, functions, triggers, sequences, rules, and
421 *** Added SQL->Start SQLi Session menu entry which calls the
422 appropriate sql-interactive-mode wrapper for the current setting of
425 ** M-x view-file and commands that use it now avoid interfering
426 with special modes such as Tar mode.
428 ** Enhancements to apropos commands:
430 *** The apropos commands will now accept a list of words to match.
431 When more than one word is specified, at least two of those words must
432 be present for an item to match. Regular expression matching is still
435 *** The new option `apropos-sort-by-scores' causes the matching items
436 to be sorted according to their score. The score for an item is a
437 number calculated to indicate how well the item matches the words or
438 regular expression that you entered to the apropos command. The best
439 match is listed first, and the calculated score is shown for each
443 ** The old bindings C-M-delete and C-M-backspace have been deleted,
444 since there are situations where one or the other will shut down
445 the operating system or your X server.
447 ** New minor mode, Visible mode, toggles invisibility in the current buffer.
448 When enabled, it makes all invisible text visible. When disabled, it
449 restores the previous value of `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
451 ** New command `kill-whole-line' kills an entire line at once.
452 By default, it is bound to C-S-<backspace>.
454 ** New commands to operate on pairs of open and close characters:
455 `insert-pair', `delete-pair', `raise-sexp'.
457 ** A prefix argument of C-M-q in Emacs Lisp mode pretty-printifies the
458 list starting after point.
462 *** New faces dired-header, dired-mark, dired-marked, dired-flagged,
463 dired-ignored, dired-directory, dired-symlink, dired-warning
464 introduced for Dired mode instead of font-lock faces.
466 *** New Dired command `dired-compare-directories' marks files
467 with different file attributes in two dired buffers.
470 *** New Dired command `dired-do-touch' (bound to T) changes timestamps
471 of marked files with the value entered in the minibuffer.
474 *** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
475 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
476 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
477 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
478 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
479 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
482 *** Dired's v command now runs external viewers to view certain
483 types of files. The variable `dired-view-command-alist' controls
484 what external viewers to use and when.
486 *** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
487 into the kill ring. With a zero prefix arg, copies absolute file names.
492 *** Omitting files is now a minor mode, dired-omit-mode. The mode toggling
493 command is bound to M-o. A new command dired-mark-omitted, bound to M-O,
494 marks omitted files. The variable dired-omit-files-p is obsoleted, use the
495 mode toggling function instead.
499 *** A numeric prefix argument of `info' selects an Info buffer
500 with the number appended to the *info* buffer name.
502 *** New command `Info-history' (bound to L) displays a menu of visited nodes.
504 *** New command `Info-toc' (bound to T) creates a node with table of contents
505 from the tree structure of menus of the current Info file.
507 *** New command `info-apropos' searches the indices of the known
508 Info files on your system for a string, and builds a menu of the
511 *** New command `Info-copy-current-node-name' (bound to w) copies
512 the current Info node name into the kill ring. With a zero prefix
513 arg, puts the node name inside the `info' function call.
515 *** New command `Info-search-case-sensitively' (bound to S).
517 *** New command `Info-search-next' (unbound) repeats the last search
518 without prompting for a new search string.
520 *** New face `info-xref-visited' distinguishes visited nodes from unvisited
521 and a new option `Info-fontify-visited-nodes' to control this.
523 *** http and ftp links in Info are now operational: they look like cross
524 references and following them calls `browse-url'.
527 *** Info now hides node names in menus and cross references by default.
528 If you prefer the old behavior, you can set the new user option
529 `Info-hide-note-references' to nil.
531 *** Images in Info pages are supported.
532 Info pages show embedded images, in Emacs frames with image support.
533 Info documentation that includes images, processed with makeinfo
534 version 4.7 or newer, compiles to Info pages with embedded images.
537 *** The default value for `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' is now nil.
540 *** Info-index offers completion.
542 ** Support for the SQLite interpreter has been added to sql.el by calling
546 *** The new command bibtex-entry-update (bound to C-c C-u) updates
547 an existing BibTeX entry.
548 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `required-fields', enabled by default.
549 *** bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries can take values `plain',
550 `crossref', and `entry-class' which control the sorting scheme used
551 for BibTeX entries. `bibtex-sort-entry-class' controls the sorting
552 scheme `entry-class'. TAB completion for reference keys and
553 automatic detection of duplicates does not require anymore that
554 bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil.
556 *** If the new variable bibtex-parse-keys-fast is non-nil,
557 use fast but simplified algorithm for parsing BibTeX keys.
559 *** If the new variable bibtex-autoadd-commas is non-nil,
560 automatically add missing commas at end of BibTeX fields.
562 *** The new variable bibtex-autofill-types contains a list of entry
563 types for which fields are filled automatically (if possible).
565 *** The new command bibtex-complete completes word fragment before
566 point according to context (bound to M-tab).
568 *** The new commands bibtex-find-entry and bibtex-find-crossref
569 locate entries and crossref'd entries.
571 *** In BibTeX mode the command fill-paragraph (bound to M-q) fills
572 individual fields of a BibTeX entry.
574 ** When display margins are present in a window, the fringes are now
575 displayed between the margins and the buffer's text area, rather than
576 at the edges of the window.
578 ** A window may now have individual fringe and scroll-bar settings,
579 in addition to the individual display margin settings.
581 Such individual settings are now preserved when windows are split
582 horizontally or vertically, a saved window configuration is restored,
583 or when the frame is resized.
585 ** New functions frame-current-scroll-bars and window-current-scroll-bars.
587 These functions return the current locations of the vertical and
588 horizontal scroll bars in a frame or window.
591 ** Emacs now supports drag and drop for X. Dropping a file on a window
592 opens it, dropping text inserts the text. Dropping a file on a dired
593 buffer copies or moves the file to that directory.
595 ** Under X, mouse-wheel-mode is turned on by default.
597 ** The X resource useXIM can be used to turn off use of XIM, which may
598 speed up Emacs with slow networking to the X server.
600 If the configure option `--without-xim' was used to turn off use of
601 XIM by default, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn it on.
603 ** `undo-only' does an undo which does not redo any previous undo.
605 ** `uniquify-strip-common-suffix' tells uniquify to prefer
606 `file|dir1' and `file|dir2' to `file|dir1/subdir' and `file|dir2/subdir'.
608 ** If the user visits a file larger than `large-file-warning-threshold',
609 Emacs will prompt her for confirmation.
611 ** A UTF-7 coding system is available in the library `utf-7'.
613 ** GUD mode has its own tool bar for controlling execution of the inferior
614 and other common debugger commands.
618 The recent file list is now automatically cleanup when recentf mode is
619 enabled. The new option `recentf-auto-cleanup' controls when to do
622 With the more advanced option: `recentf-filename-handler', you can
623 specify a function that transforms filenames handled by recentf. For
624 example, if set to `file-truename', the same file will not be in the
625 recent list with different symbolic links.
627 To follow naming convention, `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-flag'
628 and `recentf-menu-append-commands-flag' respectively replace the
629 misnamed options `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-p' and
630 `recentf-menu-append-commands-p'. The old names remain available as
631 aliases, but have been marked obsolete.
633 ** The default for the paper size (variable ps-paper-type) is taken
638 You can now put the init files .emacs and .emacs_SHELL under
639 ~/.emacs.d or directly under ~. Emacs will find them in either place.
641 ** partial-completion-mode now does partial completion on directory names.
643 ** skeleton.el now supports using - to mark the skeleton-point without
644 interregion interaction. @ has reverted to only setting
645 skeleton-positions and no longer sets skeleton-point. Skeletons
646 which used @ to mark skeleton-point independent of _ should now use -
647 instead. The updated skeleton-insert docstring explains these new
648 features along with other details of skeleton construction.
652 Upgraded to MH-E version 7.3. There have been major changes since
653 version 5.0.2; see MH-E-NEWS for details.
656 ** The `emacsclient' command understands the options `--eval' and
657 `--display' which tell Emacs respectively to evaluate the given elisp
658 expression and to use the given display when visiting files.
660 ** User option `server-mode' can be used to start a server process.
663 ** The mode line position information now comes before the major mode.
664 When the file is maintained under version control, that information
665 appears between the position information and the major mode.
667 ** C-x s (save-some-buffers) now offers an option `d' to diff a buffer
668 against its file, so you can see what changes you would be saving.
671 ** You can now customize the use of window fringes. To control this
672 for all frames, use M-x fringe-mode or the Show/Hide submenu of the
673 top-level Options menu, or customize the `fringe-mode' variable. To
674 control this for a specific frame, use the command M-x
678 ** There is a new user option `mail-default-directory' that allows you
679 to specify the value of `default-directory' for mail buffers. This
680 directory is used for auto-save files of mail buffers. It defaults to
684 ** When you are root, and you visit a file whose modes specify
685 read-only, the Emacs buffer is now read-only too. Type C-x C-q if you
686 want to make the buffer writable. (As root, you will in fact be able
689 ** The new command `revert-buffer-with-coding-system' (C-x RET r)
690 revisits the current file using a coding system that you specify.
692 ** The new command `recode-file-name' changes the encoding of the name
696 ** `ps-print' can now print characters from the mule-unicode charsets.
698 Printing text with characters from the mule-unicode-* sets works with
699 ps-print, provided that you have installed the appropriate BDF fonts.
700 See the file INSTALL for URLs where you can find these fonts.
703 ** The new options `buffers-menu-show-directories' and
704 `buffers-menu-show-status' let you control how buffers are displayed
705 in the menu dropped down when you click "Buffers" from the menu bar.
707 `buffers-menu-show-directories' controls whether the menu displays
708 leading directories as part of the file name visited by the buffer.
709 If its value is `unless-uniquify', the default, directories will be
710 shown unless uniquify-buffer-name-style' is non-nil. The value of nil
711 and t turn the display of directories off and on, respectively.
713 `buffers-menu-show-status' controls whether the Buffers menu includes
714 the modified and read-only status of the buffers. By default it is
715 t, and the status is shown.
717 Setting these variables directly does not take effect until next time
718 the Buffers menu is regenerated.
721 ** The commands M-x customize-face and M-x customize-face-other-window
722 now look at the character after point. If a face or faces are
723 specified for that character, the commands by default customize those
726 ** New language environments: French, Ukrainian, Tajik,
727 Bulgarian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, UTF-8, Windows-1255, Welsh, Latin-6,
728 Latin-7, Lithuanian, Latvian, Swedish, Slovenian, Croatian, Georgian,
729 Italian, Russian, Malayalam, Tamil, Russian, Chinese-EUC-TW. (Set up
730 automatically according to the locale.)
732 ** Indian support has been updated.
733 The in-is13194 coding system is now Unicode-based. CDAC fonts are
734 assumed. There is a framework for supporting various
735 Indian scripts, but currently only Devanagari, Malayalam and Tamil are
739 ** New input methods: latin-alt-postfix, latin-postfix, latin-prefix,
740 ukrainian-computer, belarusian, bulgarian-bds, russian-computer,
741 vietnamese-telex, lithuanian-numeric, lithuanian-keyboard,
742 latvian-keyboard, welsh, georgian, rfc1345, ucs, sgml,
743 bulgarian-phonetic, dutch, slovenian, croatian, malayalam-inscript,
747 ** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
748 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
749 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
752 ** Many new coding systems are available by loading the `code-pages'
753 library. These include complete versions of most of those in
754 codepage.el, based on Unicode mappings. `codepage-setup' is now
755 obsolete and is used only in the MS-DOS port of Emacs. windows-1252
756 and windows-1251 are preloaded since the former is so common and the
757 latter is used by GNU locales.
759 ** The utf-8/16 coding systems have been enhanced.
760 By default, untranslatable utf-8 sequences are simply composed into
761 single quasi-characters. User option `utf-translate-cjk-mode' (it is
762 turned on by default) arranges to translate many utf-8 CJK character
763 sequences into real Emacs characters in a similar way to the Mule-UCS
764 system. As this loads a fairly big data on demand, people who are not
765 interested in CJK characters may want to customize it to nil.
766 You can augment/amend the CJK translation via hash tables
767 `ucs-mule-cjk-to-unicode' and `ucs-unicode-to-mule-cjk'. The utf-8
768 coding system now also encodes characters from most of Emacs's
769 one-dimensional internal charsets, specifically the ISO-8859 ones.
770 The utf-16 coding system is affected similarly.
772 ** iso-10646-1 (`Unicode') fonts can be used to display any range of
773 characters encodable by the utf-8 coding system. Just specify the
774 fontset appropriately.
776 ** New command `ucs-insert' inserts a character specified by its
780 ** Limited support for character `unification' has been added.
781 Emacs now knows how to translate between different representations of
782 the same characters in various Emacs charsets according to standard
783 Unicode mappings. This applies mainly to characters in the ISO 8859
784 sets plus some other 8-bit sets, but can be extended. For instance,
785 translation works amongst the Emacs ...-iso8859-... charsets and the
786 mule-unicode-... ones.
788 By default this translation will happen automatically on encoding.
789 Self-inserting characters are translated to make the input conformant
790 with the encoding of the buffer in which it's being used, where
793 You can force a more complete unification with the user option
794 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode. That maps all the Latin-N character sets
795 into Unicode characters (from the latin-iso8859-1 and
796 mule-unicode-0100-24ff charsets) on decoding. Note that this mode
797 will often effectively clobber data with an iso-2022 encoding.
799 ** There is support for decoding Greek and Cyrillic characters into
800 either Unicode (the mule-unicode charsets) or the iso-8859 charsets,
801 when possible. The latter are more space-efficient. This is
802 controlled by user option utf-fragment-on-decoding.
804 ** The new command `set-file-name-coding-system' (C-x RET F) sets
805 coding system for encoding and decoding file names. A new menu item
806 (Options->Mule->Set Coding Systems->For File Name) invokes this
810 ** The scrollbar under LessTif or Motif has a smoother drag-scrolling.
811 On the other hand, the size of the thumb does not represent the actual
812 amount of text shown any more (only a crude approximation of it).
815 ** The pop up menus for Lucid now stay up if you do a fast click and can
816 be navigated with the arrow keys (like Gtk+ and W32).
819 ** Dialogs for Lucid/Athena and Lesstif/Motif pops down when pressing ESC.
822 ** The file selection dialog for Gtk+, W32 and Motif/Lesstif can be
823 disabled by customizing the variable `use-file-dialog'.
826 ** Emacs can produce an underscore-like (horizontal bar) cursor.
827 The underscore cursor is set by putting `(cursor-type . hbar)' in
828 default-frame-alist. It supports variable heights, like the `bar'
832 ** On X, MS Windows, and Mac OS, the blinking cursor's "off" state is
833 now controlled by the variable `blink-cursor-alist'.
835 ** Filesets are collections of files. You can define a fileset in
836 various ways, such as based on a directory tree or based on
837 program files that include other program files.
839 Once you have defined a fileset, you can perform various operations on
840 all the files in it, such as visiting them or searching and replacing
844 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
845 when Emacs visits them.
848 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
850 `mpuz' now allows the 2nd factor not to have two identical digits. By
851 default, all trivial operations involving whole lines are performed
852 automatically. The game uses faces for better visual feedback.
854 ** The new variable `x-select-request-type' controls how Emacs
855 requests X selection. The default value is nil, which means that
856 Emacs requests X selection with types COMPOUND_TEXT and UTF8_STRING,
857 and use the more appropriately result.
860 ** The parameters of automatic hscrolling can now be customized.
861 The variable `hscroll-margin' determines how many columns away from
862 the window edge point is allowed to get before automatic hscrolling
863 will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
865 The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
866 hscrolling will scroll the window when point gets too close to the
867 window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
868 window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
869 many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
870 gives the fraction of the window's width to scroll the window.
872 The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to
873 `auto-hscroll-mode'. The old name is still available as an alias.
876 *** C-c C-c prompts for a command to run, and tries to offer a good default.
878 *** The user option `tex-start-options-string' has been replaced
879 by two new user options: `tex-start-options', which should hold
880 command-line options to feed to TeX, and `tex-start-commands' which should hold
881 TeX commands to use at startup.
882 *** verbatim environments are now highlighted in courier by font-lock
883 and super/sub-scripts are made into super/sub-scripts.
885 *** New major mode doctex-mode for *.dtx files.
888 ** New display feature: focus follows the mouse from one Emacs window
889 to another, even within a frame. If you set the variable
890 mouse-autoselect-window to non-nil value, moving the mouse to a
891 different Emacs window will select that window (minibuffer window can
892 be selected only when it is active). The default is nil, so that this
893 feature is not enabled.
895 ** On X, when the window manager requires that you click on a frame to
896 select it (give it focus), the selected window and cursor position
897 normally changes according to the mouse click position. If you set
898 the variable x-mouse-click-focus-ignore-position to t, the selected
899 window and cursor position do not change when you click on a frame
903 ** The new command `describe-char' (C-u C-x =) pops up a buffer with
904 description various information about a character, including its
905 encodings and syntax, its text properties, how to input, overlays, and
906 widgets at point. You can get more information about some of them, by
907 clicking on mouse-sensitive areas or moving there and pressing RET.
910 ** The new command `multi-occur' is just like `occur', except it can
911 search multiple buffers. There is also a new command
912 `multi-occur-by-filename-regexp' which allows you to specify the
913 buffers to search by their filename. Internally, Occur mode has been
914 rewritten, and now uses font-lock, among other changes.
916 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
917 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
918 in Indented-Text mode.
920 ** New user option `query-replace-skip-read-only': when non-nil,
921 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
922 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
924 ** When used interactively, the commands `query-replace-regexp' and
925 `replace-regexp' allow \,expr to be used in a replacement string,
926 where expr is an arbitrary Lisp expression evaluated at replacement
927 time. In many cases, this will be more convenient than using
928 `query-replace-regexp-eval'. `\#' in a replacement string now refers
929 to the count of replacements already made by the replacement command.
930 All regular expression replacement commands now allow `\?' in the
931 replacement string to specify a position where the replacement string
932 can be edited for each replacement.
935 ** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
936 is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
937 can optionally enable mouse highlighting only after you move the
938 mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
939 also disable mouse highlighting.
941 ** You can now customize if selecting a region by dragging the mouse
942 shall not copy the selected text to the kill-ring by setting the new
943 variable mouse-drag-copy-region to nil.
946 ** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
947 an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
948 font-lock now highlights any such open-paren-in-column-zero in bold-red
949 if it is inside a string or a comment, to indicate that it can cause
950 trouble with fontification and/or indentation.
953 ** There's a new face `minibuffer-prompt'.
954 Emacs adds this face to the list of text properties stored in the
955 variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', which is used to display the
959 ** The new face `mode-line-inactive' is used to display the mode line
960 of non-selected windows. The `mode-line' face is now used to display
961 the mode line of the currently selected window.
963 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
964 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
967 ** A menu item "Show/Hide" was added to the top-level menu "Options".
968 This menu allows you to turn various display features on and off (such
969 as the fringes, the tool bar, the speedbar, and the menu bar itself).
970 You can also move the vertical scroll bar to either side here or turn
971 it off completely. There is also a menu-item to toggle displaying of
972 current date and time, current line and column number in the
976 ** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
979 ** Emacs can now indicate in the mode-line the presence of new e-mail
980 in a directory or in a file. See the documentation of the user option
981 `display-time-mail-directory'.
984 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
987 ** You can now disable pc-selection-mode after enabling it.
988 M-x pc-selection-mode behaves like a proper minor mode, and with no
989 argument it toggles the mode.
991 Turning off PC-Selection mode restores the global key bindings
992 that were replaced by turning on the mode.
995 ** Emacs now displays a splash screen by default even if command-line
996 arguments were given. The new command-line option --no-splash
997 disables the splash screen; see also the variable
998 `inhibit-startup-message' (which is also aliased as
999 `inhibit-splash-screen').
1001 ** Changes in support of colors on character terminals
1004 *** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
1005 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
1006 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
1007 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
1008 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
1009 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
1010 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
1011 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
1012 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
1015 *** Emacs now supports several character terminals which provide more
1016 than 8 colors. For example, for `xterm', 16-color, 88-color, and
1017 256-color modes are supported. Emacs automatically notes at startup
1018 the extended number of colors, and defines the appropriate entries for
1019 all of these colors.
1022 *** Emacs now uses the full range of available colors for the default
1023 faces when running on a color terminal, including 16-, 88-, and
1024 256-color xterms. This means that when you run "emacs -nw" on an
1025 88-color or 256-color xterm, you will see essentially the same face
1029 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
1032 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
1034 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
1035 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
1036 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
1037 screen size. (For now, this does not work with some window managers.)
1040 ** Emacs now tries to set up buffer coding systems for HTML/XML files
1044 ** The new command `comint-insert-previous-argument' in comint-derived
1045 modes (shell-mode etc) inserts arguments from previous command lines,
1046 like bash's `ESC .' binding. It is bound by default to `C-c .', but
1047 otherwise behaves quite similarly to the bash version.
1050 ** Changes in C-h bindings:
1052 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
1054 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
1057 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
1058 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
1060 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
1061 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
1063 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
1065 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
1066 run by the key sequence.
1068 - C-h w and C-h f on a command which has been remapped now report the
1069 command it is remapped to, and the keys which can be used to run
1072 For example, if C-k is bound to kill-line, and kill-line is remapped
1073 to new-kill-line, these commands now report:
1075 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
1076 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
1078 - C-h w and C-h f kill-line reports:
1079 kill-line is remapped to new-kill-line which is on C-k, <deleteline>
1081 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
1082 new-kill-line is on C-k
1085 ** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
1086 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
1087 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
1088 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
1091 ** C-M-w deletes and C-M-y grabs a character in isearch mode.
1092 Another method to grab a character is to enter the minibuffer by `M-e'
1093 and to type `C-f' at the end of the search string in the minibuffer.
1096 ** M-% and C-M-% typed in isearch mode invoke `query-replace' and
1097 `query-replace-regexp' with the current search string inserted
1098 in the minibuffer as initial input for the string to replace.
1101 ** Yanking text now discards certain text properties that can
1102 be inconvenient when you did not expect them. The variable
1103 `yank-excluded-properties' specifies which ones. Insertion
1104 of register contents and rectangles also discards these properties.
1107 ** Occur, Info, and comint-derived modes now support using
1108 M-x font-lock-mode to toggle fontification. The variable
1109 `Info-fontify' is no longer applicable; to disable fontification,
1110 remove `turn-on-font-lock' from `Info-mode-hook'.
1113 ** M-x grep now tries to avoid appending `/dev/null' to the command line
1114 by using GNU grep `-H' option instead. M-x grep will automatically
1115 detect whether this is possible or not the first time it is invoked.
1116 When `-H' is used, the grep command line supplied by the user is passed
1117 unchanged to the system to execute, which allows more complicated
1118 command lines to be used than was possible before.
1121 ** The face-customization widget has been reworked to be less confusing.
1122 In particular, when you enable a face attribute using the corresponding
1123 check-box, there's no longer a redundant `*' option in value selection
1124 for that attribute; the values you can choose are only those which make
1125 sense for the attribute. When an attribute is de-selected by unchecking
1126 its check-box, then the (now ignored, but still present temporarily in
1127 case you re-select the attribute) value is hidden.
1130 ** When you set or reset a variable's value in a Customize buffer,
1131 the previous value becomes the "backup value" of the variable.
1132 You can go back to that backup value by selecting "Use Backup Value"
1133 under the "[State]" button.
1135 ** The new customization type `float' specifies numbers with floating
1136 point (no integers are allowed).
1139 ** In GUD mode, when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
1140 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
1143 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
1145 *** Search for source files using jdb classpath and class
1146 information. Fast startup since there is no need to scan all
1147 source files up front. There is also no need to create and maintain
1148 lists of source directories to scan. Look at `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
1149 and `gud-jdb-classpath' customization variables documentation.
1151 *** Supports the standard breakpoint (gud-break, gud-clear)
1152 set/clear operations from java source files under the classpath, stack
1153 traversal (gud-up, gud-down), and run until current stack finish
1156 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
1159 *** The previous method of searching for source files has been
1160 preserved in case someone still wants/needs to use it.
1161 Set gud-jdb-use-classpath to nil.
1163 Added Customization Variables
1165 *** gud-jdb-command-name. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
1167 *** gud-jdb-use-classpath. Allows selection of java source file searching
1168 method: set to t for new method, nil to scan gud-jdb-directories for
1169 java sources (previous method).
1171 *** gud-jdb-directories. List of directories to scan and search for java
1172 classes using the original gud-jdb method (if gud-jdb-use-classpath
1177 *** The STARTTLS elisp wrapper (starttls.el) can now use GNUTLS
1178 instead of the OpenSSL based "starttls" tool. For backwards
1179 compatibility, it will prefer "starttls", but you can toggle
1180 `starttls-use-gnutls' to switch to GNUTLS (or simply remove the
1183 *** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
1186 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
1187 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
1188 changes the behavior of motion commands like C-e and C-p.
1191 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
1192 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
1193 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
1194 is only rarely needed.
1198 *** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
1200 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
1201 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
1202 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
1203 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
1205 *** contextual refontification is now separate from stealth fontification.
1207 jit-lock-defer-contextually is renamed jit-lock-contextually and
1208 jit-lock-context-time determines the delay after which contextual
1209 refontification takes place.
1212 ** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times. If
1213 you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h (mark-paragraph), or
1214 C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region will now be extended
1215 each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC M-C-SPC,
1216 for example. This feature also works for mark-end-of-sentence, if you
1220 ** Some commands do something special in Transient Mark mode when the
1221 mark is active--for instance, they limit their operation to the
1222 region. Even if you don't normally use Transient Mark mode, you might
1223 want to get this behavior from a particular command. There are two
1224 ways you can enable Transient Mark mode and activate the mark, for one
1227 One method is to type C-SPC C-SPC; this enables Transient Mark mode
1228 and sets the mark at point. The other method is to type C-u C-x C-x.
1229 This enables Transient Mark mode temporarily but does not alter the
1232 After these commands, Transient Mark mode remains enabled until you
1233 deactivate the mark. That typically happens when you type a command
1234 that alters the buffer, but you can also deactivate the mark by typing
1238 ** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
1239 previous mark, i.e. C-u C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... will cycle through the
1240 mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC to set the mark immediately after a jump.
1243 ** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
1244 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
1248 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
1249 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
1250 affects the initial frame.
1253 ** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
1254 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
1255 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
1259 ** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
1260 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
1261 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
1262 directory listing into a buffer.
1265 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
1266 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
1268 ** Unexpected yanking of text due to accidental clicking on the mouse
1269 wheel button (typically mouse-2) during wheel scrolling is now avoided.
1270 This behaviour can be customized via the mouse-wheel-click-event and
1271 mouse-wheel-inhibit-click-time variables.
1274 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on your
1275 current locale settings if you are not using a window system. This
1276 may mean that the META key doesn't work but generates non-ASCII
1277 characters instead, depending on how the terminal (or terminal
1278 emulator) works. Use `set-keyboard-coding-system' (or customize
1279 keyboard-coding-system) if you prefer META to work (the old default)
1280 or if the locale doesn't describe the character set actually generated
1281 by the keyboard. See Info node `Single-Byte Character Support'.
1284 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
1285 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
1286 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
1287 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
1288 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
1291 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
1292 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
1295 ** The variable `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' can now be set to any
1296 of the recognized cursor types.
1299 ** The variable `auto-save-file-name-transforms' now has a third element that
1300 controls whether or not the function `make-auto-save-file-name' will
1301 attempt to construct a unique auto-save name (e.g. for remote files).
1304 ** Diary sexp entries can have custom marking in the calendar.
1305 Diary sexp functions which only apply to certain days (such as
1306 `diary-block' or `diary-cyclic') now take an optional parameter MARK,
1307 which is the name of a face or a single-character string indicating
1308 how to highlight the day in the calendar display. Specifying a
1309 single-character string as @var{mark} places the character next to the
1310 day in the calendar. Specifying a face highlights the day with that
1311 face. This lets you have different colors or markings for vacations,
1312 appointments, paydays or anything else using a sexp.
1315 ** The new function `calendar-goto-day-of-year' (g D) prompts for a
1316 year and day number, and moves to that date. Negative day numbers
1317 count backward from the end of the year.
1319 ** The function `simple-diary-display' now by default sets a header line.
1320 This can be controlled through the variables `diary-header-line-flag'
1321 and `diary-header-line-format'.
1324 ** The procedure for activating appointment reminders has changed: use
1325 the new function `appt-activate'. The new variable
1326 `appt-display-format' controls how reminders are displayed, replacing
1327 appt-issue-message, appt-visible, and appt-msg-window.
1329 ** The new functions `diary-from-outlook', `diary-from-outlook-gnus',
1330 and `diary-from-outlook-rmail' can be used to import diary entries
1331 from Outlook-format appointments in mail messages. The variable
1332 `diary-outlook-formats' can be customized to recognize additional
1338 *** The key C-x C-q no longer checks files in or out, it only changes
1339 the read-only state of the buffer (toggle-read-only). We made this
1340 change because we held a poll and found that many users were unhappy
1341 with the previous behavior. If you do prefer this behavior, you
1342 can bind `vc-toggle-read-only' to C-x C-q in your .emacs:
1344 (global-set-key "\C-x\C-q" 'vc-toggle-read-only)
1346 The function `vc-toggle-read-only' will continue to exist.
1349 *** There is a new user option `vc-cvs-global-switches' that allows
1350 you to specify switches that are passed to any CVS command invoked
1351 by VC. These switches are used as "global options" for CVS, which
1352 means they are inserted before the command name. For example, this
1353 allows you to specify a compression level using the "-z#" option for
1356 *** New backends for Subversion and Meta-CVS.
1361 *** When comparing directories.
1362 Typing D brings up a buffer that lists the differences between the contents of
1363 directories. Now it is possible to use this buffer to copy the missing files
1364 from one directory to another.
1367 *** When comparing files or buffers.
1368 Typing the = key now offers to perform the word-by-word comparison of the
1369 currently highlighted regions in an inferior Ediff session. If you answer 'n'
1370 then it reverts to the old behavior and asks the user to select regions for
1373 *** The new command `ediff-backup' compares a file with its most recent
1374 backup using `ediff'. If you specify the name of a backup file,
1375 `ediff-backup' compares it with the file of which it is a backup.
1380 *** New regular expressions features
1382 **** New syntax for regular expressions, multi-line regular expressions.
1383 The syntax --ignore-case-regexp=/regex/ is now undocumented and retained
1384 only for backward compatibility. The new equivalent syntax is
1385 --regex=/regex/i. More generally, it is --regex=/TAGREGEX/TAGNAME/MODS,
1386 where `/TAGNAME' is optional, as usual, and MODS is a string of 0 or
1387 more characters among `i' (ignore case), `m' (multi-line) and `s'
1388 (single-line). The `m' and `s' modifiers behave as in Perl regular
1389 expressions: `m' allows regexps to match more than one line, while `s'
1390 (which implies `m') means that `.' matches newlines. The ability to
1391 span newlines allows writing of much more powerful regular expressions
1392 and rapid prototyping for tagging new languages.
1394 **** Regular expressions can use char escape sequences as in Gcc.
1395 The escaped character sequence \a, \b, \d, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v,
1396 respectively, stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
1399 **** Regular expressions can be bound to a given language.
1400 The syntax --regex={LANGUAGE}REGEX means that REGEX is used to make tags
1401 only for files of language LANGUAGE, and ignored otherwise. This is
1402 particularly useful when storing regexps in a file.
1404 **** Regular expressions can be read from a file.
1405 The --regex=@regexfile option means read the regexps from a file, one
1406 per line. Lines beginning with space or tab are ignored.
1408 *** New language parsing features
1410 **** The `::' qualifier triggers C++ parsing in C file.
1411 Previously, only the `template' and `class' keywords had this effect.
1413 **** In Perl, packages are tags.
1414 Subroutine tags are named from their package. You can jump to sub tags
1415 as you did before, by the sub name, or additionally by looking for
1418 **** New language PHP.
1419 Tags are functions, classes and defines.
1420 If the --members option is specified to etags, tags are vars also.
1422 **** New language HTML.
1423 Title and h1, h2, h3 are tagged. Also, tags are generated when name= is
1424 used inside an anchor and whenever id= is used.
1426 **** New default keywords for TeX.
1427 The new keywords are def, newcommand, renewcommand, newenvironment and
1430 **** In Makefiles, constants are tagged.
1431 If you want the old behavior instead, thus avoiding to increase the
1432 size of the tags file, use the --no-globals option.
1434 **** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
1436 *** Honour #line directives.
1437 When Etags parses an input file that contains C preprocessor's #line
1438 directives, it creates tags using the file name and line number
1439 specified in those directives. This is useful when dealing with code
1440 created from Cweb source files. When Etags tags the generated file, it
1441 writes tags pointing to the source file.
1443 *** New option --parse-stdin=FILE.
1444 This option is mostly useful when calling etags from programs. It can
1445 be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line. Etags
1446 will read from standard input and mark the produced tags as belonging to
1452 *** Font lock support.
1453 CC Mode now provides font lock support for all its languages. This
1454 supersedes the font lock patterns that have been in the core font lock
1455 package for C, C++, Java and Objective-C. Like indentation, font
1456 locking is done in a uniform way across all languages (except the new
1457 AWK mode - see below). That means that the new font locking will be
1458 different from the old patterns in various details for most languages.
1460 The main goal of the font locking in CC Mode is accuracy, to provide a
1461 dependable aid in recognizing the various constructs. Some, like
1462 strings and comments, are easy to recognize while others like
1463 declarations and types can be very tricky. CC Mode can go to great
1464 lengths to recognize declarations and casts correctly, especially when
1465 the types aren't recognized by standard patterns. This is a fairly
1466 demanding analysis which can be slow on older hardware, and it can
1467 therefore be disabled by choosing a lower decoration level with the
1468 variable font-lock-maximum-decoration.
1470 Note that the most demanding font lock level has been tuned with lazy
1471 fontification in mind, i.e. there should be a support mode that waits
1472 with the fontification until the text is actually shown
1473 (e.g. Just-in-time Lock mode, which is the default, or Lazy Lock
1474 mode). Fontifying a file with several thousand lines in one go can
1475 take the better part of a minute.
1477 **** The (c|c++|objc|java|idl|pike)-font-lock-extra-types variables
1478 are now used by CC Mode to recognize identifiers that are certain to
1479 be types. (They are also used in cases that aren't related to font
1480 locking.) At the maximum decoration level, types are often recognized
1481 properly anyway, so these variables should be fairly restrictive and
1482 not contain patterns for uncertain types.
1484 **** Support for documentation comments.
1485 There is a "plugin" system to fontify documentation comments like
1486 Javadoc and the markup within them. It's independent of the host
1487 language, so it's possible to e.g. turn on Javadoc font locking in C
1488 buffers. See the variable c-doc-comment-style for details.
1490 Currently two kinds of doc comment styles are recognized: Suns Javadoc
1491 and Autodoc which is used in Pike. This is by no means a complete
1492 list of the most common tools; if your doc comment extractor of choice
1493 is missing then please drop a note to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
1495 **** Better handling of C++ templates.
1496 As a side effect of the more accurate font locking, C++ templates are
1497 now handled much better. The angle brackets that delimit them are
1498 given parenthesis syntax so that they can be navigated like other
1501 This also improves indentation of templates, although there still is
1502 work to be done in that area. E.g. it's required that multiline
1503 template clauses are written in full and then refontified to be
1504 recognized, and the indentation of nested templates is a bit odd and
1505 not as configurable as it ought to be.
1507 **** Improved handling of Objective-C and CORBA IDL.
1508 Especially the support for Objective-C and IDL has gotten an overhaul.
1509 The special "@" declarations in Objective-C are handled correctly.
1510 All the keywords used in CORBA IDL, PSDL, and CIDL are recognized and
1511 handled correctly, also wrt indentation.
1513 *** Support for the AWK language.
1514 Support for the AWK language has been introduced. The implementation is
1515 based around GNU AWK version 3.1, but it should work pretty well with
1516 any AWK. As yet, not all features of CC Mode have been adapted for AWK.
1519 **** Indentation Engine
1520 The CC Mode indentation engine fully supports AWK mode.
1522 AWK mode handles code formatted in the conventional AWK fashion: `{'s
1523 which start actions, user-defined functions, or compound statements are
1524 placed on the same line as the associated construct; the matching `}'s
1525 are normally placed under the start of the respective pattern, function
1526 definition, or structured statement.
1528 The predefined indentation functions haven't yet been adapted for AWK
1529 mode, though some of them may work serendipitously. There shouldn't be
1530 any problems writing custom indentation functions for AWK mode.
1532 The command C-c C-q (c-indent-defun) hasn't yet been adapted for AWK,
1533 though in practice it works properly nearly all the time. Should it
1534 fail, explicitly set the region around the function (using C-u C-SPC:
1535 C-M-h probably won't work either) then do C-M-\ (indent-region).
1538 There is a single level of font locking in AWK mode, rather than the
1539 three distinct levels the other modes have. There are several
1540 idiosyncrasies in AWK mode's font-locking due to the peculiarities of
1541 the AWK language itself.
1543 **** Comment Commands
1544 M-; (indent-for-comment) works fine. None of the other CC Mode
1545 comment formatting commands have yet been adapted for AWK mode.
1547 **** Movement Commands
1548 Most of the movement commands work in AWK mode. The most important
1549 exceptions are M-a (c-beginning-of-statement) and M-e
1550 (c-end-of-statement) which haven't yet been adapted.
1552 The notion of "defun" has been augmented to include AWK pattern-action
1553 pairs. C-M-a (c-awk-beginning-of-defun) and C-M-e (c-awk-end-of-defun)
1554 recognise these pattern-action pairs, as well as user defined
1557 **** Auto-newline Insertion and Clean-ups
1558 Auto-newline insertion hasn't yet been adapted for AWK. Some of
1559 the clean-ups can actually convert good AWK code into syntactically
1560 invalid code. These features are best disabled in AWK buffers.
1562 *** New syntactic symbols in IDL mode.
1563 The top level constructs "module" and "composition" (from CIDL) are
1564 now handled like "namespace" in C++: They are given syntactic symbols
1565 module-open, module-close, inmodule, composition-open,
1566 composition-close, and incomposition.
1568 *** New functions to do hungry delete without enabling hungry delete mode.
1569 The functions c-hungry-backspace and c-hungry-delete-forward can be
1570 bound to keys to get this feature without toggling a mode.
1571 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
1573 *** Better control over require-final-newline.
1574 The variable that controls how to handle a final newline when the
1575 buffer is saved, require-final-newline, is now customizable on a
1576 per-mode basis through c-require-final-newline. The default is to set
1577 it to t only in languages that mandate a final newline in source files
1578 (C, C++ and Objective-C).
1580 *** Format change for syntactic context elements.
1581 The elements in the syntactic context returned by c-guess-basic-syntax
1582 and stored in c-syntactic-context has been changed somewhat to allow
1583 attaching more information. They are now lists instead of single cons
1584 cells. E.g. a line that previously had the syntactic analysis
1586 ((inclass . 11) (topmost-intro . 13))
1590 ((inclass 11) (topmost-intro 13))
1592 In some cases there are more than one position given for a syntactic
1595 This change might affect code that call c-guess-basic-syntax directly,
1596 and custom lineup functions if they use c-syntactic-context. However,
1597 the argument given to lineup functions is still a single cons cell
1598 with nil or an integer in the cdr.
1600 *** API changes for derived modes.
1601 There have been extensive changes "under the hood" which can affect
1602 derived mode writers. Some of these changes are likely to cause
1603 incompatibilities with existing derived modes, but on the other hand
1604 care has now been taken to make it possible to extend and modify CC
1605 Mode with less risk of such problems in the future.
1607 **** New language variable system.
1608 See the comment blurb near the top of cc-langs.el.
1610 **** New initialization functions.
1611 The initialization procedure has been split up into more functions to
1612 give better control: c-basic-common-init, c-font-lock-init, and
1613 c-init-language-vars.
1615 *** Changes in analysis of nested syntactic constructs.
1616 The syntactic analysis engine has better handling of cases where
1617 several syntactic constructs appear nested on the same line. They are
1618 now handled as if each construct started on a line of its own.
1620 This means that CC Mode now indents some cases differently, and
1621 although it's more consistent there might be cases where the old way
1622 gave results that's more to one's liking. So if you find a situation
1623 where you think that the indentation has become worse, please report
1624 it to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
1626 **** New syntactic symbol substatement-label.
1627 This symbol is used when a label is inserted between a statement and
1628 its substatement. E.g:
1634 *** Better handling of multiline macros.
1636 **** Syntactic indentation inside macros.
1637 The contents of multiline #define's are now analyzed and indented
1638 syntactically just like other code. This can be disabled by the new
1639 variable c-syntactic-indentation-in-macros. A new syntactic symbol
1640 cpp-define-intro has been added to control the initial indentation
1643 **** New lineup function c-lineup-cpp-define.
1644 Now used by default to line up macro continuation lines. The behavior
1645 of this function closely mimics the indentation one gets if the macro
1646 is indented while the line continuation backslashes are temporarily
1647 removed. If syntactic indentation in macros is turned off, it works
1648 much line c-lineup-dont-change, which was used earlier, but handles
1649 empty lines within the macro better.
1651 **** Automatically inserted newlines continues the macro if used within one.
1652 This applies to the newlines inserted by the auto-newline mode, and to
1653 c-context-line-break and c-context-open-line.
1655 **** Better alignment of line continuation backslashes.
1656 c-backslash-region tries to adapt to surrounding backslashes. New
1657 variable c-backslash-max-column which put a limit on how far out
1658 backslashes can be moved.
1660 **** Automatic alignment of line continuation backslashes.
1661 This is controlled by the new variable c-auto-align-backslashes. It
1662 affects c-context-line-break, c-context-open-line and newlines
1663 inserted in auto-newline mode.
1665 **** Line indentation works better inside macros.
1666 Regardless whether syntactic indentation and syntactic indentation
1667 inside macros are enabled or not, line indentation now ignores the
1668 line continuation backslashes. This is most noticeable when syntactic
1669 indentation is turned off and there are empty lines (save for the
1670 backslash) in the macro.
1672 *** indent-for-comment is more customizable.
1673 The behavior of M-; (indent-for-comment) is now configurable through
1674 the variable c-indent-comment-alist. The indentation behavior based
1675 on the preceding code on the line, e.g. to get two spaces after #else
1676 and #endif but indentation to comment-column in most other cases
1677 (something which was hardcoded earlier).
1679 *** New function c-context-open-line.
1680 It's the open-line equivalent of c-context-line-break.
1682 *** New lineup functions
1684 **** c-lineup-string-cont
1685 This lineup function lines up a continued string under the one it
1688 result = prefix + "A message "
1689 "string."; <- c-lineup-string-cont
1691 **** c-lineup-cascaded-calls
1692 Lines up series of calls separated by "->" or ".".
1694 **** c-lineup-knr-region-comment
1695 Gives (what most people think is) better indentation of comments in
1696 the "K&R region" between the function header and its body.
1698 **** c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg
1699 Provides better indentation inside asm blocks. Contributed by Kevin
1702 **** c-lineup-argcont
1703 Lines up continued function arguments after the preceding comma.
1704 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
1706 *** Better caching of the syntactic context.
1707 CC Mode caches the positions of the opening parentheses (of any kind)
1708 of the lists surrounding the point. Those positions are used in many
1709 places as anchor points for various searches. The cache is now
1710 improved so that it can be reused to a large extent when the point is
1711 moved. The less it moves, the less needs to be recalculated.
1713 The effect is that CC Mode should be fast most of the time even when
1714 opening parens are hung (i.e. aren't in column zero). It's typically
1715 only the first time after the point is moved far down in a complex
1716 file that it'll take noticeable time to find out the syntactic
1719 *** Statements are recognized in a more robust way.
1720 Statements are recognized most of the time even when they occur in an
1721 "invalid" context, e.g. in a function argument. In practice that can
1722 happen when macros are involved.
1724 *** Improved the way c-indent-exp chooses the block to indent.
1725 It now indents the block for the closest sexp following the point
1726 whose closing paren ends on a different line. This means that the
1727 point doesn't have to be immediately before the block to indent.
1728 Also, only the block and the closing line is indented; the current
1729 line is left untouched.
1731 *** Added toggle for syntactic indentation.
1732 The function c-toggle-syntactic-indentation can be used to toggle
1733 syntactic indentation.
1735 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
1736 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
1739 ** The command `list-text-properties-at' has been deleted because
1740 C-u C-x = gives the same information and more.
1743 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
1744 with a space, when those buffers are visiting files. Normally buffers
1745 whose names begin with space are omitted.
1748 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
1749 filling can break lines. We provide two sample predicates,
1750 fill-single-word-nobreak-p and fill-french-nobreak-p.
1753 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
1754 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry will always
1755 start a new record regardless of when the last record is.
1758 ** SGML mode has indentation and supports XML syntax.
1759 The new variable `sgml-xml-mode' tells SGML mode to use XML syntax.
1760 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
1761 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
1762 By default, its setting is inferred on a buffer-by-buffer basis
1763 from the file name or buffer contents.
1766 ** `xml-mode' is now an alias for `sgml-mode', which has XML support.
1769 ** New user option `isearch-resume-enabled'.
1770 This option can be disabled, to avoid the normal behavior of isearch
1771 which puts calls to `isearch-resume' in the command history.
1774 ** Lisp mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
1777 ** Perl mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
1780 ** Fortran mode has a new variable `fortran-directive-re'.
1781 Adapt this to match the format of any compiler directives you use.
1782 Lines that match are never indented, and are given distinctive font-locking.
1785 ** F90 mode has new navigation commands `f90-end-of-block',
1786 `f90-beginning-of-block', `f90-next-block', `f90-previous-block'.
1788 ** F90 mode now has support for hs-minor-mode (hideshow).
1789 It cannot deal with every code format, but ought to handle a sizeable
1793 ** Prolog mode has a new variable `prolog-font-lock-keywords'
1794 to support use of font-lock.
1797 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
1798 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
1802 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
1803 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
1804 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
1807 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
1808 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
1809 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
1810 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
1811 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
1812 candidate is a directory.
1815 ** The completion commands TAB, SPC and ? in the minibuffer apply only
1816 to the text before point. If there is text in the buffer after point,
1817 it remains unchanged.
1819 ** Enhanced visual feedback in *Completions* buffer.
1821 Completions lists use faces to highlight what all completions
1822 have in common and where they begin to differ.
1824 The common prefix shared by all possible completions uses the face
1825 `completions-common-part', while the first character that isn't the
1826 same uses the face `completions-first-difference'. By default,
1827 `completions-common-part' inherits from `default', and
1828 `completions-first-difference' inherits from `bold'. The idea of
1829 `completions-common-part' is that you can use it to make the common
1830 parts less visible than normal, so that the rest of the differing
1831 parts is, by contrast, slightly highlighted.
1834 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
1835 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
1836 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
1838 ** Compilation mode enhancements:
1840 *** New user option `compilation-environment'.
1841 This option allows you to specify environment variables for inferior
1842 compilation processes without affecting the environment that all
1843 subprocesses inherit.
1845 *** `next-error' now temporarily highlights the corresponding source line.
1847 ** Grep has been decoupled from compilation mode setup.
1849 *** There's a new separate package grep.el.
1851 *** Grep commands now have their own submenu and customization group.
1853 *** The new variables `grep-window-height', `grep-auto-highlight', and
1854 `grep-scroll-output' can be used to override the corresponding
1855 compilation mode settings for grep commands.
1857 *** Source line is temporarily highlighted when going to next match.
1859 *** New key bindings in grep output window:
1860 SPC and DEL scrolls window up and down. C-n and C-p moves to next and
1861 previous match in the grep window. RET jumps to the source line of
1862 the current match. `n' and `p' shows next and previous match in
1863 other window, but does not switch buffer. `{' and `}' jumps to the
1864 previous or next file in the grep output. TAB also jumps to the next
1868 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
1871 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
1872 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
1873 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
1876 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
1877 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
1880 ** Images are now supported on MS Windows.
1881 PBM and XBM images are supported out of the box. Other image formats
1882 depend on external libraries. All of these libraries have been ported
1883 to Windows, and can be found in both source and binary form at
1884 http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/. Note that libpng also depends on
1885 zlib, and tiff depends on the version of jpeg that it was compiled
1886 against. For additional information, see nt/INSTALL.
1889 ** Sound is now supported on MS Windows.
1890 WAV format is supported on all versions of Windows, other formats such
1891 as AU, AIFF and MP3 may be supported in the more recent versions of
1892 Windows, or when other software provides hooks into the system level
1893 sound support for those formats.
1896 ** Different shaped mouse pointers are supported on MS Windows.
1897 The mouse pointer changes shape depending on what is under the pointer.
1900 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
1901 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
1902 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
1903 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
1906 ** Emacs takes note of colors defined in Control Panel on MS-Windows.
1907 The Control Panel defines some default colors for applications in
1908 much the same way as wildcard X Resources do on X. Emacs now
1909 adds these colors to the colormap prefixed by System (eg SystemMenu
1910 for the default Menu background, SystemMenuText for the foreground),
1911 and uses some of them to initialize some of the default faces.
1912 `list-colors-display' will show the list of System color names if you
1913 wish to use them in other faces.
1916 ** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
1917 The new variables `x-alt-keysym', `x-hyper-keysym', `x-meta-keysym',
1918 and `x-super-keysym' can be used to choose which keysyms Emacs should
1919 use for the modifiers. For example, the following two lines swap
1921 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
1922 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
1925 ** vc-annotate-mode enhancements
1927 In vc-annotate mode, you can now use the following key bindings for
1928 enhanced functionality to browse the annotations of past revisions, or
1929 to view diffs or log entries directly from vc-annotate-mode:
1931 P: annotates the previous revision
1932 N: annotates the next revision
1933 J: annotates the revision at line
1934 A: annotates the revision previous to line
1935 D: shows the diff of the revision at line with its previous revision
1936 L: shows the log of the revision at line
1937 W: annotates the workfile (most up to date) version
1940 ** In pcl-cvs mode, there is a new `d y' command to view the diffs
1941 between the local version of the file and yesterday's head revision
1945 ** In pcl-cvs mode, there is a new `d r' command to view the changes
1946 anyone has committed to the repository since you last executed
1947 "checkout", "update" or "commit". That means using cvs diff options
1951 * New modes and packages in Emacs 21.4
1953 ** The new package flymake.el does on-the-fly syntax checking of program
1954 source files. See the Flymake's Info manual for more details.
1956 ** The library tree-widget.el provides a new widget to display a set
1957 of hierarchical data as an outline. For example, the tree-widget is
1958 well suited to display a hierarchy of directories and files.
1960 ** The wdired.el package allows you to use normal editing commands on dired
1961 buffers to change filenames, permissions, etc...
1963 ** The new python.el package is used to edit Python and Jython programs.
1965 ** The URL package (which had been part of W3) is now part of Emacs.
1968 ** The new global minor mode `size-indication-mode' (off by default)
1969 shows the size of accessible part of the buffer on the mode line.
1971 ** GDB-Script-mode is used for files like .gdbinit.
1974 ** Ido mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1976 The ido (interactively do) package is an extension of the iswitchb
1977 package to do interactive opening of files and directories in addition
1978 to interactive buffer switching. Ido is a superset of iswitchb (with
1979 a few exceptions), so don't enable both packages.
1982 ** CUA mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1984 The new cua package provides CUA-like keybindings using C-x for
1985 cut (kill), C-c for copy, C-v for paste (yank), and C-z for undo.
1986 With cua, the region can be set and extended using shifted movement
1987 keys (like pc-selection-mode) and typed text replaces the active
1988 region (like delete-selection-mode). Do not enable these modes with
1989 cua-mode. Customize the variable `cua-mode' to enable cua.
1991 In addition, cua provides unified rectangle support with visible
1992 rectangle highlighting: Use S-return to start a rectangle, extend it
1993 using the movement commands (or mouse-3), and cut or copy it using C-x
1994 or C-c (using C-w and M-w also works).
1996 Use M-o and M-c to `open' or `close' the rectangle, use M-b or M-f, to
1997 fill it with blanks or another character, use M-u or M-l to upcase or
1998 downcase the rectangle, use M-i to increment the numbers in the
1999 rectangle, use M-n to fill the rectangle with a numeric sequence (such
2000 as 10 20 30...), use M-r to replace a regexp in the rectangle, and use
2001 M-' or M-/ to restrict command on the rectangle to a subset of the
2002 rows. See the commentary in cua-base.el for more rectangle commands.
2004 Cua also provides unified support for registers: Use a numeric
2005 prefix argument between 0 and 9, i.e. M-0 .. M-9, for C-x, C-c, and
2006 C-v to cut or copy into register 0-9, or paste from register 0-9.
2008 The last text deleted (not killed) is automatically stored in
2009 register 0. This includes text deleted by typing text.
2011 Finally, cua provides a global mark which is set using S-C-space.
2012 When the global mark is active, any text which is cut or copied is
2013 automatically inserted at the global mark position. See the
2014 commentary in cua-base.el for more global mark related commands.
2016 The features of cua also works with the standard emacs bindings for
2017 kill, copy, yank, and undo. If you want to use cua mode, but don't
2018 want the C-x, C-c, C-v, and C-z bindings, you may customize the
2019 `cua-enable-cua-keys' variable.
2021 Note: This version of cua mode is not backwards compatible with older
2022 versions of cua.el and cua-mode.el. To ensure proper operation, you
2023 must remove older versions of cua.el or cua-mode.el as well as the
2024 loading and customization of those packages from the .emacs file.
2026 ** The new keypad setup package provides several common bindings for
2027 the numeric keypad which is available on most keyboards. The numeric
2028 keypad typically has the digits 0 to 9, a decimal point, keys marked
2029 +, -, /, and *, an Enter key, and a NumLock toggle key. The keypad
2030 package only controls the use of the digit and decimal keys.
2032 By customizing the variables `keypad-setup', `keypad-shifted-setup',
2033 `keypad-numlock-setup', and `keypad-numlock-shifted-setup', or by
2034 using the function `keypad-setup', you can rebind all digit keys and
2035 the decimal key of the keypad in one step for each of the four
2036 possible combinations of the Shift key state (not pressed/pressed) and
2037 the NumLock toggle state (off/on).
2039 The choices for the keypad keys in each of the above states are:
2040 `Plain numeric keypad' where the keys generates plain digits,
2041 `Numeric keypad with decimal key' where the character produced by the
2042 decimal key can be customized individually (for internationalization),
2043 `Numeric Prefix Arg' where the keypad keys produce numeric prefix args
2044 for emacs editing commands, `Cursor keys' and `Shifted Cursor keys'
2045 where the keys work like (shifted) arrow keys, home/end, etc., and
2046 `Unspecified/User-defined' where the keypad keys (kp-0, kp-1, etc.)
2047 are left unspecified and can be bound individually through the global
2051 ** The new kmacro package provides a simpler user interface to
2052 emacs' keyboard macro facilities.
2054 Basically, it uses two function keys (default F3 and F4) like this:
2055 F3 starts a macro, F4 ends the macro, and pressing F4 again executes
2056 the last macro. While defining the macro, F3 inserts a counter value
2057 which automatically increments every time the macro is executed.
2059 There is now a keyboard macro ring which stores the most recently
2062 The C-x C-k sequence is now a prefix for the kmacro keymap which
2063 defines bindings for moving through the keyboard macro ring,
2064 C-x C-k C-p and C-x C-k C-n, editing the last macro C-x C-k C-e,
2065 manipulating the macro counter and format via C-x C-k C-c,
2066 C-x C-k C-a, and C-x C-k C-f. See the commentary in kmacro.el
2069 The normal macro bindings C-x (, C-x ), and C-x e now interfaces to
2070 the keyboard macro ring.
2072 The C-x e command now automatically terminates the current macro
2073 before calling it, if used while defining a macro.
2075 In addition, when ending or calling a macro with C-x e, the macro can
2076 be repeated immediately by typing just the `e'. You can customize
2077 this behaviour via the variable kmacro-call-repeat-key and
2078 kmacro-call-repeat-with-arg.
2080 Keyboard macros can now be debugged and edited interactively.
2081 C-x C-k SPC will step through the last keyboard macro one key sequence
2082 at a time, prompting for the actions to take.
2085 ** The old Octave mode bindings C-c f and C-c i have been changed
2086 to C-c C-f and C-c C-i. The C-c C-i subcommands now have duplicate
2087 bindings on control characters--thus, C-c C-i C-b is the same as
2088 C-c C-i b, and so on.
2090 ** The printing package is now part of the Emacs distribution.
2092 If you enable the printing package by including (require 'printing) in
2093 the .emacs file, the normal Print item on the File menu is replaced
2094 with a Print sub-menu which allows you to preview output through
2095 ghostview, use ghostscript to print (if you don't have a PostScript
2096 printer) or send directly to printer a PostScript code generated by
2097 `ps-print' package. Use M-x pr-help for more information.
2100 ** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
2102 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
2103 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
2104 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
2105 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
2108 ** Tramp is now part of the distribution.
2110 This package is similar to Ange-FTP: it allows you to edit remote
2111 files. But whereas Ange-FTP uses FTP to access the remote host,
2112 Tramp uses a shell connection. The shell connection is always used
2113 for filename completion and directory listings and suchlike, but for
2114 the actual file transfer, you can choose between the so-called
2115 `inline' methods (which transfer the files through the shell
2116 connection using base64 or uu encoding) and the `out-of-band' methods
2117 (which invoke an external copying program such as `rcp' or `scp' or
2118 `rsync' to do the copying).
2120 Shell connections can be acquired via `rsh', `ssh', `telnet' and also
2124 ** The new global minor mode `file-name-shadow-mode' modifies the way
2125 filenames being entered by the user in the minibuffer are displayed, so
2126 that it's clear when part of the entered filename will be ignored due to
2127 emacs' filename parsing rules. The ignored portion can be made dim,
2128 invisible, or otherwise less visually noticable. The display method may
2129 be displayed by customizing the variable `file-name-shadow-properties'.
2132 ** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
2133 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
2134 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
2138 ** The minor mode Reveal mode makes text visible on the fly as you
2139 move your cursor into hidden regions of the buffer.
2140 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
2141 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
2143 There is also Global Reveal mode which affects all buffers.
2146 ** The new package ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
2147 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
2149 ** The new package table.el implements editable, WYSIWYG, embedded
2150 `text tables' in Emacs buffers. It simulates the effect of putting
2151 these tables in a special major mode. The package emulates WYSIWYG
2152 table editing available in modern word processors. The package also
2153 can generate a table source in typesetting and markup languages such
2154 as latex and html from the visually laid out text table.
2157 ** SES mode (ses-mode) is a new major mode for creating and editing
2158 spreadsheet files. Besides the usual Emacs features (intuitive command
2159 letters, undo, cell formulas in Lisp, plaintext files, etc.) it also offers
2160 viral immunity and import/export of tab-separated values.
2163 ** Support for `magic cookie' standout modes has been removed.
2164 Emacs will still work on terminals that require magic cookies in order
2165 to use standout mode, however they will not be able to display
2166 mode-lines in inverse-video.
2169 ** cplus-md.el has been removed to avoid problems with Custom.
2171 ** New package benchmark.el contains simple support for convenient
2172 timing measurements of code (including the garbage collection component).
2174 ** The new Lisp library fringe.el controls the apperance of fringes.
2176 ** `cfengine-mode' is a major mode for editing GNU Cfengine
2177 configuration files.
2179 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.4
2181 ** If a command sets transient-mark-mode to `only', that
2182 enables Transient Mark mode for the following command, only.
2185 ** Cleaner way to enter key sequences.
2187 You can enter a constant key sequence in a more natural format, the
2188 same one used for saving keyboard macros, using the macro `kbd'. For
2191 (kbd "C-x C-f") => "\^x\^f"
2193 ** The sentinel is now called when a network process is deleted with
2194 delete-process. The status message passed to the sentinel for a
2195 deleted network process is "deleted". The message passed to the
2196 sentinel when the connection is closed by the remote peer has been
2197 changed to "connection broken by remote peer".
2199 ** If the buffer's undo list for the current command gets longer than
2200 undo-outer-limit, garbage collection empties it. This is to prevent
2201 it from using up the available memory and choking Emacs.
2204 ** New function quail-find-key returns a list of keys to type in the
2205 current input method to input a character.
2208 ** New functions posn-at-point and posn-at-x-y return
2209 click-event-style position information for a given visible buffer
2210 position or for a given window pixel coordinate.
2212 ** skip-chars-forward and skip-chars-backward now handle
2213 character classes such as [:alpha:], along with individual characters
2216 ** Function pos-visible-in-window-p now returns the pixel coordinates
2217 and partial visiblity state of the corresponding row, if the PARTIALLY
2220 ** The function `eql' is now available without requiring the CL package.
2223 ** The new primitive `set-file-times' sets a file's access and
2224 modification times. Magic file name handlers can handle this
2227 ** file-remote-p now returns an identifier for the remote system,
2228 if the file is indeed remote. (Before, the return value was t in
2231 ** The display space :width and :align-to text properties are now
2232 supported on text terminals.
2234 ** Support for displaying image slices
2236 *** New display property (slice X Y WIDTH HEIGHT) may be used with
2237 an image property to display only a specific slice of the image.
2239 *** Function insert-image has new optional fourth arg to
2240 specify image slice (X Y WIDTH HEIGHT).
2242 *** New function insert-sliced-image inserts a given image as a
2243 specified number of evenly sized slices (rows x columns).
2245 ** New line-height and line-spacing properties for newline characters
2247 A newline may now have line-height and line-spacing text or overlay
2248 properties that control the height of the corresponding display row.
2250 If the line-height property value is 0, the newline does not
2251 contribute to the height of the display row; instead the height of the
2252 newline glyph is reduced. Also, a line-spacing property on this
2253 newline is ignored. This can be used to tile small images or image
2254 slices without adding blank areas between the images.
2256 If the line-height property value is a positive integer, the value
2257 specifies the minimum line height in pixels. If necessary, the line
2258 height it increased by increasing the line's ascent.
2260 If the line-height property value is a float, the minimum line height
2261 is calculated by multiplying the default frame line height by the
2264 If the line-height property value is a cons (RATIO . FACE), the
2265 minimum line height is calculated as RATIO * height of named FACE.
2266 RATIO is int or float. If FACE is t, it specifies the current face.
2268 If the line-spacing property value is an positive integer, the value
2269 is used as additional pixels to insert after the display line; this
2270 overrides the default frame line-spacing and any buffer local value of
2271 the line-spacing variable.
2273 If the line-spacing property may be a float or cons, the line spacing
2274 is calculated as specified above for the line-height property.
2276 If the line-spacing value is a cons (total . SPACING) where SPACING is
2277 any of the forms described above, the value of SPACING is used as the
2278 total height of the line, i.e. a varying number of pixels are inserted
2279 after each line to make each line exactly that many pixels high.
2282 ** The buffer local line-spacing variable may now have a float value,
2283 which is used as a height relative to the default frame line height.
2285 ** Enhancements to stretch display properties
2287 The display property stretch specification form `(space PROPS)', where
2288 PROPS is a property list now allows pixel based width and height
2289 specifications, as well as enhanced horizontal text alignment.
2291 The value of these properties can now be a (primitive) expression
2292 which is evaluated during redisplay. The following expressions
2295 EXPR ::= NUM | (NUM) | UNIT | ELEM | POS | IMAGE | FORM
2296 NUM ::= INTEGER | FLOAT | SYMBOL
2297 UNIT ::= in | mm | cm | width | height
2298 ELEM ::= left-fringe | right-fringe | left-margin | right-margin
2300 POS ::= left | center | right
2301 FORM ::= (NUM . EXPR) | (OP EXPR ...)
2304 The form `NUM' specifies a fractional width or height of the default
2305 frame font size. The form `(NUM)' specifies an absolute number of
2306 pixels. If a symbol is specified, its buffer-local variable binding
2307 is used. The `in', `mm', and `cm' units specifies the number of
2308 pixels per inch, milli-meter, and centi-meter, resp. The `width' and
2309 `height' units correspond to the width and height of the current face
2310 font. An image specification corresponds to the width or height of
2313 The `left-fringe', `right-fringe', `left-margin', `right-margin',
2314 `scroll-bar', and `text' elements specify to the width of the
2315 corresponding area of the window.
2317 The `left', `center', and `right' positions can be used with :align-to
2318 to specify a position relative to the left edge, center, or right edge
2319 of the text area. One of the above window elements (except `text')
2320 can also be used with :align-to to specify that the position is
2321 relative to the left edge of the given area. Once the base offset for
2322 a relative position has been set (by the first occurrence of one of
2323 these symbols), further occurences of these symbols are interpreted as
2324 the width of the area.
2326 For example, to align to the center of the left-margin, use
2327 :align-to (+ left-margin (0.5 . left-margin))
2329 If no specific base offset is set for alignment, it is always relative
2330 to the left edge of the text area. For example, :align-to 0 in a
2331 header-line aligns with the first text column in the text area.
2333 The value of the form `(NUM . EXPR)' is the value of NUM multiplied by
2334 the value of the expression EXPR. For example, (2 . in) specifies a
2335 width of 2 inches, while (0.5 . IMAGE) specifies half the width (or
2336 height) of the specified image.
2338 The form `(+ EXPR ...)' adds up the value of the expressions.
2339 The form `(- EXPR ...)' negates or subtracts the value of the expressions.
2341 ** New macro with-local-quit temporarily sets inhibit-quit to nil for use
2342 around potentially blocking or long-running code in timers
2343 and post-command-hooks.
2346 ** New face attribute `min-colors' can be used to tailor the face color
2347 to the number of colors supported by a display, and define the
2348 foreground and background colors accordingly so that they look best on
2349 a terminal that supports at least this many colors. This is now the
2350 preferred method for defining default faces in a way that makes a good
2351 use of the capabilities of the display.
2353 ** New function 'define-fringe-bitmap' can now be used to change the
2354 built-in fringe bitmaps, as well as create new fringe bitmaps.
2355 The return value is a number identifying the new fringe bitmap.
2357 To change a built-in bitmap, do (require 'fringe) and identify the
2358 bitmap to change with the value of the corresponding symbol, like
2359 `left-truncation-fringe-bitmap' or `continued-line-fringe-bitmap'.
2361 ** New function 'destroy-fringe-bitmap' may be used to destroy a
2362 previously created bitmap, or restore a built-in bitmap.
2364 ** New function 'set-fringe-bitmap-face' can now be used to set a
2365 specific face to be used for a specific fringe bitmap. Normally,
2366 this should be a face derived from the `fringe' face, specifying
2367 the foreground color as the desired color of the bitmap.
2369 ** There are new display properties, left-fringe and right-fringe,
2370 that can be used to show a specific bitmap in the left or right fringe
2371 bitmap of the display line.
2373 Format is 'display '(left-fringe BITMAP [FACE]), where BITMAP is a
2374 number identifying a fringe bitmap, either built-in or as returned by
2375 `define-fringe-bitmap', and FACE is an optional face name to be used
2376 for displaying the bitmap.
2378 ** New function `fringe-bitmaps-at-pos' returns a cons (LEFT . RIGHT)
2379 identifying the current fringe bitmaps in the display line at a given
2380 buffer position. A nil value means no bitmap.
2382 ** Multiple overlay arrows can now be defined and managed via the new
2383 variable `overlay-arrow-variable-list'. It contains a list of
2384 varibles which contain overlay arrow position markers, including
2385 the original `overlay-arrow-position' variable.
2387 Each variable on this list may have individual `overlay-arrow-string'
2388 and `overlay-arrow-bitmap' properties that specify an overlay arrow
2389 string (for non-window terminals) or fringe bitmap (for window
2390 systems) to display at the corresponding overlay arrow position.
2391 If either property is not set, the default `overlay-arrow-string' or
2392 'overlay-arrow-fringe-bitmap' will be used.
2395 ** New function `line-number-at-pos' returns line number of current
2396 line in current buffer, or if optional buffer position is given, line
2397 number of corresponding line in current buffer.
2399 ** The default value of `sentence-end' is now defined using the new
2400 variable `sentence-end-without-space' which contains such characters
2401 that end a sentence without following spaces.
2403 ** The function `sentence-end' should be used to obtain the value of
2404 the variable `sentence-end'. If the variable `sentence-end' is nil,
2405 then this function returns the regexp constructed from the variables
2406 `sentence-end-without-period', `sentence-end-double-space' and
2407 `sentence-end-without-space'.
2410 ** The flags, width, and precision options for %-specifications in function
2411 `format' are now documented. Some flags that were accepted but not
2412 implemented (such as "*") are no longer accepted.
2414 ** New function `macroexpand-all' expands all macros in a form.
2415 It is similar to the Common-Lisp function of the same name.
2416 One difference is that it guarantees to return the original argument
2417 if no expansion is done, which may be tested using `eq'.
2420 ** New function `delete-dups' destructively removes `equal' duplicates
2421 from a list. Of several `equal' occurrences of an element in the list,
2422 the first one is kept.
2425 ** `declare' is now a macro. This change was made mostly for
2426 documentation purposes and should have no real effect on Lisp code.
2428 ** The new hook `before-save-hook' is invoked by `basic-save-buffer'
2429 before saving buffers. This allows packages to perform various final
2430 tasks, for example; it can be used by the copyright package to make
2431 sure saved files have the current year in any copyright headers.
2434 ** The function `insert-for-yank' now supports strings where the
2435 `yank-handler' property does not span the first character of the
2436 string. The old behavior is available if you call
2437 `insert-for-yank-1' instead.
2439 ** New function `get-char-property-and-overlay' accepts the same
2440 arguments as `get-char-property' and returns a cons whose car is the
2441 return value of `get-char-property' called with those arguments and
2442 whose cdr is the overlay in which the property was found, or nil if
2443 it was found as a text property or not found at all.
2445 ** The mouse pointer shape in void text areas (i.e. after the end of a
2446 line or below the last line in the buffer) of the text window is now
2447 controlled by the new variable `void-text-area-pointer'. The default
2448 is to use the `arrow' (non-text) pointer. Other choices are `text'
2449 (or nil), `hand', `vdrag', `hdrag', `modeline', and `hourglass'.
2451 ** The mouse pointer shape over an image can now be controlled by the
2452 :pointer image property.
2454 ** The mouse pointer shape over ordinary text or images may now be
2455 controlled/overriden via the `pointer' text property.
2457 ** Images may now have an associated image map via the :map property.
2459 An image map is an alist where each element has the format (AREA ID PLIST).
2460 An AREA is specified as either a rectangle, a circle, or a polygon:
2461 A rectangle is a cons (rect . ((x0 . y0) . (x1 . y1))) specifying the
2462 pixel coordinates of the upper left and bottom right corners.
2463 A circle is a cons (circle . ((x0 . y0) . r)) specifying the center
2464 and the radius of the circle; r may be a float or integer.
2465 A polygon is a cons (poly . [x0 y0 x1 y1 ...]) where each pair in the
2466 vector describes one corner in the polygon.
2468 When the mouse pointer is above a hot-spot area of an image, the
2469 PLIST of that hot-spot is consulted; if it contains a `help-echo'
2470 property it defines a tool-tip for the hot-spot, and if it contains
2471 a `pointer' property, it defines the shape of the mouse cursor when
2472 it is over the hot-spot. See the variable 'void-area-text-pointer'
2473 for possible pointer shapes.
2475 When you click the mouse when the mouse pointer is over a hot-spot,
2476 an event is composed by combining the ID of the hot-spot with the
2477 mouse event, e.g. [area4 mouse-1] if the hot-spot's ID is `area4'.
2479 ** Mouse event enhancements:
2481 *** Mouse clicks on fringes now generates left-fringe or right-fringes
2482 events, rather than a text area click event.
2484 *** Mouse clicks in the left and right marginal areas now includes a
2485 sensible buffer position corresponding to the first character in the
2486 corresponding text row.
2488 *** Function `mouse-set-point' now works for events outside text area.
2491 *** Mouse events now includes buffer position for all event types.
2494 *** `posn-point' now returns buffer position for non-text area events.
2497 *** New function `posn-area' returns window area clicked on (nil means
2501 *** Mouse events include actual glyph column and row for all event types.
2504 *** New function `posn-actual-col-row' returns actual glyph coordinates.
2507 *** Mouse events may now include image object in addition to string object.
2510 *** Mouse events include relative x and y pixel coordinates relative to
2511 the top left corner of the object (image or character) clicked on.
2514 *** Mouse events include the pixel width and height of the object
2515 (image or character) clicked on.
2518 *** New functions 'posn-object', 'posn-object-x-y', and
2519 'posn-object-width-height' return the image or string object of a mouse
2520 click, the x and y pixel coordinates relative to the top left corner
2521 of that object, and the total width and height of that object.
2523 ** New function `force-window-update' can initiate a full redisplay of
2524 one or all windows. Normally, this is not needed as changes in window
2525 contents are detected automatically. However, certain implicit
2526 changes to mode lines, header lines, or display properties may require
2527 forcing an explicit window update.
2529 ** New function `redirect-debugging-output' can be used to redirect
2530 debugging output on the stderr file handle to a file.
2533 ** `split-string' now includes null substrings in the returned list if
2534 the optional argument SEPARATORS is non-nil and there are matches for
2535 SEPARATORS at the beginning or end of the string. If SEPARATORS is
2536 nil, or if the new optional third argument OMIT-NULLS is non-nil, all
2537 empty matches are omitted from the returned list.
2540 ** `makehash' is now obsolete. Use `make-hash-table' instead.
2543 ** If optional third argument APPEND to `add-to-list' is non-nil, a
2544 new element gets added at the end of the list instead of at the
2545 beginning. This change actually occurred in Emacs-21.1, but was not
2548 ** Major modes can define `eldoc-print-current-symbol-info-function'
2549 locally to provide Eldoc functionality by some method appropriate to
2553 ** New coding system property `mime-text-unsuitable' indicates that
2554 the coding system's `mime-charset' is not suitable for MIME text
2558 ** The argument to forward-word, backward-word, forward-to-indentation
2559 and backward-to-indentation is now optional, and defaults to 1.
2562 ** (char-displayable-p CHAR) returns non-nil if Emacs ought to be able
2563 to display CHAR. More precisely, if the selected frame's fontset has
2564 a font to display the character set that CHAR belongs to.
2566 Fontsets can specify a font on a per-character basis; when the fontset
2567 does that, this value may not be accurate.
2570 ** The new function `window-inside-edges' returns the edges of the
2571 actual text portion of the window, not including the scroll bar or
2572 divider line, the fringes, the display margins, the header line and
2576 ** The new functions `window-pixel-edges' and `window-inside-pixel-edges'
2577 return window edges in units of pixels, rather than columns and lines.
2580 ** The kill-buffer-hook is now permanent-local.
2583 ** `select-window' takes an optional second argument `norecord', like
2587 ** The new macro `with-selected-window' temporarily switches the
2588 selected window without impacting the order of buffer-list.
2591 ** The `keymap' property now also works at the ends of overlays and
2592 text-properties, according to their stickiness. This also means that it
2593 works with empty overlays. The same hold for the `local-map' property.
2596 ** (map-keymap FUNCTION KEYMAP) applies the function to each binding
2600 ** VC changes for backends:
2601 *** (vc-switches BACKEND OPERATION) is a new function for use by backends.
2602 *** The new `find-version' backend function replaces the `destfile'
2603 parameter of the `checkout' backend function.
2604 Old code still works thanks to a default `find-version' behavior that
2605 uses the old `destfile' parameter.
2608 ** The new macro dynamic-completion-table supports using functions
2609 as a dynamic completion table.
2611 (dynamic-completion-table FUN)
2613 FUN is called with one argument, the string for which completion is required,
2614 and it should return an alist containing all the intended possible
2615 completions. This alist may be a full list of possible completions so that FUN
2616 can ignore the value of its argument. If completion is performed in the
2617 minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer from which the minibuffer was
2618 entered. dynamic-completion-table then computes the completion.
2621 ** The new macro lazy-completion-table initializes a variable
2622 as a lazy completion table.
2624 (lazy-completion-table VAR FUN &rest ARGS)
2626 If the completion table VAR is used for the first time (e.g., by passing VAR
2627 as an argument to `try-completion'), the function FUN is called with arguments
2628 ARGS. FUN must return the completion table that will be stored in VAR. If
2629 completion is requested in the minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer
2630 from which the minibuffer was entered. The return value of
2631 `lazy-completion-table' must be used to initialize the value of VAR.
2634 ** `minor-mode-list' now holds a list of minor mode commands.
2637 ** The new function `modify-all-frames-parameters' modifies parameters
2638 for all (existing and future) frames.
2641 ** `sit-for' can now be called with args (SECONDS &optional NODISP).
2644 ** New standard font-lock face `font-lock-preprocessor-face'.
2647 ** The macro `with-syntax-table' does not copy the table any more.
2650 ** The variable `face-font-rescale-alist' specifies how much larger
2651 (or smaller) font we should use. For instance, if the value is
2652 '((SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN . 1.3)) and a face requests a font of 10
2653 point, we actually use a font of 13 point if the font matches
2654 SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN.
2657 ** The function `number-sequence' returns a list of equally-separated
2658 numbers. For instance, (number-sequence 4 9) returns (4 5 6 7 8 9).
2659 By default, the separation is 1, but you can specify a different separation
2660 as the third argument. (number-sequence 1.5 6 2) returns (1.5 3.5 5.5).
2663 ** `file-chase-links' now takes an optional second argument LIMIT which
2664 specifies the maximum number of links to chase through. If after that
2665 many iterations the file name obtained is still a symbolic link,
2666 `file-chase-links' returns it anyway.
2669 ** `set-fontset-font', `fontset-info', `fontset-font' now operate on
2670 the default fontset if the argument NAME is nil..
2673 ** The escape sequence \s is now interpreted as a SPACE character,
2674 unless it is followed by a `-' in a character constant (e.g. ?\s-A),
2675 in which case it is still interpreted as the super modifier.
2676 In strings, \s is always interpreted as a space.
2679 ** New function `set-process-filter-multibyte' sets the multibyteness
2680 of a string given to a process's filter.
2683 ** New function `process-filter-multibyte-p' returns t if
2684 a string given to a process's filter is multibyte.
2687 ** A filter function of a process is called with a multibyte string if
2688 the filter's multibyteness is t. That multibyteness is decided by the
2689 value of `default-enable-multibyte-characters' when the process is
2690 created and can be changed later by `set-process-filter-multibyte'.
2693 ** If a process's coding system is raw-text or no-conversion and its
2694 buffer is multibyte, the output of the process is at first converted
2695 to multibyte by `string-to-multibyte' then inserted in the buffer.
2696 Previously, it was converted to multibyte by `string-as-multibyte',
2697 which was not compatible with the behaviour of file reading.
2700 ** New function `string-to-multibyte' converts a unibyte string to a
2701 multibyte string with the same individual character codes.
2704 ** New variables `gc-elapsed' and `gcs-done' provide extra information
2705 on garbage collection.
2708 ** New function `decode-coding-inserted-region' decodes a region as if
2709 it is read from a file without decoding.
2712 ** New function `locale-info' accesses locale information.
2715 ** `save-selected-window' now saves and restores the selected window
2716 of every frame. This way, it restores everything that can be changed
2717 by calling `select-window'.
2720 ** `easy-menu-define' now allows you to use nil for the symbol name
2721 if you don't need to give the menu a name. If you install the menu
2722 into other keymaps right away (MAPS is non-nil), it usually doesn't
2723 need to have a name.
2725 ** Byte compiler changes:
2728 *** `(featurep 'xemacs)' is treated by the compiler as nil. This
2729 helps to avoid noisy compiler warnings in code meant to run under both
2730 Emacs and XEmacs and may sometimes make the result significantly more
2731 efficient. Since byte code from recent versions of XEmacs won't
2732 generally run in Emacs and vice versa, this optimization doesn't lose
2736 *** You can avoid warnings for possibly-undefined symbols with a
2737 simple convention that the compiler understands. (This is mostly
2738 useful in code meant to be portable to different Emacs versions.)
2739 Write forms like the following, or code that macroexpands into such
2742 (if (fboundp 'foo) <then> <else>)
2743 (if (boundp 'foo) <then> <else)
2745 In the first case, using `foo' as a function inside the <then> form
2746 won't produce a warning if it's not defined as a function, and in the
2747 second case, using `foo' as a variable won't produce a warning if it's
2748 unbound. The test must be in exactly one of the above forms (after
2749 macro expansion), but such tests may be nested. Note that `when' and
2750 `unless' expand to `if', but `cond' doesn't.
2753 *** The new macro `with-no-warnings' suppresses all compiler warnings
2754 inside its body. In terms of execution, it is equivalent to `progn'.
2757 ** The new translation table `translation-table-for-input'
2758 is used for customizing self-insertion. The character to
2759 be inserted is translated through it.
2762 ** `load-history' can now have elements of the form (t . FUNNAME),
2763 which means FUNNAME was previously defined as an autoload (before the
2764 current file redefined it).
2767 ** New Lisp library testcover.el works with edebug to help you determine
2768 whether you've tested all your Lisp code. Function testcover-start
2769 instruments all functions in a given file. Then test your code. Function
2770 testcover-mark-all adds overlay "splotches" to the Lisp file's buffer to
2771 show where coverage is lacking. Command testcover-next-mark (bind it to
2772 a key!) will move point forward to the next spot that has a splotch.
2774 *** Normally, a red splotch indicates the form was never completely evaluated;
2775 a brown splotch means it always evaluated to the same value. The red
2776 splotches are skipped for forms that can't possibly complete their evaluation,
2777 such as `error'. The brown splotches are skipped for forms that are expected
2778 to always evaluate to the same value, such as (setq x 14).
2780 *** For difficult cases, you can add do-nothing macros to your code to help
2781 out the test coverage tool. The macro `noreturn' suppresses a red splotch.
2782 It is an error if the argument to `noreturn' does return. The macro 1value
2783 suppresses a brown splotch for its argument. This macro is a no-op except
2784 during test-coverage -- then it signals an error if the argument actually
2785 returns differing values.
2788 ** New function unsafep returns nil if the given Lisp form can't possibly
2789 do anything dangerous; otherwise it returns a reason why the form might be
2790 unsafe (calls dangerous function, alters global variable, etc).
2793 ** The new variable `print-continuous-numbering', when non-nil, says
2794 that successive calls to print functions should use the same
2795 numberings for circular structure references. This is only relevant
2796 when `print-circle' is non-nil.
2798 When you bind `print-continuous-numbering' to t, you should
2799 also bind `print-number-table' to nil.
2802 ** When using non-toolkit scroll bars with the default width,
2803 the scroll-bar-width frame parameter value is nil.
2806 ** The new function copy-abbrev-table returns a new abbrev table that
2807 is a copy of a given abbrev table.
2810 ** The option --script FILE runs Emacs in batch mode and loads FILE.
2811 It is useful for writing Emacs Lisp shell script files, because they
2812 can start with this line:
2814 #!/usr/bin/emacs --script
2817 ** A function's docstring can now hold the function's usage info on
2818 its last line. It should match the regexp "\n\n(fn.*)\\'".
2821 ** New CCL functions `lookup-character' and `lookup-integer' access
2822 hash tables defined by the Lisp function `define-translation-hash-table'.
2825 ** The new function `minibufferp' returns non-nil if its optional buffer
2826 argument is a minibuffer. If the argument is omitted it defaults to
2830 ** There is a new Warnings facility; see the functions `warn'
2831 and `display-warning'.
2834 ** The functions all-completions and try-completion now accept lists
2835 of strings as well as hash-tables additionally to alists, obarrays
2836 and functions. Furthermore, the function `test-completion' is now
2840 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
2841 much pure storage it will approximately need.
2844 ** The new variable `auto-coding-functions' lets you specify functions
2845 to examine a file being visited and deduce the proper coding system
2846 for it. (If the coding system is detected incorrectly for a specific
2847 file, you can put a `coding:' tags to override it.)
2850 ** The new function `merge-coding-systems' fills in unspecified aspects
2851 of one coding system from another coding system.
2854 ** The variable `safe-local-eval-forms' specifies a list of forms that
2855 are ok to evaluate when they appear in an `eval' local variables
2856 specification. Normally Emacs asks for confirmation before evaluating
2857 such a form, but if the form appears in this list, no confirmation is
2861 ** If a function has a non-nil `safe-local-eval-function' property,
2862 that means it is ok to evaluate some calls to that function when it
2863 appears in an `eval' local variables specification. If the property
2864 is t, then any form calling that function with constant arguments is
2865 ok. If the property is a function or list of functions, they are called
2866 with the form as argument, and if any returns t, the form is ok to call.
2868 If the form is not "ok to call", that means Emacs asks for
2869 confirmation as before.
2872 ** Controlling the default left and right fringe widths.
2874 The default left and right fringe widths for all windows of a frame
2875 can now be controlled by setting the `left-fringe' and `right-fringe'
2876 frame parameters to an integer value specifying the width in pixels.
2877 Setting the width to 0 effectively removes the corresponding fringe.
2879 The actual default fringe widths for the frame may deviate from the
2880 specified widths, since the combined fringe widths must match an
2881 integral number of columns. The extra width is distributed evenly
2882 between the left and right fringe. For force a specific fringe width,
2883 specify the width as a negative integer (if both widths are negative,
2884 only the left fringe gets the specified width).
2886 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
2887 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
2888 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
2889 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
2892 ** Per-window fringes settings
2894 Windows can now have their own individual fringe widths and position
2897 To control the fringe widths of a window, either set the buffer-local
2898 variables `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', or call
2899 `set-window-fringes'.
2901 To control the fringe position in a window, that is, whether fringes
2902 are positioned between the display margins and the window's text area,
2903 or at the edges of the window, either set the buffer-local variable
2904 `fringes-outside-margins' or call `set-window-fringes'.
2906 The function `window-fringes' can be used to obtain the current
2907 settings. To make `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', and
2908 `fringes-outside-margins' take effect, you must set them before
2909 displaying the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force
2910 an update of the display margins.
2913 ** Per-window vertical scroll-bar settings
2915 Windows can now have their own individual scroll-bar settings
2916 controlling the width and position of scroll-bars.
2918 To control the scroll-bar of a window, either set the buffer-local
2919 variables `scroll-bar-mode' and `scroll-bar-width', or call
2920 `set-window-scroll-bars'. The function `window-scroll-bars' can be
2921 used to obtain the current settings. To make `scroll-bar-mode' and
2922 `scroll-bar-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2923 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2924 of the display margins.
2927 ** The function `set-window-buffer' now has an optional third argument
2928 KEEP-MARGINS which will preserve the window's current margin, fringe,
2929 and scroll-bar settings if non-nil.
2932 ** Renamed file hooks to follow the convention:
2933 find-file-hooks to find-file-hook,
2934 find-file-not-found-hooks to find-file-not-found-functions,
2935 write-file-hooks to write-file-functions,
2936 write-contents-hooks to write-contents-functions.
2937 Marked local-write-file-hooks as obsolete (use the LOCAL arg of `add-hook').
2940 ** The new variable `delete-frame-functions' replaces `delete-frame-hook'.
2941 It was renamed to follow the naming conventions for abnormal hooks. The old
2942 name remains available as an alias, but has been marked obsolete.
2945 ** The `read-file-name' function now takes an additional argument which
2946 specifies a predicate which the file name read must satify. The
2947 new variable `read-file-name-predicate' contains the predicate argument
2948 while reading the file name from the minibuffer; the predicate in this
2949 variable is used by read-file-name-internal to filter the completion list.
2952 ** The new variable `read-file-name-function' can be used by lisp code
2953 to override the internal read-file-name function.
2956 ** The new variable `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' specifies
2957 whether completion ignores case when reading a file name with the
2958 `read-file-name' function.
2961 ** The new function `read-directory-name' can be used instead of
2962 `read-file-name' to read a directory name; when used, completion
2963 will only show directories.
2966 ** The new function `file-remote-p' tests a file name and returns
2967 non-nil if it specifies a remote file (one that Emacs accesses using
2968 its own special methods and not directly through the file system).
2971 ** When a Lisp file uses CL functions at run-time, compiling the file
2972 now issues warnings about these calls, unless the file performs
2973 (require 'cl) when loaded.
2976 ** The `defmacro' form may contain declarations specifying how to
2977 indent the macro in Lisp mode and how to debug it with Edebug. The
2978 syntax of defmacro has been extended to
2980 (defmacro NAME LAMBDA-LIST [DOC-STRING] [DECLARATION ...] ...)
2982 DECLARATION is a list `(declare DECLARATION-SPECIFIER ...)'. The
2983 declaration specifiers supported are:
2986 Set NAME's `lisp-indent-function' property to INDENT.
2989 Set NAME's `edebug-form-spec' property to DEBUG. (This is
2990 equivalent to writing a `def-edebug-spec' for the macro.
2993 ** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
2995 This is an alternative to using defadvice or substitute-key-definition
2996 to modify the behavior of a key binding using the normal keymap
2997 binding and lookup functionality.
2999 When a key sequence is bound to a command, and that command is
3000 remapped to another command, that command is run instead of the
3004 Suppose that minor mode my-mode has defined the commands
3005 my-kill-line and my-kill-word, and it wants C-k (and any other key
3006 bound to kill-line) to run the command my-kill-line instead of
3007 kill-line, and likewise it wants to run my-kill-word instead of
3010 Instead of rebinding C-k and the other keys in the minor mode map,
3011 command remapping allows you to directly map kill-line into
3012 my-kill-line and kill-word into my-kill-word through the minor mode
3013 map using define-key:
3015 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
3016 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
3018 Now, when my-mode is enabled, and the user enters C-k or M-d,
3019 the commands my-kill-line and my-kill-word are run.
3021 Notice that only one level of remapping is supported. In the above
3022 example, this means that if my-kill-line is remapped to other-kill,
3023 then C-k still runs my-kill-line.
3025 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
3027 - Command remappings are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
3028 `remap', i.e. `(define-key MAP [remap CMD] DEF)' remaps command CMD
3029 to definition DEF in keymap MAP. The definition is not limited to
3030 another command; it can be anything accepted for a normal binding.
3032 - The new function `command-remapping' returns the binding for a
3033 remapped command in the current keymaps, or nil if not remapped.
3035 - key-binding now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
3036 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
3038 - where-is-internal now returns nil for a remapped command (e.g.
3039 kill-line if my-mode is enabled), and the actual key binding for
3040 the command it is remapped to (e.g. C-k for my-kill-line).
3041 It also has a new optional fifth argument, NO-REMAP, which inhibits
3042 remapping if non-nil (e.g. it returns C-k for kill-line and
3043 <kill-line> for my-kill-line).
3045 - The new variable `this-original-command' contains the original
3046 command before remapping. It is equal to `this-command' when the
3047 command was not remapped.
3050 ** New variable emulation-mode-map-alists.
3052 Lisp packages using many minor mode keymaps can now maintain their own
3053 keymap alist separate from minor-mode-map-alist by adding their keymap
3057 ** Atomic change groups.
3059 To perform some changes in the current buffer "atomically" so that
3060 they either all succeed or are all undone, use `atomic-change-group'
3061 around the code that makes changes. For instance:
3063 (atomic-change-group
3065 (delete-region x y))
3067 If an error (or other nonlocal exit) occurs inside the body of
3068 `atomic-change-group', it unmakes all the changes in that buffer that
3069 were during the execution of the body. The change group has no effect
3070 on any other buffers--any such changes remain.
3072 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
3073 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
3075 To set up a change group for one buffer, call `prepare-change-group'.
3076 Specify the buffer as argument; it defaults to the current buffer.
3077 This function returns a "handle" for the change group. You must save
3078 the handle to activate the change group and then finish it.
3080 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
3081 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
3084 After you make the changes, you must finish the change group. You can
3085 either accept the changes or cancel them all. Call
3086 `accept-change-group' to accept the changes in the group as final;
3087 call `cancel-change-group' to undo them all.
3089 You should use `unwind-protect' to make sure the group is always
3090 finished. The call to `activate-change-group' should be inside the
3091 `unwind-protect', in case the user types C-g just after it runs.
3092 (This is one reason why `prepare-change-group' and
3093 `activate-change-group' are separate functions.) Once you finish the
3094 group, don't use the handle again--don't try to finish the same group
3097 To make a multibuffer change group, call `prepare-change-group' once
3098 for each buffer you want to cover, then use `nconc' to combine the
3099 returned values, like this:
3101 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
3102 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
3104 You can then activate the multibuffer change group with a single call
3105 to `activate-change-group', and finish it with a single call to
3106 `accept-change-group' or `cancel-change-group'.
3108 Nested use of several change groups for the same buffer works as you
3109 would expect. Non-nested use of change groups for the same buffer
3110 will lead to undesirable results, so don't let it happen; the first
3111 change group you start for any given buffer should be the last one
3115 ** New variable char-property-alias-alist.
3117 This variable allows you to create alternative names for text
3118 properties. It works at the same level as `default-text-properties',
3119 although it applies to overlays as well. This variable was introduced
3120 to implement the `font-lock-face' property.
3123 ** New special text property `font-lock-face'.
3125 This property acts like the `face' property, but it is controlled by
3126 M-x font-lock-mode. It is not, strictly speaking, a builtin text
3127 property. Instead, it is implemented inside font-core.el, using the
3128 new variable `char-property-alias-alist'.
3131 ** New function remove-list-of-text-properties.
3133 The new function `remove-list-of-text-properties' is almost the same
3134 as `remove-text-properties'. The only difference is that it takes
3135 a list of property names as argument rather than a property list.
3138 ** New function insert-for-yank.
3140 This function normally works like `insert' but removes the text
3141 properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list. However, if the
3142 inserted text has a `yank-handler' text property on the first
3143 character of the string, the insertion of the text may be modified in
3144 a number of ways. See the description of `yank-handler' below.
3147 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-as-yank.
3149 This function works like `insert-buffer-substring', but removes the
3150 text properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list.
3153 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-no-properties.
3155 This function is like insert-buffer-substring, but removes all
3156 text properties from the inserted substring.
3159 ** New `yank-handler' text property may be used to control how
3160 previously killed text on the kill-ring is reinserted.
3162 The value of the yank-handler property must be a list with one to four
3163 elements with the following format:
3164 (FUNCTION PARAM NOEXCLUDE UNDO).
3166 The `insert-for-yank' function looks for a yank-handler property on
3167 the first character on its string argument (typically the first
3168 element on the kill-ring). If a yank-handler property is found,
3169 the normal behaviour of `insert-for-yank' is modified in various ways:
3171 When FUNCTION is present and non-nil, it is called instead of `insert'
3172 to insert the string. FUNCTION takes one argument--the object to insert.
3173 If PARAM is present and non-nil, it replaces STRING as the object
3174 passed to FUNCTION (or `insert'); for example, if FUNCTION is
3175 `yank-rectangle', PARAM should be a list of strings to insert as a
3177 If NOEXCLUDE is present and non-nil, the normal removal of the
3178 yank-excluded-properties is not performed; instead FUNCTION is
3179 responsible for removing those properties. This may be necessary
3180 if FUNCTION adjusts point before or after inserting the object.
3181 If UNDO is present and non-nil, it is a function that will be called
3182 by `yank-pop' to undo the insertion of the current object. It is
3183 called with two arguments, the start and end of the current region.
3184 FUNCTION may set `yank-undo-function' to override the UNDO value.
3186 *** The functions kill-new, kill-append, and kill-region now have an
3187 optional argument to specify the yank-handler text property to put on
3190 *** The function yank-pop will now use a non-nil value of the variable
3191 `yank-undo-function' (instead of delete-region) to undo the previous
3192 yank or yank-pop command (or a call to insert-for-yank). The function
3193 insert-for-yank automatically sets that variable according to the UNDO
3194 element of the string argument's yank-handler text property if present.
3197 ** New function display-supports-face-attributes-p may be used to test
3198 whether a given set of face attributes is actually displayable.
3200 A new predicate `supports' has also been added to the `defface' face
3201 specification language, which can be used to do this test for faces
3202 defined with defface.
3204 ** The function face-differs-from-default-p now truly checks whether the
3205 given face displays differently from the default face or not (previously
3206 it did only a very cursory check).
3209 ** face-attribute, face-foreground, face-background, and face-stipple now
3210 accept a new optional argument, INHERIT, which controls how face
3211 inheritance is used when determining the value of a face attribute.
3214 ** New functions face-attribute-relative-p and merge-face-attribute
3215 help with handling relative face attributes.
3217 ** The priority of faces in an :inherit attribute face-list is reversed.
3218 If a face contains an :inherit attribute with a list of faces, earlier
3219 faces in the list override later faces in the list; in previous releases
3220 of Emacs, the order was the opposite. This change was made so that
3221 :inherit face-lists operate identically to face-lists in text `face'
3225 ** Enhancements to process support
3227 *** Function list-processes now has an optional argument; if non-nil,
3228 only the processes whose query-on-exit flag is set are listed.
3230 *** New set-process-query-on-exit-flag and process-query-on-exit-flag
3231 functions. The existing process-kill-without-query function is still
3232 supported, but new code should use the new functions.
3234 *** Function signal-process now accepts a process object or process
3235 name in addition to a process id to identify the signalled process.
3237 *** Processes now have an associated property list where programs can
3238 maintain process state and other per-process related information.
3240 The new functions process-get and process-put are used to access, add,
3241 and modify elements on this property list.
3243 The new low-level functions process-plist and set-process-plist are
3244 used to access and replace the entire property list of a process.
3247 *** Adaptive read buffering of subprocess output.
3249 On some systems, when emacs reads the output from a subprocess, the
3250 output data is read in very small blocks, potentially resulting in
3251 very poor performance. This behaviour can be remedied to some extent
3252 by setting the new variable process-adaptive-read-buffering to a
3253 non-nil value (the default), as it will automatically delay reading
3254 from such processes, to allowing them to produce more output before
3255 emacs tries to read it.
3258 ** Enhanced networking support.
3260 *** There is a new `make-network-process' function which supports
3261 opening of stream and datagram connections to a server, as well as
3262 create a stream or datagram server inside emacs.
3264 - A server is started using :server t arg.
3265 - Datagram connection is selected using :type 'datagram arg.
3266 - A server can open on a random port using :service t arg.
3267 - Local sockets are supported using :family 'local arg.
3268 - Non-blocking connect is supported using :nowait t arg.
3269 - The process' property list may be initialized using :plist PLIST arg;
3270 a copy of the server process' property list is automatically inherited
3271 by new client processes created to handle incoming connections.
3273 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
3274 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
3276 *** Original open-network-stream is now emulated using make-network-process.
3278 *** New function open-network-stream-nowait.
3280 This function initiates a non-blocking connect and returns immediately
3281 without waiting for the connection to be established. It takes the
3282 filter and sentinel functions as arguments; when the non-blocking
3283 connect completes, the sentinel is called with a status string
3284 matching "open" or "failed".
3286 *** New function open-network-stream-server.
3288 This function creates a network server process for a TCP service.
3289 When a client connects to the specified service, a new subprocess
3290 is created to handle the new connection, and the sentinel function
3291 is called for the new process.
3293 *** New functions process-datagram-address and set-process-datagram-address.
3295 These functions are used with datagram-based network processes to get
3296 and set the current address of the remote partner.
3298 *** New function format-network-address.
3300 This function reformats the lisp representation of a network address
3301 to a printable string. For example, an IP address A.B.C.D and port
3302 number P is represented as a five element vector [A B C D P], and the
3303 printable string returned for this vector is "A.B.C.D:P". See the doc
3304 string for other formatting options.
3306 *** By default, the function process-contact still returns (HOST SERVICE)
3307 for a network process. Using the new optional KEY arg, the complete list
3308 of network process properties or a specific property can be selected.
3310 Using :local and :remote as the KEY, the address of the local or
3311 remote end-point is returned. An Inet address is represented as a 5
3312 element vector, where the first 4 elements contain the IP address and
3313 the fifth is the port number.
3315 *** Network processes can now be stopped and restarted with
3316 `stop-process' and `continue-process'. For a server process, no
3317 connections are accepted in the stopped state. For a client process,
3318 no input is received in the stopped state.
3320 *** New function network-interface-list.
3322 This function returns a list of network interface names and their
3323 current network addresses.
3325 *** New function network-interface-info.
3327 This function returns the network address, hardware address, current
3328 status, and other information about a specific network interface.
3331 ** New function copy-tree.
3334 ** New function substring-no-properties.
3337 ** New function minibuffer-selected-window.
3340 ** New function `call-process-shell-command'.
3343 ** The dummy function keys made by easymenu
3344 are now always lower case. If you specify the
3345 menu item name "Ada", for instance, it uses `ada'
3346 as the "key" bound by that key binding.
3348 This is relevant only if Lisp code looks for
3349 the bindings that were made with easymenu.
3352 ** The function `commandp' takes an additional optional
3353 argument. If it is non-nil, then `commandp' checks
3354 for a function that could be called with `call-interactively',
3355 and does not return t for keyboard macros.
3358 ** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
3359 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
3361 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
3362 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
3363 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
3366 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
3367 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
3370 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
3371 (function (lambda ()
3373 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
3374 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
3375 (function (lambda ()
3376 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
3379 ** File local variables.
3381 A file local variables list cannot specify a string with text
3382 properties--any specified text properties are discarded.
3385 ** New function window-body-height.
3387 This is like window-height but does not count the mode line
3391 ** New function format-mode-line.
3393 This returns the mode-line or header-line of the selected (or a
3394 specified) window as a string with or without text properties.
3397 ** New functions `lax-plist-get' and `lax-plist-put'.
3399 These functions are like `plist-get' and `plist-put' except that they
3400 compare the property name using `equal' rather than `eq'.
3403 ** New function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu'
3405 The `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' must not be used (as previously
3406 recommended) for making entries in the tool bar for local keymaps.
3407 Instead, use the function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu', which lets
3408 you specify the map to use as an argument.
3411 ** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
3413 When called with 2 arguments, as in `(atan Y X)', `atan' returns the
3414 angle in radians between the vector [X, Y] and the X axis. (This is
3415 equivalent to the standard C library function `atan2'.)
3418 ** You can now make a window as short as one line.
3420 A window that is just one line tall does not display either a mode
3421 line or a header line, even if the variables `mode-line-format' and
3422 `header-line-format' call for them. A window that is two lines tall
3423 cannot display both a mode line and a header line at once; if the
3424 variables call for both, only the mode line actually appears.
3427 ** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
3428 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
3429 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
3430 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
3433 ** The new mode-line construct `(:propertize ELT PROPS...)' can be
3434 used to add text properties to mode-line elements.
3437 ** Mode line display ignores text properties as well as the
3438 :propertize and :eval forms in the value of a variable whose
3439 `risky-local-variable' property is nil.
3442 ** The new `%i' and `%I' constructs for `mode-line-format' can be used
3443 to display the size of the accessible part of the buffer on the mode
3447 ** Indentation of simple and extended loop forms has been added to the
3448 cl-indent package. The new user options
3449 `lisp-loop-keyword-indentation', `lisp-loop-forms-indentation', and
3450 `lisp-simple-loop-indentation' can be used to customize the
3451 indentation of keywords and forms in loop forms.
3454 ** Indentation of backquoted forms has been made customizable in the
3455 cl-indent package. See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
3458 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
3460 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
3461 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
3462 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
3465 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
3467 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
3468 the time it takes to convert the format.
3470 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
3474 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
3475 over minor mode keymaps.
3478 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
3479 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
3482 ** At the end of a command, point moves out from within invisible
3483 text, in the same way it moves out from within text covered by an
3484 image or composition property.
3486 This makes it generally unnecessary to mark invisible text as intangible.
3487 This is particularly good because the intangible property often has
3488 unexpected side-effects since the property applies to everything
3489 (including `goto-char', ...) whereas this new code is only run after
3490 post-command-hook and thus does not care about intermediate states.
3493 ** field-beginning and field-end now accept an additional optional
3497 ** define-abbrev now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG. If
3498 non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means that
3499 it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the abbrevs.
3500 Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always specify this
3504 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
3507 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
3510 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
3511 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
3512 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
3513 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
3514 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
3515 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
3518 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
3519 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
3520 bindings of the parent keymap.
3523 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
3524 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
3525 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
3526 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
3527 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
3528 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
3536 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
3537 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
3538 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
3539 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
3542 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
3543 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
3545 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
3546 (the last prior group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
3549 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
3550 it receives a request from emacsclient.
3553 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
3554 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
3555 than 3 levels of nesting.
3558 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
3559 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
3563 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
3564 properties from surrounding text.
3567 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
3569 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
3570 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
3571 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
3574 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
3575 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
3579 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
3580 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
3581 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP2 VAL2 ...) so you can set
3582 other properties than `face'.
3583 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
3584 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
3587 ** The special treatment of faces whose names are of the form `fg:COLOR'
3588 or `bg:COLOR' has been removed. Lisp programs should use the
3589 `defface' facility for defining faces with specific colors, or use
3590 the feature of specifying the face attributes :foreground and :background
3591 directly in the `face' property instead of using a named face.
3594 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
3595 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
3596 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
3599 ** define-minor-mode now accepts arbitrary additional keyword arguments
3600 and simply passes them to defcustom, if applicable.
3603 ** define-derived-mode by default creates a new empty abbrev table.
3604 It does not copy abbrevs from the parent mode's abbrev table.
3607 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
3608 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
3609 and runs any code associated with the provided feature.
3612 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
3613 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
3614 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
3617 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
3618 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
3619 accepts a float as UID parameter.
3622 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
3625 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
3628 ** The Emacs Lisp byte-compiler now displays the actual line and
3629 character position of errors, where possible. Additionally, the form
3630 of its warning and error messages have been brought more in line with
3631 the output of other GNU tools.
3634 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
3637 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
3640 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
3641 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
3644 ** Variable aliases have been implemented:
3646 *** defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR [DOCSTRING]
3648 This function defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for
3649 symbol BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR
3650 returns the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR
3651 changes the value of BASE-VAR.
3653 DOCSTRING, if present, is the documentation for ALIAS-VAR; else it has
3654 the same documentation as BASE-VAR.
3656 *** indirect-variable VARIABLE
3658 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
3659 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
3660 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
3662 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
3663 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
3666 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
3667 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
3670 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
3671 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
3674 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
3675 hold the largest and smallest possible integer values.
3678 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
3679 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
3680 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
3682 ** Functions y-or-n-p, read-char, read-key-sequence and the like, that
3683 display a prompt but don't use the minibuffer, now display the prompt
3684 using the text properties (esp. the face) of the prompt string.
3686 ** New function x-send-client-message sends a client message when
3689 ** Arguments for remove-overlays are now optional, so that you can remove
3690 all overlays in the buffer by just calling (remove-overlay).
3694 *** The new package gdb-ui.el provides an enhanced graphical interface to
3695 GDB. You can interact with GDB through the GUD buffer in the usual way, but
3696 there are also further buffers which control the execution and describe the
3697 state of your program. It separates the input/output of your program from
3698 that of GDB and watches expressions in the speedbar. It also uses features of
3699 Emacs 21 such as the display margin for breakpoints, and the toolbar.
3701 Use M-x gdba to start GDB-UI.
3703 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
3704 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
3706 *** The new package bindat.el provides functions to unpack and pack
3707 binary data structures, such as network packets, to and from Lisp
3710 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
3711 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
3713 *** The new package button.el implements simple and fast `clickable buttons'
3714 in emacs buffers. `buttons' are much lighter-weight than the `widgets'
3715 implemented by widget.el, and can be used by lisp code that doesn't
3716 require the full power of widgets. Emacs uses buttons for such things
3717 as help and apropos buffers.
3720 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.3
3722 ** Support for GNU/Linux on little-endian MIPS and on IBM S390 has
3726 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
3728 ** The obsolete C mode (c-mode.el) has been removed to avoid problems
3731 ** UTF-16 coding systems are available, encoding the same characters
3734 ** There is a new language environment for UTF-8 (set up automatically
3737 ** Translation tables are available between equivalent characters in
3738 different Emacs charsets -- for instance `e with acute' coming from the
3739 Latin-1 and Latin-2 charsets. User options `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode'
3740 and `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' respectively turn on translation
3741 between ISO 8859 character sets (`unification') on encoding
3742 (e.g. writing a file) and decoding (e.g. reading a file). Note that
3743 `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is useful and safe, but
3744 `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' can cause text to change when you read
3745 it and write it out again without edits, so it is not generally advisable.
3746 By default `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is turned on.
3748 ** In Emacs running on the X window system, the default value of
3749 `selection-coding-system' is now `compound-text-with-extensions'.
3751 If you want the old behavior, set selection-coding-system to
3752 compound-text, which may be significantly more efficient. Using
3753 compound-text-with-extensions seems to be necessary only for decoding
3754 text from applications under XFree86 4.2, whose behaviour is actually
3755 contrary to the compound text specification.
3758 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.2
3760 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 has been added.
3762 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
3765 * Changes in Emacs 21.2
3767 ** Emacs now supports compound-text extended segments in X selections.
3769 X applications can use `extended segments' to encode characters in
3770 compound text that belong to character sets which are not part of the
3771 list of approved standard encodings for X, e.g. Big5. To paste
3772 selections with such characters into Emacs, use the new coding system
3773 compound-text-with-extensions as the value of selection-coding-system.
3775 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
3778 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
3779 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
3781 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
3782 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
3783 instead of using default-major-mode.
3785 ** The new option `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' causes Info to behave
3786 like the stand-alone Info reader (from the GNU Texinfo package) as far
3787 as motion between nodes and their subnodes is concerned. If it is t
3788 (the default), Emacs behaves as before when you type SPC in a menu: it
3789 visits the subnode pointed to by the first menu entry. If this option
3790 is nil, SPC scrolls to the end of the current node, and only then goes
3791 to the first menu item, like the stand-alone reader does.
3793 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
3797 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.2
3799 ** The meanings of scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively
3800 have been interchanged, so that the former now controls scrolling up,
3801 and the latter now controls scrolling down.
3803 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
3804 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
3807 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
3809 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
3810 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
3811 charsets in this release.
3813 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
3815 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
3817 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
3818 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
3821 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
3822 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
3823 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
3824 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
3825 necessary changes to unexec.
3827 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
3828 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
3830 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
3831 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
3833 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
3834 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
3836 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
3837 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
3838 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
3839 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
3840 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
3842 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
3843 new display features described below.
3846 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
3848 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
3850 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
3851 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
3852 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
3853 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
3856 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
3858 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
3859 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
3860 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
3861 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
3864 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
3865 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
3866 under Lisp changes, below.
3868 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
3870 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
3871 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
3872 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
3873 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
3874 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
3875 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
3878 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
3879 supported on character terminals.
3881 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
3882 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
3883 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
3884 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
3886 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
3890 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
3891 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
3892 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
3893 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
3896 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
3898 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
3899 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
3900 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
3901 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
3903 - User option: max-mini-window-height
3905 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
3906 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
3907 specifies a number of lines.
3911 - User option: resize-mini-windows
3913 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
3914 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
3915 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
3918 Default is `grow-only'.
3922 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
3923 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
3925 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
3927 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
3928 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
3931 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
3933 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
3934 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
3935 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
3937 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
3939 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
3940 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
3941 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
3942 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
3943 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
3946 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
3947 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
3948 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
3949 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
3950 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
3951 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
3953 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
3954 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
3955 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
3956 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
3957 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
3958 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
3960 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
3961 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
3962 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
3963 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
3964 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
3966 ** Tool bar support.
3968 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
3969 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
3970 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
3971 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
3972 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
3975 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
3976 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
3980 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
3981 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
3982 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
3984 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
3985 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
3986 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
3987 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
3989 ** Automatic Hscrolling
3991 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
3992 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
3995 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
3996 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
3997 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
3998 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
3999 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
4001 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
4002 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
4003 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
4004 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
4005 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
4006 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
4008 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
4009 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
4010 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
4011 customizing face `fringe'.
4013 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
4014 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
4015 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
4016 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
4017 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
4018 the window to be partially obscured.)
4020 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
4021 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
4022 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
4023 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
4025 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
4027 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
4028 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
4029 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
4030 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
4031 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
4034 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
4036 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
4038 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
4040 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
4041 `*') toggles the status.
4043 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
4045 ** Hourglass pointer
4047 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
4048 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
4052 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
4053 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
4054 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
4057 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
4059 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
4060 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
4061 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
4064 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
4065 have to do anything to activate it.
4067 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
4069 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
4070 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
4072 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
4073 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
4074 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
4075 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
4076 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
4077 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
4078 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
4079 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
4081 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
4082 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
4083 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
4084 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
4085 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
4086 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
4088 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
4089 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
4091 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
4092 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
4095 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
4096 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
4097 beginning and end of the buffer.
4099 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
4100 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
4103 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
4104 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
4106 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
4107 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
4110 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
4111 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
4114 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
4116 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
4117 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
4118 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
4120 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
4121 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
4122 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
4124 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
4127 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
4129 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
4130 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
4131 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
4132 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
4133 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
4136 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
4137 all frames except the selected one.
4139 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
4140 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
4142 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
4143 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
4144 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
4145 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
4146 `Info-use-header-line'.
4148 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
4149 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
4150 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
4152 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
4154 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
4155 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
4158 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
4159 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
4160 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
4161 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
4163 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
4165 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
4166 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
4167 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
4168 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
4170 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
4171 point in a pop-up window.
4173 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
4174 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
4175 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
4177 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
4178 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
4180 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
4181 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
4182 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
4183 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
4185 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
4187 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
4188 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
4190 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
4191 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
4192 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
4194 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
4195 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
4198 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
4199 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
4200 file that is already visited under a different name.
4202 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
4203 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
4205 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
4206 and displays information about that.
4208 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
4209 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
4211 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
4212 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
4213 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
4214 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
4215 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
4216 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
4218 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
4219 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
4221 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
4222 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
4223 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
4224 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
4225 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
4226 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
4227 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
4229 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
4230 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
4232 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
4233 system for keyboard input.
4235 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
4236 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
4237 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
4238 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
4239 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
4240 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
4241 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
4242 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
4243 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
4245 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
4246 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
4248 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
4249 displays all characters in that character set.
4251 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
4252 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
4254 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
4255 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
4256 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
4258 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
4259 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
4260 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
4261 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
4262 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
4263 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
4266 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
4267 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
4270 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
4271 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
4272 Lisp Coding Convention".
4274 new command old-binding
4275 --- ------- -----------
4276 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
4277 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
4278 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
4280 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
4281 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
4282 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
4284 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
4285 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
4286 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
4287 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
4288 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
4289 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
4291 ** There are new Leim input methods.
4292 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
4293 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
4296 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
4297 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
4298 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
4299 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
4300 "`", you must type "=q".
4302 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
4303 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
4304 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
4305 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
4306 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
4309 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
4310 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
4311 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
4312 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
4314 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
4315 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
4316 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
4317 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
4319 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
4320 on the display using several methods
4322 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
4323 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
4324 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
4326 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
4327 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
4329 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
4331 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
4332 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
4334 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
4335 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
4336 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
4337 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
4339 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
4340 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
4341 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
4343 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
4344 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
4346 ** New X resources recognized
4348 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
4349 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
4350 is useful for debugging X problems.
4354 emacs.synchronous: true
4356 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
4357 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
4358 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
4359 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
4360 visual class names are
4369 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
4370 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
4373 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
4374 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
4375 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
4380 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
4382 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
4383 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
4384 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
4385 resource values are `true' or `on'.
4389 emacs.privateColormap: true
4391 ** Faces and frame parameters.
4393 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
4394 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
4395 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
4396 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
4397 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
4398 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
4399 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
4401 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
4402 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
4403 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
4404 `default' face and vice versa.
4408 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
4410 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
4412 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
4413 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
4414 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
4415 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
4417 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
4418 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
4419 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
4421 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
4424 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
4426 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
4427 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
4428 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
4429 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
4431 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
4433 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
4435 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
4437 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
4440 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
4443 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
4445 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
4446 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
4447 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
4449 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
4450 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
4452 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
4453 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
4454 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
4456 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
4458 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
4459 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
4460 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
4461 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
4463 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
4464 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
4465 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
4466 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
4468 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
4469 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
4470 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
4473 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
4475 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
4476 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
4477 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
4479 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
4480 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
4481 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
4482 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
4483 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
4484 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
4486 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
4488 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
4489 notably at the end of lines.
4491 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
4492 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
4494 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
4496 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
4497 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
4499 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
4500 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
4501 after each match to get the replacement text.
4503 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
4504 you edit the replacement string.
4506 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
4507 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
4508 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
4510 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
4512 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
4513 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
4515 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
4516 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
4517 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
4518 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
4521 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
4522 read mail from the menu etc.
4524 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
4525 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
4526 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
4527 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
4529 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
4530 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
4532 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
4533 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
4534 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
4535 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
4536 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
4539 ** Customize changes
4541 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
4542 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
4543 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
4544 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
4545 earlier versions of Emacs.
4547 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
4548 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
4551 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
4552 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
4553 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
4554 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
4557 ** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
4558 does not save disabled and enabled commands for future sessions, to
4559 avoid overwriting existing customizations of this kind that are
4560 already in your init file.
4562 ** New features in evaluation commands
4564 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
4565 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
4566 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
4567 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
4568 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
4570 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
4571 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
4572 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
4573 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
4576 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
4577 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
4579 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
4580 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
4582 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
4583 code when called with a prefix argument.
4587 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
4588 current user setups (although it's believed that these
4589 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
4590 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
4591 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
4592 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
4595 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
4596 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
4597 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
4600 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
4601 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
4602 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
4603 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
4605 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
4606 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
4608 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
4609 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
4611 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
4612 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
4613 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
4614 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
4616 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
4617 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
4618 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
4619 earlier statement. An example:
4621 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
4623 res += a[i]->offset;
4626 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
4627 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
4628 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
4629 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
4632 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
4635 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
4636 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
4637 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
4638 documentation or other natural language text.
4640 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
4641 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
4642 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
4643 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
4644 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
4645 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
4646 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
4648 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
4649 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
4650 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
4651 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
4653 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
4654 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
4655 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
4656 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
4659 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
4660 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
4661 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
4662 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
4663 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
4664 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
4665 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
4666 is reported afterwards.
4668 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
4669 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
4670 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
4672 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
4673 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
4674 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
4675 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
4676 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
4677 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
4680 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
4681 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
4682 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
4683 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
4684 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
4687 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
4688 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
4689 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
4690 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
4691 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
4692 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
4694 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
4695 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
4696 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
4697 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
4698 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
4699 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
4700 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
4701 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
4703 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
4704 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
4705 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
4706 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
4709 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
4710 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
4711 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
4712 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
4713 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
4714 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
4715 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
4716 function documentation for more info.
4718 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
4719 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
4720 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
4721 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
4722 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
4723 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
4724 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
4725 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
4727 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
4729 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
4730 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
4732 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
4733 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
4734 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
4735 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
4736 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
4739 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
4740 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
4741 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
4744 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
4745 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
4746 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
4747 chapter about this in the manual.
4749 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
4750 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
4751 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
4752 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
4753 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
4755 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
4756 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
4757 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
4759 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
4760 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
4762 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
4763 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
4764 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
4767 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
4768 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
4769 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
4770 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
4773 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
4774 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
4775 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
4776 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
4777 they were before the filling.
4779 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
4780 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
4781 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
4784 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
4785 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
4786 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
4787 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
4790 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
4791 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
4792 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
4793 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
4794 Thanks to Eric Eide.
4796 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
4797 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
4798 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
4800 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
4802 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
4803 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
4804 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
4805 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
4807 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
4808 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
4809 the column specified by comment-column.
4811 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
4812 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
4813 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
4814 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
4815 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
4816 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
4818 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
4819 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
4822 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
4824 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
4825 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
4826 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
4827 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
4830 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
4834 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
4835 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
4836 is, delete only empty directories.
4838 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
4839 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
4840 copy directories recursively.
4842 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
4843 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
4844 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
4846 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
4847 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
4850 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
4851 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
4852 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
4853 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
4854 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
4856 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
4859 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
4860 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
4861 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
4862 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
4866 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
4867 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
4868 internationalization and mail-fetching.
4870 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
4871 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
4873 If you used procmail like in
4875 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
4876 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
4877 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
4878 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
4880 this now has changed to
4883 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
4886 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
4887 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
4889 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
4890 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
4891 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
4892 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
4894 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
4895 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
4896 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
4898 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
4899 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
4900 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
4901 now just a compatibility layer.
4903 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
4906 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
4907 called to position point.
4909 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
4910 summary buffers and NOV files.
4912 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
4913 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
4915 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
4916 subtly different manner.
4918 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
4919 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
4920 ever-changing layouts.
4922 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
4924 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
4926 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
4928 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
4932 -------------------------
4936 C-c C-c q @quotation
4938 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
4941 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
4943 ** Changes in Outline mode.
4945 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
4946 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
4947 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
4949 ** Changes to Emacs Server
4951 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
4952 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
4953 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
4954 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
4955 buffers to kill, as before.
4957 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
4958 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
4961 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
4962 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
4964 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
4966 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
4967 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
4968 use. Default is 1000.
4970 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
4971 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
4973 ** Changes to hideshow.el
4975 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
4977 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
4978 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
4979 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
4980 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
4982 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
4983 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
4984 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
4987 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
4988 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
4989 the normal block-hiding function.
4991 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
4993 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
4994 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
4995 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
4996 for `hs-minor-mode'.
4998 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
4999 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
5001 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
5003 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
5004 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
5005 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
5007 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
5010 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
5013 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
5014 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
5015 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
5016 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
5017 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
5018 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
5020 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
5022 ** Changes to cmuscheme
5024 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
5025 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
5027 ** Changes in Font Lock
5029 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
5030 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
5032 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
5033 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
5035 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
5036 the face used for each string/comment.
5038 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
5039 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
5041 ** Changes to Shell mode
5043 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
5044 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
5045 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
5046 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
5048 ** Comint (subshell) changes
5050 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
5051 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
5053 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
5054 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
5055 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
5056 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
5057 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
5058 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
5060 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
5061 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
5062 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
5063 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
5064 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
5065 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
5066 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
5067 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
5069 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
5070 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
5072 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
5073 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
5074 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
5076 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
5077 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
5078 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
5080 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
5081 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
5082 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
5084 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
5085 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
5086 argument, it appends to the file.
5088 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
5089 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
5092 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
5095 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
5096 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
5097 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
5099 ** Changes to Rmail mode
5101 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
5102 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
5103 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
5104 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
5105 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
5108 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
5109 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
5110 regexp matching your mail addresses.
5112 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
5113 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
5114 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
5115 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
5116 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
5118 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
5121 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
5122 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
5125 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
5126 in which folder to put messages automatically.
5128 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
5129 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
5130 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
5132 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
5133 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
5135 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
5136 use the -f option when sending mail.
5138 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
5139 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
5140 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
5141 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
5142 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
5143 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
5145 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
5146 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
5147 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
5149 ** Changes to TeX mode
5151 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
5154 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
5156 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
5158 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
5160 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
5162 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
5163 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
5164 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
5165 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
5166 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
5167 can be edited from that buffer.
5169 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
5170 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
5171 `A' to use all marked entries).
5173 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
5174 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
5176 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
5177 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
5178 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
5181 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
5182 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
5183 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
5184 in column 1 are always made leaves.
5186 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
5187 has the following new features:
5189 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
5190 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
5191 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
5192 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
5194 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
5195 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
5196 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
5197 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
5198 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
5201 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
5206 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
5207 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
5208 spell-checks the current buffer.
5210 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
5213 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
5214 correction is made and re-checked.
5216 *** Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definitions have been added.
5218 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
5221 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
5224 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
5227 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
5229 ** Makefile mode changes
5231 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
5233 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
5234 Fontlock mode is active.
5238 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
5239 so that searches can be resumed.
5241 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
5242 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
5243 that started the search.
5245 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
5246 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
5248 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
5250 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
5251 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
5252 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
5253 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
5254 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
5255 `secondary-selection'.
5257 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
5258 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
5259 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
5260 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
5261 usual snappy response.
5263 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
5264 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
5265 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
5266 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
5270 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
5271 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
5272 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
5273 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
5274 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
5275 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
5276 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
5277 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
5278 file is registered in that backend.
5280 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
5281 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
5282 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
5283 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
5284 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
5285 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
5287 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
5288 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
5289 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
5290 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
5291 where it doesn't make sense.)
5293 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
5294 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
5295 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
5299 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
5300 checks are always done now.
5302 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
5305 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
5306 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
5307 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
5309 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
5310 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
5311 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
5312 the working file (``merge news'').
5314 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
5315 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
5318 *** Multiple Backends
5320 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
5321 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
5322 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
5323 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
5326 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
5327 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
5328 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
5329 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
5331 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
5332 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
5333 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
5334 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
5335 current revision number from the more remote backend.
5337 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
5338 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
5339 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
5340 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
5342 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
5343 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
5344 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
5345 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
5349 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
5350 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
5351 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
5352 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
5353 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
5354 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
5355 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
5357 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
5358 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
5359 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
5360 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
5361 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
5362 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
5363 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
5364 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
5365 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
5366 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
5367 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
5370 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
5371 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
5372 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
5373 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
5374 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
5375 entire directory tree.
5377 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
5378 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
5379 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
5380 "watched" by other developers.)
5382 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
5383 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
5384 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
5385 starting at the given directory.
5387 *** Lisp Changes in VC
5389 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
5390 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
5391 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
5392 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
5393 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
5394 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
5395 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
5396 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
5397 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
5399 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
5400 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
5401 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
5402 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
5404 ** New modes and packages
5406 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
5407 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
5408 the default is not applicable.
5410 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
5411 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
5412 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
5416 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
5417 drawn, like this: | \ /
5421 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
5422 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
5423 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
5424 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
5425 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
5428 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
5429 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
5431 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
5434 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
5435 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
5436 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
5437 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
5439 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
5440 also do without the mouse.
5442 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
5443 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
5444 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
5445 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
5446 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
5448 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
5450 lines straight-lines
5452 poly-lines straight poly-lines
5454 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
5455 spray-can setting size for spraying
5456 vaporize line vaporize lines
5457 erase characters erase rectangles
5459 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
5460 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
5461 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
5464 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
5465 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
5466 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
5467 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
5469 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
5472 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
5473 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
5474 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
5475 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
5476 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
5477 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
5478 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
5479 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
5480 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
5482 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
5483 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
5484 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
5485 on certain projects.
5487 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
5488 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
5490 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
5492 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
5493 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
5494 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
5495 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
5496 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
5497 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
5498 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
5499 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
5501 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
5504 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
5505 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
5507 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
5508 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
5510 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
5511 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
5512 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
5513 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
5514 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
5516 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
5517 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
5518 separate Texinfo file.
5520 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
5521 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
5522 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
5523 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
5524 enter check-in log messages.
5526 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
5527 without invoking external programs.
5529 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
5530 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
5531 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
5532 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
5533 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
5535 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
5536 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
5538 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
5539 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
5541 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
5542 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
5543 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
5544 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
5545 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
5548 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
5549 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
5550 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
5551 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
5553 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
5554 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
5555 actually modifying content of a buffer.
5557 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
5560 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
5562 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
5564 ; comment (until end of line)
5568 $A default non-terminal
5569 $"C" default terminal
5570 $?C? default special
5571 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
5572 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
5573 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
5574 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
5575 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
5576 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
5577 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
5578 C+ one or more occurrences of C
5579 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
5580 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
5581 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
5582 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
5583 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
5584 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
5585 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
5587 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
5589 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
5590 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
5591 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
5592 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
5593 equal signs of assignments.
5595 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
5596 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
5598 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
5599 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
5600 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
5602 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
5604 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
5605 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
5606 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
5607 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
5608 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
5609 which answers different needs.
5611 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
5612 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
5613 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
5614 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
5615 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
5618 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
5619 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
5621 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
5623 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
5624 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
5625 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behavior in all buffers.
5627 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
5629 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
5630 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
5631 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
5632 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
5633 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
5634 and background colors.
5636 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
5639 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
5642 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
5644 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
5646 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
5647 whitespace in a file.
5649 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
5650 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
5651 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
5652 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
5653 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
5654 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
5655 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
5657 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
5659 Here is an example of columns:
5662 dog pineapple car EXTRA
5663 porcupine strawberry airplane
5665 Doing the following settings:
5667 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
5668 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
5669 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
5670 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
5673 Selecting the lines above and typing:
5675 M-x delimit-columns-region
5679 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
5680 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
5681 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
5683 delim-col has the following options:
5685 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
5688 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
5689 between each column.
5691 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
5694 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
5697 delim-col has the following commands:
5699 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
5700 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
5702 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
5703 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
5704 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
5705 recent file list can be displayed:
5707 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
5708 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
5709 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
5711 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
5712 dynamically change the menu appearance.
5714 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
5717 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
5718 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
5719 specific to Message mode.
5721 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
5722 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
5723 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
5725 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
5726 interface to access directory servers using different directory
5727 protocols. It has a separate manual.
5729 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
5730 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
5732 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
5734 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
5735 minibuffer with completion.
5737 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
5738 with the diary features.
5740 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
5741 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
5743 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
5746 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
5747 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
5748 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
5749 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
5751 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
5752 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
5755 ** Changes in sort.el
5757 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
5758 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
5759 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
5762 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
5764 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
5765 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
5766 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
5768 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
5769 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
5771 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
5772 output ^M at the end of lines.
5774 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
5775 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
5777 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
5778 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
5781 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
5784 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
5785 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
5788 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
5789 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
5790 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
5791 nil -- just delete one character.
5793 Default value is `untabify'.
5795 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
5797 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
5798 symbol, not double-quoted.
5800 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
5801 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
5802 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
5803 moved to lisp/obsolete.
5805 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
5806 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
5807 `auto-compression-mode' command.
5809 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
5810 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
5811 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
5813 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
5814 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
5816 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
5817 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
5819 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
5820 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
5822 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
5823 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
5824 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
5825 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
5826 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
5827 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
5829 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
5830 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
5832 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
5834 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
5835 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
5837 ** Shell script mode changes.
5839 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
5840 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
5841 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
5845 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
5847 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
5848 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
5849 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
5850 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
5851 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
5853 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
5854 declarations when given the --declarations option.
5856 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
5857 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
5859 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
5860 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
5861 `template' keywords.
5863 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
5864 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
5866 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
5869 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
5871 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
5873 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
5876 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
5878 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
5879 variables are tagged.
5881 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
5883 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
5886 ** Changes in etags.el
5888 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
5889 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
5890 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
5892 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
5893 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
5895 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
5896 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
5897 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
5898 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
5900 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
5902 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
5903 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
5905 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
5907 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
5908 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
5909 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
5911 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
5912 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
5914 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
5915 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
5917 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
5918 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
5919 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
5920 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
5921 point will go to the beginning of the file.
5923 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
5924 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
5925 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
5927 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
5928 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
5929 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
5931 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
5932 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
5933 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
5935 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
5937 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
5939 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
5940 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
5941 expression from that list, are not checked.
5943 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
5944 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
5945 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
5946 the buffer, just like for the local files.
5948 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
5950 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
5951 displays local abbrevs, only.
5953 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
5954 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
5956 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
5957 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
5958 is measured in pixels.
5960 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
5961 to be visited as images.
5963 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
5964 were added to compile.el.
5966 ** Withdrawn packages
5968 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
5969 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
5971 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
5973 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
5976 * Incompatible Lisp changes
5978 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
5979 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
5980 See the sections below for details.
5982 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
5983 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
5984 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
5985 to remove the properties of the copy.
5987 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
5988 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
5989 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
5990 these properties are active.
5992 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
5993 ranges may affect some code.
5995 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
5996 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
5997 make a difference to some code.
5999 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
6000 operates on the minibuffer.
6002 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
6003 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
6004 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
6005 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
6006 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
6007 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
6008 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
6009 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
6010 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
6011 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
6012 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
6013 the buffer as multibyte characters.
6015 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
6016 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
6017 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
6019 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
6020 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
6021 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
6023 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
6024 long promised. So does any code that uses derivatives of `concat',
6025 such as `mapconcat'.
6027 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
6030 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
6031 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
6032 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
6033 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
6034 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
6035 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
6036 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
6037 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
6039 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
6040 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
6041 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
6042 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
6043 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
6044 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
6045 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
6046 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
6047 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
6048 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
6051 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
6052 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
6054 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
6056 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
6057 allows the animated display of strings.
6059 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
6060 interactive form of a function.
6062 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
6063 between custom options. Example:
6065 (defcustom default-input-method nil
6066 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
6067 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
6068 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
6070 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
6071 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
6073 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
6074 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
6075 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
6077 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
6078 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
6079 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
6080 (signal or normal termination).
6082 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
6083 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
6085 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
6086 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
6088 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
6089 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
6091 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
6093 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
6094 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
6097 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
6099 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
6100 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
6101 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
6102 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
6103 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
6106 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
6107 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
6110 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
6111 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
6113 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
6114 with the more general `:mask' property.
6116 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
6118 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
6121 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
6122 is running in batch mode. For example,
6124 (message "%s" (read t))
6126 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
6129 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
6130 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
6132 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
6133 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
6136 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
6139 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
6141 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
6142 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
6144 - Function: remq ELT LIST
6146 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
6147 comparison is done with `eq'.
6149 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
6151 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
6152 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
6153 `key-and-value', in addition to `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
6155 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
6156 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
6157 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
6159 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
6160 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
6162 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
6163 function was declared obsolete.
6165 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
6166 retained as an alias).
6168 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
6169 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
6170 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
6172 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
6174 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
6176 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
6177 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
6178 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
6179 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
6180 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
6181 means never include the minibuffer window.
6183 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
6185 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
6187 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
6189 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
6190 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
6191 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
6192 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
6195 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
6196 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
6197 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
6198 minibuffer even if it is active.
6200 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
6201 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
6202 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
6203 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
6204 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
6205 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
6207 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
6208 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
6209 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
6210 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
6211 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
6212 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
6213 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
6215 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
6216 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
6217 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
6219 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
6220 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
6221 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
6222 Default value is nil.
6224 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
6227 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
6228 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
6229 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
6231 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
6232 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
6233 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
6235 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
6236 list of a primitive.
6238 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
6240 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
6241 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
6242 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
6243 than replacing the local map.
6245 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
6246 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
6247 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
6250 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
6252 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
6253 as promised long ago.
6255 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
6257 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
6258 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
6259 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
6262 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
6264 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
6265 regular expressions.
6267 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
6269 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
6273 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
6275 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
6279 matches string STRING literally.
6282 matches character CHAR literally.
6285 matches any character except a newline.
6288 matches any character
6291 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
6292 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
6298 matches any character not in SET
6301 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
6302 in the text being matched
6305 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
6308 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
6309 string being matched against.
6312 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
6313 string being matched against.
6316 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
6317 buffer being matched against.
6320 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
6321 buffer being matched against.
6324 matches the empty string, but only at point.
6327 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
6331 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
6334 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
6337 `(not word-boundary)'
6338 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
6342 matches 0 through 9.
6345 matches ASCII control characters.
6348 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
6351 matches space and tab only.
6354 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
6358 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
6362 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6363 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6366 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6367 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6370 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
6373 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
6376 matches anything lower-case.
6379 matches anything upper-case.
6382 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6383 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
6386 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
6389 matches anything that has word syntax.
6392 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
6393 of the following symbols.
6395 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
6396 `punctuation' (\\s.)
6399 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
6400 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
6401 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
6402 `string-quote' (\\s\")
6403 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
6405 `character-quote' (\\s/)
6406 `comment-start' (\\s<)
6407 `comment-end' (\\s>)
6409 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
6410 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
6412 `(category CATEGORY)'
6413 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
6414 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
6416 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
6418 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
6419 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
6423 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
6425 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
6426 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
6427 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
6428 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
6429 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
6430 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
6431 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
6432 `indian-two-byte' (\\cI)
6433 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
6434 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
6435 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
6444 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
6448 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
6455 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
6456 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
6458 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6459 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
6461 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6462 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
6463 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
6465 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6466 another name for `submatch'.
6468 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6469 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
6470 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
6473 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
6474 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
6475 zero or more occurrences of something are \"greedy\" in that they
6476 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
6477 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
6479 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
6480 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
6482 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
6483 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
6486 like `zero-or-more'.
6489 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
6492 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
6494 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
6495 matches one or more occurrences of A.
6501 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
6504 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
6506 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
6507 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
6513 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
6516 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
6519 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
6522 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
6525 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
6529 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
6531 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
6533 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
6534 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
6535 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
6536 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
6538 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
6539 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
6540 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
6541 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
6543 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
6544 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
6545 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
6547 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
6548 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
6549 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
6550 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
6551 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
6552 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
6553 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
6556 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
6558 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
6559 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
6560 character set as previously.
6562 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
6563 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
6564 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
6566 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
6567 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
6568 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
6569 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
6571 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
6572 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
6574 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
6575 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
6578 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
6579 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
6581 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
6582 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
6583 buffers and strings.
6585 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
6586 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
6587 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
6588 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
6589 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
6590 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
6591 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
6594 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
6595 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
6596 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
6598 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
6599 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
6600 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
6601 may differ between buffer and string text.
6603 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
6604 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
6606 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
6607 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
6608 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
6609 `composition' from STRING.
6611 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
6612 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
6614 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
6617 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
6618 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
6620 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
6621 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
6622 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
6623 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
6625 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
6626 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
6627 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
6628 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
6629 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
6630 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
6632 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
6633 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
6634 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
6636 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
6637 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
6638 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
6640 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
6641 have been introduced.
6643 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
6644 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
6645 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
6646 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
6647 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
6648 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
6649 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
6650 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
6651 their multibyte equivalent.
6653 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
6654 that offset in the file before writing.
6656 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
6657 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
6659 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
6660 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
6661 from which the command was issued.
6663 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
6664 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
6665 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
6666 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
6669 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
6670 to `window-buffer-height'.
6672 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
6674 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
6675 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
6676 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
6678 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
6681 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
6682 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
6684 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
6685 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
6686 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
6688 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
6689 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
6690 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
6691 is currently displayed in some window.
6693 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
6694 argument function's results.
6696 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
6697 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
6698 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
6699 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
6702 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
6703 header in the list of headers passed to it.
6705 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
6706 ignores differences in case and text representation.
6708 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
6709 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
6712 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
6713 nil don't display a cursor
6714 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
6715 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
6716 others display a box cursor.
6718 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
6719 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
6720 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
6721 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
6723 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
6724 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
6725 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
6726 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
6730 (string-to-syntax "()")
6733 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
6736 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
6737 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
6744 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
6749 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
6754 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
6761 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
6762 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
6765 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
6766 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
6767 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
6768 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
6770 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
6772 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
6773 for a regexp in a string.
6775 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
6776 `mouse-position-function'.
6778 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
6779 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
6781 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
6782 Keywords are now always considered constants.
6784 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
6787 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
6788 returned by function `recent-keys'.
6790 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
6791 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
6792 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
6793 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
6796 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
6797 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
6799 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
6800 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
6801 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
6802 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
6805 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
6806 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
6807 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
6808 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
6810 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
6811 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
6812 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
6814 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
6815 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
6818 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
6820 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
6821 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
6822 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
6825 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
6826 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
6827 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
6828 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
6829 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
6831 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
6832 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
6834 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
6835 instead of being optional.
6837 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
6838 modify read-only text.
6840 ** New functions and variables for locales.
6842 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
6843 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
6844 time functions like strftime. The new variables
6845 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
6846 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
6848 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
6849 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
6850 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
6851 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
6852 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
6853 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
6854 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
6856 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
6857 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
6858 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
6861 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
6862 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
6864 ** New function `propertize'
6866 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
6867 strings with text properties.
6869 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
6871 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
6872 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
6873 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
6874 specified value of that property. Example:
6876 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
6878 ** push and pop macros.
6880 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
6881 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
6882 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
6884 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
6885 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
6886 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
6888 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
6890 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
6891 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
6893 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
6894 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
6895 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
6896 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
6898 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
6899 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
6900 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
6901 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
6903 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
6904 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
6905 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
6908 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
6909 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
6910 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
6911 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
6912 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
6914 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
6916 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
6917 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6918 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6919 [:alpha:] matches letters.
6920 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6921 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6922 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
6923 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
6924 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
6925 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
6926 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6927 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
6928 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
6929 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
6930 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
6932 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
6934 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
6936 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
6938 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
6939 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
6943 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
6944 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
6945 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
6949 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
6950 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
6952 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
6954 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
6955 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
6956 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
6957 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
6958 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
6960 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
6962 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
6963 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
6964 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
6968 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
6969 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
6970 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
6971 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
6972 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
6974 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
6976 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
6978 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
6980 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
6982 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
6984 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
6987 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
6989 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
6991 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
6993 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
6995 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
6997 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
6999 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
7001 Returns the size of TABLE.
7003 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
7005 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
7007 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
7009 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
7011 - Function: clrhash TABLE
7015 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
7017 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
7020 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
7022 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
7023 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
7025 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
7027 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
7029 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
7031 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
7032 arguments KEY and VALUE.
7034 - Function: sxhash OBJ
7036 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
7038 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
7040 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
7041 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
7042 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
7043 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
7044 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
7046 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
7048 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
7049 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
7050 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
7052 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
7053 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
7055 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
7056 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
7058 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
7059 (sxhash (upcase a)))
7061 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
7062 'case-fold-string-hash))
7064 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
7066 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
7068 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
7069 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
7070 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
7072 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
7074 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
7075 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
7077 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
7078 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
7079 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
7080 is too short to reach that column.
7082 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
7083 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
7084 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
7085 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
7087 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
7088 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
7089 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
7091 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
7092 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
7094 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
7095 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
7097 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
7098 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
7099 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
7100 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
7101 temporary-file-directory instead.
7103 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
7104 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
7105 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
7106 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
7108 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
7109 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
7111 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
7113 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
7114 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
7115 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
7117 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
7119 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
7120 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
7121 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
7122 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
7123 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
7124 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
7126 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
7127 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
7128 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
7129 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
7131 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
7133 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
7134 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
7135 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
7138 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
7139 string where arguments appear in the result string.
7143 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
7145 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
7146 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
7149 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
7151 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
7153 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
7154 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
7157 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
7159 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
7160 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
7165 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
7166 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
7168 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
7169 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
7170 to enable sound support.
7172 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
7173 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
7174 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
7175 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
7176 sound to play, before playing the sound.
7178 The following sound properties are supported:
7182 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
7183 searched relative to `data-directory'.
7187 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
7188 may be present, but not both.
7192 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
7193 0..1. This property is optional.
7197 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
7198 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
7200 Other properties are ignored.
7202 An alternative interface is called as
7203 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
7205 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
7207 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
7210 ** Changes to garbage collection
7212 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
7213 of live and free strings.
7215 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
7216 strings that have been consed so far.
7219 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
7222 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
7225 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
7226 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
7227 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
7229 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
7231 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
7233 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
7236 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
7238 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
7240 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
7241 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
7242 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
7243 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
7244 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
7246 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
7249 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
7251 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
7252 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
7253 or omitted means use the selected frame.
7255 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
7256 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
7258 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
7261 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
7265 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
7267 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
7268 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
7270 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
7271 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
7272 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
7273 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
7274 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
7275 just display it black instead.
7277 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
7280 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
7284 ** New face implementation.
7286 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
7287 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
7291 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
7293 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
7295 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
7296 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
7298 3. Font height in 1/10pt
7300 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
7302 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
7304 6. Foreground color.
7306 7. Background color.
7308 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
7310 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
7312 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
7314 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
7316 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
7319 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
7320 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
7322 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
7323 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
7324 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
7325 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
7326 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
7327 attributes mentioned above.
7329 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
7330 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
7333 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
7334 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
7339 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
7340 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
7341 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
7342 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
7343 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
7344 results in a fully-specified face.
7346 *** Face realization.
7348 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
7349 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
7350 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
7351 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
7352 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
7353 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
7355 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
7356 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
7357 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
7358 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
7360 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
7361 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
7362 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
7363 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
7364 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
7366 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
7367 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
7368 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
7369 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
7370 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
7373 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
7374 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
7375 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
7376 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
7378 **** Clearing face caches.
7380 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
7381 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
7386 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
7387 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
7388 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
7390 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
7391 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
7392 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
7393 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
7394 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
7396 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
7397 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
7398 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
7400 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
7402 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
7403 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
7404 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
7405 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
7406 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
7407 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
7408 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
7410 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
7411 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
7414 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
7415 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
7418 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
7421 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
7426 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
7427 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
7430 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
7431 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
7432 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
7433 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
7434 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
7437 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
7439 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
7441 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
7443 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
7445 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
7446 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
7447 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
7449 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
7450 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
7451 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
7452 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
7453 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
7454 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
7455 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
7456 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
7457 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
7458 of the face font sort order.
7460 - Function: x-font-family-list
7462 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
7463 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
7464 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
7465 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
7467 - Variable: font-list-limit
7469 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
7470 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
7471 matching font. The default is currently 100.
7473 *** Setting face attributes.
7475 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
7476 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
7477 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
7480 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
7481 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
7483 The following attributes are recognized:
7487 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
7488 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
7489 and `?' are allowed.
7493 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
7494 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
7495 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
7496 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
7500 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
7501 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
7502 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
7503 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
7507 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
7508 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
7509 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
7513 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
7514 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
7517 `:foreground', `:background'
7519 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
7523 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
7524 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
7525 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
7530 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
7531 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
7532 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
7537 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
7538 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
7539 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
7540 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
7544 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
7545 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
7546 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
7547 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
7548 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
7549 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
7550 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
7551 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
7552 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
7553 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
7554 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
7555 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
7556 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
7557 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
7558 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
7559 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
7564 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
7565 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
7569 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
7570 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
7571 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
7572 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
7573 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
7574 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
7576 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
7577 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
7581 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
7582 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
7583 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
7586 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
7587 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
7588 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
7590 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
7595 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
7596 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
7597 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
7599 *** Face attributes and X resources
7601 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
7604 Face attribute X resource class
7605 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
7606 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
7607 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
7608 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
7609 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
7610 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
7611 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
7612 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
7613 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
7614 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
7615 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
7616 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
7617 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
7618 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
7619 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
7620 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
7621 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
7622 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
7623 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
7624 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
7626 *** Text property `face'.
7628 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
7629 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
7630 specification can be
7632 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
7634 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
7635 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
7636 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
7637 for face attribute names.
7639 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
7640 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
7641 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
7643 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
7645 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
7646 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
7647 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
7648 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
7649 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
7650 used to clear the mapping table.
7652 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
7654 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
7655 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
7656 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
7657 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
7658 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
7659 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
7660 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
7661 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
7662 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
7663 modify their color-related behavior.
7665 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
7668 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
7670 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
7671 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
7672 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
7673 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
7674 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
7675 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
7676 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
7677 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
7678 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
7680 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
7681 display can display image files.
7683 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
7685 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
7686 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
7687 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
7688 `Inviolable' option.
7690 The function `minibuffer-prompt-end' returns the current position of the
7691 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
7692 Otherwise, it returns `(point-min)'.
7694 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
7696 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
7697 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
7698 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
7700 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
7701 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
7702 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
7703 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
7704 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
7705 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
7706 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
7709 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
7710 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
7711 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
7713 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
7715 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
7717 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
7719 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7720 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
7721 constrained position if that is different.
7723 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
7724 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
7725 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
7726 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
7727 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7728 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
7729 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
7730 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
7731 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
7733 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
7734 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
7735 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
7736 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
7737 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
7739 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
7740 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
7742 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
7744 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
7746 Delete the field surrounding POS.
7747 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7748 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7750 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7752 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
7753 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7754 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7755 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
7756 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
7758 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7760 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
7761 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7762 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7763 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
7764 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
7766 - Function: field-string &optional POS
7768 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
7769 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7770 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7772 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
7774 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
7775 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7776 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7780 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
7781 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
7782 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
7783 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
7785 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
7786 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
7787 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
7788 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
7791 IMAGE is an image specification.
7793 *** Image specifications
7795 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
7796 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
7797 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
7798 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
7799 described below are ignored.
7801 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
7805 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
7806 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
7807 to use for its ascent.
7809 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
7810 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
7812 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
7813 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
7814 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
7815 overlays that apply to the image.
7819 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
7820 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
7821 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
7825 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
7830 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
7832 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
7833 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
7835 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
7836 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
7837 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
7838 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
7839 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
7840 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
7841 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
7842 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
7845 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
7847 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
7849 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
7850 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
7851 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
7852 of the factors' absolute values.
7854 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
7860 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
7866 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
7871 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
7872 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
7873 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
7874 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
7875 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
7876 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
7877 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
7880 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
7881 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
7886 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
7887 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
7888 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
7889 may be present in the image specification.
7893 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
7894 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
7895 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
7896 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
7898 *** Supported image types
7900 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
7902 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
7903 properties supported are:
7907 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
7908 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
7912 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
7913 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
7915 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
7916 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
7917 instead of a `:file' property.
7921 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
7925 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
7931 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
7932 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
7934 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
7936 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
7939 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
7940 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
7943 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
7945 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
7946 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
7947 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
7948 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
7950 Additional image properties supported are:
7952 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
7954 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
7955 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
7958 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
7959 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
7961 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
7962 to display compressed images.
7964 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
7966 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
7967 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
7972 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
7973 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
7977 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
7978 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
7980 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
7982 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
7983 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7986 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
7988 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
7989 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7992 **** GIF, image type `gif'
7994 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
7995 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
7997 Additional image properties supported are:
8001 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
8002 multi-image GIF file. If INDEX is too large, the image displays
8005 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
8006 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
8007 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
8010 (defun show-anim (file max)
8011 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
8012 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
8014 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
8017 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
8020 (goto-char (point-min))
8021 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
8022 (insert-image img "x"))
8023 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
8025 **** PNG, image type `png'
8027 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
8028 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
8031 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
8033 Additional image properties supported are:
8037 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
8038 integer. This is a required property.
8042 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
8043 must be a integer. This is an required property.
8047 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
8048 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
8049 files. This is an required property.
8051 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
8056 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
8057 which are supported in the current configuration.
8059 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
8060 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
8061 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
8062 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
8063 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
8065 *** Simplified image API, image.el
8067 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
8068 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
8069 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
8070 define an image based on available image types. The functions
8071 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
8076 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
8079 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
8080 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
8081 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
8082 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
8083 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
8084 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
8085 of the display margins.
8087 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
8088 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
8089 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
8090 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
8095 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
8096 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
8097 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
8098 that have a `help-echo' property.
8100 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
8101 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
8102 the window in which the help was found.
8104 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
8105 `help-echo' text property was found.
8107 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
8108 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
8110 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
8111 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
8114 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
8115 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
8117 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
8118 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
8119 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
8120 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
8121 used as help string.
8123 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
8124 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
8125 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
8127 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
8129 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
8130 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
8132 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
8133 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
8134 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
8135 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
8138 (global-set-key [A-down]
8141 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
8142 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
8143 (global-set-key [A-up]
8146 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
8147 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
8149 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
8151 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
8152 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
8153 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
8154 is called with one argument, POS.
8156 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
8157 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
8158 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
8159 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
8160 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
8162 ** Tool bar support.
8164 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
8165 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
8166 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
8167 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
8168 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
8169 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
8171 *** Tool bar item definitions
8173 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
8174 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
8175 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
8177 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
8178 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
8179 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
8180 property (see below).
8182 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
8183 binding are currently ignored.
8185 The following properties are recognized:
8189 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
8194 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
8198 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
8199 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
8200 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
8202 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
8204 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
8205 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
8209 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
8210 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
8211 meaning of each of the four elements:
8213 Index Use when item is
8214 ----------------------------------------
8215 0 enabled and selected
8216 1 enabled and deselected
8217 2 disabled and selected
8218 3 disabled and deselected
8220 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
8221 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
8223 `:help HELP-STRING'.
8225 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
8226 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
8228 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
8229 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
8230 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
8233 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
8234 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
8235 buffer-locally to override the global map.
8237 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
8239 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
8240 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
8241 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
8243 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
8244 raised when the mouse moves over them.
8246 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
8247 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
8248 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
8249 vertical margins . Default is 1.
8251 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
8252 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
8254 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
8256 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
8259 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
8260 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
8261 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
8263 is the original tool bar item definition, then
8265 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
8267 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
8270 ** Mode line changes.
8272 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
8274 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
8275 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
8276 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
8278 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
8279 a `local-map' text property.
8281 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
8282 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
8284 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
8285 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
8286 `local-map' property.
8288 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
8289 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
8292 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
8293 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
8295 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
8296 variable mode-line-format to nil.
8298 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
8300 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
8301 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
8302 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
8303 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
8306 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
8309 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
8310 position in the header-line.
8312 ** Text property `display'
8314 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
8315 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
8316 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
8317 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
8318 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
8320 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
8322 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
8323 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
8325 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
8326 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
8327 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
8328 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
8329 simpler form STRING as property value.
8331 *** Variable width and height spaces
8333 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
8334 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
8335 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
8336 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
8337 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
8338 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
8339 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
8341 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
8342 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
8343 properties described below.
8345 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
8346 characters having the `display' property.
8350 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
8351 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
8353 - :relative-width FACTOR
8355 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
8356 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
8357 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
8358 width of that character by FACTOR.
8362 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
8363 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
8365 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
8369 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
8372 - :relative-height FACTOR
8374 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
8375 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
8379 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
8380 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
8381 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
8384 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
8388 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
8389 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
8390 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
8391 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
8392 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
8393 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
8394 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
8395 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
8396 as display specification.
8398 *** Other display properties
8400 - (space-width FACTOR)
8402 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
8403 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
8408 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
8410 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
8411 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
8412 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
8413 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
8414 a font is available counts as a step.
8416 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
8417 as tall as the frame's default font.
8419 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
8420 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
8422 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
8423 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
8427 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
8428 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
8429 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
8430 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
8431 `height' subproperty.
8433 *** Conditional display properties
8435 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
8436 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
8437 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
8438 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
8439 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
8440 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
8441 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
8442 different when object is a string.
8444 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
8447 ** New menu separator types.
8449 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
8450 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
8451 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
8452 to specify other menu separator types.
8454 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
8456 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
8459 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
8461 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
8463 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
8465 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
8467 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
8469 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
8471 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
8473 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
8475 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
8477 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
8478 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
8480 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
8482 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
8484 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
8486 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
8488 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
8490 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
8492 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
8494 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
8496 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
8498 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
8500 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
8502 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
8504 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
8506 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
8508 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
8509 the corresponding single-line separators.
8511 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
8513 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
8514 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
8515 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
8516 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
8517 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
8518 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
8519 default foreground is black.
8521 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
8522 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
8523 `ScrollBarBackground').
8525 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
8526 settings for scroll bar colors.
8528 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
8529 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
8531 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
8532 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
8533 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
8534 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
8535 the original window start.
8537 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
8538 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
8539 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
8541 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
8543 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
8544 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
8545 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
8546 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
8548 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
8549 fixed-width and fixed-height.
8551 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
8553 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
8554 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
8555 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
8556 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
8557 temporarily to nil, for example
8559 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
8560 (enlarge-window 10))
8562 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
8563 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
8565 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
8566 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
8567 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
8568 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
8569 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
8570 support a vertical-bar cursor).
8574 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
8576 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
8579 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
8581 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
8583 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
8584 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
8585 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
8586 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
8587 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
8589 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
8593 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
8595 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
8599 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
8601 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
8602 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
8604 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
8606 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
8608 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
8609 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
8610 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
8612 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
8613 is the one that is used.
8615 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
8616 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
8617 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
8618 separate from the command's regular output.
8619 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
8620 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
8621 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
8624 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
8625 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
8626 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
8627 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
8629 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
8630 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
8631 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
8632 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
8634 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
8635 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
8636 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
8637 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
8639 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
8640 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
8641 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
8642 they never ignore case.
8644 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
8645 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
8646 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
8647 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
8648 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
8649 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
8650 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
8652 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
8653 the same format that was used in the file before.
8655 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
8656 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
8658 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
8659 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
8660 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
8662 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
8663 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
8664 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
8665 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
8666 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
8667 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
8668 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
8670 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
8671 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
8672 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
8673 format. You can now customize these variables.
8675 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
8676 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
8677 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
8678 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
8680 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
8681 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
8682 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
8684 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
8685 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
8686 doesn't have any effect.
8688 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
8691 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
8692 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
8693 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
8695 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
8696 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
8697 `auto-show-mode' command.
8699 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
8700 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
8701 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
8702 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
8703 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
8705 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
8706 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
8708 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
8709 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
8710 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
8712 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
8713 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
8714 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
8715 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
8717 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
8719 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
8720 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
8721 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
8722 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
8723 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
8725 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
8726 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
8728 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
8729 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
8730 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
8731 `?' on other systems.
8733 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
8734 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
8737 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
8738 current codepage when it starts.
8742 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
8743 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
8744 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
8745 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
8746 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
8747 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
8751 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
8752 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
8754 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
8755 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
8756 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
8757 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
8758 buffer-file-coding-system.
8760 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
8761 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
8764 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
8765 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
8766 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
8767 list of possible coding systems.
8771 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
8772 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
8773 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
8774 docstring for details.
8776 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
8777 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
8778 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
8779 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
8780 lineup functions use this feature currently.
8782 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
8783 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
8785 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
8786 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
8788 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
8789 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
8790 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
8791 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
8794 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
8795 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
8797 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
8798 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
8799 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
8800 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
8802 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
8803 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
8804 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
8805 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
8806 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
8808 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
8810 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
8812 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
8813 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
8815 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
8817 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
8818 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
8819 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
8820 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
8821 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
8825 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
8826 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
8827 Gnus manual for the full story.
8829 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
8830 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
8831 group, which is created automatically.
8833 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
8836 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
8838 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
8839 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
8841 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
8844 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
8846 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
8847 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
8849 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
8851 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
8852 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
8854 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
8855 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
8857 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
8858 control over simplification.
8860 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
8862 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
8865 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
8867 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
8869 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
8870 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
8871 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
8873 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
8874 `a' forces normal posting method.
8876 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
8879 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
8882 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
8883 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
8885 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
8888 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
8890 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
8892 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
8893 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
8895 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
8896 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
8898 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
8900 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
8903 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
8904 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
8906 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
8907 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
8909 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
8911 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
8913 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
8915 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
8917 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
8918 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
8919 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
8921 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
8922 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
8923 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
8924 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
8925 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
8927 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
8928 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
8929 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
8930 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
8932 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
8933 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
8934 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
8937 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
8939 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
8940 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
8942 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
8943 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
8944 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
8945 removed from the label.
8947 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
8948 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
8950 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
8951 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
8953 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
8954 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
8957 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
8959 ** New/deleted modes and packages
8961 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
8962 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
8964 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
8965 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
8966 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
8968 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
8969 changes with a special face.
8971 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
8972 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
8973 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
8975 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
8977 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
8978 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
8979 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
8980 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
8981 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
8983 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
8984 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
8985 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
8987 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
8988 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
8989 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
8990 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
8991 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
8992 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
8993 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
8994 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
8995 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
8997 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
8998 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
8999 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
9000 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
9001 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
9004 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
9005 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
9006 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
9007 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
9008 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
9009 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
9011 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
9012 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
9013 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
9014 was not documented clearly before.
9016 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
9017 This includes Tetris and Snake.
9019 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
9021 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
9022 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
9023 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
9024 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
9026 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
9027 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
9028 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
9030 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
9032 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
9033 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
9035 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
9036 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
9039 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
9040 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
9041 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
9042 file names and attributes are returned.
9044 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
9045 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
9046 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
9047 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
9050 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
9051 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
9053 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
9055 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
9056 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
9057 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
9060 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
9061 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
9064 The new function process-running-child-p
9065 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
9066 terminal to its own child process.
9068 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
9069 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
9070 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
9071 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
9073 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
9074 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
9076 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
9077 :included is an alias for :visible.
9079 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
9080 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
9081 to move or copy menu entries.
9083 ** Multibyte editing changes
9085 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
9086 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
9087 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
9088 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
9089 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
9090 (setq char (sref str idx)
9091 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
9092 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
9094 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
9095 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
9096 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
9098 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
9099 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
9100 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
9102 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
9104 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
9105 across the boundary.
9107 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
9108 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
9109 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
9110 contains 8-bit characters.
9111 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
9112 contains invalid characters.
9114 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
9115 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
9116 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
9117 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
9120 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
9121 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
9122 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
9123 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
9125 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
9126 compose Thai characters in a string.
9128 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
9129 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
9130 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
9131 menus should always use the third argument.
9133 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
9134 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
9135 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
9136 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
9138 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
9139 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
9140 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
9141 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
9143 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
9144 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
9145 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
9148 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
9150 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
9151 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
9152 requested feature cannot be loaded.
9154 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
9155 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
9156 means to clear out that attribute.
9158 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
9159 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
9161 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
9162 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
9163 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
9164 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
9166 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
9167 the gap of the current buffer.
9169 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
9170 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
9173 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
9174 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
9175 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
9176 it back in after any modifications have been made.
9178 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
9180 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
9181 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
9182 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
9183 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
9184 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
9186 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
9187 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
9188 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
9189 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
9190 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
9192 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
9193 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
9194 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
9196 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
9197 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
9198 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
9199 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
9200 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
9203 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
9204 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
9205 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
9206 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
9208 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
9210 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
9211 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
9212 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
9213 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
9215 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
9216 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
9217 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
9218 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
9219 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
9220 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
9221 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
9224 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
9227 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
9228 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
9229 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
9230 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
9231 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
9233 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
9234 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
9235 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
9236 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
9238 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
9239 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
9240 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
9241 something that most users not do.
9243 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
9244 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
9245 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
9248 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
9251 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
9252 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
9253 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
9254 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
9257 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
9258 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
9259 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
9260 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
9261 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
9264 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
9265 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
9266 to be confused by TeX commands.
9268 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
9269 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
9270 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
9271 of various alternative replacements and actions.
9273 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
9274 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
9275 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
9276 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
9277 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
9279 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
9280 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
9282 ** Changes in input method usage.
9284 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
9285 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
9288 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
9290 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
9291 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
9293 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
9294 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
9296 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
9298 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
9300 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
9301 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
9303 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
9304 given in the following case:
9305 o When you are using a complex input method.
9306 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
9308 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
9309 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
9310 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
9311 setting it to t is helpful.
9313 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
9315 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
9317 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
9318 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
9319 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
9320 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
9323 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
9324 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
9325 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
9328 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
9330 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
9332 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
9333 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
9335 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
9336 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
9337 its owner and group.
9339 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
9340 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
9342 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
9343 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
9345 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
9346 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
9347 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
9348 by the left edge of the rectangle.
9350 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
9351 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
9352 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
9353 for writing keyboard macros.
9355 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
9356 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
9357 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
9358 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
9359 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
9362 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
9364 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
9365 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
9368 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
9369 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
9370 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
9371 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
9373 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
9374 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
9375 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
9377 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
9378 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
9379 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
9380 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
9382 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
9383 failure if the command produces no output.
9385 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
9386 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
9389 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
9390 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
9391 function and variable names.
9393 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
9394 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
9395 file-coding-system-alist.
9397 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
9398 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
9399 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
9400 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
9401 according to the current fontset.
9403 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
9405 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
9406 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
9407 nonascii-insert-offset.
9409 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
9410 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
9411 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
9412 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
9414 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
9415 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
9417 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
9418 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
9420 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
9421 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
9424 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
9425 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
9427 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
9428 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
9429 all variables that have documentation.
9431 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
9432 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
9433 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
9434 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
9435 it should show; the default is 20.
9437 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
9438 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
9441 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
9442 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
9443 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
9444 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
9445 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
9446 Newly added options are included as well.
9448 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
9449 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
9450 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
9452 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
9455 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
9456 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
9458 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
9459 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
9462 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
9463 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
9466 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
9467 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
9468 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
9469 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
9472 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
9474 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
9475 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
9476 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
9478 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
9479 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
9480 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
9485 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
9486 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
9488 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
9489 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
9491 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
9492 read and post multi-lingual articles.
9494 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
9495 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
9496 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
9497 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
9498 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
9499 made invisible again.
9501 ** Mail reading and sending changes
9503 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
9504 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
9505 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
9508 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
9509 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
9510 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
9511 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
9512 rmail-default-body-file.
9514 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
9515 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
9516 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
9518 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
9519 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
9520 is evaluated to insert the signature.
9522 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
9523 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
9524 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
9525 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
9526 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
9527 especially interested in trying feedmail.
9529 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
9530 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
9531 provided by feedmail are:
9533 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
9534 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
9535 there is also a queue for draft messages
9537 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
9538 be prompted for confirmation
9540 **** does smart filling of address headers
9542 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
9543 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
9544 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
9546 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
9547 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
9548 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
9549 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
9553 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
9554 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
9556 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
9557 run Dired on the directory name at point.
9559 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
9560 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
9561 for a specified regexp.
9565 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
9568 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
9569 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
9572 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
9573 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
9574 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
9575 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
9577 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
9578 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
9579 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
9580 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
9581 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
9583 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
9584 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
9585 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
9586 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
9587 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
9589 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
9590 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
9591 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
9592 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
9594 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
9595 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
9596 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
9598 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
9599 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
9600 session to resolve them.
9602 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
9603 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
9604 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
9607 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
9608 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
9609 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
9610 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
9611 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
9612 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
9615 ** Changes in Font Lock
9617 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
9618 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
9619 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
9620 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
9621 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
9623 ** Frame name display changes
9625 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
9626 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
9627 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
9628 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
9630 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
9631 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
9634 ** Comint (subshell) changes
9636 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
9637 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
9638 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
9640 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
9642 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
9643 that is, the line after the last line you got.
9644 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
9646 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
9647 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
9650 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
9651 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
9652 previously sent input.
9654 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
9655 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
9656 as the search string.
9658 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
9659 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
9663 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
9664 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
9665 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
9668 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
9669 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
9670 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
9671 style is still the default however.
9673 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
9675 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
9676 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
9677 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
9679 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
9680 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
9682 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
9683 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
9685 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
9686 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
9688 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
9689 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
9691 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
9692 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
9693 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
9694 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
9696 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
9698 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
9699 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
9700 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
9702 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
9703 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
9704 expanding dynamically.
9706 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
9707 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
9709 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
9710 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
9711 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
9712 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
9714 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
9716 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
9718 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
9719 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
9720 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
9721 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
9722 against the first word in the title.
9724 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
9725 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
9726 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
9727 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
9728 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
9729 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
9731 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
9732 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
9733 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
9734 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
9736 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
9738 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
9739 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
9740 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
9741 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
9742 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
9743 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
9745 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
9746 Editing group once the package is loaded.
9748 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
9749 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
9750 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
9752 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
9753 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
9757 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
9758 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
9759 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
9761 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
9762 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
9763 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
9764 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
9767 o URLs are automatically skipped
9768 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
9770 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
9772 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
9774 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
9775 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
9776 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
9777 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
9779 *** New recursive parser.
9781 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
9782 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
9783 recursive parser scans the individual files.
9785 *** Parsing only part of a document.
9787 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
9788 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
9789 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
9791 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
9793 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
9795 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
9797 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
9799 *** Using multiple selection buffers
9801 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
9802 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
9804 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
9806 *** References to external documents.
9808 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
9809 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
9810 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
9811 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
9812 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
9813 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
9814 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
9816 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
9818 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
9819 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
9821 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
9822 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
9824 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
9826 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
9827 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
9829 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
9831 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
9832 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
9833 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
9834 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
9835 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
9836 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
9839 *** Support for the varioref package
9841 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
9845 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
9846 and citations are created. These hooks are
9847 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
9848 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
9850 *** Citations outside LaTeX
9852 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
9853 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
9855 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
9857 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
9858 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
9861 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
9863 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
9864 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
9865 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
9866 directories that contain the same file name.
9868 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
9869 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
9870 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
9871 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
9872 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
9873 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
9874 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
9877 ** New modes and packages
9879 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
9880 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
9881 it, but some do not.
9883 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
9886 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
9887 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
9890 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
9892 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
9893 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
9894 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
9895 established system of notation similar to Chess.
9897 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
9898 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
9899 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
9901 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
9902 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
9903 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
9904 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
9905 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
9908 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
9909 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
9911 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
9912 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
9913 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
9914 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
9916 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
9918 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
9919 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
9920 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
9921 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
9922 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
9923 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
9924 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
9925 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
9926 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
9927 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
9928 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
9930 Platform-specific modes:
9932 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
9933 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
9934 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
9935 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
9936 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
9937 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
9938 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
9939 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
9940 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
9942 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
9944 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
9945 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
9946 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
9947 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
9949 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
9950 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
9951 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
9953 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
9954 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
9955 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
9956 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
9958 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
9959 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
9960 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
9963 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
9964 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
9965 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
9966 current input method for reading this one event.
9968 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
9969 now control whether to output certain characters as
9970 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
9971 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
9972 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
9973 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
9975 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
9977 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
9978 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
9980 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
9981 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
9982 always increases point by 1.
9984 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
9985 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
9987 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
9989 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
9990 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
9991 default value changed. For example,
9993 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
9998 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
10001 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
10002 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
10003 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
10004 `:version' in the top level group.
10006 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
10008 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
10009 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
10011 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
10012 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
10013 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
10016 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
10017 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
10020 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
10021 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
10022 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
10024 ** Frame-local variables.
10026 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
10027 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
10028 local bindings for that variable.
10030 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
10031 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
10032 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
10035 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
10036 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
10037 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
10038 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
10040 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
10041 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
10042 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
10043 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
10045 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
10046 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
10047 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
10048 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
10049 See the documentation in sregex.el.
10051 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
10052 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
10053 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
10054 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
10056 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
10057 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
10059 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
10060 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
10061 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
10063 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
10064 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
10065 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
10066 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
10068 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
10069 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
10072 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
10073 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
10074 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
10075 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
10076 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
10078 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
10079 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
10080 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
10081 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
10083 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
10084 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
10085 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
10086 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
10087 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
10089 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
10090 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
10091 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
10092 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
10094 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
10095 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
10096 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
10098 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
10099 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
10100 was directed to display this buffer.
10102 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
10103 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
10104 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
10105 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
10106 set-window-configuration.
10108 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
10109 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
10110 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
10111 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
10113 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
10114 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
10115 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
10117 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
10118 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
10119 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
10121 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
10122 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
10124 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
10125 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
10127 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
10128 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
10129 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
10131 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
10132 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
10133 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
10134 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
10138 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
10139 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
10142 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
10143 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
10144 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
10145 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
10146 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
10148 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
10150 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
10151 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
10152 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
10153 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
10156 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
10157 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
10158 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
10159 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
10160 The supported properties include
10162 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
10164 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
10165 item should appear in the menu.
10167 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
10168 which will be REAL-BINDING.
10169 It should return a binding to use instead.
10171 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
10172 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
10173 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
10174 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
10175 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
10178 This means that the command normally has no
10179 keyboard equivalent.
10180 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
10181 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
10182 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
10183 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
10184 value says whether this button is currently selected.
10186 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
10187 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
10189 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
10193 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
10194 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
10195 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
10196 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
10198 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
10200 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
10201 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
10202 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
10203 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
10204 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
10205 forward, away from the user.
10207 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
10209 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
10210 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
10211 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
10212 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
10213 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
10215 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
10217 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
10218 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
10219 that were dragged and dropped.
10221 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
10223 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
10225 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
10226 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
10227 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
10229 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
10230 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
10231 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
10233 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
10234 in Emacs 19 and before.
10236 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
10237 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
10239 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
10240 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
10241 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
10242 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
10244 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
10245 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
10246 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
10247 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
10248 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
10250 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
10251 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
10252 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
10253 consistent with the new representation.
10255 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
10256 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
10257 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
10258 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
10260 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
10261 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
10262 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
10264 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
10265 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
10266 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
10268 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
10269 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
10270 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
10272 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
10273 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
10275 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
10276 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
10278 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
10279 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
10280 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
10281 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
10283 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
10284 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
10286 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
10287 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
10288 buffer or string being searched.
10290 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
10291 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
10292 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
10293 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
10294 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
10295 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
10296 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
10298 *** Structure of coding system changed.
10300 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
10301 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
10302 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
10303 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
10304 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
10305 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
10306 define-coding-system-alias.
10308 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
10309 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
10310 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
10311 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
10312 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
10313 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
10314 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
10317 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
10318 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
10319 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
10320 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
10322 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
10323 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
10324 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
10325 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
10327 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
10328 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
10329 This function requires a user interaction.
10331 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
10332 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
10333 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
10334 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
10335 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
10336 select-safe-coding-system.
10338 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
10339 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
10340 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
10343 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
10344 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
10345 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
10347 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
10348 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
10349 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
10350 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
10352 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
10353 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
10354 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
10357 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
10358 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
10360 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
10361 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
10362 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
10363 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
10364 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
10365 range of characters.
10367 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
10368 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
10370 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
10371 in the current buffer at position POS.
10373 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
10374 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
10375 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
10376 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
10377 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
10378 binding input-method-function to nil.
10380 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
10381 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
10382 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
10383 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
10384 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
10386 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
10387 subsequent events of a key sequence.
10389 *** You can customize any language environment by using
10390 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
10392 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
10393 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
10394 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
10395 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
10396 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
10398 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
10400 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
10401 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
10402 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
10405 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
10406 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
10408 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
10409 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
10410 in your .emacs file.)
10412 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
10413 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
10415 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
10416 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
10418 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
10419 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
10422 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
10423 delete the character before point, as usual.
10425 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
10426 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
10427 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
10429 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
10430 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
10431 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
10432 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
10433 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
10436 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
10437 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
10438 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
10439 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
10440 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
10442 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
10443 and is an alias for it.
10445 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
10446 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
10448 ** Scrolling changes
10450 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
10451 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
10453 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
10454 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
10457 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
10458 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
10459 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
10460 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
10462 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
10463 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
10464 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
10465 recenters the window.
10467 ** International character set support (MULE)
10469 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
10470 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
10471 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
10472 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
10473 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
10474 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
10476 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
10477 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
10478 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
10479 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
10480 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
10482 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
10483 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
10484 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
10485 language, to make it possible to type them.
10487 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
10488 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
10490 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
10491 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
10493 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
10495 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
10497 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
10498 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
10499 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
10500 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
10501 characters for their work until they want to change.
10505 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
10506 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
10507 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
10508 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
10509 support several input methods.
10511 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
10512 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
10515 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
10516 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
10517 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
10518 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
10519 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
10522 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
10523 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
10524 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
10525 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
10526 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
10528 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
10529 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
10530 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
10531 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
10533 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
10534 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
10535 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
10536 the first guess is wrong.
10538 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
10539 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
10541 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
10542 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
10543 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
10544 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
10546 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
10547 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
10548 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
10549 translate automatically to and from either one.
10551 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
10553 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
10554 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
10555 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
10558 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
10559 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
10560 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
10561 multibyte characters in that buffer.
10563 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
10564 character conversion as well.
10566 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
10568 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
10569 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
10570 requires using many fonts.
10572 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
10573 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
10575 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
10576 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
10577 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
10578 you would use a font.
10580 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
10581 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
10582 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
10584 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
10585 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
10588 *** Defining fontsets.
10590 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
10591 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
10592 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
10594 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
10595 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
10596 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
10597 standard fontset are created automatically.
10599 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
10600 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
10601 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
10602 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
10603 name is `fontset-startup'.
10605 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
10606 The resource value should have this form:
10607 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
10608 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
10609 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
10610 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
10611 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
10612 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
10613 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
10614 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
10615 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
10617 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
10618 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
10619 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
10621 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
10622 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
10623 following resource,
10624 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
10625 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
10626 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
10627 Here is the substitution rule:
10628 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
10629 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
10630 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
10631 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
10632 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
10634 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
10635 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
10636 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
10638 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
10639 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
10640 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
10641 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
10644 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
10645 defaults for a particular choice of language.
10647 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
10648 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
10649 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
10650 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
10651 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
10652 system for new files that you create.
10654 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
10655 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
10656 whole Emacs session.
10658 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
10659 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
10660 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
10662 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
10663 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
10664 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
10665 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
10666 coding systems that Emacs supports.
10668 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
10669 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
10670 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
10671 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
10672 is used for *the immediately following command*.
10674 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
10675 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
10677 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
10678 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
10680 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
10681 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
10683 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
10684 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
10685 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
10686 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
10689 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
10690 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
10691 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
10692 translated into that character code.
10694 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
10695 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
10697 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
10699 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
10700 the coding system for keyboard input.
10702 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
10703 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
10704 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
10706 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
10708 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
10709 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
10710 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
10711 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
10712 designed to work with terminals.
10714 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
10715 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
10716 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
10717 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
10718 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
10719 in the corresponding buffer.
10721 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
10723 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
10724 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
10725 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
10727 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
10728 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
10729 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
10732 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
10733 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
10735 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
10736 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
10737 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
10738 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
10740 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
10741 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
10742 related information.
10744 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
10745 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
10748 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
10749 information about the support for a particular language.
10750 You specify the language as an argument.
10752 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
10753 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
10756 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
10757 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
10758 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
10759 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
10761 A alternativnyj (Russian)
10763 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
10764 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
10765 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
10766 E euc-japan (Japanese)
10767 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
10768 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
10769 K euc-korea (Korean)
10772 S shift_jis (Japanese)
10775 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
10776 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
10777 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
10778 v viqr (Vietnamese)
10781 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
10782 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
10783 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
10784 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
10786 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
10787 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
10789 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
10790 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
10791 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
10792 Rmail files themselves.
10794 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
10795 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
10797 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
10800 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
10801 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
10802 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
10803 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
10804 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
10806 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
10807 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
10808 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
10811 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
10812 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
10813 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
10814 without any conversion.
10816 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
10817 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
10818 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
10819 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
10821 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
10822 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
10824 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
10825 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
10827 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
10828 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
10830 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
10831 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
10832 in the buffer before point.
10834 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
10835 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
10838 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
10839 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
10841 ** File locking works with NFS now.
10843 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
10844 in the same directory as FILENAME.
10846 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
10847 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
10848 can become a bottleneck.
10850 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
10851 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
10852 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
10853 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
10854 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
10855 so useful that the change is worth while.
10857 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
10858 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
10859 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
10860 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
10862 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
10863 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
10866 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
10867 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
10868 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
10870 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
10871 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
10872 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
10874 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
10875 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
10876 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
10878 ** Changes in View mode.
10880 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
10881 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
10883 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
10884 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
10886 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
10889 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
10890 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
10892 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
10893 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
10894 not just the selected window.
10896 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
10897 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
10898 turns View mode on or off.
10900 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
10901 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
10902 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
10904 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
10905 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
10907 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
10908 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
10909 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
10910 which version to compare with.
10912 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
10913 blocks if a match is inside the block.
10915 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
10916 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
10917 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
10918 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
10920 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
10921 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
10922 blocks, all of them or none.
10924 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
10925 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
10926 confirmation first.
10928 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
10929 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
10930 However, the mode will not be changed if
10931 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
10932 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
10933 not suitable for ordinary files, or
10934 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
10936 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
10938 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
10939 these commands do not change the major mode.
10941 ** M-x occur changes.
10943 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
10944 it performs a case-sensitive search.
10946 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
10947 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
10948 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
10950 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
10951 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
10952 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
10953 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
10954 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
10956 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
10957 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
10958 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
10959 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
10961 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
10962 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
10963 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
10965 ** Outline mode changes.
10967 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
10969 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
10971 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
10972 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
10973 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
10974 was already active.
10976 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
10977 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
10978 get confused by it.
10980 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
10981 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
10983 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
10985 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
10986 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
10987 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
10988 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
10990 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
10991 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
10992 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
10994 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
10995 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
10998 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
10999 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
11000 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
11001 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
11003 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
11004 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
11005 can be. The default value is 30.
11007 ** Changes in Mail mode.
11009 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
11010 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
11011 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
11012 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
11013 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
11016 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
11017 compose-mail-other-frame.
11019 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
11020 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
11021 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
11022 buffer that shows the original message.
11024 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
11025 with separator lines around the contents.
11027 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
11028 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
11029 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
11030 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
11032 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
11034 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
11035 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
11036 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
11037 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
11039 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
11040 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
11043 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
11044 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
11047 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
11048 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
11049 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
11050 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
11052 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
11053 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
11054 be taken to be magic.
11056 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
11057 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
11058 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
11060 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
11061 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
11063 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
11064 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
11066 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
11068 new key dired.el binding old key
11069 ------- ---------------- -------
11070 * c dired-change-marks c
11072 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
11073 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
11074 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
11076 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
11077 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
11078 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
11079 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
11080 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
11081 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
11085 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
11086 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
11087 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
11088 each time you run it.
11090 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
11091 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
11093 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
11094 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
11095 means to move in the opposite direction.
11097 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
11098 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
11100 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
11101 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
11102 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
11103 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
11108 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
11110 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
11113 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
11114 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
11116 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
11119 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
11121 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
11123 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
11125 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
11126 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
11127 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
11129 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
11131 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
11133 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
11134 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
11136 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
11137 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
11138 used to pick articles.
11140 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
11141 another have been added.
11143 `M-x gnus-change-server'
11145 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
11146 generating lines in buffers.
11148 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
11151 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
11153 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
11155 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
11157 *** Scores can be decayed.
11159 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
11161 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
11162 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
11164 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
11167 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
11169 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
11170 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
11172 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
11174 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
11175 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
11177 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
11178 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
11180 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
11183 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
11184 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
11186 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
11188 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
11190 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
11192 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
11194 Use the `Y c' command.
11196 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
11198 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
11200 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
11202 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
11203 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
11205 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
11207 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
11209 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
11210 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
11212 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
11214 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
11215 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
11216 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
11217 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
11220 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
11221 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
11222 particular news group. This can be done by:
11224 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
11226 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
11227 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
11228 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
11229 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
11230 for reading and posting).
11232 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
11233 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
11234 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
11235 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
11238 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
11239 default. Here are some of these default settings:
11241 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
11242 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
11243 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
11244 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
11245 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
11247 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
11248 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
11250 ** CC mode changes.
11252 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
11253 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
11254 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
11255 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
11256 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
11259 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
11260 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
11261 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
11262 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
11263 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
11264 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
11266 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
11267 of the current buffer.
11269 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
11270 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
11271 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
11273 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
11274 style that the Python developers like.
11276 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
11277 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
11278 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
11280 ** VC Changes [new]
11282 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
11283 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
11284 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
11286 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
11287 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
11290 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
11291 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
11293 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
11294 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
11295 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
11296 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
11298 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
11299 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
11301 ** Calendar changes.
11303 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
11304 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
11305 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
11306 following/previous years.
11308 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
11309 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
11310 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
11311 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
11312 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
11313 supposed attribute of God.
11315 ** ps-print changes
11317 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
11320 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
11322 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
11323 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
11324 printer system has this behavior, set variable
11325 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
11327 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
11328 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
11329 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
11331 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
11332 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
11334 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
11335 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
11336 printing for your printer.
11338 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
11339 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
11341 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
11342 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
11344 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
11345 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
11346 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
11347 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
11348 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
11349 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
11350 The default value is nil.
11352 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
11353 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
11355 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
11356 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
11357 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
11358 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
11359 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
11360 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
11361 color). The default is 0 ("black").
11363 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
11364 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
11366 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
11367 The default is 0 ("black").
11369 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
11370 The default is 0 ("black").
11372 border-width Specify the border width.
11373 The default is 0.4.
11375 Any other property is ignored.
11377 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
11378 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
11381 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
11382 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
11383 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
11384 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
11385 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
11386 controlling headers.
11388 *** Color management (subgroup)
11390 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
11393 *** Face Management (subgroup)
11395 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
11396 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
11397 background should be used. Valid values are:
11399 t always use face background color.
11400 nil never use face background color.
11401 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
11403 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
11405 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
11408 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
11409 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
11411 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
11414 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
11415 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
11416 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
11418 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
11422 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
11426 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
11430 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
11434 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
11436 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
11438 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
11441 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
11442 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
11443 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
11445 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
11446 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11447 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11448 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11449 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11453 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11454 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11455 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11458 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11459 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11460 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
11461 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
11462 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
11463 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11464 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11465 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11466 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
11467 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
11468 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
11471 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11473 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
11476 *** Printer management (subgroup)
11478 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
11479 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
11480 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
11481 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
11484 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
11485 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
11486 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
11488 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
11489 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
11492 *** Page settings (subgroup)
11494 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
11495 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
11496 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
11497 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
11498 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
11499 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
11502 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
11503 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
11504 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
11506 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
11507 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
11508 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
11509 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
11510 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
11511 its TO, are ignored.
11513 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
11514 pages. Valid values are:
11516 nil print all pages.
11518 `even-page' print only even pages.
11520 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
11522 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
11523 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
11524 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
11525 print only the even sheet of paper.
11527 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
11528 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
11529 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
11530 only the odd sheet of paper.
11532 Any other value is treated as nil.
11534 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
11535 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
11536 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
11538 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
11540 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
11541 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
11543 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
11544 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
11545 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
11546 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
11547 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
11548 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
11549 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
11551 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
11552 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
11553 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
11554 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
11555 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
11556 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
11557 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
11559 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
11561 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
11562 messages should be sent.
11564 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
11565 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
11566 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
11568 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
11570 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
11571 points for line numbers.
11573 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
11574 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
11576 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
11577 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
11578 to 2, the printing will look like:
11590 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
11591 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
11594 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
11595 zebra stripe is to be printed.
11597 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
11599 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
11600 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
11601 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
11602 3, the output will look like:
11616 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
11617 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
11619 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
11620 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
11623 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
11624 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
11627 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
11629 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
11630 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
11632 ** hideshow changes.
11634 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
11637 *** Support for java-mode added.
11639 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
11640 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
11642 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
11643 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
11644 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
11646 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
11647 robust and a lot faster.
11649 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
11651 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
11652 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
11653 documentation for more details.
11655 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
11657 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
11658 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
11659 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
11660 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
11661 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
11663 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
11664 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
11665 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
11666 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
11672 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
11673 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
11674 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
11675 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
11676 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
11677 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
11679 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
11681 *** Maximum decoration
11683 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
11684 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
11685 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
11686 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
11687 to get the old behavior.
11691 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
11693 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
11694 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
11696 *** Configurable support
11698 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
11699 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
11700 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
11701 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
11702 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
11703 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
11704 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
11706 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
11707 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
11708 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
11710 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
11712 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
11713 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
11716 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
11718 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
11724 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
11725 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
11726 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
11727 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
11729 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
11731 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
11732 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
11733 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
11735 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
11737 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
11738 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
11739 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
11740 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
11741 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
11742 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
11743 Lock mode behavior and the behavior of Font Lock mode.
11745 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
11746 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
11747 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
11748 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
11749 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
11750 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
11752 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
11754 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
11755 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
11756 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
11757 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
11759 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
11762 ** Ada mode changes.
11764 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
11765 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
11766 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
11767 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
11770 *** There are two new commands:
11771 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
11772 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
11774 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
11775 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
11776 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
11778 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
11779 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
11780 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
11782 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
11783 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
11784 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
11785 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
11787 ** Scheme mode changes.
11789 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
11790 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
11791 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
11792 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
11795 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
11796 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
11797 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
11798 variables as buffer-local variables.
11800 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
11801 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
11803 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
11805 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
11806 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
11807 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
11808 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
11810 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
11811 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
11814 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
11815 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
11816 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
11817 option takes precedence.
11819 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
11820 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
11821 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
11823 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
11824 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
11827 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
11828 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
11830 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
11831 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
11834 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
11835 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
11836 these register values no longer become completely useless.
11837 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
11838 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
11839 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
11841 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
11842 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
11843 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
11844 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
11846 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
11847 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
11848 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
11849 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
11850 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
11852 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
11853 since it applies only to the current frame.
11855 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
11856 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
11857 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
11859 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
11860 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
11861 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
11862 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
11863 instead of just the file you are editing.
11867 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
11868 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
11869 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
11870 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
11871 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
11874 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
11875 knows which kind of label is needed.
11877 C-c ) reftex-reference
11878 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
11879 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
11881 C-c [ reftex-citation
11882 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
11883 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
11885 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
11886 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
11889 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
11890 can quickly jump to every section.
11892 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
11893 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
11894 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
11895 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
11896 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
11898 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
11900 *** Info documentation is now available.
11902 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
11903 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
11905 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
11906 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
11908 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
11909 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
11911 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
11912 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
11913 appropriate functions.
11915 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
11916 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
11918 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
11921 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
11922 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
11924 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
11925 shall be delimited.
11927 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
11928 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
11929 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
11931 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
11932 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
11933 prefixed with `ALT'.
11935 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
11936 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
11937 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
11940 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
11941 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
11942 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
11944 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
11945 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
11947 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
11948 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
11949 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
11951 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
11953 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
11955 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
11956 from alien sources.
11958 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
11959 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
11962 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
11965 *** Added support for imenu.
11967 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
11968 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
11969 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
11970 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
11972 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
11973 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
11975 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
11977 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
11979 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
11980 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
11981 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
11984 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
11985 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
11987 ** browse-url changes
11989 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
11990 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
11991 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
11992 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
11993 customization variables.
11995 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
11997 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
11998 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
11999 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
12001 ** Changes in Ediff
12003 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
12004 pops up the Info file for this command.
12006 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
12007 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
12008 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
12011 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
12012 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
12013 files in the same directory.
12015 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
12016 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
12017 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
12019 ** Changes in Viper
12021 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
12022 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
12024 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
12025 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
12026 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
12027 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
12028 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
12029 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
12030 color when Viper is in insert state.
12031 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
12032 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
12033 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
12037 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
12038 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
12039 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
12040 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
12041 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
12043 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
12045 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
12046 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
12048 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
12049 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
12050 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
12052 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
12053 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
12054 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
12055 methods and protocols.
12057 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
12058 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
12059 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
12062 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
12063 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
12064 at least M times and as many as N times.
12066 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
12067 in files has changed slightly.
12069 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
12070 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
12071 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
12072 with old time-stamp-format values.
12074 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
12075 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
12076 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
12079 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
12080 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
12081 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
12082 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
12083 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
12084 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
12086 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
12087 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
12088 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
12090 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
12091 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
12092 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
12093 recommended now will continue to work then.
12095 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
12098 ** There are some additional major modes:
12100 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
12101 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
12102 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
12104 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
12105 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
12108 ** New Lisp packages include:
12110 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
12112 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
12113 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
12115 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
12117 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
12120 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
12121 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
12124 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
12125 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
12126 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
12127 strings or comments.
12129 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
12130 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
12131 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
12132 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
12135 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
12136 can visit them by short forms of their names.
12138 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
12139 Emacs Lisp function at point.
12141 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
12143 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
12144 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
12146 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
12148 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
12150 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
12152 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
12153 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
12155 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
12156 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
12157 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
12158 original place after inserting the copy.
12160 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
12163 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
12164 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
12165 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
12167 Enable mouse-drag with:
12168 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
12170 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
12172 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
12173 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
12175 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
12176 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
12180 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
12181 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
12182 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
12183 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
12184 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
12185 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
12186 instance) and vice versa.
12188 To use this package load it using
12189 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
12190 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
12191 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
12192 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
12193 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
12194 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
12196 *** Interface to ph.
12198 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
12200 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
12201 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
12204 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
12206 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
12207 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
12208 while the real cursor does not move.
12210 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
12211 for visiting your favorite web sites.
12213 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
12214 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
12218 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
12219 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
12220 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
12221 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
12223 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
12225 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
12227 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
12229 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
12230 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
12231 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
12232 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
12233 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
12235 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
12236 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
12237 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
12238 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
12239 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
12240 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
12242 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
12244 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
12245 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
12246 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
12247 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
12249 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
12250 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
12252 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
12253 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
12256 ** Basic Lisp changes
12258 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
12259 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
12261 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
12262 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
12265 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
12267 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
12269 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
12270 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
12272 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
12273 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
12276 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
12278 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
12280 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
12282 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
12283 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
12284 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
12287 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
12288 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
12289 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
12291 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
12292 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
12293 adding one of these suffixes.
12295 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
12296 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
12297 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
12299 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
12300 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
12302 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
12304 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
12305 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
12307 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
12308 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
12310 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
12312 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
12313 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
12315 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
12316 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
12317 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
12318 works using `save-current-buffer'.
12320 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
12321 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
12324 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
12325 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
12326 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
12329 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
12330 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
12333 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
12335 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
12336 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
12337 Then it returns that string.
12339 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
12341 (with-output-to-string
12342 (princ "The buffer is ")
12343 (princ (buffer-name)))
12345 returns "The buffer is foo".
12347 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
12350 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
12351 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
12352 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
12354 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
12355 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
12357 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
12358 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
12359 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
12360 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
12361 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
12362 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
12364 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
12365 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
12366 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
12369 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
12370 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
12371 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
12372 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
12373 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
12375 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
12376 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
12377 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
12378 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
12380 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
12381 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
12383 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
12385 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
12386 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
12387 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
12388 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
12391 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
12392 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
12395 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
12397 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
12398 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
12399 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
12400 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
12401 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
12403 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
12405 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
12406 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
12407 more than the number of characters.
12409 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
12410 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
12411 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
12412 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
12413 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
12414 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
12416 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
12417 and returns a string containing those characters.
12419 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
12420 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
12421 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
12422 character, sref signals an error.
12424 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
12425 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
12426 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
12428 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
12429 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
12430 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
12432 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
12433 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
12434 to a vector of the characters in it.
12436 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
12437 of a string. You call it as follows:
12439 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
12441 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
12442 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
12443 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
12444 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
12445 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
12447 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
12448 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
12450 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
12451 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
12453 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
12454 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
12455 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
12456 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
12458 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
12460 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
12462 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
12463 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
12464 are not included in the resulting value.
12466 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
12467 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
12468 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
12469 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
12471 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
12472 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
12473 character extends across that column), then the padding character
12474 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
12475 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
12476 column START-COLUMN.
12478 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
12479 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
12480 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
12481 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
12482 changed text, before the change.
12484 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
12485 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
12486 one character set for each script, not for each language.
12488 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
12490 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
12492 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
12493 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
12495 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
12496 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
12497 which identify the character within that character set.
12499 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
12500 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
12501 opposite of split-char.
12503 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
12504 of all the characters between BEG and END.
12506 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
12507 of all the characters in a string.
12509 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
12510 and specifying coding systems.
12512 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
12513 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
12514 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
12515 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
12516 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
12517 as what to do about code conversion.)
12519 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
12520 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
12522 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
12523 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
12524 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
12526 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
12527 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
12528 to match against a file name.
12530 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
12531 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
12532 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
12533 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
12534 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
12535 specifies the coding system for encoding.
12537 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
12538 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
12540 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
12541 the coding system to use for network sockets.
12543 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
12544 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
12545 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
12548 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
12549 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
12550 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
12551 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
12552 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
12553 specifies the coding system for encoding.
12555 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
12556 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
12558 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
12559 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
12560 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
12561 start the subprocess.
12563 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
12564 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
12565 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
12566 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
12567 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
12569 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
12570 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
12573 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
12574 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
12575 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
12576 connection permanently or until overridden.
12578 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
12579 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
12580 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
12581 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
12582 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
12583 system for one operation at a time.
12585 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
12586 files, subprocesses or network connections.
12588 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
12589 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
12590 The value is a cons cell,
12591 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
12592 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
12593 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
12594 input to the subprocess.
12596 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
12597 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
12599 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
12600 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
12601 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
12603 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
12604 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
12605 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
12606 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
12609 Thus, instead of writing
12611 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
12612 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
12614 you would now write this:
12616 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
12617 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
12621 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
12622 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
12623 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
12624 for a description of them.
12626 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
12627 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
12629 (defgroup ispell nil
12630 "Spell checking using Ispell."
12633 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
12634 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
12635 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
12636 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
12637 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
12639 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
12640 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
12641 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
12642 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
12643 first-level subgroups.
12645 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
12647 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
12648 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
12652 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
12653 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
12654 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
12655 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
12656 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
12657 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
12659 ** Text property changes
12661 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
12664 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
12665 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
12666 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
12667 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
12668 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
12670 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
12671 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
12672 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
12673 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
12675 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
12676 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
12677 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
12679 ** Changes in invisibility features
12681 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
12682 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
12683 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
12684 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
12685 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
12686 make the overlay visible.
12688 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
12689 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
12690 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
12691 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
12692 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
12693 t when it should hide it.
12695 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
12697 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
12698 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
12699 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
12700 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
12701 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
12702 Here is an example of how to do this:
12704 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
12705 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
12706 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
12707 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
12710 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
12713 ;; When done with the overlays:
12714 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
12715 ;; Or respectively:
12716 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
12718 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
12720 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
12721 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
12722 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
12723 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
12725 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
12726 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
12727 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
12729 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
12730 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
12732 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
12733 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
12735 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
12736 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
12737 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
12739 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
12740 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
12741 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
12742 determine the syntax type of the character.
12744 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
12745 of the current buffer.
12747 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
12748 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
12749 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
12751 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
12752 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
12753 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
12754 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
12755 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
12757 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
12760 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
12761 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
12762 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
12764 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
12765 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
12766 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
12767 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
12768 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
12770 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
12771 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
12772 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
12774 ** Changes in face features
12776 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
12777 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
12779 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
12780 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
12782 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
12783 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
12785 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
12786 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
12788 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
12789 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
12790 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
12791 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
12794 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
12795 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
12797 ** Changes in file-handling functions
12799 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
12800 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
12801 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
12802 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
12804 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
12807 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
12808 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
12810 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
12811 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
12813 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
12814 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
12816 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
12817 character code conversion as well as other things.
12819 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
12820 (formerly it did not).
12822 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
12823 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
12825 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
12826 instead of constant strings.
12828 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
12829 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
12830 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
12832 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
12833 in the same way as before.
12835 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
12836 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
12837 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
12839 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
12840 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
12841 else, and returns nil.
12843 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
12844 directory cannot be listed.
12846 ** Changes in minibuffer input
12848 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
12849 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
12850 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
12851 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
12854 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
12855 It is available through the history command M-n.
12857 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
12858 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
12859 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
12860 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
12861 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
12863 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
12864 argument in this way.
12866 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
12867 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
12868 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
12870 ** Echo area features
12872 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
12873 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
12874 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
12875 after the echo area is cleared.
12877 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
12878 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
12880 ** Keyboard input features
12882 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
12883 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
12885 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
12886 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
12887 by keyboard macros.
12889 ** Frame-related changes
12891 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
12892 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
12893 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
12895 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
12896 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
12897 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
12899 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
12900 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
12901 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
12902 in the selected frame.
12904 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
12905 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
12906 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
12908 ** X Windows features
12910 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
12911 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
12912 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
12914 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
12915 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
12917 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
12918 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
12919 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
12921 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
12922 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
12924 ** Subprocess features
12926 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
12927 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
12930 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
12931 and returns the output from the command as a string.
12933 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
12934 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
12936 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
12937 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
12939 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
12940 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
12941 goes after the other menu items.
12943 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
12944 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
12945 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
12948 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
12949 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
12951 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
12952 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
12955 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
12956 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
12957 but its hook is still run.
12959 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
12960 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
12962 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
12963 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
12964 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
12966 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
12967 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
12968 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
12971 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
12972 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
12974 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
12975 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
12976 functions like display-time.
12978 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
12979 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
12981 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
12982 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
12983 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
12985 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
12986 if there is an error in compilation.
12988 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
12989 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
12990 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
12991 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
12993 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
12994 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
12995 the *scratch* buffer.
12997 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
12998 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
12999 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
13000 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
13002 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
13003 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
13004 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
13006 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
13007 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
13008 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
13009 and compose-mail-other-frame.
13011 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
13012 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
13013 full name of the specified user will be returned.
13015 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
13016 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
13017 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
13018 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
13019 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
13022 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
13023 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
13024 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
13025 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
13027 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
13028 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
13029 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
13030 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
13032 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
13034 ** imenu.el changes.
13036 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
13037 item from menu created by imenu.
13039 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
13040 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
13041 select one of those items.
13043 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
13045 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
13046 Copyright information:
13048 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
13050 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
13051 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
13052 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
13053 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
13055 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
13056 of this document, or of portions of it,
13057 under the above conditions, provided also that they
13058 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
13062 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
13065 arch-tag: 1aca9dfa-2ac4-4d14-bebf-0007cee12793