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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-03-15
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
4
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
7
8 \f
9 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
11 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
12 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
13 charsets in this release.
14
15 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
16
17 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
18
19 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
20 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
21
22 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
23 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
24 to list them.
25
26 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
27 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
28
29 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
30 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
31
32 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
33 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
34 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
35 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
36 necessary changes to unexec.
37
38 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
39 new display features described below.
40
41 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
42 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
43 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
44 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
45 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
46
47 \f
48 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
49
50 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
51
52 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
53 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
54 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
55 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
56 the text.
57
58 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
59
60 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
61 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
62 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
63 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
64 specify a font.
65
66 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
67 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
68 under Lisp changes, below.
69
70 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
71
72 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
73 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
74 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
75 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
76 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
77 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
78 on terminals.
79
80 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
81 supported on character terminals.
82
83 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
84
85 +++
86 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
87
88 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
89 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
90 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
91 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
92
93 - User option: max-mini-window-height
94
95 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
96 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
97 specifies a number of lines.
98
99 Default is 0.25.
100
101 - User option: resize-mini-windows
102
103 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
104 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
105 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
106 again.
107
108 Default is `grow-only'.
109
110 ** LessTif support.
111
112 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
113 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92 or later.
114
115 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
116
117 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
118 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
119 non-nil.
120
121 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
122
123 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
124 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
125 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
126 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
127 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
128 Emacs.
129
130 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
131 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
132 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
133 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
134 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
135 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
136
137 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
138 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
139 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
140 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
141 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
142 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
143
144 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
145 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
146 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
147 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
148 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
149
150 +++
151 ** Automatic Hscrolling
152
153 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
154 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
155 customized.
156
157 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
158 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
159 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
160 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
161 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
162
163 +++
164 ** Tool bar support.
165
166 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
167 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
168 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
169 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
170 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
171 icons will be used.
172
173 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
174 for specific modes (with copyright assignments). Contributions would
175 also be useful to touch up some of the PBM icons manually.
176
177 +++
178 ** Tooltips.
179
180 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
181 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
182 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
183
184 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
185 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
186 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
187 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
188
189 +++
190 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
191 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
192 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
193 `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
194 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
195 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
196
197 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
198 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
199 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
200 customizing face `fringe'.
201
202 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
203 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
204 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
205 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
206 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
207 the window to be partially obscured.)
208
209 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
210 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, now defaults to nil,
211 and its use is deprecated.
212
213 +++
214 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
215
216 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
217 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
218 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
219 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
220 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
221 have enabled one.
222
223 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
224
225 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
226 buffers.
227
228 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
229 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
230
231 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
232
233 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
234 `*') toggles the status.
235
236 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
237
238 +++
239 ** Hourglass pointer
240
241 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
242 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
243
244 +++
245 ** Blinking cursor
246
247 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
248 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
249 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
250 the group `cursor'.
251
252 +++
253 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
254
255 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
256 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
257 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
258 details.
259
260 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
261 have to do anything to activate it.
262
263 +++
264 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
265 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
266 buffer by default.
267
268 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
269 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
270 beginning and end of the buffer.
271
272 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
273 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
274 signaled.
275
276 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
277 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
278
279 +++
280 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
281 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
282 this behavior.
283
284 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
285 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
286 Emacs dump core.
287
288 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
289
290 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
291 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
292 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
293
294 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
295 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
296 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
297
298 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
299 using that menu.
300
301 +++
302 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
303
304 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
305 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
306 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
307 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
308 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
309 whitespace.
310
311 +++
312 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
313 all frames except the selected one.
314
315 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
316 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
317
318 +++
319 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
320 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
321
322 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
323 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
324 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
325 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
326 `Info-use-header-line'.
327
328 +++
329 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
330 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
331
332 +++
333 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
334 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
335 `(msb-mode 1)'.
336
337 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
338 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
339 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
340
341 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
342
343 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
344 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
345 `fr-drdref.tex'.
346
347 +++
348 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
349 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
350 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
351 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
352
353 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable because it contains
354 a version-dependent component.
355
356 ** The new user-option `delete-key-deletes-forward' can be set to
357 let the Delete function key delete forward instead of backward.
358
359 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
360 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
361 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
362 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
363 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward.
364
365 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
366 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
367 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
368 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
369 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting if you don't
370 have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
371
372 Programmatically, you can call function
373 delete-key-deletes-forward-mode to toggle the behavior of the Delete
374 key.
375
376 +++
377 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
378 point in a pop-up window.
379
380 +++
381 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
382 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
383 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
384
385 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
386 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
387
388 +++
389 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
390 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
391 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
392 You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
393
394 +++
395 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
396
397 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
398 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
399
400 +++
401 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
402 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
403 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
404 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
405
406 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
407 group.
408
409 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
410 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
411 are recognized:
412
413 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
414 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
415 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
416 nil -- just delete one character.
417
418 Default value is `untabify'.
419
420 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
421
422 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
423 symbol, not double-quoted.
424
425 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
426 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
427 rnews, rnewspost. Their implementations have been moved to
428 lisp/obsolete.
429
430 +++
431 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
432 system for keyboard input.
433
434 +++
435 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
436 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
437
438 +++
439 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces Emacs to behave
440 as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons. This comes handy
441 with mice that don't report their number of buttons correctly. One
442 example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons, but clicks on the
443 middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
444
445 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
446 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
447 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
448
449 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
450 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
451 non-nil.
452
453 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
454 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
455 `auto-compression-mode' command.
456
457 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
458 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME.
459
460 +++
461 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
462 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
463
464 +++
465 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
466 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
467
468 +++
469 ** Gnus changes.
470
471 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
472 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
473 internationalization and mail-fetching.
474
475 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
476 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
477
478 If you used procmail like in
479
480 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
481 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
482 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
483 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
484
485 this now has changed to
486
487 (setq mail-sources
488 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
489 :suffix ".in")))
490
491 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
492 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
493
494 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
495 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
496 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
497 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
498
499 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
500 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
501 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
502
503 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
504 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
505 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
506 now just a compatibility layer.
507
508 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
509 called to position point.
510
511 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
512 summary buffers and NOV files.
513
514 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
515 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
516
517 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
518 subtly different manner.
519
520 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
521 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
522 ever-changing layouts.
523
524 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
525
526 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
527
528 +++
529 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
530 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
531 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
532 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
533 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
534 on.
535
536 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
537 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
538 file that is already visited under a different name.
539
540 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
541 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
542
543 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
544 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
545 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
546 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
547 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
548 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
549
550 +++
551 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
552 and displays information about that.
553
554 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
555 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
556
557 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
558 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
559 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
560 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
561 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
562 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
563
564 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
565 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
566
567 +++
568 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
569 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
570 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
571 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
572 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
573 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
574 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
575
576 +++
577 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
578 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
579 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
580 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
581 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
582 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
583 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
584 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
585 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
586
587 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
588 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
589
590 +++
591 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
592 displays all characters in that character set.
593
594 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
595 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
596
597 +++
598 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
599 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
600 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
601 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
602
603 +++
604 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
605 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
606 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
607 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
608
609 +++
610 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
611 on the display using several methods
612
613 +++
614 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
615 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
616 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
617
618 +++
619 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
620 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
621
622 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
623
624 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
625 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
626
627 +++
628 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
629 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
630 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
631 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
632
633 +++
634 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
635 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
636 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
637
638 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
639 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
640
641 +++
642 ** New X resources recognized
643
644 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
645 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
646 is useful for debugging X problems.
647
648 Example:
649
650 emacs.synchronous: true
651
652 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
653 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
654 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
655 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
656 visual class names are
657
658 TrueColor
659 PseudoColor
660 DirectColor
661 StaticColor
662 GrayScale
663 StaticGray
664
665 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
666 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
667 meaning.
668
669 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
670 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
671 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
672 visual.
673
674 Example:
675
676 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
677
678 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
679 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
680 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
681 resource values are `true' or `on'.
682
683 Example:
684
685 emacs.privateColormap: true
686
687 +++
688 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
689
690 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
691 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
692
693 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
694 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
695 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
696 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
697
698 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
699 read mail from the menu etc.
700
701 +++
702 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
703 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
704
705 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
706
707 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
708 macros
709
710 Key binding Macro
711 -------------------------
712 C-c C-c C-s @strong
713 C-c C-c C-e @emph
714 C-c C-c u @uref
715 C-c C-c q @quotation
716 C-c C-c m @email
717 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
718 M-RET @item
719
720 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
721
722 ** Changes in Outline mode.
723
724 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
725 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
726 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
727
728 ** Changes to Emacs Server
729
730 +++
731 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
732 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
733 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
734 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
735 buffers to kill, as before.
736
737 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
738 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
739 this way.
740
741 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
742
743 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
744 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
745 use. Default is 1000.
746
747 +++
748 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
749 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
750
751 +++
752 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
753 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
754 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
755 buffers.
756
757 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
758 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
759 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
760
761 ** Faces and frame parameters.
762
763 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
764 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
765 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
766 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
767 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
768 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
769 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
770
771 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
772 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
773 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
774 `default' face and vice versa.
775
776 +++
777 ** New face `menu'.
778
779 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
780 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
781 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
782
783 +++
784 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
785
786 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
787 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
788 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
789 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
790
791 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
792 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
793 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
794
795 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
796 `ScreenGamma'.
797
798 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
799
800 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
801 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
802 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
803 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
804
805 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
806
807 +++
808 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
809
810 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
811
812 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
813 LessTif/Motif one.
814
815 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
816 LessTif and Motif.
817
818 ** Sound support
819
820 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
821 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
822 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
823
824 +++
825 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
826 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
827 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
828 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
829 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
830 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
831
832 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
833
834 +++
835 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
836
837 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
838 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
839 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
840
841 +++
842 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
843 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
844
845 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
846 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
847 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
848
849 +++
850 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
851
852 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
853 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
854 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
855 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
856
857 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
858 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
859 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
860 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
861
862 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
863 notably at the end of lines.
864
865 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
866 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
867
868 +++
869 There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
870
871 ** `C-x r t' (string-rectangle) no longer deletes the existing
872 rectangle contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
873 The `replace-rectangle' command can be used if deletion is required.
874
875 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
876 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
877 after each match to get the replacement text.
878
879 +++
880 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
881 you edit the replacement string.
882
883 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', lets
884 you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
885 lisp-complete-symbol.
886
887 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
888
889 ** Changes to hideshow.el
890
891 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
892
893 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
894 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
895 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
896 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
897
898 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
899 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
900 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
901 the open block.
902
903 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
904 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
905 the normal block-hiding function.
906
907 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
908
909 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
910 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
911 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
912 for `hs-minor-mode'.
913
914 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
915
916 +++
917 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
918 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
919 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
920
921 +++
922 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
923 current buffer.
924
925 +++
926 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
927 in a log file.
928
929 +++
930 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
931 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
932 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
933 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
934 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
935 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
936
937 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
938
939 ** Changes to cmuscheme
940
941 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
942 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
943
944 ** Changes in Font Lock
945
946 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
947 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
948
949 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
950 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
951
952 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
953 the face used for each string/comment.
954
955 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
956 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
957
958 ** Comint (subshell) changes
959
960 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
961 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
962
963 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
964 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
965 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
966 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
967 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
968 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
969 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
970 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
971
972 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
973 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
974
975 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
976 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
977 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
978
979 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
980 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
981 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
982
983 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
984 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
985 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
986
987 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
988 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
989 argument, it appends to the file.
990
991 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
992 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
993 compatibility.
994
995 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
996 ring (history).
997
998 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
999 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
1000 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
1001
1002 ** Changes to Rmail mode
1003
1004 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
1005 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
1006 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
1007 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
1008 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
1009 as correspondent.
1010
1011 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
1012 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
1013 regexp matching your mail addresses.
1014
1015 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
1016 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
1017 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
1018 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
1019 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
1020
1021 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
1022 like `j'.
1023
1024 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
1025 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
1026 digest message.
1027
1028 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
1029 in which folder to put messages automatically.
1030
1031 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
1032 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
1033 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
1034
1035 ** Changes to TeX mode
1036
1037 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
1038 `latex-mode'.
1039
1040 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
1041
1042 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
1043
1044 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
1045
1046 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
1047
1048 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
1049 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
1050 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
1051 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
1052 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
1053 can be edited from that buffer.
1054
1055 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
1056 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
1057 `A' to use all marked entries).
1058
1059 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
1060 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
1061
1062 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
1063 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
1064 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
1065 been cited.
1066
1067 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
1068 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
1069 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
1070 in column 1 are always made leaves.
1071
1072 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
1073 has the following new features:
1074
1075 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
1076 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
1077 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
1078 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
1079
1080 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
1081 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
1082 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
1083 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
1084 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
1085 defaults to 1.
1086
1087 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
1088 file names.
1089
1090 +++
1091 ** Customize changes
1092
1093 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
1094 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
1095 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
1096 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
1097 earlier versions of Emacs.
1098
1099 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
1100 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
1101 default).
1102
1103 ** New features in evaluation commands
1104
1105 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
1106 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
1107 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
1108 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
1109 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
1110
1111 *** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
1112 code when called with a prefix argument.
1113
1114 ** Ispell changes
1115
1116 +++
1117 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
1118 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
1119 spell-checks the current buffer.
1120
1121 +++
1122 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
1123 added.
1124
1125 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
1126 correction is made and re-checked.
1127
1128 *** An Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definition has been added.
1129
1130 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
1131 cases.
1132
1133 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
1134 on syntax errors.
1135
1136 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
1137 end of the buffer.
1138
1139 ** Dired changes
1140
1141 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
1142 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
1143 is, delete only empty directories.
1144
1145 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
1146 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
1147 copy directories recursively.
1148
1149 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
1150 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
1151 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
1152
1153 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
1154 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
1155 directory.
1156
1157 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `w') shows
1158 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
1159 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
1160 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
1161 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
1162
1163 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
1164 from ls switches.
1165
1166 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
1167 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
1168 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
1169 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
1170
1171 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
1172 use the -f option when sending mail.
1173
1174 ** CC mode changes.
1175
1176 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
1177 current user setups (although it's believed that these
1178 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
1179 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
1180 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
1181 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
1182 release.
1183
1184 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
1185 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
1186 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
1187 confusion.
1188
1189 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
1190 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
1191 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
1192 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
1193
1194 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
1195 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
1196
1197 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
1198 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
1199
1200 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
1201 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
1202 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
1203 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
1204
1205 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
1206 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
1207 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
1208 earlier statement. An example:
1209
1210 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
1211 if (a[i])
1212 res += a[i]->offset;
1213 else
1214
1215 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
1216 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
1217 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
1218 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
1219 the preceding "if".
1220
1221 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
1222 by default.
1223
1224 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
1225 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
1226 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
1227 documentation or other natural language text.
1228
1229 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
1230 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
1231 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
1232 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
1233 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
1234 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
1235 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
1236
1237 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
1238 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
1239 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
1240 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
1241
1242 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
1243 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
1244 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
1245 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
1246 Pike mode only.
1247
1248 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
1249 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
1250 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
1251 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
1252 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
1253 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
1254 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
1255 is reported afterwards.
1256
1257 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
1258 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
1259 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
1260
1261 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
1262 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
1263 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
1264 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
1265 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
1266 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
1267 groundwork.
1268
1269 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
1270 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
1271 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
1272 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
1273 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
1274 have to bother.
1275
1276 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
1277 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
1278 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
1279 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
1280 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
1281 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
1282
1283 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
1284 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
1285 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
1286 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
1287 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
1288 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
1289 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
1290 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
1291
1292 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
1293 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
1294 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
1295 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
1296 above.
1297
1298 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
1299 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
1300 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
1301 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
1302 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
1303 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
1304 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
1305 function documentation for more info.
1306
1307 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
1308 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
1309 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
1310 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
1311 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
1312 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
1313 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
1314 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
1315
1316 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
1317
1318 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
1319 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
1320
1321 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
1322 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
1323 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
1324 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
1325 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
1326 style system.
1327
1328 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
1329 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
1330 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
1331 as far as possible.
1332
1333 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
1334 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
1335 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
1336 chapter about this in the manual.
1337
1338 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
1339 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
1340 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
1341 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
1342 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
1343
1344 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
1345 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
1346 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
1347
1348 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
1349 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
1350
1351 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
1352 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
1353 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
1354 inside CC Mode.
1355
1356 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
1357 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
1358 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
1359 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
1360 cc-mode/).
1361
1362 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
1363 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
1364 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
1365 literals.
1366
1367 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
1368 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
1369 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
1370 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
1371 this function.
1372
1373 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
1374 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
1375 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
1376 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
1377 Thanks to Eric Eide.
1378
1379 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
1380 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
1381 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
1382
1383 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
1384
1385 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
1386 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
1387 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
1388 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
1389
1390 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
1391 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
1392 the column specified by comment-column.
1393
1394 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
1395 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
1396 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
1397 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
1398 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
1399 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
1400
1401 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
1402 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
1403 arguments.
1404
1405 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
1406
1407 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
1408 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
1409 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
1410 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
1411 Provan).
1412
1413 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
1414
1415 ** Makefile mode changes
1416
1417 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
1418
1419 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
1420 Fontlock mode is active.
1421
1422 ** Isearch changes
1423
1424 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
1425 so that searches can be resumed.
1426
1427 *** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
1428 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
1429 that started the search.
1430
1431 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
1432 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
1433
1434 +++
1435 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
1436
1437 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
1438 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
1439 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
1440 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
1441 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
1442 `secondary-selection'.
1443
1444 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
1445 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
1446 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
1447 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
1448 usual snappy response.
1449
1450 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
1451 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
1452 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
1453 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
1454
1455 +++
1456 ** Changes in sort.el
1457
1458 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
1459 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
1460 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
1461 numeric base.
1462
1463 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
1464
1465 +++
1466 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
1467 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
1468 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
1469
1470 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
1471 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
1472
1473 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
1474 output ^M at the end of lines.
1475
1476 ** Shell script mode changes.
1477
1478 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
1479 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
1480 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
1481
1482 ** Etags changes.
1483
1484 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
1485
1486 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
1487 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
1488 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
1489 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
1490 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
1491
1492 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
1493 declarations when given the --declarations option.
1494
1495 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
1496 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
1497
1498 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
1499 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
1500 `template' keywords.
1501
1502 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
1503 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
1504
1505 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
1506 types.
1507
1508 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
1509
1510 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
1511
1512 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
1513 are now tagged.
1514
1515 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
1516
1517 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
1518 variables are tagged.
1519
1520 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
1521
1522 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
1523 for PSWrap.
1524
1525 +++
1526 ** Changes in etags.el
1527
1528 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
1529 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
1530 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
1531
1532 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
1533 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
1534
1535 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
1536 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
1537 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
1538 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
1539
1540 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
1541
1542 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
1543 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
1544
1545 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
1546
1547 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
1548 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
1549 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
1550
1551 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
1552 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
1553
1554 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
1555 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
1556
1557 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
1558 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
1559 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
1560 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
1561 point will go to the beginning of the file.
1562
1563 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
1564 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
1565 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
1566
1567 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
1568 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
1569 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
1570
1571 +++
1572 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1573 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1574 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1575
1576 +++
1577 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1578 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1579 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1580 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
1581 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
1582 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
1583 and Polish `slash'.
1584
1585 +++
1586 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
1587 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
1588 of the tutorial.
1589
1590 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
1591 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
1592 Lisp Coding Convention".
1593
1594 new command old-binding
1595 --- ------- -----------
1596 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
1597 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
1598 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
1599
1600 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
1601 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
1602 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
1603
1604 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
1605 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
1606 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
1607 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
1608 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
1609 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
1610
1611 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
1612 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
1613 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
1614 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
1615 "`", you must type "=q".
1616
1617 +++
1618 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
1619 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
1620 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
1621
1622 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
1623
1624 +++
1625 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
1626
1627 +++
1628 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
1629 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
1630 expression from that list, are not checked.
1631
1632 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
1633 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
1634 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
1635 the buffer, just like for the local files.
1636
1637 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
1638
1639 +++
1640 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
1641 displays local abbrevs, only.
1642
1643 ** VC Changes
1644
1645 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
1646 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
1647 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
1648 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
1649 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
1650 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
1651 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
1652 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
1653 file is registered in that backend.
1654
1655 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
1656 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
1657 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
1658 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
1659 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
1660 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
1661
1662 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
1663 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
1664 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
1665 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
1666 where it doesn't make sense.)
1667
1668 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
1669 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
1670 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
1671
1672 *** General Changes
1673
1674 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
1675 checks are always done now.
1676
1677 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
1678 operations.
1679
1680 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
1681 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
1682 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
1683
1684 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
1685 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
1686 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
1687 the working file (``merge news'').
1688
1689 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
1690 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
1691 downwards.
1692
1693 *** Multiple Backends
1694
1695 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
1696 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
1697 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
1698 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
1699 local RCS archives.
1700
1701 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
1702 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
1703 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
1704 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
1705
1706 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
1707 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
1708 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
1709 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
1710 current revision number from the more remote backend.
1711
1712 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
1713 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
1714 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
1715 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
1716
1717 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
1718 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
1719 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
1720 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
1721
1722 *** Changes for CVS
1723
1724 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
1725 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
1726 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
1727 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
1728 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
1729 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
1730 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
1731
1732 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
1733 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
1734 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
1735 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
1736 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
1737 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
1738 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
1739 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
1740 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
1741 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
1742 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
1743 name.)
1744
1745 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
1746 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
1747 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
1748 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
1749 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
1750 entire directory tree.
1751
1752 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
1753 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
1754 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
1755 "watched" by other developers.)
1756
1757 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
1758 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
1759 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
1760 starting at the given directory.
1761
1762 *** Lisp Changes in VC
1763
1764 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
1765 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
1766 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
1767 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
1768 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
1769 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
1770 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
1771 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
1772 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
1773
1774 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
1775 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
1776 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
1777 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
1778
1779 ** New modes and packages
1780
1781 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
1782 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
1783 the default is not applicable.
1784
1785 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
1786 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
1787 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
1788
1789 Features are:
1790
1791 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
1792 drawn, like this: | \ /
1793 --+-- X
1794 | / \
1795
1796 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
1797 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
1798 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
1799 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
1800 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
1801 you are drawing.
1802
1803 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
1804 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
1805
1806 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
1807 flood-filling.
1808
1809 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
1810 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
1811 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
1812 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
1813
1814 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
1815 also do without the mouse.
1816
1817 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
1818 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
1819 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
1820 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
1821 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
1822
1823 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
1824
1825 lines straight-lines
1826 rectangles squares
1827 poly-lines straight poly-lines
1828 ellipses circles
1829 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
1830 spray-can setting size for spraying
1831 vaporize line vaporize lines
1832 erase characters erase rectangles
1833
1834 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
1835 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
1836 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
1837 drawing.
1838
1839 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
1840 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
1841 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
1842 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
1843
1844 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
1845 can be turned off).
1846
1847 +++
1848 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
1849 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
1850 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
1851 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
1852 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
1853 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
1854 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
1855 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
1856 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
1857
1858 +++
1859 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
1860 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
1861 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
1862 on certain projects.
1863
1864 +++
1865 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
1866 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
1867
1868 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
1869
1870 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
1871 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
1872 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
1873 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
1874 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
1875 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
1876 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
1877 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
1878
1879 +++
1880 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
1881 Emacs is idle.
1882
1883 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
1884 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
1885
1886 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
1887 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
1888 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
1889 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
1890 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
1891
1892 +++
1893 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
1894 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
1895 separate Texinfo file.
1896
1897 +++
1898 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
1899 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
1900 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
1901 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
1902 enter check-in log messages.
1903
1904 +++
1905 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
1906 without invoking external programs.
1907
1908 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
1909 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
1910 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
1911 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
1912 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
1913
1914 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
1915 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
1916
1917 +++
1918 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
1919 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
1920
1921 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
1922 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
1923 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
1924 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
1925 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
1926 single step.
1927
1928 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
1929 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
1930 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
1931 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
1932
1933 +++
1934 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
1935 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1936 actually modifying content of a buffer.
1937
1938 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1939 PostScript.
1940
1941 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1942
1943 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1944
1945 ; comment (until end of line)
1946 A non-terminal
1947 "C" terminal
1948 ?C? special
1949 $A default non-terminal
1950 $"C" default terminal
1951 $?C? default special
1952 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1953 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1954 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1955 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1956 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1957 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1958 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1959 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1960 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1961 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1962 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1963 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1964 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1965 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1966 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1967
1968 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1969
1970 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1971 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1972 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1973 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1974 equal signs of assignments.
1975
1976 +++
1977 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1978 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1979
1980 +++
1981 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1982 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1983 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
1984
1985 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
1986
1987 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1988 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1989 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1990 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1991 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1992 which answers different needs.
1993
1994 +++
1995 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1996 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1997 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1998 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1999 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
2000 to be enabled.
2001
2002 +++
2003 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
2004 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
2005
2006 +++
2007 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
2008
2009 +++
2010 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
2011
2012 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
2013
2014 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
2015 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
2016 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
2017 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
2018 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
2019 and background colors.
2020
2021 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
2022 Pascal) language.
2023
2024 +++
2025 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
2026 the text at point.
2027
2028 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
2029
2030 +++
2031 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
2032
2033 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
2034 whitespace in a file.
2035
2036 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
2037 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
2038 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
2039 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
2040 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
2041 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
2042 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
2043
2044 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
2045
2046 Here is an example of columns:
2047
2048 horse apple bus
2049 dog pineapple car EXTRA
2050 porcupine strawberry airplane
2051
2052 Doing the following settings:
2053
2054 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
2055 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
2056 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
2057 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
2058
2059
2060 Selecting the lines above and typing:
2061
2062 M-x delimit-columns-region
2063
2064 It results:
2065
2066 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
2067 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
2068 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
2069
2070 delim-col has the following options:
2071
2072 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
2073 before all columns.
2074
2075 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
2076 between each column.
2077
2078 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
2079 after all columns.
2080
2081 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
2082 each column.
2083
2084 delim-col has the following commands:
2085
2086 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
2087 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
2088
2089 +++
2090 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
2091 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
2092 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
2093 recent file list can be displayed:
2094
2095 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
2096 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
2097 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
2098
2099 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
2100 dynamically change the menu appearance.
2101
2102 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
2103 text.
2104
2105 +++
2106 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
2107 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
2108 specific to Message mode.
2109
2110 +++
2111 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
2112 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
2113 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
2114
2115 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
2116 interface to access directory servers using different directory
2117 protocols. It has a separate manual.
2118
2119 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
2120 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
2121
2122 +++
2123 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
2124
2125 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
2126 minibuffer with completion.
2127
2128 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
2129 with the diary features.
2130
2131 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
2132 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
2133
2134 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
2135 Fill mode.
2136
2137 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
2138 Gnus facilities.
2139
2140 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
2141 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
2142 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
2143 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
2144
2145 +++
2146 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
2147 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
2148
2149 +++
2150 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
2151 to be visited as images.
2152
2153 ** Withdrawn packages
2154
2155 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
2156 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
2157
2158 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
2159
2160 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
2161
2162 \f
2163 * Incompatible Lisp changes
2164
2165 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
2166 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
2167 See the sections below for details.
2168
2169 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
2170 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
2171 Use `copy-sequence' and `set-text-properties'.
2172
2173 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
2174 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
2175 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
2176 these properties are active.
2177
2178 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
2179 ranges may affect some code.
2180
2181 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
2182 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
2183 make a difference to some code.
2184
2185 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
2186 operates on the minibuffer.
2187
2188 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
2189 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
2190 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
2191 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
2192 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
2193 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
2194 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
2195 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
2196 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
2197 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
2198 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
2199 the buffer as multibyte characters.
2200
2201 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
2202 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
2203 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
2204
2205 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
2206 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
2207 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
2208
2209 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
2210 long promised.
2211
2212 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
2213 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
2214 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
2215 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
2216 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
2217 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
2218 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
2219 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
2220
2221 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
2222 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
2223 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
2224 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
2225 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
2226 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
2227 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
2228 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
2229 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
2230 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
2231
2232 \f
2233 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
2234 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
2235
2236 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
2237 interactive form of a function.
2238
2239 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
2240 between custom options. Example:
2241
2242 (defcustom default-input-method nil
2243 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
2244 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
2245 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
2246 :group 'mule
2247 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
2248 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
2249
2250 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
2251 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
2252 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
2253
2254 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
2255 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
2256 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
2257 (signal or normal termination).
2258
2259 +++
2260 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
2261 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
2262
2263 +++
2264 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
2265 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
2266
2267 +++
2268 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
2269 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
2270
2271 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
2272
2273 +++
2274 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
2275 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
2276 being deleted.
2277
2278 +++
2279 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
2280
2281 +++
2282 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
2283 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
2284 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
2285 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
2286 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
2287 charset.
2288
2289 +++
2290 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
2291 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
2292 message.
2293
2294 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
2295 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
2296
2297 +++
2298 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
2299 with the more general `:mask' property.
2300
2301 +++
2302 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
2303
2304 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
2305 backslash.
2306
2307 +++
2308 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
2309 is running in batch mode. For example,
2310
2311 (message "%s" (read t))
2312
2313 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
2314 to standard output.
2315
2316 +++
2317 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
2318 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
2319
2320 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
2321 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
2322 frame or window.
2323
2324 +++
2325 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
2326 were added
2327
2328 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
2329
2330 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
2331 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
2332
2333 - Function: remq ELT LIST
2334
2335 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
2336 comparison is done with `eq'.
2337
2338 +++
2339 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
2340
2341 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
2342 has been changed.
2343
2344 +++
2345 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
2346 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
2347 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
2348
2349 +++
2350 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
2351 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
2352
2353 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
2354 function was declared obsolete.
2355
2356 +++
2357 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
2358 retained as an alias).
2359
2360 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
2361 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
2362 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
2363
2364 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
2365
2366 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
2367
2368 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
2369 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
2370 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
2371 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
2372 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
2373 means never include the minibuffer window.
2374
2375 ** There's a new function `some-window' defined as follows
2376
2377 - Function: some-window PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
2378
2379 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
2380
2381 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
2382 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
2383 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
2384 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
2385 returned.
2386
2387 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
2388 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
2389 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
2390 minibuffer even if it is active.
2391
2392 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
2393 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
2394 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
2395 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
2396 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
2397 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
2398
2399 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
2400 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
2401 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
2402 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
2403 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
2404 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
2405 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
2406
2407 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
2408 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
2409 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
2410
2411 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
2412 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
2413 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
2414 Default value is nil.
2415
2416 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
2417 meaning no limit.
2418
2419 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
2420 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
2421 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
2422
2423 +++
2424 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
2425 list of a primitive.
2426
2427 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
2428
2429 +++
2430 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
2431 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
2432 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
2433 than replacing the local map.
2434
2435 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
2436 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
2437 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
2438 instead.
2439
2440 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
2441
2442 +++
2443 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
2444 as promised long ago.
2445
2446 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
2447 \f
2448 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
2449
2450 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2451 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2452 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2453 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2454
2455 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
2456
2457 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
2458 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
2459 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
2460 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
2461
2462 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
2463 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
2464 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
2465 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
2466
2467 *** The functions `set-buffer-modified', `string-as-multibyte' and
2468 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer if it
2469 contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
2470
2471 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
2472 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
2473 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
2474 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
2475 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
2476 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
2477 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
2478 eight-bit-graphic.
2479
2480 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
2481
2482 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
2483 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
2484 character set as previously.
2485
2486 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
2487 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
2488 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
2489
2490 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
2491 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
2492 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
2493 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
2494
2495 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
2496 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
2497
2498 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
2499 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
2500 "fontset-default".
2501
2502 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
2503 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
2504
2505 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
2506 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
2507 buffers and strings.
2508
2509 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
2510 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
2511 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
2512 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
2513 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
2514 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
2515 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
2516 also been deleted.
2517
2518 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
2519 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
2520 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
2521
2522 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
2523 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
2524 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
2525 may differ between buffer and string text.
2526
2527 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
2528 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
2529
2530 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
2531 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
2532 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
2533 `composition' from STRING.
2534
2535 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
2536 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
2537
2538 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
2539 obsolete.
2540
2541 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
2542 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
2543
2544 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
2545 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
2546 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
2547 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
2548
2549 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added. It provides
2550 limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For details, please
2551 see the documentation string of this coding system.
2552
2553 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
2554 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
2555 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
2556
2557 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
2558 have been introduced.
2559
2560 +++
2561 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
2562 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
2563 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
2564 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
2565 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
2566 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
2567 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
2568 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
2569 their multibyte equivalent.
2570
2571 +++
2572 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
2573 that offset in the file before writing.
2574
2575 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
2576 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
2577
2578 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
2579 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
2580 from which the command was issued.
2581
2582 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
2583 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
2584 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
2585 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
2586 operate on.
2587
2588 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
2589 to `window-buffer-height'.
2590
2591 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
2592
2593 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
2594 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
2595 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
2596
2597 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
2598 respectively.
2599
2600 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
2601 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
2602
2603 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
2604 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
2605 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
2606
2607 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
2608 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
2609 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
2610 is currently displayed in some window.
2611
2612 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
2613 argument function's results.
2614
2615 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
2616 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
2617
2618 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
2619 header in the list of headers passed to it.
2620
2621 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
2622 ignores differences in case and text representation.
2623
2624 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
2625 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
2626 as follows:
2627
2628 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
2629 nil don't display a cursor
2630 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
2631 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
2632 others display a box cursor.
2633
2634 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
2635 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
2636 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
2637 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
2638
2639 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
2640 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
2641 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
2642 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
2643
2644 Example:
2645
2646 (string-to-syntax "()")
2647 => (4 . 41)
2648
2649 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
2650 other than 10.
2651
2652 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
2653 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
2654
2655 #b1111
2656 => 15
2657 #b-1111
2658 => -15
2659
2660 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
2661
2662 #o666
2663 => 438
2664
2665 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
2666
2667 #xbeef
2668 => 48815
2669
2670 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
2671
2672 #2R-111
2673 => -7
2674 #25rah
2675 => 267
2676
2677 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
2678 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
2679 and isn't a string.
2680
2681 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
2682 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
2683 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
2684 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
2685
2686 +++
2687 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
2688
2689 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
2690 for a regexp in a string.
2691
2692 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
2693 `mouse-position-function'.
2694
2695 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
2696 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
2697
2698 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
2699 Keywords are now always considered constants.
2700
2701 +++
2702 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
2703 returns it.
2704
2705 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
2706 returned by function `recent-keys'.
2707
2708 +++
2709 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
2710 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
2711 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
2712 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
2713 mode.
2714
2715 +++
2716 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
2717 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
2718
2719 +++
2720 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
2721 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
2722 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
2723 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
2724 been performed."
2725
2726 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
2727 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
2728 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
2729 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
2730
2731 +++
2732 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
2733 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
2734 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
2735
2736 +++
2737 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
2738 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
2739 specified table.
2740
2741 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
2742
2743 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
2744 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
2745 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
2746 what BODY returns.
2747
2748 +++
2749 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
2750 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
2751 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
2752 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
2753 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
2754
2755 +++
2756 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
2757 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
2758
2759 +++
2760 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
2761 instead of being optional.
2762
2763 +++
2764 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
2765 modify read-only text.
2766
2767 ** New functions and variables for locales.
2768
2769 +++
2770 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
2771 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
2772 time functions like strftime. The new variables
2773 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
2774 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
2775
2776 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
2777 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
2778 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
2779 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
2780 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
2781 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
2782 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
2783
2784 +++
2785 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
2786 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
2787 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
2788 start sequences.
2789
2790 +++
2791 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
2792 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
2793
2794 +++
2795 ** New function `propertize'
2796
2797 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
2798 strings with text properties.
2799
2800 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
2801
2802 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
2803 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
2804 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
2805 specified value of that property. Example:
2806
2807 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
2808
2809 +++
2810 ** push and pop macros.
2811
2812 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
2813 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
2814 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
2815
2816 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
2817 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
2818 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
2819
2820 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
2821
2822 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
2823 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
2824
2825 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
2826 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
2827 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
2828 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
2829
2830 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
2831 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
2832 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
2833 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
2834
2835 +++
2836 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
2837 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
2838 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
2839 or a sign.
2840
2841 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
2842 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
2843 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
2844 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
2845 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
2846 space, and DEL.
2847 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
2848 and DEL.
2849 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
2850 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2851 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2852 [:alpha:] matches letters.
2853 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2854 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2855 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
2856 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
2857 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
2858 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
2859 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2860 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
2861 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
2862 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
2863 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
2864
2865 +++
2866 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
2867
2868 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
2869
2870 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
2871
2872 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
2873 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
2874
2875 :test TEST
2876
2877 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
2878 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
2879 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
2880
2881 :size SIZE
2882
2883 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
2884 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
2885
2886 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
2887
2888 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
2889 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
2890 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
2891 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
2892 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
2893
2894 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
2895
2896 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
2897 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
2898 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
2899
2900 :weakness WEAK
2901
2902 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
2903 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
2904 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
2905 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
2906 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
2907
2908 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
2909
2910 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
2911
2912 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
2913
2914 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
2915
2916 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
2917
2918 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
2919 values are shared.
2920
2921 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
2922
2923 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
2924
2925 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2926
2927 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
2928
2929 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
2930
2931 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
2932
2933 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2934
2935 Returns the size of TABLE.
2936
2937 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
2938
2939 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
2940
2941 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
2942
2943 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
2944
2945 - Function: clrhash TABLE
2946
2947 Clear TABLE.
2948
2949 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
2950
2951 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
2952 not found.
2953
2954 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
2955
2956 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
2957 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
2958
2959 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
2960
2961 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
2962
2963 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
2964
2965 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
2966 arguments KEY and VALUE.
2967
2968 - Function: sxhash OBJ
2969
2970 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
2971
2972 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
2973
2974 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
2975 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
2976 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
2977 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
2978 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
2979
2980 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
2981
2982 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
2983 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
2984 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
2985
2986 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
2987 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
2988
2989 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
2990 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
2991
2992 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
2993 (sxhash (upcase a)))
2994
2995 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
2996 'case-fold-string-hash))
2997
2998 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
2999
3000 +++
3001 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
3002
3003 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
3004 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
3005 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
3006
3007 +++
3008 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
3009
3010 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
3011 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
3012
3013 +++
3014 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
3015 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
3016 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
3017 is too short to reach that column.
3018
3019 +++
3020 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
3021 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
3022 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
3023 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
3024
3025 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
3026 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
3027 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
3028
3029 +++
3030 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
3031 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
3032
3033 +++
3034 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
3035 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
3036
3037 +++
3038 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
3039 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
3040 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
3041 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
3042 temporary-file-directory instead.
3043
3044 +++
3045 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
3046 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
3047 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
3048 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
3049
3050 +++
3051 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
3052 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
3053
3054 +++
3055 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
3056
3057 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
3058 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
3059 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
3060
3061 +++
3062 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
3063
3064 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
3065 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
3066 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
3067 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
3068 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
3069 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
3070
3071 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
3072 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
3073 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
3074 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
3075
3076 +++
3077 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
3078
3079 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
3080 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
3081 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
3082 result string.
3083
3084 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
3085 string where arguments appear in the result string.
3086
3087 Example:
3088
3089 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
3090 (s2 "world"))
3091 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
3092 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
3093 (format s1 s2))
3094
3095 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
3096
3097 +++
3098 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
3099
3100 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
3101 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
3102 argument in it.
3103
3104 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
3105 (arg "world"))
3106 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
3107 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
3108 (message msg arg))
3109
3110 +++
3111 ** Sound support
3112
3113 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
3114 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
3115
3116 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
3117 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
3118 to enable sound support.
3119
3120 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
3121 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
3122 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
3123 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
3124 sound to play, before playing the sound.
3125
3126 The following sound properties are supported:
3127
3128 - `:file FILE'
3129
3130 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
3131 searched relative to `data-directory'.
3132
3133 - `:data DATA'
3134
3135 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
3136 may be present, but not both.
3137
3138 - `:volume VOLUME'
3139
3140 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
3141 0..1. This property is optional.
3142
3143 - `:device DEVICE'
3144
3145 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
3146 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
3147
3148 Other properties are ignored.
3149
3150 An alternative interface is called as
3151 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
3152
3153 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
3154
3155 +++
3156 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
3157 a keyword symbol.
3158
3159 ** Changes to garbage collection
3160
3161 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
3162 of live and free strings.
3163
3164 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
3165 strings that have been consed so far.
3166
3167 \f
3168 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
3169 Lisp Manual
3170
3171 +++
3172 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
3173 mini-windows.
3174
3175 +++
3176 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
3177 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
3178 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
3179
3180 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
3181
3182 +++
3183 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
3184
3185 +++
3186 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
3187 image.
3188
3189 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
3190
3191 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
3192
3193 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
3194 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
3195 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
3196 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
3197 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
3198
3199 +++
3200 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
3201 has a mask bitmap.
3202
3203 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
3204
3205 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
3206 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
3207 or omitted means use the selected frame.
3208
3209 +++
3210 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
3211 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
3212
3213 +++
3214 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
3215 optional.
3216
3217 +++
3218 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
3219 below).
3220
3221 \f
3222 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
3223
3224 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
3225 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
3226 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
3227 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
3228
3229 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
3230 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
3231
3232 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
3233 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
3234 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
3235 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
3236 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
3237 just display it black instead.
3238
3239 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
3240 a line like
3241
3242 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
3243
3244 in your `.emacs'.
3245
3246 ** New face implementation.
3247
3248 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
3249 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
3250
3251 +++
3252 *** New faces.
3253
3254 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
3255
3256 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
3257
3258 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
3259 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
3260
3261 3. Font height in 1/10pt
3262
3263 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
3264
3265 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
3266
3267 6. Foreground color.
3268
3269 7. Background color.
3270
3271 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
3272
3273 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
3274
3275 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
3276
3277 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
3278
3279 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
3280 color.
3281
3282 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
3283 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
3284
3285 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
3286 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
3287 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
3288 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
3289 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
3290 attributes mentioned above.
3291
3292 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
3293 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
3294 created frames.
3295
3296 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
3297 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
3298 `fully-specified'.
3299
3300 +++
3301 *** Face merging.
3302
3303 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
3304 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
3305 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
3306 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
3307 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
3308 results in a fully-specified face.
3309
3310 +++
3311 *** Face realization.
3312
3313 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
3314 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
3315 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
3316 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
3317 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
3318 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
3319
3320 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
3321 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
3322 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
3323 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
3324
3325 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
3326 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
3327 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
3328 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
3329 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
3330
3331 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
3332 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
3333 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
3334 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
3335 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
3336 Emacs.
3337
3338 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
3339 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
3340 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
3341 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
3342
3343 +++
3344 **** Clearing face caches.
3345
3346 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
3347 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
3348 unused fonts.
3349
3350 +++
3351 *** Font selection.
3352
3353 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
3354 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
3355 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
3356
3357 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
3358 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
3359 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
3360 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
3361 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
3362
3363 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
3364 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
3365 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
3366
3367 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
3368
3369 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
3370 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
3371 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
3372 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
3373 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
3374 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
3375 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
3376
3377 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
3378 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
3379 doesn't exist.
3380
3381 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
3382 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
3383 registry.
3384
3385 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
3386 slightly different.
3387
3388 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
3389
3390
3391 +++
3392 **** Scalable fonts
3393
3394 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
3395 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
3396 servers.
3397
3398 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
3399 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
3400 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
3401 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
3402 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
3403 that list. Example:
3404
3405 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
3406
3407 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
3408
3409 +++
3410 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
3411
3412 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
3413
3414 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
3415 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
3416 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
3417
3418 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
3419 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
3420 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
3421 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
3422 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
3423 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
3424 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
3425 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
3426 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
3427 of the face font sort order.
3428
3429 - Function: x-font-family-list
3430
3431 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
3432 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
3433 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
3434 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
3435
3436 - Variable: font-list-limit
3437
3438 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
3439 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
3440 matching font. The default is currently 100.
3441
3442 +++
3443 *** Setting face attributes.
3444
3445 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
3446 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
3447 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
3448 `face-attribute'.
3449
3450 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
3451 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
3452
3453 The following attributes are recognized:
3454
3455 `:family'
3456
3457 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
3458 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
3459 and `?' are allowed.
3460
3461 `:width'
3462
3463 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
3464 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
3465 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
3466 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
3467
3468 `:height'
3469
3470 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
3471 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
3472 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
3473 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
3474
3475 `:weight'
3476
3477 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
3478 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
3479 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
3480
3481 `:slant'
3482
3483 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
3484 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
3485 `reverse-oblique'.
3486
3487 `:foreground', `:background'
3488
3489 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
3490
3491 `:underline'
3492
3493 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
3494 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
3495 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
3496 don't underline.
3497
3498 `:overline'
3499
3500 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
3501 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
3502 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
3503 overline.
3504
3505 `:strike-through'
3506
3507 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
3508 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
3509 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
3510 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
3511
3512 `:box'
3513
3514 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
3515 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
3516 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
3517 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
3518 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
3519 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
3520 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
3521 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
3522 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
3523 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
3524 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
3525 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
3526 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
3527 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
3528 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
3529 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
3530 box.
3531
3532 `:inverse-video'
3533
3534 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
3535 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
3536
3537 `:stipple'
3538
3539 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
3540 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
3541 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
3542 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
3543 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
3544 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
3545
3546 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
3547 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
3548
3549 `:font'
3550
3551 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
3552 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
3553 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
3554 versions of Emacs.
3555
3556 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
3557 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
3558 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
3559
3560 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
3561 `defface'.
3562
3563 `:inherit'
3564
3565 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
3566 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
3567 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
3568
3569 *** Face attributes and X resources
3570
3571 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
3572 from X resources:
3573
3574 Face attribute X resource class
3575 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
3576 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
3577 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
3578 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
3579 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
3580 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
3581 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
3582 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
3583 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
3584 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
3585 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
3586 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
3587 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
3588 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
3589 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
3590 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
3591 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
3592 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
3593 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
3594 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
3595
3596 +++
3597 *** Text property `face'.
3598
3599 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
3600 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
3601 specification can be
3602
3603 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
3604
3605 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
3606 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
3607 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
3608 for face attribute names.
3609
3610 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
3611 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
3612 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
3613
3614 +++
3615 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
3616
3617 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
3618 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
3619 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
3620 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
3621 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
3622 used to clear the mapping table.
3623
3624 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
3625
3626 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
3627 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
3628 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
3629 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
3630 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
3631 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
3632 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
3633 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
3634 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
3635 modify their color-related behavior.
3636
3637 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
3638 any frame type.
3639
3640 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
3641
3642 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
3643 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
3644 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
3645 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
3646 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
3647 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
3648 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
3649 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
3650 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
3651
3652 +++
3653 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
3654
3655 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
3656 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
3657 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
3658 `Inviolable' option.
3659
3660 The function minibuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
3661 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
3662 Otherwise, it returns zero.
3663
3664 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
3665
3666 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
3667 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
3668 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
3669
3670 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
3671 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
3672 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
3673 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
3674 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
3675 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
3676 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
3677 functions.
3678
3679 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
3680 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
3681 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
3682
3683 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
3684
3685 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
3686
3687 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
3688
3689 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3690 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
3691 constrained position if that is different.
3692
3693 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
3694 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
3695 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
3696 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
3697 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
3698 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
3699 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
3700 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
3701 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
3702
3703 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
3704 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
3705 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
3706 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
3707 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
3708
3709 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
3710 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
3711
3712 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
3713
3714 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
3715
3716 Delete the field surrounding POS.
3717 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3718 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3719
3720 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
3721
3722 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
3723 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3724 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3725 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
3726 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
3727
3728 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
3729
3730 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
3731 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3732 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3733 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
3734 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
3735
3736 - Function: field-string &optional POS
3737
3738 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
3739 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3740 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3741
3742 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
3743
3744 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
3745 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3746 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3747
3748 +++
3749 ** Image support.
3750
3751 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
3752 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
3753 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
3754 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
3755
3756 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
3757 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
3758 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
3759 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
3760 area.
3761
3762 IMAGE is an image specification.
3763
3764 *** Image specifications
3765
3766 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
3767 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
3768 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
3769 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
3770 described below are ignored.
3771
3772 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
3773
3774 `:ascent ASCENT'
3775
3776 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
3777 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
3778 to use for its ascent.
3779
3780 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
3781 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
3782
3783 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
3784 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
3785 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
3786 overlays that apply to the image.
3787
3788 `:margin MARGIN'
3789
3790 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
3791 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
3792 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
3793
3794 `:relief RELIEF'
3795
3796 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
3797 around an image.
3798
3799 `:conversion ALGO'
3800
3801 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
3802
3803 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
3804 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
3805
3806 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
3807 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
3808 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
3809 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
3810 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
3811 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
3812 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
3813 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
3814 below.
3815
3816 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
3817 x-1/y x/y x+1/y
3818 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
3819
3820 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
3821 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
3822 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
3823 of the factors' absolute values.
3824
3825 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
3826
3827 (1 0 0
3828 0 0 0
3829 9 9 -1)
3830
3831 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
3832
3833 ( 2 -1 0
3834 -1 0 1
3835 0 1 -2)
3836
3837 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
3838 ``disabled''.
3839
3840 `:mask MASK'
3841
3842 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
3843 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
3844 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
3845 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
3846 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
3847 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
3848 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
3849 image.
3850
3851 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
3852 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
3853 `:mask nil'.
3854
3855 `:file FILE'
3856
3857 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
3858 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
3859 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
3860 may be present in the image specification.
3861
3862 `:data DATA'
3863
3864 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
3865 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
3866 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
3867 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
3868
3869 *** Supported image types
3870
3871 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
3872
3873 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
3874 properties supported are
3875
3876 `:foreground FG'
3877
3878 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
3879 is the frame's foreground.
3880
3881 `:background BG'
3882
3883 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
3884 the frame's background color.
3885
3886 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
3887 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
3888 instead of a `:file' property.
3889
3890 `:width WIDTH'
3891
3892 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
3893
3894 `:height HEIGHT'
3895
3896 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
3897
3898 `:data DATA'
3899
3900 DATA must be either
3901
3902 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
3903 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
3904
3905 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
3906
3907 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
3908 bitmap.
3909
3910 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
3911 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
3912 in the file.
3913
3914 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
3915
3916 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
3917 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
3918 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
3919 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
3920
3921 Additional image properties supported are:
3922
3923 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
3924
3925 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
3926 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
3927 name.
3928
3929 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
3930 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
3931
3932 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
3933 to display compressed images.
3934
3935 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
3936
3937 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
3938 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
3939 mono images are
3940
3941 `:foreground FG'
3942
3943 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
3944 is the frame's foreground.
3945
3946 `:background FG'
3947
3948 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
3949 the frame's background color.
3950
3951 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
3952
3953 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
3954 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
3955 are:
3956
3957 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
3958
3959 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
3960 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3961 properties defined.
3962
3963 **** GIF, image type `gif'
3964
3965 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
3966 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
3967
3968 Additional image properties supported are:
3969
3970 `:index INDEX'
3971
3972 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
3973 multi-image GIF file. An error is signaled if INDEX is too large.
3974
3975 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
3976 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
3977 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
3978 every 0.1 seconds.
3979
3980 (defun show-anim (file max)
3981 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
3982 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
3983
3984 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
3985 (when (= idx max)
3986 (setq idx 0))
3987 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
3988 (save-excursion
3989 (set-buffer buffer)
3990 (goto-char (point-min))
3991 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
3992 (insert-image img "x"))
3993 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
3994
3995 **** PNG, image type `png'
3996
3997 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
3998 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3999 properties defined.
4000
4001 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
4002
4003 Additional image properties supported are:
4004
4005 `:pt-width WIDTH'
4006
4007 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
4008 integer. This is a required property.
4009
4010 `:pt-height HEIGHT'
4011
4012 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
4013 must be a integer. This is an required property.
4014
4015 `:bounding-box BOX'
4016
4017 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
4018 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
4019 files. This is an required property.
4020
4021 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
4022 lisp/gs.el.
4023
4024 *** Lisp interface.
4025
4026 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
4027 which are supported in the current configuration.
4028
4029 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
4030 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
4031 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
4032 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
4033 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
4034
4035 *** Simplified image API, image.el
4036
4037 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
4038 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
4039 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
4040 define an image based on available image types. The functions
4041 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
4042 buffer.
4043
4044 +++
4045 ** Display margins.
4046
4047 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
4048 and images.
4049
4050 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
4051 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
4052 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
4053 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
4054 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
4055 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
4056 of the display margins.
4057
4058 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
4059 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
4060 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
4061 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
4062 in this file).
4063
4064 +++
4065 ** Help display
4066
4067 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
4068 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
4069 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
4070 that have a `help-echo' property.
4071
4072 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
4073 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
4074 the window in which the help was found.
4075
4076 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
4077 `help-echo' text property was found.
4078
4079 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
4080 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
4081
4082 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
4083 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
4084 mouse.
4085
4086 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
4087 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
4088
4089 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
4090 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
4091 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
4092 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
4093 used as help string.
4094
4095 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
4096 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
4097 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
4098
4099 +++
4100 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
4101
4102 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
4103 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
4104
4105 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
4106 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
4107 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
4108 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
4109 used.
4110
4111 (global-set-key [A-down]
4112 #'(lambda ()
4113 (interactive)
4114 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
4115 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
4116 (global-set-key [A-up]
4117 #'(lambda ()
4118 (interactive)
4119 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
4120 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
4121
4122 +++
4123 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
4124
4125 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
4126 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
4127 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
4128 is called with one argument, POS.
4129
4130 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
4131 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
4132 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
4133 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
4134 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
4135
4136 +++
4137 ** Tool bar support.
4138
4139 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
4140 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
4141 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
4142 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
4143 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
4144 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
4145
4146 *** Tool bar item definitions
4147
4148 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
4149 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
4150 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
4151
4152 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
4153 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
4154 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
4155 property (see below).
4156
4157 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
4158 binding are currently ignored.
4159
4160 The following properties are recognized:
4161
4162 `:enable FORM'.
4163
4164 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
4165 or disabled.
4166
4167 `:visible FORM'
4168
4169 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
4170
4171 `:filter FUNCTION'
4172
4173 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
4174 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
4175 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
4176
4177 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
4178
4179 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
4180 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
4181
4182 `:image IMAGES'
4183
4184 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
4185 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
4186 meaning of each of the four elements:
4187
4188 Index Use when item is
4189 ----------------------------------------
4190 0 enabled and selected
4191 1 enabled and deselected
4192 2 disabled and selected
4193 3 disabled and deselected
4194
4195 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
4196 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
4197
4198 `:help HELP-STRING'.
4199
4200 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
4201 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
4202
4203 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
4204 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
4205 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
4206 menu bar.
4207
4208 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
4209 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
4210 buffer-locally to override the global map.
4211
4212 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
4213
4214 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
4215 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
4216 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
4217
4218 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
4219 raised when the mouse moves over them.
4220
4221 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
4222 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
4223 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
4224 vertical margins . Default is 1.
4225
4226 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
4227 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
4228
4229 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
4230
4231 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
4232 a tool bar item. If
4233
4234 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
4235 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
4236 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
4237
4238 is the original tool bar item definition, then
4239
4240 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
4241
4242 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
4243 item.
4244
4245 ** Mode line changes.
4246
4247 +++
4248 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
4249
4250 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
4251 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
4252 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
4253
4254 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
4255 a `local-map' text property.
4256
4257 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
4258 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
4259
4260 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
4261 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
4262 `local-map' property.
4263
4264 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
4265 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
4266 example.
4267
4268 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
4269 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
4270
4271 +++
4272 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
4273 variable mode-line-format to nil.
4274
4275 +++
4276 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
4277
4278 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
4279 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
4280 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
4281 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
4282 line.
4283
4284 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
4285 `header-line'.
4286
4287 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
4288 position in the header-line.
4289
4290 +++
4291 ** Text property `display'
4292
4293 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
4294 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
4295 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
4296 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
4297 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
4298
4299 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
4300
4301 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
4302 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
4303
4304 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
4305 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
4306 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
4307 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
4308 simpler form STRING as property value.
4309
4310 *** Variable width and height spaces
4311
4312 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
4313 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
4314 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
4315 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
4316 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
4317 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
4318 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
4319
4320 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
4321 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
4322 properties described below.
4323
4324 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
4325 characters having the `display' property.
4326
4327 - :width WIDTH
4328
4329 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
4330 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
4331
4332 - :relative-width FACTOR
4333
4334 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
4335 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
4336 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
4337 width of that character by FACTOR.
4338
4339 - :align-to HPOS
4340
4341 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
4342 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
4343
4344 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
4345
4346 - :height HEIGHT
4347
4348 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
4349 normal line height.
4350
4351 - :relative-height FACTOR
4352
4353 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
4354 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
4355
4356 - :ascent ASCENT
4357
4358 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
4359 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
4360 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
4361 equal to 100.
4362
4363 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
4364
4365 *** Images
4366
4367 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
4368 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
4369 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
4370 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
4371 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
4372 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
4373 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
4374 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
4375 as display specification.
4376
4377 *** Other display properties
4378
4379 - (space-width FACTOR)
4380
4381 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
4382 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
4383 integer or float.
4384
4385 - (height HEIGHT)
4386
4387 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
4388
4389 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
4390 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
4391 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
4392 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
4393 a font is available counts as a step.
4394
4395 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
4396 as tall as the frame's default font.
4397
4398 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
4399 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
4400
4401 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
4402 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
4403
4404 - (raise FACTOR)
4405
4406 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
4407 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
4408 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
4409 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
4410 `height' subproperty.
4411
4412 *** Conditional display properties
4413
4414 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
4415 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
4416 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
4417 During evaluation, point is temporarily set to the end position of
4418 the text having the `display' property.
4419
4420 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
4421 `(:when t SPEC)'.
4422
4423 +++
4424 ** New menu separator types.
4425
4426 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
4427 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
4428 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
4429 to specify other menu separator types.
4430
4431 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
4432
4433 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
4434 separator occurs.
4435
4436 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
4437
4438 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
4439
4440 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
4441
4442 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
4443
4444 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
4445
4446 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
4447
4448 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
4449
4450 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
4451
4452 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
4453
4454 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
4455 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
4456
4457 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
4458
4459 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
4460
4461 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
4462
4463 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
4464
4465 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
4466
4467 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
4468
4469 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
4470
4471 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
4472
4473 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
4474
4475 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
4476
4477 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
4478
4479 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
4480
4481 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
4482
4483 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
4484
4485 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
4486 the corresponding single-line separators.
4487
4488 +++
4489 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
4490
4491 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
4492 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
4493 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
4494 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
4495 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
4496 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
4497 default foreground is black.
4498
4499 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
4500 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
4501 `ScrollBarBackground').
4502
4503 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
4504 settings for scroll bar colors.
4505
4506 +++
4507 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
4508 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
4509
4510 ---
4511 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
4512 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
4513 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
4514 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
4515 the original window start.
4516
4517 ---
4518 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
4519 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
4520 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
4521
4522 +++
4523 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
4524
4525 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
4526 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
4527 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
4528 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
4529
4530 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
4531 fixed-width and fixed-height.
4532
4533 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
4534
4535 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
4536 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
4537 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
4538 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
4539 temporarily to nil, for example
4540
4541 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
4542 (enlarge-window 10))
4543
4544 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
4545 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
4546
4547 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
4548 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
4549 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
4550 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
4551 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
4552 support a vertical-bar cursor).
4553
4554
4555
4556 \f
4557 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
4558
4559 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
4560 input.
4561
4562 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
4563
4564 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
4565
4566 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
4567 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
4568 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
4569 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
4570 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
4571
4572 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
4573 been added.
4574
4575 \f
4576 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
4577
4578 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
4579
4580
4581 \f
4582 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
4583
4584 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
4585 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
4586 \f
4587 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
4588
4589 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
4590
4591 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
4592 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
4593 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
4594
4595 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
4596 is the one that is used.
4597
4598 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
4599 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
4600 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
4601 separate from the command's regular output.
4602 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
4603 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
4604 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
4605 the buffer name.
4606
4607 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
4608 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
4609 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
4610 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
4611
4612 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
4613 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
4614 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
4615 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
4616
4617 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
4618 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
4619 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
4620 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
4621
4622 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
4623 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
4624 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
4625 they never ignore case.
4626
4627 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
4628 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
4629 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
4630 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
4631 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
4632 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
4633 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
4634
4635 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
4636 the same format that was used in the file before.
4637
4638 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
4639 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
4640
4641 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
4642 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
4643 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
4644
4645 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
4646 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
4647 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
4648 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
4649 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
4650 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
4651 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
4652
4653 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
4654 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
4655 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
4656 format. You can now customize these variables.
4657
4658 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
4659 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
4660 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
4661 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
4662
4663 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
4664 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
4665 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
4666
4667 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
4668 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
4669 doesn't have any effect.
4670
4671 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
4672 not one per buffer.
4673
4674 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
4675 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
4676 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
4677
4678 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
4679 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
4680 `auto-show-mode' command.
4681
4682 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
4683 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
4684 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
4685 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
4686 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
4687
4688 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
4689 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
4690
4691 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
4692 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
4693 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
4694
4695 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
4696 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
4697 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
4698 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
4699
4700 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
4701
4702 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
4703 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
4704 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
4705 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
4706 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
4707
4708 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
4709 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
4710
4711 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
4712 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
4713 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
4714 `?' on other systems.
4715
4716 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
4717 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
4718 Unix.
4719
4720 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
4721 current codepage when it starts.
4722
4723 ** Mail changes
4724
4725 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
4726 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
4727 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
4728 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
4729 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
4730 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
4731 latin-1:
4732
4733 MIME-version: 1.0
4734 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
4735 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
4736
4737 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
4738 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
4739 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
4740 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
4741 buffer-file-coding-system.
4742
4743 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
4744 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
4745 mail.
4746
4747 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
4748 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
4749 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
4750 list of possible coding systems.
4751
4752 ** CC Mode changes
4753
4754 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
4755 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
4756 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
4757 docstring for details.
4758
4759 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
4760 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
4761 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
4762 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
4763 lineup functions use this feature currently.
4764
4765 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
4766 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
4767
4768 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
4769 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
4770
4771 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
4772 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
4773 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
4774 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
4775 anonymous classes.
4776
4777 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
4778 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
4779
4780 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
4781 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
4782 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
4783 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
4784
4785 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
4786 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
4787 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
4788 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
4789 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
4790
4791 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
4792
4793 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
4794
4795 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
4796 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
4797
4798 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
4799
4800 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
4801 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
4802 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
4803 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
4804 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
4805
4806 ** Gnus changes.
4807
4808 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
4809 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
4810 Gnus manual for the full story.
4811
4812 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
4813 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
4814 group, which is created automatically.
4815
4816 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
4817 values.
4818
4819 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
4820
4821 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
4822 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
4823
4824 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
4825 `C-u C-c C-c'.
4826
4827 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
4828
4829 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
4830 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
4831
4832 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
4833
4834 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
4835 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
4836
4837 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
4838 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
4839
4840 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
4841 control over simplification.
4842
4843 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
4844
4845 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
4846 limit.
4847
4848 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
4849
4850 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
4851
4852 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
4853 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
4854 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
4855
4856 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
4857 `a' forces normal posting method.
4858
4859 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
4860 -- `W d'.
4861
4862 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
4863 to a non-nil value.
4864
4865 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
4866 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
4867
4868 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
4869 has been added.
4870
4871 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
4872
4873 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
4874
4875 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
4876 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
4877
4878 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
4879 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
4880
4881 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
4882
4883 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
4884 been added.
4885
4886 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
4887 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
4888
4889 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
4890 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
4891
4892 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
4893
4894 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
4895
4896 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
4897
4898 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
4899
4900 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
4901 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
4902 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
4903
4904 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
4905 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
4906 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
4907 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
4908 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
4909
4910 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
4911 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
4912 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
4913 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
4914
4915 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
4916 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
4917 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
4918 mismatch.
4919
4920 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4921
4922 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
4923 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
4924
4925 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
4926 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
4927 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
4928 removed from the label.
4929
4930 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
4931 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
4932
4933 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
4934 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
4935
4936 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
4937 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
4938 expressions.
4939
4940 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
4941
4942 ** New/deleted modes and packages
4943
4944 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
4945 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
4946
4947 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
4948 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
4949 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
4950
4951 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
4952 changes with a special face.
4953
4954 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
4955 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
4956 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
4957 \f
4958 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
4959
4960 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
4961 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
4962 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
4963 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
4964 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
4965
4966 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
4967 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
4968 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
4969
4970 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
4971 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
4972 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
4973 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
4974 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
4975 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
4976 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
4977 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
4978 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
4979
4980 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
4981 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
4982 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
4983 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
4984 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
4985 program.
4986
4987 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
4988 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
4989 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
4990 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
4991 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
4992 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
4993
4994 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
4995 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
4996 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
4997 was not documented clearly before.
4998
4999 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
5000 This includes Tetris and Snake.
5001 \f
5002 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
5003
5004 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
5005 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
5006 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
5007 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
5008
5009 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
5010 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
5011 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
5012
5013 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
5014
5015 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
5016 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
5017
5018 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
5019 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
5020 integers.
5021
5022 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
5023 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
5024 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
5025 file names and attributes are returned.
5026
5027 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
5028 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
5029 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
5030 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
5031 returns the result.
5032
5033 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
5034 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
5035
5036 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
5037
5038 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
5039 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
5040 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
5041 optionally.
5042
5043 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
5044 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
5045
5046 **
5047 The new function process-running-child-p
5048 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
5049 terminal to its own child process.
5050
5051 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
5052 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
5053 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
5054 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
5055
5056 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
5057 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
5058
5059 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
5060 :included is an alias for :visible.
5061
5062 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
5063 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
5064 to move or copy menu entries.
5065
5066 ** Multibyte editing changes
5067
5068 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
5069 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
5070 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
5071 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
5072 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
5073 (setq char (sref str idx)
5074 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
5075 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
5076
5077 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
5078 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
5079 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
5080
5081 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
5082 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
5083 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
5084
5085 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
5086
5087 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
5088 across the boundary.
5089
5090 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
5091 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
5092 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
5093 contains 8-bit characters.
5094 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
5095 contains invalid characters.
5096
5097 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
5098 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
5099 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
5100 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
5101 way.
5102
5103 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
5104 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
5105 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
5106 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
5107
5108 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
5109 compose Thai characters in a string.
5110
5111 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
5112 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
5113 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
5114 menus should always use the third argument.
5115
5116 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
5117 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
5118 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
5119 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
5120
5121 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
5122 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
5123 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
5124 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
5125
5126 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
5127 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
5128 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
5129 echo area contents.
5130
5131 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
5132
5133 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
5134 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
5135 requested feature cannot be loaded.
5136
5137 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
5138 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
5139 means to clear out that attribute.
5140
5141 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
5142 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
5143
5144 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
5145 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
5146 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
5147 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
5148
5149 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
5150 the gap of the current buffer.
5151
5152 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
5153 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
5154 current buffer.
5155
5156 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
5157 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
5158 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
5159 it back in after any modifications have been made.
5160 \f
5161 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
5162
5163 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
5164 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
5165 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
5166 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
5167 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
5168
5169 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
5170 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
5171 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
5172 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
5173 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
5174
5175 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
5176 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
5177 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
5178
5179 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
5180 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
5181 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
5182 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
5183 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
5184 results.
5185
5186 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
5187 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
5188 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
5189 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
5190 \f
5191 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
5192
5193 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
5194 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
5195 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
5196 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
5197
5198 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
5199 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
5200 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
5201 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
5202 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
5203 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
5204 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
5205 region.
5206
5207 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
5208 selective undo.
5209
5210 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
5211 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
5212 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
5213 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
5214 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
5215
5216 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
5217 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
5218 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
5219 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
5220
5221 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
5222 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
5223 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
5224 something that most users not do.
5225
5226 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
5227 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
5228 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
5229 applications.
5230
5231 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
5232 pasting operations.
5233
5234 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
5235 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
5236 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
5237 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
5238 `ps-printer-name'.
5239
5240 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
5241 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
5242 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
5243 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
5244 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
5245 hits a new word.
5246
5247 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
5248 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
5249 to be confused by TeX commands.
5250
5251 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
5252 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
5253 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
5254 of various alternative replacements and actions.
5255
5256 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
5257 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
5258 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
5259 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
5260 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
5261
5262 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
5263 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
5264
5265 ** Changes in input method usage.
5266
5267 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
5268 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
5269 respectively.
5270
5271 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
5272
5273 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
5274 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
5275
5276 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
5277 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
5278
5279 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
5280
5281 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
5282
5283 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
5284 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
5285
5286 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
5287 given in the following case:
5288 o When you are using a complex input method.
5289 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
5290
5291 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
5292 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
5293 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
5294 setting it to t is helpful.
5295
5296 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
5297
5298 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
5299 keys:
5300 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
5301 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
5302 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
5303 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
5304 environment.
5305
5306 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
5307 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
5308 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
5309 get
5310
5311 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
5312
5313 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
5314
5315 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
5316 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
5317
5318 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
5319 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
5320 its owner and group.
5321
5322 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
5323 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
5324
5325 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
5326 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
5327
5328 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
5329 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
5330 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
5331 by the left edge of the rectangle.
5332
5333 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
5334 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
5335 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
5336 for writing keyboard macros.
5337
5338 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
5339 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
5340 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
5341 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
5342 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
5343 info.
5344
5345 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
5346
5347 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
5348 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
5349 contents only.
5350
5351 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
5352 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
5353 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
5354 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
5355
5356 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
5357 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
5358 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
5359
5360 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
5361 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
5362 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
5363 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
5364
5365 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
5366 failure if the command produces no output.
5367
5368 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
5369 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
5370 the mouse.
5371
5372 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
5373 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
5374 function and variable names.
5375
5376 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
5377 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
5378 file-coding-system-alist.
5379
5380 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
5381 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
5382 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
5383 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
5384 according to the current fontset.
5385
5386 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
5387
5388 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
5389 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
5390 nonascii-insert-offset.
5391
5392 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
5393 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
5394 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
5395 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
5396
5397 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
5398 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
5399
5400 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
5401 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
5402
5403 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
5404 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
5405 command keys.
5406
5407 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
5408 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
5409
5410 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
5411 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
5412 all variables that have documentation.
5413
5414 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
5415 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
5416 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
5417 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
5418 it should show; the default is 20.
5419
5420 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
5421 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
5422 of your input.
5423
5424 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
5425 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
5426 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
5427 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
5428 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
5429 Newly added options are included as well.
5430
5431 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
5432 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
5433 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
5434
5435 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
5436 Customize menu.
5437
5438 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
5439 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
5440
5441 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
5442 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
5443 invoked.
5444
5445 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
5446 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
5447 The default is 1.
5448
5449 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
5450 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
5451 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
5452 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
5453 sensibly.
5454
5455 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
5456
5457 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
5458 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
5459 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
5460
5461 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
5462 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
5463 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
5464 every night.
5465
5466 ** Desktop changes
5467
5468 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
5469 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
5470
5471 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
5472 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
5473
5474 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
5475 read and post multi-lingual articles.
5476
5477 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
5478 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
5479 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
5480 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
5481 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
5482 made invisible again.
5483
5484 ** Mail reading and sending changes
5485
5486 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
5487 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
5488 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
5489 toggle.
5490
5491 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
5492 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
5493 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
5494 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
5495 rmail-default-body-file.
5496
5497 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
5498 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
5499 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
5500
5501 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
5502 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
5503 is evaluated to insert the signature.
5504
5505 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
5506 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
5507 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
5508 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
5509 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
5510 especially interested in trying feedmail.
5511
5512 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
5513 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
5514 provided by feedmail are:
5515
5516 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
5517 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
5518 there is also a queue for draft messages
5519
5520 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
5521 be prompted for confirmation
5522
5523 **** does smart filling of address headers
5524
5525 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
5526 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
5527 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
5528
5529 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
5530 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
5531 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
5532 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
5533
5534 ** Dired changes
5535
5536 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
5537 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
5538
5539 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
5540 run Dired on the directory name at point.
5541
5542 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
5543 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
5544 for a specified regexp.
5545
5546 ** VC Changes
5547
5548 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
5549 conveniently.
5550
5551 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
5552 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
5553 Dired.
5554
5555 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
5556 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
5557 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
5558 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
5559
5560 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
5561 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
5562 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
5563 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
5564 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
5565
5566 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
5567 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
5568 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
5569 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
5570 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
5571
5572 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
5573 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
5574 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
5575 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
5576
5577 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
5578 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
5579 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
5580
5581 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
5582 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
5583 session to resolve them.
5584
5585 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
5586 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
5587 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
5588 uses as well).
5589
5590 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
5591 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
5592 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
5593 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
5594 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
5595 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
5596 using ediff.
5597
5598 ** Changes in Font Lock
5599
5600 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
5601 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
5602 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
5603 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
5604 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
5605
5606 ** Frame name display changes
5607
5608 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
5609 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
5610 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
5611 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
5612
5613 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
5614 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
5615 menu.
5616
5617 ** Comint (subshell) changes
5618
5619 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
5620 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
5621 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
5622
5623 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
5624
5625 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
5626 that is, the line after the last line you got.
5627 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
5628
5629 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
5630 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
5631 the following line.
5632
5633 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
5634 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
5635 previously sent input.
5636
5637 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
5638 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
5639 as the search string.
5640
5641 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
5642 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
5643
5644 ** C mode changes
5645
5646 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
5647 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
5648 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
5649 definition.
5650
5651 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
5652 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
5653 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
5654 style is still the default however.
5655
5656 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
5657
5658 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
5659 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
5660 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
5661
5662 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
5663 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
5664
5665 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
5666 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
5667
5668 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
5669 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
5670
5671 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
5672 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
5673
5674 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
5675 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
5676 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
5677 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
5678
5679 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
5680
5681 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
5682 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
5683 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
5684
5685 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
5686 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
5687 expanding dynamically.
5688
5689 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
5690 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
5691
5692 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
5693 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
5694 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
5695 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
5696
5697 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
5698
5699 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
5700
5701 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
5702 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
5703 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
5704 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
5705 against the first word in the title.
5706
5707 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
5708 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
5709 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
5710 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
5711 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
5712 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
5713
5714 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
5715 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
5716 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
5717 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
5718
5719 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
5720
5721 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
5722 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
5723 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
5724 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
5725 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
5726 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
5727
5728 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
5729 Editing group once the package is loaded.
5730
5731 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
5732 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
5733 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
5734
5735 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
5736 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
5737
5738 ** Ispell changes.
5739
5740 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
5741 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
5742 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
5743
5744 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
5745 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
5746 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
5747 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
5748 include:
5749
5750 o URLs are automatically skipped
5751 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
5752
5753 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
5754
5755 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
5756
5757 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
5758 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
5759 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
5760 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
5761
5762 *** New recursive parser.
5763
5764 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
5765 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
5766 recursive parser scans the individual files.
5767
5768 *** Parsing only part of a document.
5769
5770 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
5771 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
5772 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
5773
5774 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
5775
5776 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
5777
5778 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
5779
5780 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
5781
5782 *** Using multiple selection buffers
5783
5784 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
5785 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
5786
5787 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
5788
5789 *** References to external documents.
5790
5791 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
5792 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
5793 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
5794 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
5795 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
5796 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
5797 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
5798
5799 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
5800
5801 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
5802 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
5803
5804 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
5805 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
5806
5807 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
5808
5809 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
5810 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
5811
5812 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
5813
5814 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
5815 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
5816 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
5817 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
5818 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
5819 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
5820 more.
5821
5822 *** Support for the varioref package
5823
5824 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
5825
5826 *** New hooks
5827
5828 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
5829 and citations are created. These hooks are
5830 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
5831 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
5832
5833 *** Citations outside LaTeX
5834
5835 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
5836 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
5837
5838 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
5839
5840 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
5841 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
5842 fontified, use
5843
5844 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
5845
5846 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
5847 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
5848 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
5849 directories that contain the same file name.
5850
5851 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
5852 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
5853 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
5854 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
5855 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
5856 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
5857 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
5858 directory.
5859
5860 ** New modes and packages
5861
5862 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
5863 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
5864 it, but some do not.
5865
5866 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
5867 code.
5868
5869 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
5870 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
5871 around in a buffer.
5872
5873 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
5874
5875 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
5876 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
5877 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
5878 established system of notation similar to Chess.
5879
5880 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
5881 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
5882 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
5883
5884 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
5885 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
5886 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
5887 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
5888 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
5889 the like.
5890
5891 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
5892 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
5893
5894 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
5895 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
5896 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
5897 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
5898
5899 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
5900
5901 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
5902 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
5903 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
5904 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
5905 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
5906 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
5907 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
5908 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
5909 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
5910 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
5911 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
5912
5913 Platform-specific modes:
5914
5915 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
5916 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
5917 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
5918 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
5919 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
5920 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
5921 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
5922 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
5923 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
5924 \f
5925 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
5926
5927 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
5928 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
5929 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
5930 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
5931
5932 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
5933 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
5934 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
5935
5936 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
5937 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
5938 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
5939 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
5940
5941 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
5942 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
5943 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
5944 environment.
5945
5946 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
5947 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
5948 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
5949 current input method for reading this one event.
5950
5951 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
5952 now control whether to output certain characters as
5953 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
5954 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
5955 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
5956 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
5957 \f
5958 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
5959
5960 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
5961 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
5962
5963 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
5964 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
5965 always increases point by 1.
5966
5967 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
5968 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
5969
5970 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
5971
5972 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
5973 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
5974 default value changed. For example,
5975
5976 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
5977 :type 'integer
5978 :group 'foo
5979 :version "20.3")
5980
5981 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
5982 :version "20.3")
5983
5984 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
5985 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
5986 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
5987 `:version' in the top level group.
5988
5989 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
5990
5991 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
5992 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
5993
5994 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
5995 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
5996 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
5997 to themselves.
5998
5999 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
6000 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
6001 values whatever.
6002
6003 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
6004 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
6005 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
6006
6007 ** Frame-local variables.
6008
6009 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
6010 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
6011 local bindings for that variable.
6012
6013 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
6014 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
6015 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
6016 parameter name.
6017
6018 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
6019 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
6020 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
6021 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
6022
6023 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
6024 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
6025 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
6026 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
6027
6028 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
6029 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
6030 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
6031 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
6032 See the documentation in sregex.el.
6033
6034 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
6035 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
6036 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
6037 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
6038
6039 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
6040 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
6041
6042 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
6043 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
6044 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
6045
6046 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
6047 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
6048 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
6049 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
6050
6051 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
6052 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
6053 empty input.
6054
6055 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
6056 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
6057 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
6058 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
6059 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
6060
6061 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
6062 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
6063 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
6064 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
6065
6066 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
6067 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
6068 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
6069 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
6070 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
6071
6072 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
6073 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
6074 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
6075 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
6076
6077 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
6078 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
6079 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
6080
6081 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
6082 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
6083 was directed to display this buffer.
6084
6085 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
6086 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
6087 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
6088 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
6089 set-window-configuration.
6090
6091 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
6092 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
6093 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
6094 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
6095
6096 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
6097 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
6098 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
6099
6100 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
6101 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
6102 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
6103
6104 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
6105 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
6106
6107 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
6108 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
6109
6110 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
6111 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
6112 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
6113
6114 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
6115 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
6116 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
6117 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
6118
6119 ** Menu changes
6120
6121 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
6122 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
6123 better supported.
6124
6125 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
6126 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
6127 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
6128 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
6129 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
6130
6131 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
6132
6133 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
6134 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
6135 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
6136 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
6137
6138 The format is:
6139 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
6140 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
6141 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
6142 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
6143 The supported properties include
6144
6145 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
6146 item is enabled.
6147 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
6148 item should appear in the menu.
6149 :filter FILTER-FN
6150 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
6151 which will be REAL-BINDING.
6152 It should return a binding to use instead.
6153 :keys DESCRIPTION
6154 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
6155 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
6156 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
6157 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
6158 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
6159 keyboard binding.
6160 :key-sequence nil
6161 This means that the command normally has no
6162 keyboard equivalent.
6163 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
6164 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
6165 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
6166 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
6167 value says whether this button is currently selected.
6168
6169 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
6170 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
6171
6172 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
6173
6174 ** New event types
6175
6176 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
6177 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
6178 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
6179 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
6180
6181 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
6182
6183 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
6184 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
6185 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
6186 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
6187 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
6188 forward, away from the user.
6189
6190 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
6191
6192 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
6193 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
6194 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
6195 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
6196 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
6197
6198 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
6199
6200 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
6201 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
6202 that were dragged and dropped.
6203
6204 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
6205
6206 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
6207
6208 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
6209 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
6210 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
6211
6212 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
6213 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
6214 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
6215
6216 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
6217 in Emacs 19 and before.
6218
6219 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
6220 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
6221
6222 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
6223 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
6224 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
6225 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
6226
6227 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
6228 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
6229 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
6230 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
6231 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
6232
6233 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
6234 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
6235 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
6236 consistent with the new representation.
6237
6238 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
6239 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
6240 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
6241 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
6242
6243 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
6244 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
6245 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
6246
6247 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
6248 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
6249 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
6250
6251 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
6252 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
6253 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
6254
6255 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
6256 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
6257
6258 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
6259 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
6260
6261 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
6262 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
6263 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
6264 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
6265
6266 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
6267 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
6268
6269 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
6270 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
6271 buffer or string being searched.
6272
6273 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
6274 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
6275 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
6276 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
6277 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
6278 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
6279 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
6280
6281 *** Structure of coding system changed.
6282
6283 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
6284 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
6285 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
6286 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
6287 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
6288 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
6289 define-coding-system-alias.
6290
6291 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
6292 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
6293 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
6294 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
6295 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
6296 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
6297 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
6298 `iso-8859-1'.
6299
6300 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
6301 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
6302 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
6303 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
6304
6305 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
6306 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
6307 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
6308 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
6309
6310 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
6311 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
6312 This function requires a user interaction.
6313
6314 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
6315 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
6316 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
6317 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
6318 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
6319 select-safe-coding-system.
6320
6321 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
6322 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
6323 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
6324 was done.
6325
6326 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
6327 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
6328 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
6329
6330 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
6331 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
6332 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
6333 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
6334
6335 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
6336 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
6337 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
6338 converted.
6339
6340 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
6341 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
6342
6343 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
6344 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
6345 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
6346 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
6347 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
6348 range of characters.
6349
6350 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
6351 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
6352
6353 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
6354 in the current buffer at position POS.
6355
6356 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
6357 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
6358 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
6359 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
6360 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
6361 binding input-method-function to nil.
6362
6363 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
6364 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
6365 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
6366 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
6367 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
6368
6369 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
6370 subsequent events of a key sequence.
6371
6372 *** You can customize any language environment by using
6373 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
6374
6375 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
6376 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
6377 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
6378 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
6379 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
6380 \f
6381 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
6382
6383 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
6384 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
6385 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
6386 tree structure.
6387
6388 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
6389 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
6390
6391 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
6392 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
6393 in your .emacs file.)
6394
6395 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
6396 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
6397
6398 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
6399 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
6400
6401 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
6402 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
6403 kills the region.
6404
6405 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
6406 delete the character before point, as usual.
6407
6408 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
6409 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
6410 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
6411
6412 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
6413 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
6414 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
6415 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
6416 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
6417 past.)
6418
6419 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
6420 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
6421 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
6422 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
6423 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
6424
6425 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
6426 and is an alias for it.
6427
6428 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
6429 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
6430
6431 ** Scrolling changes
6432
6433 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
6434 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
6435
6436 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
6437 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
6438 where it started.
6439
6440 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
6441 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
6442 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
6443 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
6444
6445 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
6446 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
6447 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
6448 recenters the window.
6449
6450 ** International character set support (MULE)
6451
6452 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
6453 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
6454 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
6455 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
6456 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
6457 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
6458
6459 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
6460 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
6461 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
6462 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
6463 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
6464
6465 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
6466 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
6467 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
6468 language, to make it possible to type them.
6469
6470 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
6471 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
6472
6473 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
6474 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
6475
6476 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
6477
6478 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
6479
6480 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
6481 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
6482 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
6483 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
6484 characters for their work until they want to change.
6485
6486 *** Input methods
6487
6488 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
6489 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
6490 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
6491 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
6492 support several input methods.
6493
6494 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
6495 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
6496 work.
6497
6498 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
6499 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
6500 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
6501 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
6502 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
6503 letter.
6504
6505 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
6506 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
6507 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
6508 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
6509 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
6510
6511 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
6512 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
6513 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
6514 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
6515
6516 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
6517 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
6518 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
6519 the first guess is wrong.
6520
6521 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
6522 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
6523
6524 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
6525 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
6526 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
6527 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
6528
6529 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
6530 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
6531 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
6532 translate automatically to and from either one.
6533
6534 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
6535
6536 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
6537 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
6538 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
6539 what you want.
6540
6541 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
6542 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
6543 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
6544 multibyte characters in that buffer.
6545
6546 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
6547 character conversion as well.
6548
6549 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
6550
6551 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
6552 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
6553 requires using many fonts.
6554
6555 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
6556 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
6557
6558 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
6559 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
6560 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
6561 you would use a font.
6562
6563 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
6564 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
6565 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
6566
6567 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
6568 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
6569 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
6570 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
6571 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
6572
6573 *** Defining fontsets.
6574
6575 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
6576 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
6577 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
6578
6579 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
6580 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
6581 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
6582 standard fontset are created automatically.
6583
6584 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
6585 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
6586 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
6587 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
6588 name is `fontset-startup'.
6589
6590 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
6591 The resource value should have this form:
6592 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
6593 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
6594 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
6595 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
6596 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
6597 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
6598 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
6599 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
6600 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
6601
6602 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
6603 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
6604 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
6605
6606 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
6607 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
6608 following resource,
6609 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
6610 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
6611 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
6612 Here is the substitution rule:
6613 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
6614 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
6615 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
6616 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
6617 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
6618
6619 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
6620 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
6621 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
6622
6623 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
6624 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
6625 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
6626 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
6627 fontsets.
6628
6629 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
6630 defaults for a particular choice of language.
6631
6632 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
6633 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
6634 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
6635 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
6636 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
6637 system for new files that you create.
6638
6639 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
6640 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
6641 whole Emacs session.
6642
6643 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
6644 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
6645 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
6646
6647 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
6648 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
6649 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
6650 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
6651 coding systems that Emacs supports.
6652
6653 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
6654 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
6655 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
6656 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
6657 is used for *the immediately following command*.
6658
6659 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
6660 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
6661
6662 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
6663 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
6664
6665 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
6666 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
6667
6668 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
6669 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
6670 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
6671 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
6672 of the file.
6673
6674 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
6675 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
6676 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
6677 translated into that character code.
6678
6679 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
6680 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
6681
6682 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
6683
6684 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
6685 the coding system for keyboard input.
6686
6687 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
6688 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
6689 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
6690
6691 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
6692
6693 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
6694 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
6695 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
6696 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
6697 designed to work with terminals.
6698
6699 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
6700 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
6701 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
6702 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
6703 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
6704 in the corresponding buffer.
6705
6706 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
6707
6708 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
6709 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
6710 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
6711
6712 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
6713 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
6714 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
6715 want to use.
6716
6717 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
6718 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
6719
6720 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
6721 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
6722 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
6723 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
6724
6725 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
6726 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
6727 related information.
6728
6729 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
6730 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
6731 scripts.
6732
6733 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
6734 information about the support for a particular language.
6735 You specify the language as an argument.
6736
6737 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
6738 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
6739 first dash.
6740
6741 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
6742 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
6743 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
6744 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
6745
6746 A alternativnyj (Russian)
6747 B big5 (Chinese)
6748 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
6749 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
6750 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
6751 E euc-japan (Japanese)
6752 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
6753 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
6754 K euc-korea (Korean)
6755 R koi8 (Russian)
6756 Q tibetan
6757 S shift_jis (Japanese)
6758 T lao
6759 T tis620 (Thai)
6760 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
6761 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
6762 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
6763 v viqr (Vietnamese)
6764 z hz (Chinese)
6765
6766 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
6767 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
6768 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
6769 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
6770
6771 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
6772 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
6773
6774 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
6775 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
6776 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
6777 Rmail files themselves.
6778
6779 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
6780 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
6781
6782 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
6783 for sending mail:
6784
6785 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
6786 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
6787 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
6788 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
6789 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
6790
6791 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
6792 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
6793 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
6794 translations.
6795
6796 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
6797 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
6798 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
6799 without any conversion.
6800
6801 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
6802 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
6803 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
6804 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
6805
6806 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
6807 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
6808
6809 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
6810 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
6811
6812 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
6813 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
6814
6815 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
6816 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
6817 in the buffer before point.
6818
6819 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
6820 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
6821 you are using.
6822
6823 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
6824 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
6825
6826 ** File locking works with NFS now.
6827
6828 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
6829 in the same directory as FILENAME.
6830
6831 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
6832 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
6833 can become a bottleneck.
6834
6835 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
6836 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
6837 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
6838 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
6839 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
6840 so useful that the change is worth while.
6841
6842 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
6843 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
6844 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
6845 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
6846
6847 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
6848 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
6849 show-paren-mode.
6850
6851 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
6852 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
6853 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
6854
6855 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
6856 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
6857 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
6858
6859 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
6860 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
6861 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
6862
6863 ** Changes in View mode.
6864
6865 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
6866 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
6867
6868 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
6869 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
6870
6871 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
6872 previous state.
6873
6874 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
6875 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
6876
6877 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
6878 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
6879 not just the selected window.
6880
6881 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
6882 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
6883 turns View mode on or off.
6884
6885 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
6886 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
6887 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
6888
6889 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
6890 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
6891
6892 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
6893 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
6894 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
6895 which version to compare with.
6896
6897 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
6898 blocks if a match is inside the block.
6899
6900 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
6901 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
6902 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
6903 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
6904
6905 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
6906 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
6907 blocks, all of them or none.
6908
6909 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
6910 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
6911 confirmation first.
6912
6913 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
6914 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
6915 However, the mode will not be changed if
6916 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
6917 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
6918 not suitable for ordinary files, or
6919 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
6920
6921 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
6922
6923 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
6924 these commands do not change the major mode.
6925
6926 ** M-x occur changes.
6927
6928 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
6929 it performs a case-sensitive search.
6930
6931 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
6932 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
6933 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
6934
6935 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
6936 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
6937 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
6938 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
6939 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
6940
6941 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
6942 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
6943 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
6944 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
6945
6946 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
6947 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
6948 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
6949
6950 ** Outline mode changes.
6951
6952 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
6953
6954 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
6955
6956 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
6957 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
6958 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
6959 was already active.
6960
6961 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
6962 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
6963 get confused by it.
6964
6965 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
6966 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
6967
6968 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
6969
6970 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
6971 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
6972 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
6973 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
6974
6975 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
6976 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
6977 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
6978
6979 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
6980 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
6981 values.
6982
6983 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
6984 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
6985 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
6986 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
6987
6988 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
6989 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
6990 can be. The default value is 30.
6991
6992 ** Changes in Mail mode.
6993
6994 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
6995 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
6996 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
6997 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
6998 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
6999 behavior.
7000
7001 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
7002 compose-mail-other-frame.
7003
7004 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
7005 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
7006 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
7007 buffer that shows the original message.
7008
7009 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
7010 with separator lines around the contents.
7011
7012 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
7013 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
7014 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
7015 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
7016
7017 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
7018
7019 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
7020 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
7021 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
7022 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
7023
7024 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
7025 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
7026 /etc/passwd.
7027
7028 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
7029 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
7030 /etc/passwd.
7031
7032 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
7033 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
7034 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
7035 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
7036
7037 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
7038 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
7039 be taken to be magic.
7040
7041 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
7042 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
7043 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
7044
7045 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
7046 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
7047
7048 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
7049 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
7050
7051 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
7052
7053 new key dired.el binding old key
7054 ------- ---------------- -------
7055 * c dired-change-marks c
7056 * m dired-mark m
7057 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
7058 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
7059 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
7060 * u dired-unmark u
7061 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
7062 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
7063 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
7064 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
7065 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
7066 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
7067
7068 ** Rmail changes.
7069
7070 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
7071 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
7072 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
7073 each time you run it.
7074
7075 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
7076 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
7077
7078 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
7079 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
7080 means to move in the opposite direction.
7081
7082 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
7083 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
7084
7085 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
7086 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
7087 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
7088 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
7089 for output.
7090
7091 ** Gnus changes.
7092
7093 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
7094
7095 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
7096 Gnus.
7097
7098 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
7099 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
7100
7101 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
7102 article mode line.
7103
7104 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
7105
7106 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
7107
7108 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
7109
7110 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
7111 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
7112 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
7113
7114 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
7115
7116 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
7117
7118 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
7119 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
7120
7121 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
7122 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
7123 used to pick articles.
7124
7125 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
7126 another have been added.
7127
7128 `M-x gnus-change-server'
7129
7130 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
7131 generating lines in buffers.
7132
7133 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
7134 `M-C-_'.
7135
7136 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
7137
7138 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
7139
7140 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
7141
7142 *** Scores can be decayed.
7143
7144 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
7145
7146 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
7147 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
7148
7149 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
7150 the native server.
7151
7152 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
7153
7154 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
7155 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
7156
7157 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
7158
7159 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
7160 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
7161
7162 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
7163 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
7164
7165 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
7166 a group.
7167
7168 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
7169 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
7170
7171 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
7172
7173 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
7174
7175 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
7176
7177 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
7178
7179 Use the `Y c' command.
7180
7181 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
7182
7183 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
7184
7185 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
7186
7187 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
7188 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
7189
7190 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
7191
7192 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
7193
7194 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
7195 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
7196
7197 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
7198
7199 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
7200 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
7201 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
7202 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
7203 this issue.)
7204
7205 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
7206 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
7207 particular news group. This can be done by:
7208
7209 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
7210
7211 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
7212 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
7213 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
7214 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
7215 for reading and posting).
7216
7217 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
7218 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
7219 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
7220 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
7221 there.
7222
7223 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
7224 default. Here are some of these default settings:
7225
7226 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
7227 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
7228 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
7229 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
7230 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
7231
7232 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
7233 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
7234
7235 ** CC mode changes.
7236
7237 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
7238 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
7239 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
7240 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
7241 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
7242 loaded.
7243
7244 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
7245 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
7246 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
7247 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
7248 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
7249 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
7250
7251 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
7252 of the current buffer.
7253
7254 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
7255 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
7256 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
7257
7258 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
7259 style that the Python developers like.
7260
7261 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
7262 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
7263 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
7264
7265 ** VC Changes [new]
7266
7267 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
7268 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
7269 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
7270
7271 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
7272 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
7273 developers.
7274
7275 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
7276 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
7277
7278 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
7279 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
7280 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
7281 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
7282
7283 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
7284 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
7285
7286 ** Calendar changes.
7287
7288 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
7289 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
7290 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
7291 following/previous years.
7292
7293 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
7294 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
7295 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
7296 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
7297 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
7298 supposed attribute of God.
7299
7300 ** ps-print changes
7301
7302 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
7303
7304 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
7305
7306 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
7307 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
7308 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
7309 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
7310 It defaults to `letter'.
7311 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
7312
7313 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
7314 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
7315 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
7316
7317 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
7318 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
7319 It defaults to 1.
7320
7321 *** Horizontal layout
7322
7323 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
7324 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
7325 All are measured in points.
7326
7327 *** Vertical layout
7328
7329 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
7330 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
7331 All are measured in points.
7332
7333 *** Headers
7334
7335 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
7336 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
7337 margin above the text.
7338
7339 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
7340 framing box is printed around the header.
7341
7342 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
7343 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
7344
7345 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
7346 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
7347 `ps-header-font-size'.
7348
7349 *** Font managing
7350
7351 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
7352 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
7353 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
7354 elements to this alist.
7355
7356 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
7357 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
7358
7359 ** hideshow changes.
7360
7361 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
7362 C++, ; for lisp).
7363
7364 *** Support for java-mode added.
7365
7366 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
7367 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
7368
7369 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
7370 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
7371 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
7372
7373 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
7374 robust and a lot faster.
7375
7376 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
7377
7378 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
7379 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
7380 documentation for more details.
7381
7382 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
7383
7384 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
7385 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
7386 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
7387 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
7388 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
7389
7390 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
7391 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
7392 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
7393 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
7394
7395 ** Font Lock mode
7396
7397 *** Custom support
7398
7399 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
7400 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
7401 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
7402 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
7403 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
7404 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
7405
7406 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
7407
7408 *** Maximum decoration
7409
7410 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
7411 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
7412 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
7413 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
7414 to get the old behavior.
7415
7416 *** New support
7417
7418 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
7419
7420 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
7421 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
7422
7423 *** Configurable support
7424
7425 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
7426 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
7427 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
7428 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
7429 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
7430 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
7431 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
7432
7433 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
7434 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
7435 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
7436
7437 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
7438
7439 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
7440 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
7441 for any mode.
7442
7443 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
7444
7445 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
7446
7447 in your ~/.emacs.
7448
7449 *** New faces
7450
7451 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
7452 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
7453 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
7454 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
7455
7456 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
7457
7458 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
7459 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
7460 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
7461
7462 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
7463
7464 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
7465 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
7466 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
7467 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
7468 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
7469 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
7470 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
7471
7472 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
7473 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
7474 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
7475 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
7476 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
7477 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
7478
7479 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
7480
7481 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
7482 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
7483 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
7484 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
7485
7486 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
7487 settings.
7488
7489 ** Ada mode changes.
7490
7491 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
7492 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
7493 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
7494 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
7495 stubs.
7496
7497 *** There are two new commands:
7498 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
7499 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
7500
7501 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
7502 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
7503 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
7504
7505 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
7506 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
7507 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
7508
7509 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
7510 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
7511 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
7512 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
7513
7514 ** Scheme mode changes.
7515
7516 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
7517 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
7518 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
7519 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
7520 have any effect.
7521
7522 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
7523 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
7524 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
7525 variables as buffer-local variables.
7526
7527 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
7528 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
7529
7530 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
7531
7532 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
7533 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
7534 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
7535 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
7536
7537 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
7538 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
7539 buffer in Emacs.
7540
7541 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
7542 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
7543 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
7544 option takes precedence.
7545
7546 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
7547 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
7548 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
7549
7550 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
7551 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
7552 the current defun.
7553
7554 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
7555 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
7556
7557 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
7558 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
7559 necessary).
7560
7561 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
7562 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
7563 these register values no longer become completely useless.
7564 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
7565 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
7566 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
7567
7568 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
7569 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
7570 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
7571 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
7572
7573 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
7574 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
7575 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
7576 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
7577 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
7578
7579 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
7580 since it applies only to the current frame.
7581
7582 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
7583 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
7584 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
7585
7586 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
7587 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
7588 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
7589 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
7590 instead of just the file you are editing.
7591
7592 ** RefTeX mode
7593
7594 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
7595 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
7596 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
7597 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
7598 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
7599
7600 C-c ( reftex-label
7601 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
7602 knows which kind of label is needed.
7603
7604 C-c ) reftex-reference
7605 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
7606 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
7607
7608 C-c [ reftex-citation
7609 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
7610 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
7611
7612 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
7613 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
7614
7615 C-c = reftex-toc
7616 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
7617 can quickly jump to every section.
7618
7619 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
7620 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
7621 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
7622 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
7623 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
7624
7625 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7626
7627 *** Info documentation is now available.
7628
7629 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
7630 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
7631
7632 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
7633 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
7634
7635 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
7636 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
7637
7638 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
7639 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
7640 appropriate functions.
7641
7642 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
7643 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
7644
7645 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
7646 been cleaned.
7647
7648 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
7649 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
7650
7651 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
7652 shall be delimited.
7653
7654 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
7655 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
7656 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
7657
7658 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
7659 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
7660 prefixed with `ALT'.
7661
7662 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
7663 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
7664 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
7665 documentation).
7666
7667 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
7668 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
7669 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
7670
7671 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
7672 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
7673
7674 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
7675 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
7676 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
7677
7678 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
7679
7680 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
7681
7682 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
7683 from alien sources.
7684
7685 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
7686 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
7687 crossref entries.
7688
7689 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
7690 region.
7691
7692 *** Added support for imenu.
7693
7694 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
7695 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
7696 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
7697 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
7698
7699 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
7700 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
7701
7702 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
7703
7704 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
7705
7706 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
7707 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
7708 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
7709 as an argument.
7710
7711 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
7712 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
7713
7714 ** browse-url changes
7715
7716 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
7717 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
7718 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
7719 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
7720 customization variables.
7721
7722 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
7723
7724 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
7725 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
7726 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
7727
7728 ** Changes in Ediff
7729
7730 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
7731 pops up the Info file for this command.
7732
7733 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
7734 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
7735 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
7736 directories).
7737
7738 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
7739 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
7740 files in the same directory.
7741
7742 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
7743 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
7744 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
7745
7746 ** Changes in Viper
7747
7748 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
7749 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
7750 instead of vip-.
7751 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
7752 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
7753 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
7754 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
7755 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
7756 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
7757 color when Viper is in insert state.
7758 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
7759 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
7760 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
7761
7762 ** Etags changes.
7763
7764 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
7765 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
7766 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
7767 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
7768 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
7769
7770 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
7771
7772 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
7773 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
7774
7775 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
7776 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
7777 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
7778
7779 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
7780 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
7781 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
7782 methods and protocols.
7783
7784 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
7785 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
7786 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
7787 paragraph name.
7788
7789 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
7790 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
7791 at least M times and as many as N times.
7792
7793 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
7794 in files has changed slightly.
7795
7796 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
7797 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
7798 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
7799 with old time-stamp-format values.
7800
7801 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
7802 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
7803 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
7804 reasons.
7805
7806 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
7807 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
7808 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
7809 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
7810 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
7811 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
7812
7813 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
7814 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
7815 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
7816
7817 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
7818 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
7819 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
7820 recommended now will continue to work then.
7821
7822 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
7823 details.
7824
7825 ** There are some additional major modes:
7826
7827 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
7828 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
7829 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
7830
7831 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
7832 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
7833 into Emacs.
7834
7835 ** New Lisp packages include:
7836
7837 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
7838
7839 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
7840 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
7841
7842 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
7843
7844 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
7845 in shell buffers.
7846
7847 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
7848 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
7849 and `elint-defun'.
7850
7851 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
7852 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
7853 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
7854 strings or comments.
7855
7856 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
7857 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
7858 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
7859 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
7860 at these points.
7861
7862 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
7863 can visit them by short forms of their names.
7864
7865 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
7866 Emacs Lisp function at point.
7867
7868 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
7869
7870 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
7871 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
7872
7873 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
7874
7875 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
7876
7877 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
7878
7879 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
7880 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
7881
7882 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
7883 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
7884 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
7885 original place after inserting the copy.
7886
7887 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
7888 on the buffer.
7889
7890 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
7891 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
7892 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
7893
7894 Enable mouse-drag with:
7895 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
7896 -or-
7897 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
7898
7899 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
7900 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
7901
7902 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
7903 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
7904
7905 *** ogonek
7906
7907 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
7908 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
7909 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
7910 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
7911 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
7912 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
7913 instance) and vice versa.
7914
7915 To use this package load it using
7916 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
7917 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
7918 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
7919 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
7920 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
7921 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
7922
7923 *** Interface to ph.
7924
7925 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
7926
7927 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
7928 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
7929 these servers.
7930
7931 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
7932
7933 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
7934 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
7935 while the real cursor does not move.
7936
7937 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
7938 for visiting your favorite web sites.
7939
7940 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
7941 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
7942
7943 ** movemail change
7944
7945 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
7946 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
7947 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
7948 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
7949
7950 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
7951 \f
7952 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
7953
7954 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
7955
7956 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
7957 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
7958 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
7959 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
7960 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
7961
7962 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
7963 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
7964 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
7965 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
7966 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
7967 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
7968 \f
7969 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
7970
7971 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
7972 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
7973 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
7974 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
7975
7976 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
7977 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
7978
7979 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
7980 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
7981 "win".
7982
7983 ** Basic Lisp changes
7984
7985 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
7986 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
7987
7988 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
7989 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
7990 or by the user.
7991
7992 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
7993
7994 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
7995
7996 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
7997 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
7998
7999 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
8000 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
8001 its argument.
8002
8003 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
8004
8005 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
8006
8007 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
8008
8009 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
8010 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
8011 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
8012 `format' function.
8013
8014 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
8015 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
8016 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
8017
8018 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
8019 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
8020 adding one of these suffixes.
8021
8022 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
8023 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
8024 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
8025
8026 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
8027 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
8028
8029 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
8030
8031 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
8032 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
8033
8034 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
8035 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
8036
8037 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
8038
8039 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
8040 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
8041
8042 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
8043 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
8044 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
8045 works using `save-current-buffer'.
8046
8047 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
8048 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
8049 of the last form.
8050
8051 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
8052 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
8053 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
8054 as the last form.
8055
8056 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
8057 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
8058 matches.
8059
8060 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
8061
8062 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
8063 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
8064 Then it returns that string.
8065
8066 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
8067
8068 (with-output-to-string
8069 (princ "The buffer is ")
8070 (princ (buffer-name)))
8071
8072 returns "The buffer is foo".
8073
8074 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
8075 is non-nil.
8076
8077 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
8078 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
8079 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
8080
8081 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
8082 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
8083
8084 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
8085 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
8086 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
8087 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
8088 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
8089 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
8090
8091 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
8092 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
8093 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
8094 characters".
8095
8096 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
8097 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
8098 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
8099 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
8100 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
8101
8102 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
8103 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
8104 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
8105 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
8106
8107 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
8108 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
8109
8110 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
8111
8112 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
8113 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
8114 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
8115 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
8116 guaranteed.
8117
8118 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
8119 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
8120 character).
8121
8122 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
8123
8124 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
8125 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
8126 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
8127 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
8128 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
8129
8130 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
8131
8132 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
8133 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
8134 more than the number of characters.
8135
8136 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
8137 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
8138 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
8139 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
8140 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
8141 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
8142
8143 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
8144 and returns a string containing those characters.
8145
8146 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
8147 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
8148 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
8149 character, sref signals an error.
8150
8151 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
8152 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
8153 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
8154
8155 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
8156 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
8157 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
8158
8159 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
8160 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
8161 to a vector of the characters in it.
8162
8163 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
8164 of a string. You call it as follows:
8165
8166 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
8167
8168 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
8169 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
8170 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
8171 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
8172 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
8173
8174 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
8175 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
8176
8177 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
8178 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
8179
8180 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
8181 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
8182 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
8183 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
8184
8185 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
8186
8187 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
8188
8189 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
8190 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
8191 are not included in the resulting value.
8192
8193 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
8194 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
8195 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
8196 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
8197
8198 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
8199 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
8200 character extends across that column), then the padding character
8201 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
8202 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
8203 column START-COLUMN.
8204
8205 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
8206 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
8207 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
8208 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
8209 changed text, before the change.
8210
8211 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
8212 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
8213 one character set for each script, not for each language.
8214
8215 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
8216
8217 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
8218
8219 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
8220 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
8221
8222 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
8223 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
8224 which identify the character within that character set.
8225
8226 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
8227 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
8228 opposite of split-char.
8229
8230 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
8231 of all the characters between BEG and END.
8232
8233 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
8234 of all the characters in a string.
8235
8236 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
8237 and specifying coding systems.
8238
8239 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
8240 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
8241 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
8242 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
8243 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
8244 as what to do about code conversion.)
8245
8246 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
8247 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
8248
8249 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
8250 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
8251 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
8252
8253 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
8254 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
8255 to match against a file name.
8256
8257 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
8258 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
8259 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
8260 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
8261 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
8262 specifies the coding system for encoding.
8263
8264 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
8265 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
8266
8267 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
8268 the coding system to use for network sockets.
8269
8270 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
8271 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
8272 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
8273 service names.
8274
8275 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
8276 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
8277 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
8278 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
8279 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
8280 specifies the coding system for encoding.
8281
8282 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
8283 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
8284
8285 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
8286 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
8287 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
8288 start the subprocess.
8289
8290 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
8291 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
8292 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
8293 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
8294 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
8295
8296 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
8297 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
8298 subprocess.
8299
8300 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
8301 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
8302 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
8303 connection permanently or until overridden.
8304
8305 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
8306 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
8307 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
8308 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
8309 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
8310 system for one operation at a time.
8311
8312 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
8313 files, subprocesses or network connections.
8314
8315 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
8316 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
8317 The value is a cons cell,
8318 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
8319 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
8320 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
8321 input to the subprocess.
8322
8323 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
8324 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
8325
8326 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
8327 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
8328 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
8329
8330 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
8331 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
8332 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
8333 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
8334 customization.
8335
8336 Thus, instead of writing
8337
8338 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
8339 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
8340
8341 you would now write this:
8342
8343 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
8344 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
8345 :type 'boolean
8346 :group foo)
8347
8348 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
8349 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
8350 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
8351 for a description of them.
8352
8353 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
8354 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
8355
8356 (defgroup ispell nil
8357 "Spell checking using Ispell."
8358 :group 'processes)
8359
8360 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
8361 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
8362 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
8363 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
8364 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
8365
8366 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
8367 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
8368 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
8369 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
8370 first-level subgroups.
8371
8372 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
8373
8374 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
8375 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
8376
8377 ** easy-mmode
8378
8379 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
8380 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
8381 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
8382 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
8383 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
8384 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
8385
8386 ** Text property changes
8387
8388 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
8389 text property.
8390
8391 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
8392 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
8393 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
8394 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
8395 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
8396
8397 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
8398 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
8399 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
8400 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
8401
8402 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
8403 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
8404 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
8405
8406 ** Changes in invisibility features
8407
8408 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
8409 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
8410 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
8411 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
8412 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
8413 make the overlay visible.
8414
8415 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
8416 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
8417 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
8418 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
8419 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
8420 t when it should hide it.
8421
8422 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
8423
8424 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
8425 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
8426 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
8427 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
8428 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
8429 Here is an example of how to do this:
8430
8431 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
8432 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
8433 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
8434 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
8435
8436 ...
8437 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
8438
8439 ...
8440 ;; When done with the overlays:
8441 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
8442 ;; Or respectively:
8443 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
8444
8445 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
8446
8447 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
8448 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
8449 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
8450 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
8451
8452 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
8453 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
8454 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
8455
8456 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
8457 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
8458
8459 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
8460 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
8461
8462 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
8463 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
8464 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
8465
8466 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
8467 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
8468 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
8469 determine the syntax type of the character.
8470
8471 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
8472 of the current buffer.
8473
8474 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
8475 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
8476 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
8477
8478 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
8479 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
8480 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
8481 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
8482 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
8483
8484 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
8485 text property.
8486
8487 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
8488 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
8489 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
8490
8491 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
8492 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
8493 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
8494 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
8495 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
8496
8497 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
8498 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
8499 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
8500
8501 ** Changes in face features
8502
8503 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
8504 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
8505
8506 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
8507 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
8508
8509 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
8510 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
8511
8512 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
8513 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
8514
8515 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
8516 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
8517 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
8518 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
8519 overlay property).
8520
8521 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
8522 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
8523
8524 ** Changes in file-handling functions
8525
8526 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
8527 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
8528 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
8529 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
8530
8531 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
8532 begins with ~.
8533
8534 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
8535 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
8536
8537 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
8538 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
8539
8540 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
8541 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
8542
8543 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
8544 character code conversion as well as other things.
8545
8546 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
8547 (formerly it did not).
8548
8549 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
8550 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
8551
8552 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
8553 instead of constant strings.
8554
8555 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
8556 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
8557 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
8558
8559 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
8560 in the same way as before.
8561
8562 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
8563 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
8564 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
8565
8566 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
8567 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
8568 else, and returns nil.
8569
8570 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
8571 directory cannot be listed.
8572
8573 ** Changes in minibuffer input
8574
8575 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
8576 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
8577 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
8578 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
8579 ways:
8580
8581 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
8582 It is available through the history command M-n.
8583
8584 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
8585 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
8586 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
8587 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
8588 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
8589
8590 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
8591 argument in this way.
8592
8593 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
8594 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
8595 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
8596
8597 ** Echo area features
8598
8599 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
8600 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
8601 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
8602 after the echo area is cleared.
8603
8604 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
8605 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
8606
8607 ** Keyboard input features
8608
8609 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
8610 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
8611
8612 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
8613 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
8614 by keyboard macros.
8615
8616 ** Frame-related changes
8617
8618 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
8619 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
8620 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
8621
8622 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
8623 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
8624 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
8625
8626 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
8627 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
8628 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
8629 in the selected frame.
8630
8631 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
8632 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
8633 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
8634
8635 ** X Windows features
8636
8637 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
8638 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
8639 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
8640
8641 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
8642 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
8643
8644 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
8645 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
8646 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
8647
8648 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
8649 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
8650
8651 ** Subprocess features
8652
8653 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
8654 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
8655 automatically.
8656
8657 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
8658 and returns the output from the command as a string.
8659
8660 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
8661 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
8662
8663 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
8664 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
8665
8666 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
8667 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
8668 goes after the other menu items.
8669
8670 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
8671 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
8672 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
8673 are in use.
8674
8675 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
8676 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
8677
8678 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
8679 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
8680 form.
8681
8682 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
8683 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
8684 but its hook is still run.
8685
8686 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
8687 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
8688
8689 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
8690 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
8691 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
8692
8693 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
8694 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
8695 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
8696 warned.
8697
8698 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
8699 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
8700
8701 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
8702 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
8703 functions like display-time.
8704
8705 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
8706 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
8707
8708 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
8709 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
8710 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
8711
8712 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
8713 if there is an error in compilation.
8714
8715 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
8716 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
8717 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
8718 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
8719
8720 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
8721 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
8722 the *scratch* buffer.
8723
8724 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
8725 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
8726 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
8727 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
8728
8729 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
8730 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
8731 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
8732
8733 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
8734 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
8735 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
8736 and compose-mail-other-frame.
8737
8738 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
8739 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
8740 full name of the specified user will be returned.
8741
8742 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
8743 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
8744 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
8745 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
8746 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
8747 files at all.
8748
8749 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
8750 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
8751 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
8752 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
8753
8754 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
8755 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
8756 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
8757 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
8758
8759 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
8760
8761 ** imenu.el changes.
8762
8763 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
8764 item from menu created by imenu.
8765
8766 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
8767 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
8768 select one of those items.
8769 \f
8770 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
8771
8772 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
8773 Copyright information:
8774
8775 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8776
8777 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8778 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8779 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8780 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8781
8782 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8783 of this document, or of portions of it,
8784 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8785 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8786 \f
8787 Local variables:
8788 mode: outline
8789 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
8790 end: