1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
27 ** Configure links against libselinux if it is found.
28 You can disable this by using --without-selinux.
31 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
32 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
35 ** There are new configure options:
36 --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
37 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
38 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
41 ** Emacs can be compiled against Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
42 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
43 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
47 ** There is a new configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
48 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
49 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
52 ** There is a new configure option --with-wide-int.
53 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
56 ** New translation of the Emacs Tutorial in Hebrew is available.
57 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
58 automatically select it.
60 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
61 Emacs links to ImageMagick if version 6.2.8 or newer of the library is
62 present at build time. To inhibit ImageMagick, use the configure
63 option `--without-imagemagick' .
66 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
67 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
70 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
71 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
74 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
77 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
78 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
79 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
82 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
83 from load-path. -Q now implies this.
86 ** On Windows, Emacs now warns when the obsolete _emacs init file is used,
87 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
90 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
93 ** auto-mode-case-fold is now enabled by default.
97 *** shell-mode uses pcomplete rules, with the standard completion UI.
99 *** Many packages have been changed to use completion-at-point rather than
100 their own completion code.
102 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
103 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
105 *** Completion can cycle, depending on completion-cycle-threshold.
107 *** New completion style `substring'.
109 *** Completion style can be set per-category `completion-category-overrides'.
111 *** Completion of buffers now uses substring completion by default.
113 *** `completing-read' can be customized using the new variable
114 `completing-read-function'.
116 *** minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map is not used any more.
117 Instead, the bindings in minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map are combined
118 with minibuffer-local-must-match-map.
122 The default of `send-mail-function' is now `sendmail-query-once',
123 which asks the user (once) whether to use the smtpmail package to send
124 email, or to use the old defaults that rely on external mail
125 facilities (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like
126 systems, and `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
130 **** smtpmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) if the
131 mail server supports them. It also uses the auth-source framework for
134 **** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
135 That variable used to have the default value "~/.authinfo", in which
136 case you won't see any difference. But if you changed it to be a list
137 of user names and passwords, that setting is now ignored; you will be
138 prompted for the user name and the password, which will then be saved
141 You can also manually copy the credentials to your ~/.authinfo file.
142 For example, if you had
144 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
145 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
147 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
149 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
151 **** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
153 If you had that set, then then you need to put
155 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
157 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
161 You can now add MIME attachments to outgoing messages with the new
162 command `mail-add-attachment'.
165 The command `mail-attach-file' was renamed to `mail-insert-file'; the
166 old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
168 ** Emacs server and client changes
170 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port on which the Emacs
171 server should listen.
173 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
175 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters can be used to set the
176 frame parameters of a newly-created graphical frame.
178 *** If emacsclient shuts down as a result of Emacs signalling an
179 error, its exit status is 1.
181 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
182 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
183 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
185 ** Internationalization changes
188 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
190 Text that includes characters from right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such
191 as Arabic, Farsi, or Hebrew, is displayed in the correct visual order
192 as expected by users of those scripts. This display reordering is a
193 "Full bidirectionality" class implementation of the Unicode
194 Bidirectional Algorithm. Buffers RTL text should look exactly the
197 For more information, see the node "Bidirectional Editing" in the
201 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
202 To disable display reordering in any given buffer, change this to nil.
205 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
206 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
207 paragraph from its text, as specified by the Unicode Bidirectional
210 Setting this to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a particular
211 base direction on each paragraph in the buffer.
213 Paragraphs whose base direction is right-to-left are displayed
214 starting at the right margin of the window.
217 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts.
218 If a character has no glyphs in any of the available fonts, Emacs
219 normally displays it either as a hexadecimal code in a box or as a
220 thin 1-pixel space. In addition to these two methods, Emacs can
221 display these characters as empty box, as an acronym, or not display
222 them at all. To change how these characters are displayed, customize
223 the variable `glyphless-char-display-control'.
225 On character terminals, these methods are used for characters that
226 cannot be encoded by the `terminal-coding-system'.
229 *** New input methods for Farsi: farsi and farsi-translit.
231 ** Improved GTK integration
233 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
234 Use `set-scroll-bar-mode' to change this.
236 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
237 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose style. On a Gnome desktop, the default
238 is taken from the desktop settings.
240 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on the left/right or top/bottom of the frame.
241 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the values
242 top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has entries
245 *** The colors for selected text (the region face) are taken from the GTK
246 theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
248 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK. You can turn that
249 off by customizing x-gtk-use-system-tooltips.
252 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success' are available to
253 highlight strings that indicate failure, caution or successful operation.
255 ** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is built
256 with Xft. To change font, use the X resource font, for example:
257 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
259 ** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
260 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
261 displayed as a space.
263 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
264 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
266 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up, and
267 optionally when copying files. To this end, copy-file has an extra
268 optional argument, and backup-buffer and friends include the SELinux
269 context in their return values.
271 *** The new functions file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
272 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
274 *** Tramp offers handlers for file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
275 for remote machines which support SELinux.
278 ** The function format-time-string now supports the %N directive, for
279 higher-resolution time stamps.
281 ** Changes for exiting Emacs
283 *** The function kill-emacs is now run upon receipt of the signals
284 SIGTERM and SIGHUP, and upon SIGINT in batch mode.
286 *** kill-emacs-hook is now also run in batch mode.
287 If you have code that adds something to kill-emacs-hook, you should
288 consider if it is still appropriate to add it in the noninteractive case.
292 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
293 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
294 of buffer at first key-press (instead move to top/bottom of buffer)
295 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
298 *** New variable `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
300 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
301 scroll a line instead of full screen.
304 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
305 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
308 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
309 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
310 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
311 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
312 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
315 *** ``Aggressive'' scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
316 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
317 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
318 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
323 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
324 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
326 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
327 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
329 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
330 for `list-colors-display'.
332 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
333 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
334 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
336 *** `M-x list-packages' shows a list of packages, which can be
337 selected for installation.
339 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
341 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded and activated
342 automatically when Emacs starts up. To disable this, set
343 `package-enable-at-startup' to nil. To change which packages are
344 loaded, customize `package-load-list'.
348 *** `M-x customize-themes' lists Custom themes which can be enabled.
350 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
351 Emacs no longer looks for custom themes in `load-path'. The default
352 is to search in `custom-theme-directory', followed by a built-in theme
353 directory named "themes/" in `data-directory'.
355 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
356 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
357 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
358 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
360 ** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
361 the remote file-name cache is used for read access.
363 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
365 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
366 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
367 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
370 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
371 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
372 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
373 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
374 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
377 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
378 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
381 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
383 ** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms
384 including md5, sha-1 and sha-2 (sha-224, sha-256, sha-384 and sha-512).
385 The elisp implementation sha1.el is removed. Feature sha1 is provided
390 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
391 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
396 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
397 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
399 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
401 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
402 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
403 for choosing the displaying window).
405 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
406 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
409 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
410 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
413 *** New option `window-nest'.
414 The new option `window-nest' allows to return the space obtained for
415 resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window from which
416 such space was obtained.
419 *** New option `window-splits'.
420 The new option `window-splits' allows to split a window that otherwise
421 cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from other
422 windows in the same combination.
425 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
426 These maximize and minize the size of a window within its frame.
429 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
430 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
431 been shown in a specific window.
434 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
435 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
436 frame or window as an Elisp object.
438 ** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
439 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the "mouse-1
440 pops up *Messages*" feature, which can now easily be changed.
443 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
447 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-kill, instead of
450 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-pop, instead of
453 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-line.
456 ** New command `count-words-region'. This does what you expect.
458 ** completion-at-point now handles tags and semantic completion.
460 ** The default value of `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' is now t.
462 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
463 also deletes newlines around point.
467 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
468 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
469 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', these commands kill
472 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
473 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
474 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
476 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
477 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
478 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; you
479 should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
481 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
483 ** Selection changes.
485 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections was changed
486 to conform with modern X applications. In short, most commands for
487 killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while mouse commands
488 use the primary selection.
490 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
491 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
494 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
495 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
496 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
497 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
500 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
501 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
502 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
503 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
504 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
507 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
510 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
511 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
512 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
515 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
517 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
518 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
519 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
522 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
523 exactly equivalent to, respectively M-w, C-w, and C-y.
526 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
527 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
528 between applications.
531 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
532 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
533 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
534 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
535 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
536 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
539 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
541 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
542 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
544 ** New command `rectangle-number-lines', bound to `C-x r N', numbers
545 the lines in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this
546 prompts for a number to count from and for a format string.
549 ** The default value of redisplay-dont-change is now t
550 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
551 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
552 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
553 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
556 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
558 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
560 ** browse-url has a new variable `browse-url-mailto-function'
561 specifies how mailto: URLs are handled. The default is `browse-url-mail'.
565 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
566 Use the variable bibtex-dialect to select support for different BibTeX
567 dialects. bibtex-entry-field-alist is now an obsolete alias for
568 bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist.
570 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries' bound to C-c C-a.
572 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
574 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
576 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
579 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing `comments'.
580 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
583 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
584 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
587 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
588 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
589 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
592 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
595 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
596 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
599 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt package
600 by adding appt-make-list to diary-hook has been removed. Use appt-activate.
603 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
604 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
605 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
608 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
609 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
611 ** CC Mode (C, C++, etc.)
613 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
615 ** comint and modes derived from it use the generic completion code.
619 *** Compilation mode can be used without font-lock-mode.
620 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
622 *** `compilation-filter-start' is let-bound to the start of the text
623 inserted by the compilation filter function, when calling
624 compilation-filter-hook.
628 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
629 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
630 To turn off the search field, set custom-search-field to nil.
632 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
633 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
635 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
637 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
638 choose a color via list-colors-display.
642 *** It is possible now, to access alternative buses than the default
643 system or session bus.
645 *** dbus-register-{service,method,property}
646 The -method and -property functions do not automatically register
649 The new function dbus-register-service registers a service known name
650 on a D-Bus without simultaneously registering a property or a method.
654 *** dired-jump and dired-jump-other-window called with a prefix argument
655 read a file name from the minibuffer instead of using buffer-file-name.
658 *** The `dired local variables' feature provided by Dired-x is obsolete.
659 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
663 *** New vars `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay'.
664 If the value of `erc-autojoin-timing' is 'ident, ERC autojoins after a
665 successful NickServ identification, or after `erc-autojoin-delay'
666 seconds. The default value, 'ident, means to autojoin immediately
669 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
670 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
671 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
672 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
676 *** The default value of eshell-directory-name is a directory named
677 "eshell" in `user-emacs-directory'. If the old "~/.eshell/" directory
678 exists, that is used instead.
682 *** GDB User Interface migrated to GDB Machine Interface and now
683 supports multithread non-stop debugging and debugging of several
684 threads simultaneously.
686 ** In ido-mode, C-v is no longer bound to ido-toggle-vc.
687 The reason is that this interferes with cua-mode.
691 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if the displayed
692 image can be animated.
694 *** Option `image-animate-loop', if non-nil, loops the animation.
695 If nil, `image-toggle-animation' plays the animation once.
699 *** New command `info-display-manual' displays an Info manual
700 specified by its name. If that manual is already visited in some Info
701 buffer within the current session, the command will display that
702 buffer. Otherwise, it will load the manual and display it. This is
703 handy if you have many manuals in many Info buffers, and don't
704 remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual you want to
707 ** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
709 ** MH-E has been upgraded to MH-E version 8.3.
710 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
712 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
714 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
716 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
717 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity, support for
718 more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
722 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
723 in the Rmail incoming message.
727 *** The `shell' command prompts for the shell path name if the default
728 directory is a remote file name and neither the environment variable
729 $ESHELL nor the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
731 *** New variable `shell-dir-cookie-re'.
732 If set to an appropriate regexp, Shell mode can track your cwd by
733 reading it from your prompt.
736 ** SQL Mode enhancements.
738 *** `sql-dialect' is an alias for `sql-product'.
740 *** New variable `sql-port' specifies the port number for connecting
741 to a MySQL or Postgres server.
743 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
744 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product instead of the current
745 value of `sql-product'.
747 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix args.
748 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
749 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
750 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
752 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
753 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
754 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
755 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
756 second change prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from
757 listing object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*'
760 *** New custom variables control prompting for login parameters.
761 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
762 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
763 connection is established.
765 *** New variable `sql-connection-alist' for login parameter values.
766 This can be used to store different username, database and server
767 values. Connections defined in this variable appear in the submenu
768 SQL->Start... for making new SQLi sessions.
770 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
771 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
773 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
774 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
775 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
777 *** Commands for listing database objects and details.
778 In an SQLi session, you can get a list of objects in the database.
779 The contents of these lists are product specific.
781 **** `C-c C-l a' or the "SQL->List all objects" menu item
782 lists all the objects in the database. With a prefix argument, it
783 displays additional details or extend the listing to include other
786 **** `C-c C-l t' or the "SQL->List Table details" menu item
787 prompts for the name of a database table or view and displays the list
788 of columns in the relation. With a prefix argument, it displays
789 additional details about each column.
791 *** New options `sql-send-terminator' and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
793 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
797 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
801 *** There exists a new inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
803 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
804 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
806 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
809 ** `url-queue-retrieve' downloads web pages asynchronously, but allow
810 controlling the degree of parallelism.
812 ** VC and related modes
814 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
815 The vc-pull command runs a "pull" operation, if it is supported.
816 This updates the current branch from upstream. A prefix argument
817 means to prompt the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
819 **** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
821 **** Currently supported by Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
823 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
824 The vc-merge command now runs a "merge" operation, if it is supported.
825 This merges another branch into the current one. This command prompts
826 the user for specifics, e.g. a merge source.
828 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
830 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
831 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
833 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
834 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
835 In the Log View buffers made by `C-x v L' (vc-print-root-log), you can
836 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
838 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
840 **** Packages using Log View mode can enable this functionality by
841 binding `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function' to a suitable function.
843 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
844 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
846 ** FIXME: xdg-open for browse-url and reportbug, 2010/08.
850 *** partial-completion-mode is obsolete.
851 You can get a comparable behavior with:
852 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
853 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
855 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete.
857 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
859 *** s-region.el and pc-select are obsolete.
860 They are superseded by shift-select-mode enabled by default in 23.1.
865 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
868 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
870 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
873 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
875 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
876 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
878 ** New global minor modes electric-pair-mode, electric-indent-mode,
879 and electric-layout-mode.
881 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
882 from which other modes can be derived.
884 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
886 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
887 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
888 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
889 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
892 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
893 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
895 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
896 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
898 ** xmodmap-generic-mode for xmodmap files.
900 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
901 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to old-emacs-lock.el and moved
902 to obsolete/.) Now, Emacs Lock is a proper minor mode
903 `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection against exiting Emacs and killing the
904 buffer can be set separately. The mechanism for auto turning off
905 protection for buffers with inferior processes has been generalized.
908 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
911 ** `char-direction-table' and the associated function `char-direction'
912 were deleted. They were buggy and inferior to the new support of
913 bidirectional editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the
914 bidirectional properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property'
915 with the last argument `bidi-class'.
918 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
919 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
920 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
921 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
923 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
924 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
925 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail.
926 This is currently used by Rmail to delete a mail window.
928 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
929 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
930 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
933 ** Removed obsolete name `e' (use `float-e' instead).
935 ** A backquote not followed by a space is now always treated as new-style.
937 ** Test for special mode-class was moved from view-file to view-buffer.
938 FIXME: This only says what was changed, but not what are the
939 programmer-visible consequences.
941 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function now turns the mode
945 ** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
946 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
947 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
948 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
949 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
950 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
952 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
953 similar to the ones created by shift-selection. In previous Emacs
954 versions, these regions were delineated by `mouse-drag-overlay', which
955 has now been removed.
957 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
959 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases were removed:
960 comint-kill-output, decompose-composite-char, outline-visible,
961 internal-find-face, internal-get-face, frame-update-faces,
962 frame-update-face-colors, x-frob-font-weight, x-frob-font-slant,
963 x-make-font-bold, x-make-font-demibold, x-make-font-unbold
964 x-make-font-italic, x-make-font-oblique, x-make-font-unitalic
965 x-make-font-bold-italic, mldrag-drag-mode-line, mldrag-drag-vertical-line,
966 iswitchb-default-keybindings, char-bytes, isearch-return-char,
969 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases were removed:
970 checkdoc-minor-keymap, vc-header-alist, directory-sep-char, and
971 font-lock-defaults-alist.
973 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
974 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
976 ** FIXME finder-inf.el changes.
979 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
981 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
982 The `lexical-binding' variable lets code use lexical scoping for local
983 variables. It is typically set via file-local variables, in which case it
984 applies to all the code in that file.
986 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
987 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
989 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
990 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
992 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
994 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
995 declared as dynamically bound.
997 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
998 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
999 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1001 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1004 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1005 This returns the actual value of base direction of the paragraph at
1009 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1010 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left (RTL) scripts,
1011 this function returns another string which can be safely inserted into
1012 a buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1013 right of that string. (This works by appending the Unicode
1014 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character when the argument string might need that.)
1016 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right (LTR)
1017 paragraph direction and you need to insert a string whose contents and
1018 directionality are not known in advance, without disrupting the layout
1024 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1025 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1026 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1027 buffer) in the window tree.
1030 *** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1031 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1032 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1033 act on any window including internal ones.
1036 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
1037 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
1038 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
1039 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
1040 and `window-body-height' are provided.
1043 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
1044 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
1045 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
1046 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
1047 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
1050 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
1051 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
1052 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
1053 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
1054 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
1055 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
1058 *** Window resizing functions.
1059 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
1060 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
1061 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
1064 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
1065 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
1066 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
1067 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
1068 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
1069 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
1072 *** Window-local buffer lists.
1073 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
1074 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
1075 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
1076 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
1077 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
1080 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
1081 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1082 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1083 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1085 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
1086 to `split-window-above-each-other' and `split-window-side-by-side'
1087 respectively. The old names are kept as aliases.
1091 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
1092 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
1093 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
1094 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
1096 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1098 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
1099 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
1100 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
1101 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
1102 are user-customizable variables.
1104 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1107 *** New behavior of `quit-window'.
1108 The behavior of `quit-window' has been changed in order to restore the
1109 state before the last buffer display operation in that window.
1113 *** New variable completion-extra-properties used to specify extra properties
1114 of the current completion:
1115 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1116 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1118 *** Functions on completion-at-point-functions can return any of the properties
1119 valid for completion-extra-properties.
1121 *** completion-annotate-function is obsolete.
1123 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1124 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1125 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1126 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1127 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1128 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1129 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1131 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
1132 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
1134 ** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
1135 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
1136 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
1137 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
1138 must also be supplied.
1141 ** pre/post-command-hook are not reset to nil upon error.
1142 Instead, the offending function is removed.
1144 ** New low-level function run-hook-wrapped.
1146 ** `server-eval-at' is provided to allow evaluating forms on different
1147 Emacs server instances.
1149 ** `call-process' allows a `(:file "file")' spec to redirect STDOUT to
1153 ** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
1154 Also the debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will jump
1155 to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked instead of
1156 jumping all the way to the top-level.
1158 ** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of characters,
1159 discarding any inputs not inside the set.
1161 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
1162 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
1163 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
1166 ** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
1167 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
1168 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
1169 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
1170 Together with this new variable come a new hook
1171 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
1172 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
1173 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
1176 ** New hook post-self-insert-hook run at the end of self-insert-command.
1179 ** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
1181 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
1184 ** prog-mode is a new major-mode meant to be the parent of programming mode.
1185 The prog-mode-hook it defines can be used to enable features for
1186 programming modes. For example:
1187 (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode)
1188 enables on the fly spell checking for comments and strings for
1191 ** define-minor-mode accepts a new keyword :variable.
1194 ** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
1195 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
1196 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
1197 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
1199 ** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
1200 The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name or RGB
1201 triplet, instead of signalling an error if the user provides a invalid
1204 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
1205 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
1206 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
1210 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
1212 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
1214 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
1216 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
1219 *** `image-extension-data' is renamed to `image-metadata'.
1221 *** If Emacs is compiled with ImageMagick support (see Startup
1222 Changes), the function `imagemagick-types' returns a list of image
1223 file extensions that your installation of ImageMagick supports. The
1224 function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick support for
1225 these image types, minus those listed in `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
1227 See the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for more information.
1229 ** XML and HTML parsing
1231 *** If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support (which is the default),
1232 two new Emacs Lisp-level functions are defined:
1233 `libxml-parse-html-region' (which will parse "real world" HTML)
1234 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
1235 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
1237 FIXME: These should be front-ended by xml.el.
1241 *** Emacs can be compiled with libgnutls support
1242 This is the default. You will then be able to use the functionality
1243 in gnutls.el, namely the `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'
1244 functions. It's easiest to use these functions through
1245 `open-network-stream' because it can upgrade connections through
1246 STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain SSL, depending on your needs.
1248 Only versions 2.8.x and higher or GnuTLS have been tested.
1250 *** gnutls-log-level
1251 Set `gnutls-log-level' higher than 0 to get debug output. 1 is for
1252 important messages, 2 is for debug data, and higher numbers are as per
1253 the GnuTLS logging conventions. The output is in *Messages*.
1257 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
1260 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
1261 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
1262 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
1263 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
1264 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
1265 displayed with a "spinning bar".
1267 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
1268 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
1270 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook' allow
1271 deferring warnings until the main command loop is executed.
1274 ** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
1275 as well as those in the -*- line.
1278 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
1280 ** keymaps can inherit from multiple parents.
1283 ** New reader macro ## which stands for the empty symbol.
1284 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
1285 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
1286 an empty uninterned symbol.
1288 ** Obsolete functions and variables
1290 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
1291 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
1293 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
1295 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
1298 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
1300 ** New configure.bat option --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra
1303 ** New configure.bat option --distfiles to specify files to be
1304 included in binary distribution.
1306 ** New configure.bat option --without-gnutls to disable automatic
1309 ** New configure.bat option --lib for general library linkage, works
1310 with the USER_LIBS build variable.
1312 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
1314 ** On Nextstep/OSX, the menu bar can be hidden by customizing
1315 ns-auto-hide-menu-bar.
1318 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1319 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1321 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1322 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1323 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1324 (at your option) any later version.
1326 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1327 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1328 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1329 GNU General Public License for more details.
1331 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1332 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1337 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"