1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-03-15
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
9 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
10 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
11 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
15 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.3
17 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
18 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
22 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
23 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
27 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
30 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
33 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 was added.
36 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
38 ** Limited support for charset unification has been added.
39 By default, Emacs now knows how to translate latin-N chars between their
40 charset and some other latin-N charset or unicode. You can force a
41 more complete unification by calling (unify-8859-on-decoding-mode 1).
43 ** The scrollbar under Motif has a smoother drag-scrolling.
44 On the other hand, the size of the thumb does not represent the actual
45 amount of text shown any more (only a crude approximation of it).
48 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
49 when Emacs visits them.
51 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
53 `mpuz' now allows the 2nd factor not to have two identical digits. By
54 default, all trivial operations involving whole lines are performed
55 automatically. The game uses faces for better visual feedback.
57 ** On X and MS Windows, the blinking cursor's "off" state is now shown
58 as a hollow box or a thin bar.
61 ** Emacs now supports ICCCM Extended Segments in X selections.
63 Some versions of X, notably XFree86, use Extended Segments to encode
64 in X selections characters that belong to character sets which are not
65 part of the list of standard charsets supported by the ICCCM spec.
66 Examples of such non-standard character sets include ISO 8859-14, ISO
67 8859-15, KOI8-R, and BIG5. The new coding system
68 `compound-text-with-extensions' supports these extensions, and is now
69 used by default for encoding and decoding X selections. If you don't
70 want this support, set `selection-coding-system' to `compound-text'.
73 ** The parameters of automatic hscrolling can now be customized.
74 The variable `hscroll-margin' determines how many columns away from
75 the window edge point is allowed to get before automatic hscrolling
76 will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
78 The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
79 hscrolling will scroll the window when point gets too close to the
80 window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
81 window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
82 many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
83 gives the fraction of the window's width to scroll the window.
86 ** The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to `auto-hscroll-mode'.
87 The old name is still available as an alias.
89 ** New display feature: focus follows mouse. If you set the variable
90 x-autoselect-window to non-nil value, moving the mouse to a different
91 Emacs window will select that window. The default is nil, so that
92 this feature is not enabled.
94 ** The new command `describe-text-at' pops up a buffer with description
95 of text properties, overlays, and widgets at point, and lets you get
96 more information about them, by clicking on mouse-sensitive areas or
97 moving there and pressing RET.
99 ** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
100 is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
101 can optionally enable mouse highlighting only after you move the
102 mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
103 also disable mouse highlighting.
105 ** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
106 an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
107 font-lock now highlights any such open-paren-in-column-zero in bold-red
108 if it is inside a string or a comment, to indicate that it can cause
109 trouble with fontification and/or indentation.
112 ** There's a new face `minibuffer-prompt'.
113 Emacs adds this face to the list of text properties stored in the
114 variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', which is used to display the
118 ** The new face `mode-line-inactive' is used to display the mode line
119 of non-selected windows. The `mode-line' face is now used to display
120 the mode line of the currently selected window.
122 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
123 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
125 ** A menu item "Show/Hide" was added to the top-level menu "Options".
126 This menu allows you to turn various display features on and off (like
127 tool bar and the menu bar itself). You can also move the vertical
128 scroll bar to either side here or turn it off completely. There is also
129 a menu-item to toggle displaying of current date and time, current line
130 and column number in the mode-line.
132 ** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
134 ** Emacs can now indicate in the mode-line the presence of new e-mails in
135 directory in addition to file. See the documentation of the user option
136 `display-time-mail-directory'.
139 ** The new option `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' causes Info to behave
140 like the stand-alone Info reader (from the GNU Texinfo package) as far
141 as motion between nodes and their subnodes is concerned. If it is t
142 (the default), Emacs behaves as before when you type SPC in a menu: it
143 visits the subnode pointed to by the first menu entry. If this option
144 is nil, SPC scrolls to the end of the current node, and only then goes
145 to the first menu item, like the stand-alone reader does.
147 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
151 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
154 ** You can now disable pc-selection-mode after enabling it.
155 M-x pc-selection-mode behaves like a proper minor mode, and with no
156 argument it toggles the mode.
158 Turning off PC-Selection mode restores the global key bindings
159 that were replaced by turning on the mode.
161 ** Changes in support of colors on character terminals
164 *** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
165 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
166 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
167 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
168 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
169 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
170 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
171 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
172 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
175 *** Emacs now supports several character terminals which provide more
176 than 8 colors. For example, for `xterm', 16-color, 88-color, and
177 256-color modes are supported. Emacs automatically notes at startup
178 the extended number of colors, and defines the appropriate entries for
182 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
185 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
187 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
188 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
189 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
190 screen size. (For now, this works only on GNU and Unix systems, and
191 not with every window manager.)
193 ** Info-index finally offers completion.
195 ** shell-mode now supports programmable completion using `pcomplete'.
197 ** Controlling the left and right fringe widths.
199 The left and right fringe widths can now be controlled by setting the
200 `left-fringe' and `right-fringe' frame parameters to an integer value
201 specifying the width in pixels. Setting the width to 0 effectively
202 removes the corresponding fringe.
204 The actual fringe widths may deviate from the specified widths, since
205 the combined fringe widths must match an integral number of columns.
206 The extra width is distributed evenly between the left and right fringe.
207 For force a specific fringe width, specify the width as a negative
208 integer (if both widths are negative, only the left fringe gets the
211 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
212 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
213 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
214 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
216 ** Changes in C-h bindings:
218 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
220 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
223 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
224 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
226 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
227 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
229 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
231 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
232 run by the key sequence.
234 - C-h w and C-h f on a command which has been remapped now report the
235 command it is remapped to, and the keys which can be used to run
238 For example, if C-k is bound to kill-line, and kill-line is remapped
239 to new-kill-line, these commands now report:
241 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
242 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
244 - C-h w and C-h f kill-line reports:
245 kill-line is remapped to new-kill-line which is on C-k, <deleteline>
247 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
248 new-kill-line is on C-k
250 ** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
251 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
252 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
253 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
255 ** In GUD mode when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
256 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
258 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
260 *** Search for source files using jdb classpath and class
261 information. Fast startup since there is no need to scan all
262 source files up front. There is also no need to create and maintain
263 lists of source directories to scan. Look at `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
264 and `gud-jdb-classpath' customization variables documentation.
266 *** Supports the standard breakpoint (gud-break, gud-clear)
267 set/clear operations from java source files under the classpath, stack
268 traversal (gud-up, gud-down), and run until current stack finish
271 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
274 *** The previous method of searching for source files has been
275 preserved in case someone still wants/needs to use it.
276 Set gud-jdb-use-classpath to nil.
278 Added Customization Variables
280 *** gud-jdb-command-name. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
282 *** gud-jdb-use-classpath. Allows selection of java source file searching
283 method: set to t for new method, nil to scan gud-jdb-directories for
284 java sources (previous method).
286 *** gud-jdb-directories. List of directories to scan and search for java
287 classes using the original gud-jdb method (if gud-jdb-use-classpath
292 *** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
294 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
295 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
296 changes the behavior of motion commands line C-e and C-p.
298 ** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
299 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
300 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
301 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
302 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
303 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
305 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
306 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
307 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
308 is only rarely needed.
310 ** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
312 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
313 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
314 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
315 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
318 ** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times. If
319 you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h (mark-paragraph), or
320 C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region will now be extended
321 each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC M-C-SPC,
322 for example. This feature also works for mark-end-of-sentence, if you
325 ** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
326 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
329 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
330 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
331 affects the initial frame.
334 ** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
335 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
336 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
339 ** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
342 ** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
343 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
344 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
345 directory listing into a buffer.
347 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
348 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
350 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on
351 your current locale settings. If it turns out that your terminal
352 does not support the encoding implied by your locale (for example,
353 it inserts non-ASCII chars if you hit M-i), you will need to add
355 (set-keyboard-coding-system nil)
357 to your .emacs to revert to the old behavior.
359 ** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
360 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
361 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
364 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
365 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
366 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
367 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
368 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
370 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
371 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
374 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
377 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
378 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
383 *** When comparing directories.
384 Typing D brings up a buffer that lists the differences between the contents of
385 directories. Now it is possible to use this buffer to copy the missing files
386 from one directory to another.
389 *** When comparing files or buffers.
390 Typing the = key now offers to perform the word-by-word comparison of the
391 currently highlighted regions in an inferior Ediff session. If you answer 'n'
392 then it reverts to the old behavior and asks the user to select regions for
397 *** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
399 *** In Perl, packages are tags.
400 Subroutine tags are named from their package. You can jump to sub tags
401 as you did before, by the sub name, or additionally by looking for
404 *** New language PHP: tags are functions, classes and defines.
405 If the --members option is specified to etags, tags are vars also.
407 *** Honour #line directives.
408 When Etags parses an input file that contains C preprocessor's #line
409 directives, it creates tags using the file name and line number
410 specified in those directives. This is useful when dealing with code
411 created from Cweb source files. When Etags tags the generated file, it
412 writes tags pointing to the source file.
415 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
416 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
418 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
419 with a space, if they visit files.
421 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
422 filling can break lines. We provide two sample predicates,
423 fill-single-word-nobreak-p and fill-french-nobreak-p.
425 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
426 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry will always
427 start a new record regardless of when the last record is.
429 ** New user option `sgml-xml'.
430 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
431 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
432 When not customized, it becomes buffer-local when it can be inferred
433 from the file name or buffer contents.
435 ** New user option `isearch-resume-enabled'.
436 This option can be disabled, to avoid the normal behaviour of isearch
437 which puts calls to `isearch-resume' in the command history.
439 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
440 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
441 instead of using default-major-mode.
443 ** Byte compiler warning and error messages have been brought more
444 in line with the output of other GNU tools.
446 ** Lisp-mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
448 ** perl-mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
450 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
451 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
454 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
455 much pure storage it will approximately need.
457 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
458 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
459 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
462 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
463 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
464 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
465 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
466 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
467 candidate is a directory.
469 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
470 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
471 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
473 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
475 ** When using M-x revert-buffer in a compilation buffer to rerun a
476 compilation, it is now made sure that the compilation buffer is reused
477 in case it has been renamed.
479 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
480 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
481 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
483 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
484 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
486 ** Some images are now supported on Windows.
487 PBM images are supported, other formats which require external
488 libraries may be supported in future.
490 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
491 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
492 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
493 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
495 ** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
496 The new variables `x-alt-keysym', `x-hyper-keysym', `x-meta-keysym',
497 and `x-super-keysym' can be used to choose which keysyms Emacs should
498 use for the modifiers. For example, the following two lines swap
500 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
501 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
504 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
507 ** A French translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
510 ** Indentation of simple and extended loop forms has been added to the
511 cl-indent package. The new user options
512 `lisp-loop-keyword-indentation', `lisp-loop-forms-indentation', and
513 `lisp-simple-loop-indentation' can be used to customize the
514 indentation of keywords and forms in loop forms.
516 ** Indentation of backquoted forms has been made customizable in the
517 cl-indent package. See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
519 ** New modes and packages
522 *** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
524 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
525 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
526 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
527 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
530 *** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
532 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
533 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
534 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
535 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
537 *** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
540 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
541 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
542 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
543 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
545 *** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
546 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
547 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
550 *** The reveal.el package provides the minor modes `reveal-mode' and
551 `global-reveal-mode' which will make text visible on the fly as you
552 move your cursor into hidden region of the buffer.
553 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
554 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
556 *** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
557 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
559 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
560 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
561 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
564 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
565 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
568 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
571 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
572 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
574 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
577 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.3
579 ** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
581 This is an alternative to using defadvice or substitute-key-definition
582 to modify the behaviour of a key binding using the normal keymap
583 binding and lookup functionality.
585 When a key sequence is bound to a command, and that command is
586 remapped to another command, that command is run instead of the
590 Suppose that minor mode my-mode has defined the commands
591 my-kill-line and my-kill-word, and it wants C-k (and any other key
592 bound to kill-line) to run the command my-kill-line instead of
593 kill-line, and likewise it wants to run my-kill-word instead of
596 Instead of rebinding C-k and the other keys in the minor mode map,
597 command remapping allows you to directly map kill-line into
598 my-kill-line and kill-word into my-kill-word through the minor mode
599 map using define-key:
601 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
602 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
604 Now, when my-mode is enabled, and the user enters C-k or M-d,
605 the commands my-kill-line and my-kill-word are run.
607 Notice that only one level of remapping is supported. In the above
608 example, this means that if my-kill-line is remapped to other-kill,
609 then C-k still runs my-kill-line.
611 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
613 - Command remappings are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
614 `remap', i.e. `(define-key MAP [remap CMD] DEF)' remaps command CMD
615 to definition DEF in keymap MAP. The definition is not limited to
616 another command; it can be anything accepted for a normal binding.
618 - The new function `remap-command' returns the binding for a remapped
619 command in the current keymaps, or nil if it isn't remapped.
621 - key-binding now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
622 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
624 - where-is-internal now returns nil for a remapped command (e.g.
625 kill-line if my-mode is enabled), and the actual key binding for
626 the command it is remapped to (e.g. C-k for my-kill-line).
627 It also has a new optional fifth argument, NO-REMAP, which inhibits
628 remapping if non-nil (e.g. it returns C-k for kill-line and
629 <kill-line> for my-kill-line).
631 - The new variable `this-original-command' contains the original
632 command before remapping. It is equal to `this-command' when the
633 command was not remapped.
635 ** Atomic change groups.
637 To perform some changes in the current buffer "atomically" so that
638 they either all succeed or are all undone, use `atomic-change-group'
639 around the code that makes changes. For instance:
645 If an error (or other nonlocal exit) occurs inside the body of
646 `atomic-change-group', it unmakes all the changes in that buffer that
647 were during the execution of the body. The change group has no effect
648 on any other buffers--any such changes remain.
650 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
651 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
653 To set up a change group for one buffer, call `prepare-change-group'.
654 Specify the buffer as argument; it defaults to the current buffer.
655 This function returns a "handle" for the change group. You must save
656 the handle to activate the change group and then finish it.
658 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
659 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
662 After you make the changes, you must finish the change group. You can
663 either accept the changes or cancel them all. Call
664 `accept-change-group' to accept the changes in the group as final;
665 call `cancel-change-group' to undo them all.
667 You should use `unwind-protect' to make sure the group is always
668 finished. The call to `activate-change-group' should be inside the
669 `unwind-protect', in case the user types C-g just after it runs.
670 (This is one reason why `prepare-change-group' and
671 `activate-change-group' are separate functions.) Once you finish the
672 group, don't use the handle again--don't try to finish the same group
675 To make a multibuffer change group, call `prepare-change-group' once
676 for each buffer you want to cover, then use `nconc' to combine the
677 returned values, like this:
679 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
680 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
682 You can then activate the multibuffer change group with a single call
683 to `activate-change-group', and finish it with a single call to
684 `accept-change-group' or `cancel-change-group'.
686 Nested use of several change groups for the same buffer works as you
687 would expect. Non-nested use of change groups for the same buffer
688 will lead to undesirable results, so don't let it happen; the first
689 change group you start for any given buffer should be the last one
692 ** Enhanced networking support.
694 *** There is a new `make-network-process' function which supports
695 opening of stream and datagram connections to a server, as well as
696 create a stream or datagram server inside emacs.
698 - A server is started using :server t arg.
699 - Datagram connection is selected using :type 'datagram arg.
700 - A server can open on a random port using :service t arg.
701 - Local sockets are supported using :family 'local arg.
702 - Non-blocking connect is supported using :nowait t arg.
704 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
705 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
707 *** Original open-network-stream is now emulated using make-network-process.
709 *** New function open-network-stream-nowait.
711 This function initiates a non-blocking connect and returns immediately
712 before the connection is established. The filter and sentinel
713 functions can be specified as arguments to open-network-stream-nowait.
714 When the non-blocking connect completes, the sentinel is called with
715 the status matching "open" or "failed".
717 *** New function open-network-stream-server.
719 *** New functions process-datagram-address and set-process-datagram-address.
721 *** By default, the function process-contact still returns (HOST SERVICE)
722 for a network process. Using the new optional KEY arg, the complete list
723 of network process properties or a specific property can be selected.
725 Using :local and :remote as the KEY, the address of the local or
726 remote end-point is returned. An Inet address is represented as a 5
727 element vector, where the first 4 elements contain the IP address and
728 the fifth is the port number.
730 *** Network processes can now be stopped and restarted with
731 `stop-process' and `continue-process'. For a server process, no
732 connections are accepted in the stopped state. For a client process,
733 no input is received in the stopped state.
735 *** Function list-processes now has an optional argument; if non-nil,
736 only the processes whose query-on-exit flag is set are listed.
738 *** New set-process-query-on-exit-flag and process-query-on-exit-flag
739 functions. The existing process-kill-without-query function is still
740 supported, but new code should use the new functions.
742 ** New function substring-no-properties.
744 ** New function minibuffer-selected-window.
747 *** The meanings of scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively
748 have been interchanged, so that the former now controls scrolling up,
749 and the latter now controls scrolling down.
752 ** New function window-body-height.
754 This is like window-height but does not count the mode line
758 ** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
760 When called with 2 arguments, as in `(atan Y X)', `atan' returns the
761 angle in radians between the vector [X, Y] and the X axis. (This is
762 equivalent to the standard C library function `atan2'.)
765 ** You can now make a window as short as one line.
767 A window that is just one line tall does not display either a mode
768 line or a header line, even if the variables `mode-line-format' and
769 `header-line-format' call for them. A window that is two lines tall
770 cannot display both a mode line and a header line at once; if the
771 variables call for both, only the mode line actually appears.
774 ** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
775 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
776 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
777 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
779 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
781 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
782 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
783 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
786 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
788 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
789 the time it takes to convert the format.
791 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
794 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
795 over minor mode keymaps.
797 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
798 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
800 ** The position after an invisible, intangible character
801 is considered an unacceptable value for point;
802 intangibility processing effectively treats the following character
803 as part of the intangible region even if it is not itself intangible.
805 Thus, point can go before an invisible, intangible region, but not
806 after it. This prevents C-f and C-b from appearing to stand still on
810 ** define-abbrev now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG. If
811 non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means that
812 it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the abbrevs.
813 Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always specify this
816 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
818 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
820 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
821 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
822 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
823 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
824 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
825 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
827 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
828 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
829 bindings of the parent keymap.
831 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
832 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
833 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
834 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
835 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
836 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
844 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
845 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
846 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
847 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
849 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
850 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
852 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
853 (the last group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
855 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
856 it receives a request from emacsclient.
858 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
859 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
860 than 3 levels of nesting.
862 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
863 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
864 in Indented-Text mode.
866 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
867 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
870 ** If you set `query-replace-skip-read-only' non-nil,
871 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
872 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
874 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
875 properties from surrounding text.
877 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
879 - Function: buffer-local-value variable buffer
881 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
882 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
883 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
885 ** The default value of `paragraph-start' and `indent-line-function' has
886 been changed to reflect the one used in Text mode rather than the one
887 used in Indented Text mode.
889 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
890 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
893 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
894 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
895 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP2 VAL2 ...) so you can set
896 other properties than `face'.
897 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
898 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
900 ** The special treatment of faces whose names are of the form `fg:COLOR'
901 or `bg:COLOR' has been removed. Lisp programs should use the
902 `defface' facility for defining faces with specific colors.
904 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
905 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
906 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
908 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
909 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
910 and run any code associated with the provided feature.
912 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
913 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
916 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
917 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
918 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
920 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
921 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
922 accepts a float as UID parameter.
924 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
926 ** `define-derived-mode' now accepts nil as the parent.
928 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
930 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
932 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
934 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
935 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
937 ** Variable aliases have been implemented
939 - Macro: defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR
941 This defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for symbol
942 BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR returns
943 the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR changes the
946 - Function: indirect-variable VARIABLE
948 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
949 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
950 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
952 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
953 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
955 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
956 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
958 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
959 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
961 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
962 have been moved from the CL package to the core.
964 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
965 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
966 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
968 ** Functions y-or-n-p, read-char, read-keysequence and alike that
969 display a prompt but don't use the minibuffer now display the prompt
970 using the text properties (esp. the face) of the prompt string.
974 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
975 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
977 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
978 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
980 *** The new package Ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
981 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
984 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
986 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
987 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
988 charsets in this release.
990 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
992 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
994 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
995 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
998 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
999 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
1000 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
1001 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
1002 necessary changes to unexec.
1004 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
1005 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
1007 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
1008 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
1010 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
1011 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
1013 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
1014 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
1015 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
1016 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
1017 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
1019 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
1020 new display features described below.
1023 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
1025 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
1027 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
1028 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
1029 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
1030 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
1033 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
1035 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
1036 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
1037 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
1038 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
1041 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
1042 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
1043 under Lisp changes, below.
1045 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
1047 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
1048 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
1049 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
1050 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
1051 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
1052 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
1055 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
1056 supported on character terminals.
1058 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
1059 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
1060 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
1061 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
1063 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
1067 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
1068 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
1069 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
1070 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
1073 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
1075 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
1076 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
1077 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
1078 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
1080 - User option: max-mini-window-height
1082 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
1083 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
1084 specifies a number of lines.
1088 - User option: resize-mini-windows
1090 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
1091 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
1092 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
1095 Default is `grow-only'.
1099 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
1100 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
1102 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
1104 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
1105 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
1108 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
1110 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
1111 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
1112 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
1114 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
1116 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
1117 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
1118 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
1119 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
1120 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
1123 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
1124 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
1125 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
1126 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
1127 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
1128 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
1130 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
1131 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
1132 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
1133 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
1134 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
1135 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
1137 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
1138 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
1139 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
1140 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
1141 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
1143 ** Tool bar support.
1145 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
1146 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
1147 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
1148 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
1149 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
1152 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
1153 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
1157 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
1158 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
1159 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
1161 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
1162 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
1163 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
1164 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
1166 ** Automatic Hscrolling
1168 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
1169 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
1172 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
1173 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
1174 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
1175 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
1176 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
1178 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
1179 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
1180 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
1181 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
1182 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
1183 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
1185 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
1186 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
1187 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
1188 customizing face `fringe'.
1190 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
1191 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
1192 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
1193 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
1194 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
1195 the window to be partially obscured.)
1197 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
1198 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
1199 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
1200 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
1202 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
1204 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
1205 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
1206 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
1207 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
1208 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
1211 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
1213 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
1215 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
1217 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
1218 `*') toggles the status.
1220 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
1222 ** Hourglass pointer
1224 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
1225 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
1229 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
1230 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
1231 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
1234 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
1236 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
1237 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
1238 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
1241 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
1242 have to do anything to activate it.
1244 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
1246 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
1247 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
1249 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
1250 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
1251 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
1252 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
1253 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
1254 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
1255 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
1256 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
1258 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
1259 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
1260 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
1261 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
1262 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
1263 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
1265 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
1266 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
1268 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
1269 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
1272 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
1273 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
1274 beginning and end of the buffer.
1276 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
1277 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
1280 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
1281 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
1283 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
1284 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
1287 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
1288 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
1291 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
1293 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
1294 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
1295 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
1297 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
1298 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
1299 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
1301 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
1304 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
1306 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
1307 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
1308 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
1309 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
1310 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
1313 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
1314 all frames except the selected one.
1316 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
1317 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
1319 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
1320 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
1321 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
1322 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
1323 `Info-use-header-line'.
1325 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
1326 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
1327 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
1329 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
1331 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
1332 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
1335 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
1336 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
1337 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
1338 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
1340 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
1342 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
1343 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
1344 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
1345 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
1347 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
1348 point in a pop-up window.
1350 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
1351 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
1352 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
1354 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
1355 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
1357 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
1358 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
1359 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
1360 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
1362 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
1364 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
1365 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
1367 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
1368 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
1369 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
1371 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
1372 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
1375 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
1376 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
1377 file that is already visited under a different name.
1379 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
1380 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
1382 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
1383 and displays information about that.
1385 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
1386 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
1388 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
1389 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
1390 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
1391 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
1392 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
1393 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
1395 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
1396 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
1398 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
1399 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
1400 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
1401 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
1402 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
1403 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
1404 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
1406 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
1407 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
1409 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
1410 system for keyboard input.
1412 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
1413 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
1414 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
1415 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
1416 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
1417 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
1418 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
1419 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
1420 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
1422 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
1423 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
1425 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
1426 displays all characters in that character set.
1428 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
1429 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
1431 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1432 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1433 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1435 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1436 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1437 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1438 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
1439 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
1440 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
1443 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
1444 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
1447 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
1448 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
1449 Lisp Coding Convention".
1451 new command old-binding
1452 --- ------- -----------
1453 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
1454 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
1455 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
1457 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
1458 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
1459 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
1461 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
1462 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
1463 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
1464 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
1465 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
1466 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
1468 ** There are new Leim input methods.
1469 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
1470 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
1473 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
1474 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
1475 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
1476 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
1477 "`", you must type "=q".
1479 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
1480 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
1481 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
1482 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
1483 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
1486 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
1487 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
1488 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
1489 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
1491 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
1492 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
1493 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
1494 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
1496 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
1497 on the display using several methods
1499 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
1500 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
1501 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
1503 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
1504 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
1506 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
1508 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
1509 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
1511 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
1512 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
1513 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
1514 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
1516 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
1517 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
1518 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
1520 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
1521 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
1523 ** New X resources recognized
1525 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
1526 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
1527 is useful for debugging X problems.
1531 emacs.synchronous: true
1533 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
1534 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
1535 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
1536 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
1537 visual class names are
1546 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
1547 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
1550 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
1551 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
1552 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
1557 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
1559 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
1560 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
1561 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
1562 resource values are `true' or `on'.
1566 emacs.privateColormap: true
1568 ** Faces and frame parameters.
1570 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
1571 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
1572 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
1573 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
1574 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
1575 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
1576 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
1578 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
1579 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
1580 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
1581 `default' face and vice versa.
1585 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
1587 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
1589 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
1590 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
1591 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
1592 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
1594 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
1595 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
1596 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
1598 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
1601 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
1603 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
1604 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
1605 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
1606 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
1608 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
1610 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
1612 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
1614 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
1617 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
1620 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
1622 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
1623 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
1624 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
1626 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
1627 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
1629 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
1630 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
1631 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
1633 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
1635 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
1636 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
1637 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
1638 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
1640 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
1641 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
1642 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
1643 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
1645 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
1646 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
1647 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
1650 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
1652 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
1653 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
1654 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
1656 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
1657 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
1658 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
1659 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
1660 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
1661 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
1663 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
1665 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
1666 notably at the end of lines.
1668 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
1669 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
1671 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
1673 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
1674 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
1676 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
1677 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
1678 after each match to get the replacement text.
1680 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
1681 you edit the replacement string.
1683 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
1684 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
1685 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
1687 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
1689 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
1690 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
1692 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
1693 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
1694 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
1695 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
1698 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
1699 read mail from the menu etc.
1701 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
1702 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
1703 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
1704 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
1706 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
1707 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
1709 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
1710 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
1711 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
1712 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
1713 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
1716 ** Customize changes
1718 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
1719 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
1720 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
1721 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
1722 earlier versions of Emacs.
1724 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
1725 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
1728 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
1729 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
1730 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
1731 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
1734 ** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
1735 does not save disabled and enabled commands for future sessions, to
1736 avoid overwriting existing customizations of this kind that are
1737 already in your init file.
1739 ** New features in evaluation commands
1741 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
1742 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
1743 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
1744 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
1745 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
1747 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
1748 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
1749 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
1750 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
1753 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
1754 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
1756 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
1757 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
1759 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
1760 code when called with a prefix argument.
1764 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
1765 current user setups (although it's believed that these
1766 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
1767 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
1768 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
1769 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
1772 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
1773 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
1774 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
1777 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
1778 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
1779 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
1780 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
1782 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
1783 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
1785 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
1786 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
1788 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
1789 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
1790 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
1791 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
1793 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
1794 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
1795 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
1796 earlier statement. An example:
1798 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
1800 res += a[i]->offset;
1803 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
1804 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
1805 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
1806 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
1809 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
1812 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
1813 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
1814 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
1815 documentation or other natural language text.
1817 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
1818 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
1819 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
1820 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
1821 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
1822 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
1823 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
1825 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
1826 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
1827 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
1828 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
1830 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
1831 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
1832 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
1833 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
1836 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
1837 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
1838 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
1839 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
1840 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
1841 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
1842 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
1843 is reported afterwards.
1845 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
1846 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
1847 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
1849 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
1850 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
1851 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
1852 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
1853 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
1854 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
1857 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
1858 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
1859 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
1860 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
1861 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
1864 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
1865 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
1866 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
1867 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
1868 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
1869 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
1871 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
1872 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
1873 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
1874 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
1875 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
1876 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
1877 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
1878 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
1880 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
1881 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
1882 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
1883 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
1886 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
1887 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
1888 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
1889 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
1890 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
1891 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
1892 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
1893 function documentation for more info.
1895 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
1896 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
1897 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
1898 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
1899 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
1900 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
1901 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
1902 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
1904 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
1906 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
1907 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
1909 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
1910 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
1911 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
1912 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
1913 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
1916 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
1917 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
1918 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
1921 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
1922 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
1923 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
1924 chapter about this in the manual.
1926 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
1927 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
1928 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
1929 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
1930 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
1932 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
1933 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
1934 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
1936 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
1937 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
1939 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
1940 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
1941 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
1944 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
1945 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
1946 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
1947 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
1950 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
1951 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
1952 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
1953 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
1954 they were before the filling.
1956 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
1957 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
1958 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
1961 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
1962 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
1963 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
1964 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
1967 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
1968 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
1969 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
1970 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
1971 Thanks to Eric Eide.
1973 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
1974 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
1975 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
1977 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
1979 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
1980 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
1981 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
1982 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
1984 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
1985 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
1986 the column specified by comment-column.
1988 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
1989 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
1990 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
1991 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
1992 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
1993 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
1995 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
1996 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
1999 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
2001 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
2002 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
2003 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
2004 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
2007 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
2011 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
2012 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
2013 is, delete only empty directories.
2015 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
2016 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
2017 copy directories recursively.
2019 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
2020 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
2021 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
2023 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
2024 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
2027 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
2028 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
2029 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
2030 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
2031 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
2033 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
2036 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
2037 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
2038 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
2039 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
2043 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
2044 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
2045 internationalization and mail-fetching.
2047 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
2048 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
2050 If you used procmail like in
2052 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
2053 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
2054 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
2055 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
2057 this now has changed to
2060 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
2063 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
2064 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
2066 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
2067 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
2068 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
2069 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
2071 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
2072 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
2073 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
2075 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
2076 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
2077 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
2078 now just a compatibility layer.
2080 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
2083 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
2084 called to position point.
2086 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
2087 summary buffers and NOV files.
2089 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
2090 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
2092 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
2093 subtly different manner.
2095 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
2096 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
2097 ever-changing layouts.
2099 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
2101 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
2103 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
2105 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
2109 -------------------------
2113 C-c C-c q @quotation
2115 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
2118 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
2120 ** Changes in Outline mode.
2122 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
2123 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
2124 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
2126 ** Changes to Emacs Server
2128 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
2129 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
2130 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
2131 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
2132 buffers to kill, as before.
2134 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
2135 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
2138 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
2139 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
2141 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
2143 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
2144 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
2145 use. Default is 1000.
2147 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
2148 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
2150 ** Changes to hideshow.el
2152 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
2154 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
2155 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
2156 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
2157 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
2159 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
2160 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
2161 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
2164 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
2165 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
2166 the normal block-hiding function.
2168 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
2170 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
2171 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
2172 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
2173 for `hs-minor-mode'.
2175 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
2176 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
2178 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
2180 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
2181 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
2182 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
2184 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
2187 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
2190 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
2191 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
2192 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
2193 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
2194 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
2195 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
2197 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
2199 ** Changes to cmuscheme
2201 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
2202 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
2204 ** Changes in Font Lock
2206 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
2207 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
2209 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
2210 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
2212 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
2213 the face used for each string/comment.
2215 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
2216 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
2218 ** Changes to Shell mode
2220 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
2221 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
2222 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
2223 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
2225 ** Comint (subshell) changes
2227 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
2228 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
2230 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
2231 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
2232 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
2233 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
2234 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
2235 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
2237 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
2238 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
2239 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
2240 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
2241 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
2242 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
2243 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
2244 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
2246 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
2247 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
2249 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
2250 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
2251 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
2253 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
2254 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
2255 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
2257 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
2258 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
2259 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
2261 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
2262 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
2263 argument, it appends to the file.
2265 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
2266 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
2269 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
2272 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
2273 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
2274 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
2276 ** Changes to Rmail mode
2278 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
2279 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
2280 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
2281 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
2282 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
2285 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
2286 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
2287 regexp matching your mail addresses.
2289 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
2290 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
2291 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
2292 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
2293 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
2295 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
2298 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
2299 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
2302 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
2303 in which folder to put messages automatically.
2305 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
2306 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
2307 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
2309 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
2310 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
2312 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
2313 use the -f option when sending mail.
2315 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
2316 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
2317 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
2318 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
2319 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
2320 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
2322 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
2323 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
2324 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
2326 ** Changes to TeX mode
2328 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
2331 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
2333 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
2335 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
2337 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
2339 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
2340 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
2341 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
2342 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
2343 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
2344 can be edited from that buffer.
2346 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
2347 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
2348 `A' to use all marked entries).
2350 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
2351 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
2353 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
2354 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
2355 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
2358 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
2359 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
2360 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
2361 in column 1 are always made leaves.
2363 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
2364 has the following new features:
2366 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
2367 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
2368 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
2369 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
2371 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
2372 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
2373 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
2374 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
2375 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
2378 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
2383 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
2384 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
2385 spell-checks the current buffer.
2387 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
2390 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
2391 correction is made and re-checked.
2393 *** An Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definition has been added.
2395 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
2398 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
2401 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
2404 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
2406 ** Makefile mode changes
2408 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
2410 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
2411 Fontlock mode is active.
2415 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
2416 so that searches can be resumed.
2418 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
2419 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
2420 that started the search.
2422 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
2423 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
2425 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
2427 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
2428 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
2429 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
2430 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
2431 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
2432 `secondary-selection'.
2434 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
2435 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
2436 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
2437 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
2438 usual snappy response.
2440 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
2441 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
2442 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
2443 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
2447 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
2448 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
2449 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
2450 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
2451 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
2452 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
2453 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
2454 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
2455 file is registered in that backend.
2457 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
2458 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
2459 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
2460 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
2461 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
2462 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
2464 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
2465 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
2466 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
2467 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
2468 where it doesn't make sense.)
2470 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
2471 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
2472 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
2476 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
2477 checks are always done now.
2479 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
2482 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
2483 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
2484 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
2486 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
2487 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
2488 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
2489 the working file (``merge news'').
2491 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
2492 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
2495 *** Multiple Backends
2497 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
2498 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
2499 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
2500 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
2503 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
2504 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
2505 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
2506 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
2508 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
2509 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
2510 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
2511 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
2512 current revision number from the more remote backend.
2514 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
2515 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
2516 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
2517 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
2519 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
2520 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
2521 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
2522 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
2526 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
2527 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
2528 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
2529 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
2530 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
2531 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
2532 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
2534 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
2535 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
2536 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
2537 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
2538 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
2539 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
2540 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
2541 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
2542 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
2543 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
2544 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
2547 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
2548 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
2549 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
2550 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
2551 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
2552 entire directory tree.
2554 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
2555 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
2556 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
2557 "watched" by other developers.)
2559 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
2560 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
2561 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
2562 starting at the given directory.
2564 *** Lisp Changes in VC
2566 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
2567 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
2568 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
2569 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
2570 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
2571 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
2572 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
2573 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
2574 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
2576 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
2577 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
2578 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
2579 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
2581 ** New modes and packages
2583 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
2584 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
2585 the default is not applicable.
2587 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
2588 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
2589 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
2593 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
2594 drawn, like this: | \ /
2598 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
2599 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
2600 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
2601 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
2602 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
2605 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
2606 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
2608 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
2611 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
2612 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
2613 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
2614 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
2616 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
2617 also do without the mouse.
2619 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
2620 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
2621 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
2622 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
2623 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
2625 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
2627 lines straight-lines
2629 poly-lines straight poly-lines
2631 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
2632 spray-can setting size for spraying
2633 vaporize line vaporize lines
2634 erase characters erase rectangles
2636 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
2637 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
2638 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
2641 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
2642 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
2643 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
2644 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
2646 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
2649 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
2650 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
2651 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
2652 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
2653 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
2654 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
2655 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
2656 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
2657 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
2659 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
2660 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
2661 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
2662 on certain projects.
2664 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
2665 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
2667 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
2669 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
2670 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
2671 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
2672 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
2673 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
2674 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
2675 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
2676 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
2678 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
2681 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
2682 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
2684 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
2685 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
2687 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
2688 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
2689 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
2690 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
2691 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
2693 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
2694 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
2695 separate Texinfo file.
2697 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
2698 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
2699 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
2700 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
2701 enter check-in log messages.
2703 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
2704 without invoking external programs.
2706 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
2707 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
2708 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
2709 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
2710 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
2712 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
2713 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
2715 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
2716 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
2718 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
2719 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
2720 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
2721 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
2722 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
2725 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
2726 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
2727 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
2728 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
2730 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
2731 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
2732 actually modifying content of a buffer.
2734 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
2737 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
2739 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
2741 ; comment (until end of line)
2745 $A default non-terminal
2746 $"C" default terminal
2747 $?C? default special
2748 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
2749 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
2750 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
2751 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
2752 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
2753 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
2754 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
2755 C+ one or more occurrences of C
2756 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
2757 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
2758 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
2759 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
2760 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
2761 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
2762 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
2764 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
2766 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
2767 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
2768 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
2769 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
2770 equal signs of assignments.
2772 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
2773 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
2775 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
2776 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
2777 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
2779 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
2781 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
2782 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
2783 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
2784 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
2785 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
2786 which answers different needs.
2788 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
2789 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
2790 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
2791 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
2792 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
2795 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
2796 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
2798 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
2800 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
2801 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
2802 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behaviour in all buffers.
2804 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
2806 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
2807 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
2808 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
2809 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
2810 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
2811 and background colors.
2813 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
2816 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
2819 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
2821 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
2823 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
2824 whitespace in a file.
2826 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
2827 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
2828 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
2829 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
2830 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
2831 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
2832 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
2834 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
2836 Here is an example of columns:
2839 dog pineapple car EXTRA
2840 porcupine strawberry airplane
2842 Doing the following settings:
2844 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
2845 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
2846 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
2847 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
2850 Selecting the lines above and typing:
2852 M-x delimit-columns-region
2856 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
2857 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
2858 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
2860 delim-col has the following options:
2862 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
2865 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
2866 between each column.
2868 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
2871 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
2874 delim-col has the following commands:
2876 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
2877 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
2879 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
2880 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
2881 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
2882 recent file list can be displayed:
2884 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
2885 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
2886 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
2888 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
2889 dynamically change the menu appearance.
2891 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
2894 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
2895 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
2896 specific to Message mode.
2898 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
2899 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
2900 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
2902 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
2903 interface to access directory servers using different directory
2904 protocols. It has a separate manual.
2906 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
2907 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
2909 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
2911 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
2912 minibuffer with completion.
2914 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
2915 with the diary features.
2917 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
2918 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
2920 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
2923 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
2924 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
2925 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
2926 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
2928 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
2929 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
2932 ** Changes in sort.el
2934 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
2935 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
2936 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
2939 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
2941 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
2942 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
2943 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
2945 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
2946 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
2948 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
2949 output ^M at the end of lines.
2951 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
2952 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
2954 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
2955 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
2958 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
2961 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
2962 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
2965 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
2966 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
2967 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
2968 nil -- just delete one character.
2970 Default value is `untabify'.
2972 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
2974 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
2975 symbol, not double-quoted.
2977 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
2978 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
2979 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
2980 moved to lisp/obsolete.
2982 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
2983 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
2984 `auto-compression-mode' command.
2986 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
2987 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
2988 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
2990 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
2991 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
2993 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
2994 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
2996 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
2997 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
2999 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
3000 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
3001 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
3002 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
3003 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
3004 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
3006 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
3007 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
3009 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
3011 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
3012 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
3014 ** Shell script mode changes.
3016 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
3017 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
3018 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
3022 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
3024 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
3025 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
3026 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
3027 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
3028 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
3030 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
3031 declarations when given the --declarations option.
3033 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
3034 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
3036 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
3037 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
3038 `template' keywords.
3040 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
3041 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
3043 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
3046 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
3048 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
3050 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
3053 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
3055 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
3056 variables are tagged.
3058 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
3060 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
3063 ** Changes in etags.el
3065 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
3066 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
3067 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
3069 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
3070 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
3072 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
3073 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
3074 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
3075 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
3077 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
3079 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
3080 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
3082 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
3084 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
3085 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
3086 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
3088 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
3089 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
3091 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
3092 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
3094 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
3095 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
3096 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
3097 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
3098 point will go to the beginning of the file.
3100 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
3101 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
3102 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
3104 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
3105 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
3106 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
3108 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
3109 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
3110 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
3112 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
3114 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
3116 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
3117 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
3118 expression from that list, are not checked.
3120 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
3121 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
3122 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
3123 the buffer, just like for the local files.
3125 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
3127 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
3128 displays local abbrevs, only.
3130 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
3131 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
3133 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
3134 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
3135 is measured in pixels.
3137 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
3138 to be visited as images.
3140 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
3141 were added to compile.el.
3143 ** Withdrawn packages
3145 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
3146 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
3148 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
3150 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
3153 * Incompatible Lisp changes
3155 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
3156 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
3157 See the sections below for details.
3159 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
3160 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
3161 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
3162 to remove the properties of the copy.
3164 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
3165 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
3166 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
3167 these properties are active.
3169 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
3170 ranges may affect some code.
3172 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
3173 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
3174 make a difference to some code.
3176 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
3177 operates on the minibuffer.
3179 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
3180 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
3181 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
3182 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
3183 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
3184 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
3185 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
3186 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
3187 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
3188 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
3189 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
3190 the buffer as multibyte characters.
3192 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
3193 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
3194 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
3196 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
3197 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
3198 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
3200 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
3201 long promised. So does any code that uses derivatives of `concat',
3202 such as `mapconcat'.
3204 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
3207 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
3208 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
3209 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
3210 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
3211 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
3212 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
3213 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
3214 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
3216 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
3217 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
3218 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
3219 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
3220 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
3221 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
3222 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
3223 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
3224 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
3225 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
3228 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
3229 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
3231 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
3233 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
3234 allows the animated display of strings.
3236 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
3237 interactive form of a function.
3239 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
3240 between custom options. Example:
3242 (defcustom default-input-method nil
3243 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
3244 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
3245 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
3247 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
3248 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
3250 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
3251 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
3252 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
3254 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
3255 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
3256 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
3257 (signal or normal termination).
3259 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
3260 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
3262 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
3263 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
3265 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
3266 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
3268 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
3270 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
3271 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
3274 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
3276 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
3277 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
3278 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
3279 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
3280 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
3283 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
3284 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
3287 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
3288 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
3290 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
3291 with the more general `:mask' property.
3293 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
3295 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
3298 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
3299 is running in batch mode. For example,
3301 (message "%s" (read t))
3303 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
3306 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
3307 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
3309 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
3310 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
3313 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
3316 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
3318 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
3319 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
3321 - Function: remq ELT LIST
3323 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
3324 comparison is done with `eq'.
3326 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
3328 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
3329 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
3330 `key-and-value', in addition the `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
3332 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
3333 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
3334 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
3336 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
3337 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
3339 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
3340 function was declared obsolete.
3342 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
3343 retained as an alias).
3345 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
3346 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
3347 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
3349 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
3351 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
3353 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
3354 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
3355 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
3356 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
3357 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
3358 means never include the minibuffer window.
3360 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
3362 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
3364 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
3366 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
3367 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
3368 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
3369 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
3372 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
3373 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
3374 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
3375 minibuffer even if it is active.
3377 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
3378 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
3379 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
3380 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
3381 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
3382 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
3384 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
3385 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
3386 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
3387 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
3388 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
3389 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
3390 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
3392 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
3393 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
3394 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
3396 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
3397 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
3398 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
3399 Default value is nil.
3401 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
3404 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
3405 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
3406 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
3408 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
3409 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
3410 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
3412 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
3413 list of a primitive.
3415 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
3417 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
3418 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
3419 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
3420 than replacing the local map.
3422 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
3423 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
3424 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
3427 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
3429 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
3430 as promised long ago.
3432 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
3434 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
3435 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
3436 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
3439 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
3441 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
3442 regular expressions.
3444 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
3446 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
3450 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
3452 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
3456 matches string STRING literally.
3459 matches character CHAR literally.
3462 matches any character except a newline.
3465 matches any character
3468 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
3469 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
3475 matches any character not in SET
3478 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
3479 in the text being matched
3482 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
3485 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
3486 string being matched against.
3489 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
3490 string being matched against.
3493 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
3494 buffer being matched against.
3497 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
3498 buffer being matched against.
3501 matches the empty string, but only at point.
3504 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
3508 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
3511 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
3514 `(not word-boundary)'
3515 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
3519 matches 0 through 9.
3522 matches ASCII control characters.
3525 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
3528 matches space and tab only.
3531 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
3535 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
3539 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3540 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
3543 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3544 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
3547 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
3550 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
3553 matches anything lower-case.
3556 matches anything upper-case.
3559 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3560 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
3563 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
3566 matches anything that has word syntax.
3569 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
3570 of the following symbols.
3572 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
3573 `punctuation' (\\s.)
3576 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
3577 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
3578 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
3579 `string-quote' (\\s\")
3580 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
3582 `character-quote' (\\s/)
3583 `comment-start' (\\s<)
3584 `comment-end' (\\s>)
3586 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
3587 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
3589 `(category CATEGORY)'
3590 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
3591 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
3593 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
3595 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
3596 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
3600 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
3602 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
3603 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
3604 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
3605 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
3606 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
3607 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
3608 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
3609 `indian-tow-byte' (\\cI)
3610 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
3611 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
3612 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
3621 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
3625 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
3632 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
3633 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
3635 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3636 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
3638 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3639 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
3640 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
3642 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3643 another name for `submatch'.
3645 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3646 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
3647 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
3650 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
3651 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
3652 zero or more occurrances of something are \"greedy\" in that they
3653 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
3654 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
3656 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
3657 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
3659 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
3660 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
3663 like `zero-or-more'.
3666 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
3669 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
3671 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
3672 matches one or more occurrences of A.
3678 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
3681 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
3683 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
3684 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
3690 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
3693 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
3696 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
3699 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
3702 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
3706 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
3708 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
3710 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
3711 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
3712 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
3713 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
3715 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
3716 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
3717 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
3718 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
3720 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
3721 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
3722 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
3724 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
3725 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
3726 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
3727 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
3728 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
3729 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
3730 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
3733 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
3735 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
3736 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
3737 character set as previously.
3739 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
3740 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
3741 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
3743 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
3744 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
3745 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
3746 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
3748 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
3749 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
3751 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
3752 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
3755 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
3756 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
3758 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
3759 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
3760 buffers and strings.
3762 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
3763 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
3764 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
3765 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
3766 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
3767 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
3768 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
3771 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
3772 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
3773 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
3775 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
3776 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
3777 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
3778 may differ between buffer and string text.
3780 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
3781 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
3783 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
3784 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
3785 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
3786 `composition' from STRING.
3788 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
3789 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
3791 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
3794 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
3795 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
3797 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
3798 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
3799 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
3800 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
3802 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
3803 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
3804 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
3805 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
3806 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
3807 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
3809 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
3810 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
3811 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
3813 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
3814 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
3815 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
3817 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
3818 have been introduced.
3820 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
3821 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
3822 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
3823 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
3824 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
3825 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
3826 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
3827 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
3828 their multibyte equivalent.
3830 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
3831 that offset in the file before writing.
3833 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
3834 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
3836 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
3837 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
3838 from which the command was issued.
3840 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
3841 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
3842 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
3843 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
3846 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
3847 to `window-buffer-height'.
3849 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
3851 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
3852 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
3853 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
3855 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
3858 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
3859 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
3861 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
3862 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
3863 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
3865 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
3866 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
3867 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
3868 is currently displayed in some window.
3870 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
3871 argument function's results.
3873 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
3874 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
3875 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
3876 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
3879 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
3880 header in the list of headers passed to it.
3882 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
3883 ignores differences in case and text representation.
3885 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
3886 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
3889 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
3890 nil don't display a cursor
3891 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
3892 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
3893 others display a box cursor.
3895 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
3896 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
3897 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
3898 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
3900 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
3901 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
3902 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
3903 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
3907 (string-to-syntax "()")
3910 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
3913 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
3914 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
3921 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
3926 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
3931 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
3938 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
3939 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
3942 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
3943 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
3944 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
3945 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
3947 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
3949 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
3950 for a regexp in a string.
3952 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
3953 `mouse-position-function'.
3955 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
3956 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
3958 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
3959 Keywords are now always considered constants.
3961 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
3964 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
3965 returned by function `recent-keys'.
3967 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
3968 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
3969 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
3970 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
3973 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
3974 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
3976 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
3977 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
3978 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
3979 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
3982 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
3983 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
3984 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
3985 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
3987 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
3988 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
3989 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
3991 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
3992 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
3995 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
3997 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
3998 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
3999 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
4002 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
4003 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
4004 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
4005 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
4006 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
4008 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
4009 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
4011 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
4012 instead of being optional.
4014 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
4015 modify read-only text.
4017 ** New functions and variables for locales.
4019 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
4020 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
4021 time functions like strftime. The new variables
4022 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
4023 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
4025 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
4026 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
4027 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
4028 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
4029 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
4030 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
4031 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
4033 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
4034 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
4035 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
4038 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
4039 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
4041 ** New function `propertize'
4043 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
4044 strings with text properties.
4046 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
4048 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
4049 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
4050 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
4051 specified value of that property. Example:
4053 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
4055 ** push and pop macros.
4057 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
4058 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
4059 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
4061 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
4062 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
4063 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
4065 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
4067 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
4068 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
4070 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
4071 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
4072 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
4073 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
4075 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
4076 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
4077 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
4078 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
4080 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
4081 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
4082 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
4085 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
4086 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
4087 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
4088 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
4089 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
4091 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
4093 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
4094 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4095 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
4096 [:alpha:] matches letters.
4097 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4098 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
4099 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
4100 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
4101 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
4102 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
4103 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
4104 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
4105 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
4106 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
4107 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
4109 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
4111 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
4113 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
4115 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
4116 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
4120 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
4121 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
4122 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
4126 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
4127 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
4129 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
4131 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
4132 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
4133 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
4134 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
4135 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
4137 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
4139 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
4140 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
4141 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
4145 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
4146 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
4147 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
4148 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
4149 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
4151 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
4153 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
4155 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
4157 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
4159 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
4161 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
4164 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
4166 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
4168 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
4170 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
4172 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
4174 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
4176 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
4178 Returns the size of TABLE.
4180 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
4182 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
4184 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
4186 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
4188 - Function: clrhash TABLE
4192 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
4194 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
4197 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
4199 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
4200 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
4202 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
4204 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
4206 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
4208 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
4209 arguments KEY and VALUE.
4211 - Function: sxhash OBJ
4213 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
4215 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
4217 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
4218 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
4219 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
4220 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
4221 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
4223 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
4225 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
4226 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
4227 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
4229 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
4230 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
4232 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
4233 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
4235 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
4236 (sxhash (upcase a)))
4238 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
4239 'case-fold-string-hash))
4241 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
4243 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
4245 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
4246 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
4247 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
4249 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
4251 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
4252 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
4254 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
4255 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
4256 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
4257 is too short to reach that column.
4259 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
4260 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
4261 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
4262 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
4264 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
4265 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
4266 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
4268 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
4269 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
4271 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
4272 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
4274 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
4275 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
4276 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
4277 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
4278 temporary-file-directory instead.
4280 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
4281 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
4282 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
4283 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
4285 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
4286 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
4288 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
4290 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
4291 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
4292 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
4294 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
4296 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
4297 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
4298 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
4299 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
4300 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
4301 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
4303 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
4304 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
4305 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
4306 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
4308 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
4310 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
4311 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
4312 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
4315 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
4316 string where arguments appear in the result string.
4320 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
4322 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
4323 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
4326 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
4328 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
4330 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
4331 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
4334 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
4336 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
4337 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
4342 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
4343 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
4345 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
4346 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
4347 to enable sound support.
4349 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
4350 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
4351 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
4352 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
4353 sound to play, before playing the sound.
4355 The following sound properties are supported:
4359 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
4360 searched relative to `data-directory'.
4364 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
4365 may be present, but not both.
4369 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
4370 0..1. This property is optional.
4374 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
4375 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
4377 Other properties are ignored.
4379 An alternative interface is called as
4380 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
4382 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
4384 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
4387 ** Changes to garbage collection
4389 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
4390 of live and free strings.
4392 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
4393 strings that have been consed so far.
4396 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
4399 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
4402 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
4403 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
4404 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
4406 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
4408 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
4410 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
4413 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
4415 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
4417 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
4418 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
4419 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
4420 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
4421 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
4423 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
4426 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
4428 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
4429 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
4430 or omitted means use the selected frame.
4432 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
4433 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
4435 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
4438 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
4442 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
4444 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
4445 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
4447 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
4448 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
4449 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
4450 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
4451 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
4452 just display it black instead.
4454 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
4457 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
4461 ** New face implementation.
4463 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
4464 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
4468 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
4470 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
4472 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
4473 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
4475 3. Font height in 1/10pt
4477 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
4479 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
4481 6. Foreground color.
4483 7. Background color.
4485 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
4487 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
4489 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
4491 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
4493 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
4496 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
4497 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
4499 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
4500 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
4501 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
4502 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
4503 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
4504 attributes mentioned above.
4506 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
4507 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
4510 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
4511 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
4516 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
4517 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
4518 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
4519 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
4520 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
4521 results in a fully-specified face.
4523 *** Face realization.
4525 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
4526 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
4527 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
4528 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
4529 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
4530 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
4532 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
4533 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
4534 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
4535 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
4537 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
4538 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
4539 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
4540 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
4541 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
4543 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
4544 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
4545 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
4546 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
4547 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
4550 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
4551 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
4552 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
4553 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
4555 **** Clearing face caches.
4557 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
4558 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
4563 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
4564 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
4565 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
4567 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
4568 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
4569 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
4570 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
4571 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
4573 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
4574 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
4575 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
4577 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
4579 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
4580 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
4581 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
4582 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
4583 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
4584 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
4585 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
4587 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
4588 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
4591 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
4592 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
4595 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
4598 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
4603 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
4604 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
4607 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
4608 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
4609 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
4610 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
4611 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
4614 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
4616 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
4618 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
4620 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
4622 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
4623 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
4624 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
4626 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
4627 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
4628 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
4629 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
4630 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
4631 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
4632 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
4633 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
4634 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
4635 of the face font sort order.
4637 - Function: x-font-family-list
4639 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
4640 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
4641 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
4642 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
4644 - Variable: font-list-limit
4646 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
4647 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
4648 matching font. The default is currently 100.
4650 *** Setting face attributes.
4652 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
4653 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
4654 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
4657 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
4658 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
4660 The following attributes are recognized:
4664 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
4665 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
4666 and `?' are allowed.
4670 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
4671 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
4672 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
4673 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
4677 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
4678 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
4679 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
4680 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
4684 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
4685 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
4686 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
4690 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
4691 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
4694 `:foreground', `:background'
4696 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
4700 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
4701 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
4702 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
4707 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
4708 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
4709 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
4714 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
4715 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
4716 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
4717 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
4721 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
4722 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
4723 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
4724 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
4725 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
4726 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
4727 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
4728 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
4729 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
4730 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
4731 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
4732 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
4733 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
4734 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
4735 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
4736 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
4741 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
4742 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
4746 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
4747 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
4748 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
4749 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
4750 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
4751 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
4753 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
4754 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
4758 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
4759 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
4760 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
4763 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
4764 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
4765 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
4767 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
4772 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
4773 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
4774 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
4776 *** Face attributes and X resources
4778 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
4781 Face attribute X resource class
4782 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
4783 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
4784 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
4785 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
4786 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
4787 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
4788 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
4789 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
4790 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
4791 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
4792 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
4793 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
4794 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
4795 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
4796 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
4797 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
4798 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
4799 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
4800 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
4801 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
4803 *** Text property `face'.
4805 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
4806 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
4807 specification can be
4809 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
4811 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
4812 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
4813 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
4814 for face attribute names.
4816 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
4817 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
4818 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
4820 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
4822 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
4823 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
4824 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
4825 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
4826 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
4827 used to clear the mapping table.
4829 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
4831 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
4832 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
4833 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
4834 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
4835 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
4836 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
4837 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
4838 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
4839 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
4840 modify their color-related behavior.
4842 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
4845 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
4847 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
4848 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
4849 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
4850 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
4851 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
4852 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
4853 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
4854 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
4855 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
4857 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
4858 display can display image files.
4860 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
4862 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
4863 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
4864 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
4865 `Inviolable' option.
4867 The function `minibuffer-prompt-end' returns the current position of the
4868 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
4869 Otherwise, it returns `(point-min)'.
4871 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
4873 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
4874 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
4875 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
4877 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
4878 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
4879 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
4880 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
4881 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
4882 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
4883 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
4886 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
4887 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
4888 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
4890 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
4892 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
4894 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
4896 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4897 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
4898 constrained position if that is different.
4900 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
4901 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
4902 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
4903 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
4904 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
4905 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
4906 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
4907 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
4908 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
4910 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
4911 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
4912 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
4913 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
4914 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
4916 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
4917 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
4919 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
4921 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
4923 Delete the field surrounding POS.
4924 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4925 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4927 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
4929 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
4930 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4931 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4932 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
4933 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
4935 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
4937 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
4938 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4939 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4940 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
4941 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
4943 - Function: field-string &optional POS
4945 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
4946 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4947 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4949 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
4951 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
4952 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4953 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4957 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
4958 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
4959 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
4960 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
4962 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
4963 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
4964 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
4965 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
4968 IMAGE is an image specification.
4970 *** Image specifications
4972 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
4973 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
4974 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
4975 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
4976 described below are ignored.
4978 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
4982 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
4983 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
4984 to use for its ascent.
4986 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
4987 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
4989 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
4990 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
4991 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
4992 overlays that apply to the image.
4996 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
4997 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
4998 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
5002 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
5007 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
5009 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
5010 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
5012 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
5013 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
5014 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
5015 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
5016 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
5017 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
5018 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
5019 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
5022 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
5024 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
5026 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
5027 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
5028 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
5029 of the factors' absolute values.
5031 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
5037 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
5043 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
5048 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
5049 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
5050 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
5051 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
5052 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
5053 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
5054 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
5057 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
5058 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
5063 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
5064 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
5065 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
5066 may be present in the image specification.
5070 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
5071 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
5072 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
5073 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
5075 *** Supported image types
5077 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
5079 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
5080 properties supported are
5084 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5085 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground.
5089 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5090 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
5092 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
5093 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
5094 instead of a `:file' property.
5098 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
5102 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
5108 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
5109 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
5111 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
5113 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
5116 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
5117 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
5120 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
5122 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
5123 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
5124 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
5125 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
5127 Additional image properties supported are:
5129 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
5131 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
5132 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
5135 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
5136 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
5138 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
5139 to display compressed images.
5141 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
5143 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
5144 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
5149 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5150 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground.
5154 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
5155 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
5157 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
5159 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
5160 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
5163 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
5165 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
5166 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
5169 **** GIF, image type `gif'
5171 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
5172 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
5174 Additional image properties supported are:
5178 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
5179 multi-image GIF file. An error is signaled if INDEX is too large.
5181 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
5182 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
5183 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
5186 (defun show-anim (file max)
5187 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
5188 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
5190 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
5193 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
5196 (goto-char (point-min))
5197 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
5198 (insert-image img "x"))
5199 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
5201 **** PNG, image type `png'
5203 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
5204 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
5207 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
5209 Additional image properties supported are:
5213 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
5214 integer. This is a required property.
5218 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
5219 must be a integer. This is an required property.
5223 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
5224 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
5225 files. This is an required property.
5227 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
5232 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
5233 which are supported in the current configuration.
5235 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
5236 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
5237 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
5238 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
5239 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
5241 *** Simplified image API, image.el
5243 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
5244 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
5245 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
5246 define an image based on available image types. The functions
5247 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
5252 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
5255 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
5256 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
5257 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
5258 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
5259 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
5260 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
5261 of the display margins.
5263 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
5264 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
5265 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
5266 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
5271 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
5272 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
5273 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
5274 that have a `help-echo' property.
5276 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
5277 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
5278 the window in which the help was found.
5280 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
5281 `help-echo' text property was found.
5283 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
5284 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
5286 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
5287 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
5290 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
5291 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
5293 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
5294 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
5295 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
5296 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
5297 used as help string.
5299 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
5300 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
5301 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
5303 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
5305 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
5306 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
5308 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
5309 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
5310 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
5311 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
5314 (global-set-key [A-down]
5317 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
5318 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
5319 (global-set-key [A-up]
5322 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
5323 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
5325 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
5327 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
5328 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
5329 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
5330 is called with one argument, POS.
5332 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
5333 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
5334 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
5335 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
5336 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
5338 ** Tool bar support.
5340 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
5341 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
5342 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
5343 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
5344 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
5345 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
5347 *** Tool bar item definitions
5349 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
5350 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
5351 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
5353 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
5354 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
5355 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
5356 property (see below).
5358 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
5359 binding are currently ignored.
5361 The following properties are recognized:
5365 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
5370 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
5374 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
5375 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
5376 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
5378 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
5380 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
5381 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
5385 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
5386 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
5387 meaning of each of the four elements:
5389 Index Use when item is
5390 ----------------------------------------
5391 0 enabled and selected
5392 1 enabled and deselected
5393 2 disabled and selected
5394 3 disabled and deselected
5396 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
5397 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
5399 `:help HELP-STRING'.
5401 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
5402 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
5404 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
5405 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
5406 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
5409 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
5410 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
5411 buffer-locally to override the global map.
5413 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
5415 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
5416 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
5417 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
5419 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
5420 raised when the mouse moves over them.
5422 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
5423 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
5424 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
5425 vertical margins . Default is 1.
5427 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
5428 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
5430 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
5432 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
5435 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
5436 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
5437 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
5439 is the original tool bar item definition, then
5441 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
5443 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
5446 ** Mode line changes.
5448 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
5450 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
5451 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
5452 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
5454 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
5455 a `local-map' text property.
5457 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
5458 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
5460 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
5461 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
5462 `local-map' property.
5464 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
5465 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
5468 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
5469 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
5471 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
5472 variable mode-line-format to nil.
5474 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
5476 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
5477 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
5478 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
5479 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
5482 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
5485 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
5486 position in the header-line.
5488 ** Text property `display'
5490 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
5491 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
5492 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
5493 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
5494 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
5496 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
5498 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
5499 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
5501 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
5502 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
5503 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
5504 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
5505 simpler form STRING as property value.
5507 *** Variable width and height spaces
5509 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
5510 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
5511 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
5512 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
5513 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
5514 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
5515 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
5517 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
5518 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
5519 properties described below.
5521 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
5522 characters having the `display' property.
5526 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
5527 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
5529 - :relative-width FACTOR
5531 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
5532 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
5533 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
5534 width of that character by FACTOR.
5538 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
5539 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
5541 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
5545 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
5548 - :relative-height FACTOR
5550 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
5551 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
5555 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
5556 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
5557 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
5560 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
5564 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
5565 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
5566 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
5567 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
5568 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
5569 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
5570 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
5571 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
5572 as display specification.
5574 *** Other display properties
5576 - (space-width FACTOR)
5578 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
5579 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
5584 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
5586 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
5587 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
5588 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
5589 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
5590 a font is available counts as a step.
5592 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
5593 as tall as the frame's default font.
5595 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
5596 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
5598 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
5599 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
5603 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
5604 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
5605 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
5606 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
5607 `height' subproperty.
5609 *** Conditional display properties
5611 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
5612 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
5613 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
5614 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
5615 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
5616 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
5617 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
5618 different when object is a string.
5620 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
5623 ** New menu separator types.
5625 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
5626 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
5627 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
5628 to specify other menu separator types.
5630 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
5632 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
5635 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
5637 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
5639 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
5641 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
5643 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
5645 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
5647 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
5649 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
5651 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
5653 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
5654 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
5656 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
5658 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
5660 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
5662 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
5664 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
5666 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
5668 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
5670 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
5672 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
5674 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
5676 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
5678 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
5680 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
5682 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
5684 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
5685 the corresponding single-line separators.
5687 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
5689 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
5690 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
5691 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
5692 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
5693 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
5694 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
5695 default foreground is black.
5697 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
5698 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
5699 `ScrollBarBackground').
5701 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
5702 settings for scroll bar colors.
5704 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
5705 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
5707 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
5708 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
5709 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
5710 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
5711 the original window start.
5713 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
5714 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
5715 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
5717 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
5719 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
5720 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
5721 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
5722 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
5724 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
5725 fixed-width and fixed-height.
5727 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
5729 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
5730 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
5731 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
5732 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
5733 temporarily to nil, for example
5735 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
5736 (enlarge-window 10))
5738 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
5739 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
5741 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
5742 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
5743 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
5744 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
5745 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
5746 support a vertical-bar cursor).
5750 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
5752 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
5755 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
5757 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
5759 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
5760 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
5761 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
5762 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
5763 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
5765 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
5769 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
5771 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
5775 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
5777 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
5778 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
5780 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
5782 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
5784 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
5785 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
5786 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
5788 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
5789 is the one that is used.
5791 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
5792 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
5793 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
5794 separate from the command's regular output.
5795 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
5796 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
5797 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
5800 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
5801 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
5802 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
5803 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
5805 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
5806 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
5807 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
5808 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
5810 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
5811 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
5812 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
5813 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
5815 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
5816 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
5817 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
5818 they never ignore case.
5820 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
5821 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
5822 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
5823 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
5824 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
5825 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
5826 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
5828 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
5829 the same format that was used in the file before.
5831 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
5832 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
5834 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
5835 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
5836 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
5838 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
5839 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
5840 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
5841 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
5842 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
5843 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
5844 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
5846 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
5847 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
5848 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
5849 format. You can now customize these variables.
5851 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
5852 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
5853 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
5854 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
5856 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
5857 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
5858 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
5860 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
5861 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
5862 doesn't have any effect.
5864 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
5867 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
5868 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
5869 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
5871 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
5872 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
5873 `auto-show-mode' command.
5875 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
5876 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
5877 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
5878 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
5879 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
5881 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
5882 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
5884 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
5885 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
5886 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
5888 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
5889 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
5890 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
5891 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
5893 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
5895 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
5896 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
5897 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
5898 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
5899 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
5901 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
5902 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
5904 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
5905 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
5906 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
5907 `?' on other systems.
5909 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
5910 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
5913 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
5914 current codepage when it starts.
5918 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
5919 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
5920 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
5921 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
5922 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
5923 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
5927 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
5928 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
5930 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
5931 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
5932 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
5933 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
5934 buffer-file-coding-system.
5936 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
5937 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
5940 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
5941 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
5942 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
5943 list of possible coding systems.
5947 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
5948 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
5949 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
5950 docstring for details.
5952 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
5953 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
5954 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
5955 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
5956 lineup functions use this feature currently.
5958 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
5959 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
5961 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
5962 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
5964 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
5965 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
5966 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
5967 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
5970 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
5971 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
5973 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
5974 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
5975 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
5976 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
5978 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
5979 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
5980 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
5981 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
5982 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
5984 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
5986 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
5988 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
5989 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
5991 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
5993 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
5994 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
5995 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
5996 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
5997 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
6001 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
6002 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
6003 Gnus manual for the full story.
6005 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
6006 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
6007 group, which is created automatically.
6009 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
6012 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
6014 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
6015 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
6017 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
6020 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
6022 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
6023 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
6025 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
6027 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
6028 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
6030 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
6031 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
6033 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
6034 control over simplification.
6036 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
6038 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
6041 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
6043 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
6045 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
6046 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
6047 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
6049 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
6050 `a' forces normal posting method.
6052 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
6055 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
6058 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
6059 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
6061 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
6064 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
6066 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
6068 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
6069 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
6071 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
6072 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
6074 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
6076 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
6079 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
6080 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
6082 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
6083 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
6085 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
6087 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
6089 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
6091 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
6093 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
6094 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
6095 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
6097 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
6098 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
6099 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
6100 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
6101 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
6103 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
6104 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
6105 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
6106 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
6108 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
6109 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
6110 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
6113 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
6115 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
6116 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
6118 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
6119 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
6120 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
6121 removed from the label.
6123 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
6124 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
6126 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
6127 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
6129 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
6130 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
6133 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
6135 ** New/deleted modes and packages
6137 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
6138 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
6140 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
6141 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
6142 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
6144 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
6145 changes with a special face.
6147 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
6148 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
6149 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
6151 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
6153 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
6154 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
6155 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
6156 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
6157 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
6159 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
6160 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
6161 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
6163 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
6164 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
6165 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
6166 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
6167 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
6168 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
6169 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
6170 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
6171 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
6173 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
6174 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
6175 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
6176 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
6177 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
6180 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
6181 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
6182 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
6183 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
6184 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
6185 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
6187 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
6188 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
6189 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
6190 was not documented clearly before.
6192 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
6193 This includes Tetris and Snake.
6195 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
6197 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
6198 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
6199 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
6200 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
6202 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
6203 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
6204 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
6206 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
6208 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
6209 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
6211 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
6212 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
6215 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
6216 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
6217 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
6218 file names and attributes are returned.
6220 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
6221 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
6222 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
6223 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
6226 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
6227 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
6229 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
6231 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
6232 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
6233 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
6236 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
6237 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
6240 The new function process-running-child-p
6241 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
6242 terminal to its own child process.
6244 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
6245 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
6246 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
6247 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
6249 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
6250 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
6252 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
6253 :included is an alias for :visible.
6255 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
6256 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
6257 to move or copy menu entries.
6259 ** Multibyte editing changes
6261 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
6262 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
6263 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
6264 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
6265 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
6266 (setq char (sref str idx)
6267 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
6268 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
6270 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
6271 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
6272 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
6274 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
6275 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
6276 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
6278 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
6280 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
6281 across the boundary.
6283 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
6284 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
6285 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
6286 contains 8-bit characters.
6287 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
6288 contains invalid characters.
6290 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
6291 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
6292 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
6293 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
6296 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
6297 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
6298 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
6299 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
6301 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
6302 compose Thai characters in a string.
6304 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
6305 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
6306 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
6307 menus should always use the third argument.
6309 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
6310 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
6311 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
6312 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
6314 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
6315 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
6316 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
6317 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
6319 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
6320 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
6321 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
6324 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
6326 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
6327 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
6328 requested feature cannot be loaded.
6330 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
6331 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
6332 means to clear out that attribute.
6334 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
6335 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
6337 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
6338 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
6339 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
6340 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
6342 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
6343 the gap of the current buffer.
6345 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
6346 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
6349 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
6350 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
6351 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
6352 it back in after any modifications have been made.
6354 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
6356 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
6357 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
6358 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
6359 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
6360 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
6362 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
6363 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
6364 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
6365 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
6366 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
6368 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
6369 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
6370 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
6372 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
6373 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
6374 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
6375 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
6376 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
6379 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
6380 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
6381 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
6382 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
6384 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
6386 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
6387 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
6388 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
6389 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
6391 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
6392 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
6393 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
6394 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
6395 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
6396 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
6397 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
6400 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
6403 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
6404 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
6405 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
6406 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
6407 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
6409 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
6410 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
6411 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
6412 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
6414 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
6415 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
6416 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
6417 something that most users not do.
6419 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
6420 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
6421 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
6424 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
6427 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
6428 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
6429 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
6430 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
6433 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
6434 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
6435 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
6436 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
6437 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
6440 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
6441 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
6442 to be confused by TeX commands.
6444 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
6445 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
6446 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
6447 of various alternative replacements and actions.
6449 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
6450 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
6451 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
6452 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
6453 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
6455 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
6456 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
6458 ** Changes in input method usage.
6460 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
6461 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
6464 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
6466 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
6467 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
6469 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
6470 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
6472 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
6474 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
6476 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
6477 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
6479 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
6480 given in the following case:
6481 o When you are using a complex input method.
6482 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
6484 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
6485 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
6486 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
6487 setting it to t is helpful.
6489 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
6491 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
6493 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
6494 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
6495 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
6496 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
6499 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
6500 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
6501 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
6504 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
6506 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
6508 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
6509 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
6511 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
6512 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
6513 its owner and group.
6515 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
6516 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
6518 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
6519 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
6521 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
6522 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
6523 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
6524 by the left edge of the rectangle.
6526 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
6527 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
6528 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
6529 for writing keyboard macros.
6531 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
6532 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
6533 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
6534 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
6535 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
6538 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
6540 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
6541 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
6544 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
6545 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
6546 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
6547 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
6549 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
6550 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
6551 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
6553 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
6554 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
6555 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
6556 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
6558 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
6559 failure if the command produces no output.
6561 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
6562 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
6565 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
6566 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
6567 function and variable names.
6569 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
6570 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
6571 file-coding-system-alist.
6573 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
6574 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
6575 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
6576 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
6577 according to the current fontset.
6579 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
6581 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
6582 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
6583 nonascii-insert-offset.
6585 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
6586 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
6587 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
6588 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
6590 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
6591 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
6593 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
6594 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
6596 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
6597 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
6600 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
6601 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
6603 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
6604 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
6605 all variables that have documentation.
6607 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
6608 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
6609 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
6610 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
6611 it should show; the default is 20.
6613 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
6614 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
6617 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
6618 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
6619 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
6620 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
6621 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
6622 Newly added options are included as well.
6624 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
6625 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
6626 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
6628 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
6631 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
6632 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
6634 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
6635 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
6638 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
6639 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
6642 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
6643 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
6644 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
6645 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
6648 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
6650 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
6651 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
6652 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
6654 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
6655 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
6656 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
6661 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
6662 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
6664 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
6665 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
6667 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
6668 read and post multi-lingual articles.
6670 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
6671 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
6672 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
6673 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
6674 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
6675 made invisible again.
6677 ** Mail reading and sending changes
6679 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
6680 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
6681 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
6684 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
6685 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
6686 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
6687 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
6688 rmail-default-body-file.
6690 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
6691 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
6692 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
6694 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
6695 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
6696 is evaluated to insert the signature.
6698 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
6699 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
6700 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
6701 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
6702 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
6703 especially interested in trying feedmail.
6705 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
6706 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
6707 provided by feedmail are:
6709 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
6710 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
6711 there is also a queue for draft messages
6713 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
6714 be prompted for confirmation
6716 **** does smart filling of address headers
6718 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
6719 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
6720 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
6722 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
6723 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
6724 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
6725 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
6729 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
6730 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
6732 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
6733 run Dired on the directory name at point.
6735 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
6736 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
6737 for a specified regexp.
6741 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
6744 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
6745 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
6748 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
6749 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
6750 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
6751 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
6753 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
6754 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
6755 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
6756 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
6757 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
6759 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
6760 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
6761 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
6762 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
6763 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
6765 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
6766 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
6767 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
6768 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
6770 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
6771 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
6772 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
6774 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
6775 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
6776 session to resolve them.
6778 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
6779 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
6780 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
6783 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
6784 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
6785 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
6786 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
6787 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
6788 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
6791 ** Changes in Font Lock
6793 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
6794 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
6795 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
6796 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
6797 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
6799 ** Frame name display changes
6801 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
6802 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
6803 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
6804 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
6806 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
6807 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
6810 ** Comint (subshell) changes
6812 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
6813 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
6814 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
6816 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
6818 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
6819 that is, the line after the last line you got.
6820 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
6822 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
6823 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
6826 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
6827 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
6828 previously sent input.
6830 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
6831 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
6832 as the search string.
6834 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
6835 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
6839 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
6840 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
6841 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
6844 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
6845 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
6846 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
6847 style is still the default however.
6849 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
6851 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
6852 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
6853 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
6855 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
6856 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
6858 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
6859 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
6861 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
6862 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
6864 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
6865 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
6867 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
6868 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
6869 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
6870 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
6872 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
6874 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
6875 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
6876 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
6878 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
6879 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
6880 expanding dynamically.
6882 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
6883 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
6885 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
6886 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
6887 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
6888 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
6890 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
6892 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6894 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
6895 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
6896 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
6897 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
6898 against the first word in the title.
6900 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
6901 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
6902 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
6903 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
6904 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
6905 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
6907 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
6908 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
6909 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
6910 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
6912 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
6914 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
6915 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
6916 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
6917 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
6918 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
6919 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
6921 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
6922 Editing group once the package is loaded.
6924 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
6925 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
6926 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
6928 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
6929 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
6933 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
6934 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
6935 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
6937 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
6938 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
6939 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
6940 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
6943 o URLs are automatically skipped
6944 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
6946 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
6948 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
6950 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
6951 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
6952 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
6953 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
6955 *** New recursive parser.
6957 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
6958 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
6959 recursive parser scans the individual files.
6961 *** Parsing only part of a document.
6963 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
6964 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
6965 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
6967 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
6969 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
6971 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
6973 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
6975 *** Using multiple selection buffers
6977 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
6978 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
6980 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
6982 *** References to external documents.
6984 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
6985 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
6986 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
6987 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
6988 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
6989 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
6990 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
6992 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
6994 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
6995 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
6997 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
6998 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
7000 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
7002 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
7003 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
7005 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
7007 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
7008 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
7009 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
7010 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
7011 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
7012 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
7015 *** Support for the varioref package
7017 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
7021 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
7022 and citations are created. These hooks are
7023 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
7024 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
7026 *** Citations outside LaTeX
7028 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
7029 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
7031 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
7033 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
7034 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
7037 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
7039 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
7040 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
7041 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
7042 directories that contain the same file name.
7044 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
7045 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
7046 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
7047 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
7048 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
7049 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
7050 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
7053 ** New modes and packages
7055 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
7056 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
7057 it, but some do not.
7059 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
7062 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
7063 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
7066 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
7068 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
7069 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
7070 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
7071 established system of notation similar to Chess.
7073 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
7074 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
7075 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
7077 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
7078 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
7079 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
7080 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
7081 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
7084 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
7085 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
7087 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
7088 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
7089 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
7090 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
7092 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
7094 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
7095 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
7096 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
7097 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
7098 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
7099 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
7100 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
7101 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
7102 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
7103 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
7104 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
7106 Platform-specific modes:
7108 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
7109 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
7110 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
7111 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
7112 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
7113 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
7114 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
7115 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
7116 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
7118 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
7120 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
7121 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
7122 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
7123 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
7125 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
7126 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
7127 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
7129 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
7130 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
7131 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
7132 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
7134 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
7135 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
7136 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
7139 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
7140 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
7141 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
7142 current input method for reading this one event.
7144 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
7145 now control whether to output certain characters as
7146 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
7147 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
7148 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
7149 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
7151 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
7153 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
7154 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
7156 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
7157 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
7158 always increases point by 1.
7160 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
7161 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
7163 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
7165 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
7166 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
7167 default value changed. For example,
7169 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
7174 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
7177 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
7178 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
7179 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
7180 `:version' in the top level group.
7182 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
7184 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
7185 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
7187 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
7188 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
7189 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
7192 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
7193 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
7196 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
7197 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
7198 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
7200 ** Frame-local variables.
7202 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
7203 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
7204 local bindings for that variable.
7206 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
7207 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
7208 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
7211 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
7212 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
7213 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
7214 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
7216 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
7217 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
7218 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
7219 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
7221 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
7222 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
7223 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
7224 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
7225 See the documentation in sregex.el.
7227 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
7228 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
7229 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
7230 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
7232 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
7233 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
7235 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
7236 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
7237 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
7239 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
7240 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
7241 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
7242 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
7244 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
7245 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
7248 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
7249 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
7250 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
7251 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
7252 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
7254 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
7255 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
7256 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
7257 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
7259 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
7260 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
7261 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
7262 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
7263 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
7265 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
7266 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
7267 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
7268 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
7270 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
7271 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
7272 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
7274 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
7275 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
7276 was directed to display this buffer.
7278 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
7279 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
7280 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
7281 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
7282 set-window-configuration.
7284 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
7285 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
7286 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
7287 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
7289 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
7290 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
7291 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
7293 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
7294 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
7295 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
7297 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
7298 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
7300 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
7301 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
7303 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
7304 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
7305 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
7307 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
7308 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
7309 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
7310 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
7314 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
7315 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
7318 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
7319 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
7320 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
7321 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
7322 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
7324 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
7326 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
7327 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
7328 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
7329 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
7332 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
7333 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
7334 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
7335 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
7336 The supported properties include
7338 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
7340 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
7341 item should appear in the menu.
7343 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
7344 which will be REAL-BINDING.
7345 It should return a binding to use instead.
7347 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
7348 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
7349 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
7350 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
7351 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
7354 This means that the command normally has no
7355 keyboard equivalent.
7356 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
7357 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
7358 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
7359 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
7360 value says whether this button is currently selected.
7362 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
7363 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
7365 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
7369 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
7370 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
7371 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
7372 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
7374 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
7376 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
7377 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
7378 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
7379 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
7380 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
7381 forward, away from the user.
7383 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
7385 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
7386 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
7387 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
7388 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
7389 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
7391 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
7393 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
7394 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
7395 that were dragged and dropped.
7397 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
7399 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
7401 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
7402 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
7403 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
7405 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
7406 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
7407 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
7409 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
7410 in Emacs 19 and before.
7412 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
7413 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
7415 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
7416 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
7417 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
7418 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
7420 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
7421 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
7422 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
7423 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
7424 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
7426 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
7427 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
7428 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
7429 consistent with the new representation.
7431 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
7432 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
7433 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
7434 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
7436 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
7437 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
7438 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
7440 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
7441 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
7442 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
7444 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
7445 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
7446 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
7448 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
7449 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
7451 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
7452 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
7454 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
7455 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
7456 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
7457 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
7459 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
7460 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
7462 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
7463 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
7464 buffer or string being searched.
7466 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
7467 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
7468 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
7469 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
7470 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
7471 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
7472 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
7474 *** Structure of coding system changed.
7476 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
7477 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
7478 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
7479 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
7480 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
7481 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
7482 define-coding-system-alias.
7484 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
7485 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
7486 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
7487 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
7488 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
7489 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
7490 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
7493 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
7494 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
7495 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
7496 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
7498 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
7499 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
7500 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
7501 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
7503 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
7504 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
7505 This function requires a user interaction.
7507 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
7508 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
7509 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
7510 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
7511 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
7512 select-safe-coding-system.
7514 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
7515 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
7516 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
7519 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
7520 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
7521 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
7523 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
7524 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
7525 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
7526 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
7528 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
7529 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
7530 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
7533 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
7534 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
7536 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
7537 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
7538 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
7539 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
7540 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
7541 range of characters.
7543 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
7544 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
7546 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
7547 in the current buffer at position POS.
7549 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
7550 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
7551 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
7552 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
7553 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
7554 binding input-method-function to nil.
7556 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
7557 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
7558 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
7559 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
7560 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
7562 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
7563 subsequent events of a key sequence.
7565 *** You can customize any language environment by using
7566 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
7568 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
7569 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
7570 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
7571 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
7572 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
7574 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
7576 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
7577 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
7578 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
7581 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
7582 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
7584 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
7585 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
7586 in your .emacs file.)
7588 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
7589 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
7591 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
7592 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
7594 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
7595 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
7598 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
7599 delete the character before point, as usual.
7601 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
7602 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
7603 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
7605 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
7606 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
7607 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
7608 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
7609 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
7612 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
7613 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
7614 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
7615 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
7616 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
7618 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
7619 and is an alias for it.
7621 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
7622 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
7624 ** Scrolling changes
7626 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
7627 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
7629 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
7630 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
7633 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
7634 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
7635 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
7636 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
7638 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
7639 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
7640 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
7641 recenters the window.
7643 ** International character set support (MULE)
7645 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
7646 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
7647 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
7648 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
7649 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
7650 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
7652 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
7653 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
7654 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
7655 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
7656 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
7658 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
7659 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
7660 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
7661 language, to make it possible to type them.
7663 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
7664 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
7666 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
7667 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
7669 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
7671 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
7673 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
7674 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
7675 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
7676 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
7677 characters for their work until they want to change.
7681 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
7682 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
7683 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
7684 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
7685 support several input methods.
7687 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
7688 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
7691 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
7692 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
7693 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
7694 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
7695 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
7698 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
7699 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
7700 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
7701 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
7702 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
7704 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
7705 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
7706 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
7707 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
7709 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
7710 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
7711 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
7712 the first guess is wrong.
7714 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
7715 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
7717 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
7718 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
7719 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
7720 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
7722 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
7723 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
7724 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
7725 translate automatically to and from either one.
7727 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
7729 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
7730 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
7731 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
7734 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
7735 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
7736 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
7737 multibyte characters in that buffer.
7739 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
7740 character conversion as well.
7742 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
7744 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
7745 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
7746 requires using many fonts.
7748 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
7749 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
7751 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
7752 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
7753 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
7754 you would use a font.
7756 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
7757 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
7758 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
7760 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
7761 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
7764 *** Defining fontsets.
7766 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
7767 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
7768 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
7770 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
7771 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
7772 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
7773 standard fontset are created automatically.
7775 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
7776 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
7777 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
7778 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
7779 name is `fontset-startup'.
7781 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
7782 The resource value should have this form:
7783 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
7784 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
7785 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
7786 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
7787 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
7788 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
7789 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
7790 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
7791 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
7793 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
7794 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
7795 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
7797 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
7798 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
7800 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
7801 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
7802 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
7803 Here is the substitution rule:
7804 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
7805 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
7806 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
7807 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
7808 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
7810 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
7811 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
7812 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
7814 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
7815 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
7816 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
7817 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
7820 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
7821 defaults for a particular choice of language.
7823 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
7824 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
7825 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
7826 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
7827 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
7828 system for new files that you create.
7830 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
7831 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
7832 whole Emacs session.
7834 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
7835 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
7836 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
7838 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
7839 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
7840 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
7841 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
7842 coding systems that Emacs supports.
7844 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
7845 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
7846 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
7847 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
7848 is used for *the immediately following command*.
7850 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
7851 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
7853 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
7854 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
7856 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
7857 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
7859 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
7860 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
7861 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
7862 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
7865 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
7866 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
7867 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
7868 translated into that character code.
7870 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
7871 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
7873 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
7875 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
7876 the coding system for keyboard input.
7878 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
7879 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
7880 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
7882 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
7884 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
7885 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
7886 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
7887 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
7888 designed to work with terminals.
7890 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
7891 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
7892 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
7893 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
7894 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
7895 in the corresponding buffer.
7897 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
7899 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
7900 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
7901 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
7903 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
7904 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
7905 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
7908 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
7909 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
7911 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
7912 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
7913 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
7914 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
7916 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
7917 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
7918 related information.
7920 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
7921 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
7924 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
7925 information about the support for a particular language.
7926 You specify the language as an argument.
7928 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
7929 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
7932 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
7933 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
7934 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
7935 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
7937 A alternativnyj (Russian)
7939 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
7940 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
7941 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
7942 E euc-japan (Japanese)
7943 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
7944 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
7945 K euc-korea (Korean)
7948 S shift_jis (Japanese)
7951 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
7952 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
7953 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
7957 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
7958 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
7959 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
7960 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
7962 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
7963 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
7965 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
7966 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
7967 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
7968 Rmail files themselves.
7970 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
7971 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
7973 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
7976 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
7977 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
7978 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
7979 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
7980 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
7982 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
7983 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
7984 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
7987 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
7988 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
7989 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
7990 without any conversion.
7992 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
7993 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
7994 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
7995 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
7997 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
7998 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
8000 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
8001 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
8003 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
8004 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
8006 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
8007 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
8008 in the buffer before point.
8010 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
8011 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
8014 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
8015 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
8017 ** File locking works with NFS now.
8019 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
8020 in the same directory as FILENAME.
8022 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
8023 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
8024 can become a bottleneck.
8026 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
8027 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
8028 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
8029 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
8030 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
8031 so useful that the change is worth while.
8033 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
8034 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
8035 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
8036 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
8038 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
8039 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
8042 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
8043 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
8044 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
8046 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
8047 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
8048 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
8050 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
8051 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
8052 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
8054 ** Changes in View mode.
8056 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
8057 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
8059 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
8060 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
8062 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
8065 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
8066 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
8068 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
8069 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
8070 not just the selected window.
8072 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
8073 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
8074 turns View mode on or off.
8076 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
8077 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
8078 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
8080 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
8081 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
8083 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
8084 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
8085 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
8086 which version to compare with.
8088 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
8089 blocks if a match is inside the block.
8091 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
8092 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
8093 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
8094 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
8096 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
8097 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
8098 blocks, all of them or none.
8100 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
8101 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
8104 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
8105 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
8106 However, the mode will not be changed if
8107 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
8108 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
8109 not suitable for ordinary files, or
8110 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
8112 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
8114 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
8115 these commands do not change the major mode.
8117 ** M-x occur changes.
8119 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
8120 it performs a case-sensitive search.
8122 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
8123 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
8124 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
8126 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
8127 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
8128 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
8129 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
8130 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
8132 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
8133 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
8134 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
8135 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
8137 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
8138 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
8139 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
8141 ** Outline mode changes.
8143 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
8145 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
8147 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
8148 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
8149 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
8152 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
8153 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
8156 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
8157 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
8159 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
8161 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
8162 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
8163 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
8164 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
8166 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
8167 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
8168 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
8170 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
8171 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
8174 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
8175 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
8176 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
8177 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
8179 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
8180 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
8181 can be. The default value is 30.
8183 ** Changes in Mail mode.
8185 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
8186 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
8187 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
8188 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
8189 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
8192 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
8193 compose-mail-other-frame.
8195 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
8196 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
8197 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
8198 buffer that shows the original message.
8200 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
8201 with separator lines around the contents.
8203 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
8204 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
8205 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
8206 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
8208 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
8210 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
8211 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
8212 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
8213 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
8215 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
8216 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
8219 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
8220 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
8223 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
8224 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
8225 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
8226 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
8228 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
8229 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
8230 be taken to be magic.
8232 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
8233 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
8234 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
8236 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
8237 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
8239 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
8240 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
8242 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
8244 new key dired.el binding old key
8245 ------- ---------------- -------
8246 * c dired-change-marks c
8248 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
8249 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
8250 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
8252 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
8253 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
8254 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
8255 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
8256 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
8257 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
8261 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
8262 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
8263 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
8264 each time you run it.
8266 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
8267 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
8269 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
8270 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
8271 means to move in the opposite direction.
8273 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
8274 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
8276 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
8277 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
8278 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
8279 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
8284 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
8286 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
8289 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
8290 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
8292 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
8295 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
8297 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
8299 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
8301 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
8302 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
8303 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
8305 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
8307 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
8309 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
8310 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
8312 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
8313 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
8314 used to pick articles.
8316 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
8317 another have been added.
8319 `M-x gnus-change-server'
8321 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
8322 generating lines in buffers.
8324 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
8327 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
8329 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
8331 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
8333 *** Scores can be decayed.
8335 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
8337 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
8338 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
8340 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
8343 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
8345 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
8346 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
8348 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
8350 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
8351 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
8353 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
8354 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
8356 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
8359 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
8360 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
8362 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
8364 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
8366 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
8368 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
8370 Use the `Y c' command.
8372 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
8374 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
8376 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
8378 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
8379 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
8381 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
8383 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
8385 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
8386 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
8388 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
8390 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
8391 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
8392 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
8393 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
8396 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
8397 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
8398 particular news group. This can be done by:
8400 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
8402 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
8403 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
8404 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
8405 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
8406 for reading and posting).
8408 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
8409 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
8410 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
8411 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
8414 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
8415 default. Here are some of these default settings:
8417 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
8418 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
8419 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
8420 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
8421 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
8423 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
8424 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
8428 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
8429 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
8430 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
8431 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
8432 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
8435 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
8436 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
8437 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
8438 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
8439 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
8440 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
8442 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
8443 of the current buffer.
8445 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
8446 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
8447 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
8449 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
8450 style that the Python developers like.
8452 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
8453 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
8454 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
8458 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
8459 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
8460 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
8462 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
8463 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
8466 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
8467 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
8469 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
8470 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
8471 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
8472 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
8474 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
8475 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
8477 ** Calendar changes.
8479 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
8480 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
8481 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
8482 following/previous years.
8484 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
8485 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
8486 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
8487 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
8488 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
8489 supposed attribute of God.
8493 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
8496 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
8498 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
8499 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
8500 printer system has this behavior, set variable
8501 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
8503 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
8504 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
8505 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
8507 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
8508 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
8510 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
8511 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
8512 printing for your printer.
8514 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
8515 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
8517 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
8518 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
8520 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
8521 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
8522 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
8523 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
8524 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
8525 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
8526 The default value is nil.
8528 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
8529 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
8531 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
8532 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
8533 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
8534 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
8535 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
8536 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
8537 color). The default is 0 ("black").
8539 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
8540 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
8542 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
8543 The default is 0 ("black").
8545 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
8546 The default is 0 ("black").
8548 border-width Specify the border width.
8551 Any other property is ignored.
8553 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
8554 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
8557 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
8558 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
8559 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
8560 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
8561 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
8562 controlling headers.
8564 *** Color management (subgroup)
8566 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
8569 *** Face Management (subgroup)
8571 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
8572 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
8573 background should be used. Valid values are:
8575 t always use face background color.
8576 nil never use face background color.
8577 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
8579 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
8581 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
8584 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
8585 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
8587 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
8590 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
8591 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
8592 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
8594 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
8598 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
8602 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
8606 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
8610 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
8612 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
8614 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
8617 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
8618 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
8619 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
8621 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
8622 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8623 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8624 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8625 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8629 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8630 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8631 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8634 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8635 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8636 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
8637 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
8638 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
8639 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8640 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8641 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8642 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
8643 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
8644 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
8647 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8649 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
8652 *** Printer management (subgroup)
8654 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
8655 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
8656 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
8657 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
8660 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
8661 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
8662 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
8664 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
8665 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
8668 *** Page settings (subgroup)
8670 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
8671 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
8672 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
8673 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
8674 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
8675 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
8678 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
8679 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
8680 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
8682 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
8683 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
8684 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
8685 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
8686 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
8687 its TO, are ignored.
8689 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
8690 pages. Valid values are:
8692 nil print all pages.
8694 `even-page' print only even pages.
8696 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
8698 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
8699 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
8700 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
8701 print only the even sheet of paper.
8703 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
8704 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
8705 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
8706 only the odd sheet of paper.
8708 Any other value is treated as nil.
8710 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
8711 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
8712 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
8714 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
8716 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
8717 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
8719 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
8720 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
8721 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
8722 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
8723 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
8724 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
8725 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
8727 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
8728 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
8729 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
8730 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
8731 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
8732 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
8733 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
8735 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
8737 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
8738 messages should be sent.
8740 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
8741 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
8742 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
8744 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
8746 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
8747 points for line numbers.
8749 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
8750 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
8752 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
8753 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
8754 to 2, the printing will look like:
8766 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
8767 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
8770 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
8771 zebra stripe is to be printed.
8773 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
8775 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
8776 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
8777 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
8778 3, the output will look like:
8792 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
8793 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
8795 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
8796 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
8799 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
8800 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
8803 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
8805 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
8806 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
8808 ** hideshow changes.
8810 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
8813 *** Support for java-mode added.
8815 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
8816 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
8818 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
8819 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
8820 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
8822 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
8823 robust and a lot faster.
8825 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
8827 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
8828 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
8829 documentation for more details.
8831 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
8833 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
8834 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
8835 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
8836 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
8837 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
8839 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
8840 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
8841 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
8842 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
8848 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
8849 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
8850 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
8851 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
8852 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
8853 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
8855 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
8857 *** Maximum decoration
8859 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
8860 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
8861 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
8862 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
8863 to get the old behavior.
8867 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
8869 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
8870 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
8872 *** Configurable support
8874 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
8875 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
8876 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
8877 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
8878 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
8879 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
8880 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
8882 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
8883 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
8884 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
8886 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
8888 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
8889 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
8892 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
8894 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
8900 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
8901 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
8902 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
8903 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
8905 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
8907 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
8908 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
8909 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
8911 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
8913 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
8914 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
8915 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
8916 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
8917 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
8918 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
8919 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
8921 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
8922 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
8923 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
8924 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
8925 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
8926 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
8928 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
8930 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
8931 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
8932 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
8933 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
8935 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
8938 ** Ada mode changes.
8940 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
8941 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
8942 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
8943 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
8946 *** There are two new commands:
8947 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
8948 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
8950 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
8951 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
8952 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
8954 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
8955 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
8956 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
8958 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
8959 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
8960 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
8961 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
8963 ** Scheme mode changes.
8965 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
8966 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
8967 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
8968 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
8971 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
8972 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
8973 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
8974 variables as buffer-local variables.
8976 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
8979 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
8981 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
8982 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
8983 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
8984 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
8986 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
8987 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
8990 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
8991 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
8992 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
8993 option takes precedence.
8995 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
8996 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
8997 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
8999 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
9000 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
9003 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
9004 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
9006 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
9007 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
9010 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
9011 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
9012 these register values no longer become completely useless.
9013 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
9014 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
9015 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
9017 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
9018 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
9019 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
9020 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
9022 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
9023 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
9024 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
9025 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
9026 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
9028 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
9029 since it applies only to the current frame.
9031 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
9032 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
9033 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
9035 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
9036 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
9037 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
9038 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
9039 instead of just the file you are editing.
9043 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
9044 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
9045 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
9046 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
9047 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
9050 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
9051 knows which kind of label is needed.
9053 C-c ) reftex-reference
9054 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
9055 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
9057 C-c [ reftex-citation
9058 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
9059 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
9061 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
9062 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
9065 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
9066 can quickly jump to every section.
9068 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
9069 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
9070 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
9071 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
9072 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
9074 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
9076 *** Info documentation is now available.
9078 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
9079 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
9081 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
9082 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
9084 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
9085 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
9087 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
9088 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
9089 appropriate functions.
9091 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
9092 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
9094 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
9097 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
9098 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
9100 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
9103 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
9104 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
9105 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
9107 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
9108 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
9109 prefixed with `ALT'.
9111 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
9112 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
9113 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
9116 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
9117 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
9118 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
9120 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
9121 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
9123 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
9124 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
9125 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
9127 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
9129 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
9131 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
9134 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
9135 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
9138 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
9141 *** Added support for imenu.
9143 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
9144 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
9145 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
9146 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
9148 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
9149 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
9151 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
9153 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
9155 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
9156 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
9157 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
9160 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
9161 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
9163 ** browse-url changes
9165 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
9166 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
9167 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
9168 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
9169 customization variables.
9171 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
9173 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
9174 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
9175 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
9179 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
9180 pops up the Info file for this command.
9182 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
9183 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
9184 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
9187 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
9188 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
9189 files in the same directory.
9191 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
9192 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
9193 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
9197 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
9198 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
9200 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
9201 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
9202 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
9203 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
9204 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
9205 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
9206 color when Viper is in insert state.
9207 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
9208 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
9209 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
9213 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
9214 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
9215 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
9216 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
9217 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
9219 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
9221 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
9222 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
9224 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
9225 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
9226 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
9228 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
9229 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
9230 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
9231 methods and protocols.
9233 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
9234 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
9235 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
9238 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
9239 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
9240 at least M times and as many as N times.
9242 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
9243 in files has changed slightly.
9245 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
9246 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
9247 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
9248 with old time-stamp-format values.
9250 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
9251 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
9252 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
9255 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
9256 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
9257 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
9258 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
9259 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
9260 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
9262 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
9263 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
9264 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
9266 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
9267 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
9268 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
9269 recommended now will continue to work then.
9271 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
9274 ** There are some additional major modes:
9276 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
9277 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
9278 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
9280 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
9281 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
9284 ** New Lisp packages include:
9286 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
9288 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
9289 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
9291 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
9293 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
9296 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
9297 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
9300 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
9301 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
9302 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
9303 strings or comments.
9305 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
9306 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
9307 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
9308 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
9311 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
9312 can visit them by short forms of their names.
9314 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
9315 Emacs Lisp function at point.
9317 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
9319 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
9320 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
9322 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
9324 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
9326 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
9328 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
9329 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
9331 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
9332 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
9333 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
9334 original place after inserting the copy.
9336 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
9339 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
9340 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
9341 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
9343 Enable mouse-drag with:
9344 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
9346 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
9348 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
9349 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
9351 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
9352 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
9356 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
9357 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
9358 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
9359 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
9360 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
9361 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
9362 instance) and vice versa.
9364 To use this package load it using
9365 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
9366 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
9367 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
9368 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
9369 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
9370 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
9372 *** Interface to ph.
9374 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
9376 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
9377 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
9380 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
9382 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
9383 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
9384 while the real cursor does not move.
9386 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
9387 for visiting your favorite web sites.
9389 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
9390 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
9394 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
9395 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
9396 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
9397 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
9399 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
9401 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
9403 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
9405 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
9406 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
9407 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
9408 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
9409 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
9411 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
9412 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
9413 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
9414 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
9415 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
9416 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
9418 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
9420 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
9421 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
9422 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
9423 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
9425 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
9426 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
9428 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
9429 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
9432 ** Basic Lisp changes
9434 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
9435 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
9437 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
9438 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
9441 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
9443 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
9445 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
9446 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
9448 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
9449 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
9452 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
9454 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
9456 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
9458 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
9459 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
9460 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
9463 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
9464 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
9465 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
9467 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
9468 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
9469 adding one of these suffixes.
9471 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
9472 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
9473 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
9475 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
9476 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
9478 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
9480 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
9481 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
9483 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
9484 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
9486 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
9488 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
9489 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
9491 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
9492 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
9493 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
9494 works using `save-current-buffer'.
9496 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
9497 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
9500 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
9501 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
9502 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
9505 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
9506 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
9509 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
9511 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
9512 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
9513 Then it returns that string.
9515 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
9517 (with-output-to-string
9518 (princ "The buffer is ")
9519 (princ (buffer-name)))
9521 returns "The buffer is foo".
9523 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
9526 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
9527 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
9528 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
9530 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
9531 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
9533 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
9534 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
9535 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
9536 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
9537 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
9538 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
9540 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
9541 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
9542 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
9545 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
9546 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
9547 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
9548 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
9549 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
9551 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
9552 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
9553 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
9554 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
9556 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
9557 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
9559 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
9561 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
9562 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
9563 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
9564 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
9567 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
9568 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
9571 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
9573 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
9574 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
9575 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
9576 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
9577 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
9579 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
9581 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
9582 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
9583 more than the number of characters.
9585 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
9586 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
9587 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
9588 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
9589 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
9590 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
9592 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
9593 and returns a string containing those characters.
9595 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
9596 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
9597 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
9598 character, sref signals an error.
9600 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
9601 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
9602 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
9604 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
9605 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
9606 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
9608 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
9609 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
9610 to a vector of the characters in it.
9612 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
9613 of a string. You call it as follows:
9615 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
9617 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
9618 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
9619 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
9620 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
9621 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
9623 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
9624 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
9626 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
9627 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
9629 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
9630 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
9631 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
9632 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
9634 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
9636 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
9638 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
9639 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
9640 are not included in the resulting value.
9642 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
9643 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
9644 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
9645 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
9647 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
9648 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
9649 character extends across that column), then the padding character
9650 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
9651 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
9652 column START-COLUMN.
9654 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
9655 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
9656 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
9657 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
9658 changed text, before the change.
9660 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
9661 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
9662 one character set for each script, not for each language.
9664 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
9666 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
9668 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
9669 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
9671 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
9672 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
9673 which identify the character within that character set.
9675 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
9676 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
9677 opposite of split-char.
9679 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
9680 of all the characters between BEG and END.
9682 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
9683 of all the characters in a string.
9685 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
9686 and specifying coding systems.
9688 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
9689 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
9690 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
9691 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
9692 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
9693 as what to do about code conversion.)
9695 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
9696 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
9698 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
9699 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
9700 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
9702 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
9703 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
9704 to match against a file name.
9706 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
9707 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
9708 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
9709 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
9710 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
9711 specifies the coding system for encoding.
9713 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
9714 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
9716 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
9717 the coding system to use for network sockets.
9719 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
9720 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
9721 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
9724 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
9725 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
9726 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
9727 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
9728 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
9729 specifies the coding system for encoding.
9731 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
9732 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
9734 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
9735 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
9736 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
9737 start the subprocess.
9739 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
9740 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
9741 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
9742 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
9743 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
9745 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
9746 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
9749 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
9750 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
9751 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
9752 connection permanently or until overridden.
9754 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
9755 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
9756 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
9757 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
9758 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
9759 system for one operation at a time.
9761 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
9762 files, subprocesses or network connections.
9764 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
9765 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
9766 The value is a cons cell,
9767 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
9768 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
9769 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
9770 input to the subprocess.
9772 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
9773 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
9775 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
9776 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
9777 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
9779 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
9780 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
9781 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
9782 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
9785 Thus, instead of writing
9787 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
9788 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
9790 you would now write this:
9792 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
9793 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
9797 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
9798 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
9799 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
9800 for a description of them.
9802 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
9803 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
9805 (defgroup ispell nil
9806 "Spell checking using Ispell."
9809 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
9810 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
9811 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
9812 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
9813 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
9815 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
9816 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
9817 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
9818 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
9819 first-level subgroups.
9821 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
9823 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
9824 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
9828 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
9829 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
9830 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
9831 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
9832 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
9833 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
9835 ** Text property changes
9837 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
9840 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
9841 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
9842 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
9843 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
9844 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
9846 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
9847 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
9848 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
9849 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
9851 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
9852 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
9853 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
9855 ** Changes in invisibility features
9857 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
9858 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
9859 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
9860 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
9861 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
9862 make the overlay visible.
9864 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
9865 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
9866 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
9867 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
9868 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
9869 t when it should hide it.
9871 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
9873 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
9874 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
9875 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
9876 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
9877 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
9878 Here is an example of how to do this:
9880 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
9881 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
9882 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
9883 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
9886 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
9889 ;; When done with the overlays:
9890 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
9892 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
9894 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
9896 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
9897 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
9898 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
9899 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
9901 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
9902 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
9903 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
9905 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
9906 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
9908 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
9909 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
9911 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
9912 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
9913 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
9915 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
9916 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
9917 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
9918 determine the syntax type of the character.
9920 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
9921 of the current buffer.
9923 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
9924 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
9925 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
9927 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
9928 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
9929 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
9930 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
9931 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
9933 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
9936 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
9937 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
9938 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
9940 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
9941 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
9942 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
9943 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
9944 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
9946 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
9947 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
9948 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
9950 ** Changes in face features
9952 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
9953 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
9955 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
9956 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
9958 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
9959 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
9961 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
9962 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
9964 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
9965 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
9966 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
9967 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
9970 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
9971 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
9973 ** Changes in file-handling functions
9975 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
9976 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
9977 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
9978 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
9980 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
9983 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
9984 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
9986 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
9987 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
9989 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
9990 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
9992 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
9993 character code conversion as well as other things.
9995 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
9996 (formerly it did not).
9998 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
9999 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
10001 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
10002 instead of constant strings.
10004 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
10005 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
10006 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
10008 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
10009 in the same way as before.
10011 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
10012 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
10013 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
10015 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
10016 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
10017 else, and returns nil.
10019 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
10020 directory cannot be listed.
10022 ** Changes in minibuffer input
10024 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
10025 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
10026 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
10027 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
10030 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
10031 It is available through the history command M-n.
10033 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
10034 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
10035 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
10036 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
10037 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
10039 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
10040 argument in this way.
10042 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
10043 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
10044 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
10046 ** Echo area features
10048 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
10049 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
10050 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
10051 after the echo area is cleared.
10053 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
10054 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
10056 ** Keyboard input features
10058 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
10059 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
10061 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
10062 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
10063 by keyboard macros.
10065 ** Frame-related changes
10067 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
10068 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
10069 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
10071 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
10072 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
10073 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
10075 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
10076 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
10077 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
10078 in the selected frame.
10080 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
10081 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
10082 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
10084 ** X Windows features
10086 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
10087 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
10088 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
10090 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
10091 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
10093 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
10094 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
10095 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
10097 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
10098 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
10100 ** Subprocess features
10102 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
10103 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
10106 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
10107 and returns the output from the command as a string.
10109 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
10110 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
10112 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
10113 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
10115 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
10116 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
10117 goes after the other menu items.
10119 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
10120 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
10121 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
10124 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
10125 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
10127 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
10128 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
10131 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
10132 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
10133 but its hook is still run.
10135 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
10136 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
10138 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
10139 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
10140 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
10142 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
10143 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
10144 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
10147 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
10148 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
10150 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
10151 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
10152 functions like display-time.
10154 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
10155 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
10157 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
10158 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
10159 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
10161 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
10162 if there is an error in compilation.
10164 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
10165 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
10166 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
10167 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
10169 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
10170 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
10171 the *scratch* buffer.
10173 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
10174 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
10175 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
10176 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
10178 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
10179 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
10180 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
10182 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
10183 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
10184 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
10185 and compose-mail-other-frame.
10187 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
10188 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
10189 full name of the specified user will be returned.
10191 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
10192 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
10193 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
10194 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
10195 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
10198 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
10199 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
10200 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
10201 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
10203 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
10204 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
10205 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
10206 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
10208 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
10210 ** imenu.el changes.
10212 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
10213 item from menu created by imenu.
10215 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
10216 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
10217 select one of those items.
10219 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
10221 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
10222 Copyright information:
10224 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
10226 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
10227 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
10228 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
10229 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
10231 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
10232 of this document, or of portions of it,
10233 under the above conditions, provided also that they
10234 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
10238 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"