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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-09-27
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
4
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
7
8 \f
9 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
11 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
12
13 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
14
15 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
16 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
17
18 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
19 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
20 to list them.
21
22 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
23 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
24
25 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
26 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
27
28 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
29 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
30 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions.
31
32 \f
33 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
34
35 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
36 to be visited as images.
37
38 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
39 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
40
41 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs header-line
42 (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window), so that it
43 remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled. This behavior
44 may be disabled by customizing the option `Info-use-header-line'.
45
46 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
47 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
48
49 +++
50 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
51 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
52
53 ** Gnus changes.
54
55 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
56 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
57 internationalization and mail-fetching.
58
59 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
60 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
61
62 If you used procmail like in
63
64 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
65 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
66 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
67 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
68
69 this now has changed to
70
71 (setq mail-sources
72 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
73 :suffix ".in")))
74
75 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
76 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
77
78 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
79 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
80
81 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
82 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables.
83 Separate MIME packages like SEMI will not work. There are built-in
84 facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is now just a
85 compatibility layer.
86
87 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
88 called to position point.
89
90 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
91 summary buffers and NOV files.
92
93 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
94 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
95
96 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
97 subtly different manner.
98
99 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
100 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
101 ever-changing layouts.
102
103 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
104
105 *** There is image support.
106
107 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
108 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
109 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
110 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
111 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
112 on.
113
114 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
115 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
116 file that is already visited under a different name.
117
118 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
119 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
120
121 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
122 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
123 signaled.
124
125 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
126 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
127 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
128 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
129 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
130 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
131
132 +++
133 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
134 and displayes information about that.
135
136 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
137 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
138
139 ** Polish and German translations of Emacs' reference card have been
140 added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex' and `de-refcard.tex'.
141 Postscript files are included.
142
143 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
144 `dired-ref.tex'.
145
146 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
147 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
148
149 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
150 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
151 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
152 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
153 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
154 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
155
156 +++
157 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
158 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
159 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
160 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
161
162 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable because it contains
163 a version-dependent component.
164
165 ** The <delete> function key is now bound to `delete-char' by default.
166 Note that this takes effect only on window systems. On TTYs, Emacs
167 will receive ASCII 127 when the DEL key is pressed. This
168 character is still bound as before.
169
170 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
171 using that menu.
172
173 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
174 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
175
176 +++
177 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
178 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
179 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
180 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
181 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
182 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
183 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
184
185 +++
186 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
187 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
188 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
189 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
190 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
191 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
192 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
193 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
194 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
195
196 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
197 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
198
199 +++
200 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
201 point in a pop-up window.
202
203 +++
204 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
205 displays all characters in that character set.
206
207 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
208 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
209
210 +++
211 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
212 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
213 defined on newcomment.el.
214
215 +++
216 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
217
218 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
219 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
220
221 +++
222 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
223 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
224 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
225 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
226
227 +++
228 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
229 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
230 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
231 You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
232
233 +++
234 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
235 on the display using several methods
236
237 +++
238 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
239 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
240 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
241
242 +++
243 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
244 equivalent ot specifying the frame parameter.
245
246 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
247
248 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
249 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
250
251 +++
252 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
253 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
254 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
255 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
256
257 +++
258 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
259 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
260 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
261
262 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
263 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
264
265 +++
266 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
267 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
268 this behavior.
269
270 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
271 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
272 Emacs dump core.
273
274 +++
275 ** New X resources recognized
276
277 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
278 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
279 is useful for debugging X problems.
280
281 Example:
282
283 emacs.synchronous: true
284
285 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
286 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
287 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
288 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
289 visual class names are
290
291 TrueColor
292 PseudoColor
293 DirectColor
294 StaticColor
295 GrayScale
296 StaticGray
297
298 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
299 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
300 meaning.
301
302 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
303 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
304 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
305 visual.
306
307 Example:
308
309 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
310
311 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
312 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
313 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
314 resource values are `true' or `on'.
315
316 Example:
317
318 emacs.privateColormap: true
319
320 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
321 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
322 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
323
324 ** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
325 display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
326 shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
327 be customized.
328
329 +++
330 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
331
332 +++
333 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
334 all frames except the selected one.
335
336 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
337 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
338
339 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
340 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
341 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
342 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
343
344 +++
345 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
346 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
347
348 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
349 read mail from the menu etc.
350
351 +++
352 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
353 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
354
355 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
356
357 ** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
358 macros
359
360 Key binding Macro
361 -------------------------
362 C-c C-c C-s @strong
363 C-c C-c C-e @emph
364 C-c C-c u @url
365 C-c C-c q @quotation
366 C-c C-c m @email
367
368 ** Changes in Outline mode.
369
370 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
371 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
372 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
373
374 ** Changes to Emacs Server
375
376 +++
377 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
378 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
379 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
380 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
381 buffers to kill, as before.
382
383 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
384 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
385 this way.
386
387 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
388
389 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
390 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
391 use. Default is 1000.
392
393 +++
394 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
395 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
396
397 +++
398 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
399 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
400 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
401 buffers.
402
403 +++
404 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
405 under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
406 .emacs file.
407
408 The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
409 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
410
411 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
412 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
413 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
414
415 ** Faces and frame parameters.
416
417 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
418 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
419 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
420 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
421 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
422 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
423 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
424
425 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
426 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
427 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
428 `default' face and vice versa.
429
430 +++
431 ** New face `menu'.
432
433 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
434 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
435 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
436
437 +++
438 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
439
440 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
441 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
442 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
443 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
444
445 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
446 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
447 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
448
449 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
450 `ScreenGamma'.
451
452 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
453
454 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
455 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
456 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
457 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
458 the text.
459
460 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
461
462 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
463 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
464 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
465 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
466 specify a font.
467
468 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
469 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
470 under Lisp changes, below.
471
472 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
473
474 +++
475 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
476 of its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid;
477 otherwise, it is hollow.
478
479 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
480 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
481 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
482 customizing face `fringe'.
483
484 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
485 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
486
487 ** LessTif support.
488
489 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see <http://www.lesstif.org>).
490 You will need a version 0.88.1 or later.
491
492 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
493
494 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
495 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
496 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
497 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
498 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
499 Emacs.
500
501 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
502 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
503 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
504 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
505 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
506 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
507
508 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
509 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
510 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
511 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
512 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
513 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
514
515 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
516 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
517 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
518 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
519 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
520
521 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
522
523 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
524 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
525 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
526
527 +++
528 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
529
530 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
531 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
532 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
533 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
534 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
535 whitespace.
536
537 +++
538 ** Busy-cursor.
539
540 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
541 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
542
543 +++
544 ** Blinking cursor
545
546 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
547 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
548 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
549 the group `cursor'.
550
551 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
552
553 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
554 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
555 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
556 details.
557
558 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
559 have to do anything to activate it.
560
561 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
562
563 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
564 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
565 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
566 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
567
568 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
569
570 +++
571 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
572
573 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
574
575 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
576 LessTif/Motif one.
577
578 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
579 LessTif and Motif.
580
581 +++
582 ** Hscrolling in C code.
583
584 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
585 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
586 customized.
587
588 ** Tool bar support.
589
590 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
591 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
592 Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is displayed.
593 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
594 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
595
596 +++
597 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
598
599 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
600 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
601 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
602 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
603 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
604
605 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
606
607 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
608 buffers.
609
610 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
611 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
612
613 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
614
615 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
616 `*') toggles the status.
617
618 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
619
620 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
621
622 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
623 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
624 non-nil.
625
626 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
627
628 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
629 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
630 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
631 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
632 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
633 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
634 on terminals.
635
636 ** Sound support
637
638 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
639 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
640 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
641
642 +++
643 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
644 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
645 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
646 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
647 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
648 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
649
650 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
651
652 +++
653 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
654
655 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
656 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
657 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
658
659 +++
660 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
661 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
662
663 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
664 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
665 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
666
667 +++
668 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
669
670 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
671 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
672 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
673 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
674
675 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
676 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
677 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
678 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
679
680 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
681 notably at the end of lines.
682
683 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
684 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
685
686 +++
687 There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
688
689 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
690 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
691 after each match to get the replacement text.
692
693 +++
694 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
695 you edit the replacement string.
696
697 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', lets
698 you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
699 lisp-complete-symbol.
700
701 +++
702 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
703
704 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
705 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the minibuffer window unless
706 it is on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum minibuffer
707 window size by setting the following variable:
708
709 - User option: max-mini-window-height
710
711 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
712 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
713 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
714
715 Default is 0.25.
716
717 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
718
719 ** Changes to hideshow.el
720
721 Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
722 selection and traversal, includes more isearch support, and has more
723 conventional keybindings.
724
725 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
726
727 A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
728 (both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
729 which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
730 `forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
731 point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
732 (which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
733
734 If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
735 i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
736 backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
737 the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
738
739 *** Isearch support for updating mode line
740
741 During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
742 blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
743 line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
744 portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
745 is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
746
747 To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
748 something like this in your .emacs.
749
750 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
751 (lambda ()
752 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
753
754 *** New customization var: `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function'
755
756 Normally, `hs-hide-all' hides everything, leaving only the
757 header lines of top-level forms (and comments, unless var
758 `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is non-nil). It does this by
759 moving point to each top-level block beginning and hiding the
760 block there. In some major modes (for example, Java), this
761 behavior results in few blocks left visible, which may not be so
762 useful.
763
764 You can now set var `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' to a
765 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead
766 of the normal block-hiding function. For example, the following
767 code defines a function to hide one level down and move point
768 appropriately, and then tells hideshow to use the new function.
769
770 (defun ttn-hs-hide-level-1 ()
771 (hs-hide-level 1)
772 (forward-sexp 1))
773 (setq hs-hide-all-non-comment-function 'ttn-hs-hide-level-1)
774
775 The name `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' was chosen to
776 emphasize that this function is not called for comment blocks,
777 only for code blocks.
778
779 *** Command deleted: `hs-show-region'
780
781 Historical Note: This command was added to handle "unbalanced
782 parentheses" emergencies back when hideshow.el used selective
783 display for implementation.
784
785 *** Commands rebound to more conventional keys
786
787 The hideshow commands used to be bound to keys of the form "C-c
788 LETTER". This is contrary to the Emacs keybinding convention,
789 which reserves that space for user modification. Here are the
790 new bindings (which includes the addition of `hs-toggle-hiding'):
791
792 hs-hide-block C-c C-h
793 hs-show-block C-c C-s
794 hs-hide-all C-c C-M-h
795 hs-show-all C-c C-M-s
796 hs-hide-level C-c C-l
797 hs-toggle-hiding C-c C-c
798 hs-mouse-toggle-hiding [(shift button-2)]
799
800 These were chosen to roughly imitate those used by Outline mode.
801
802 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
803
804 +++
805 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
806 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
807 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
808
809 +++
810 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
811 current buffer.
812
813 +++
814 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
815 in a log file.
816
817 +++
818 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
819 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
820
821 +++
822 *** Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
823 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
824 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be cutomized.
825 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
826
827 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock
828 highlighting.
829
830 ** Changes in Font Lock
831
832 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
833 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
834 mode.
835
836 ** Comint (subshell) changes
837
838 By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp' to
839 distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which parts of
840 the text were output by the process, and which entered by the user, and
841 attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use this information.
842 Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line, respect field
843 boundaries in a fairly natural manner.
844 To disable this feature, and use the old behavior, set the variable
845 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields' to a non-nil value.
846
847 Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
848 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
849
850 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
851 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
852 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
853
854 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
855 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
856 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
857
858 Packages based on comint.el like shell-mode, and scheme-interaction-mode
859 now highlight user input and program prompts, and support choosing
860 previous input with mouse-2. To control these feature, see the
861 user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
862
863 ** Changes to Rmail mode
864
865 *** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
866 set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
867 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
868 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
869 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
870 as correspondent.
871
872 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
873 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
874 regexp matching your mail addresses.
875
876 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
877 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
878 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
879 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
880 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
881
882 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
883 like `j'.
884
885 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
886 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
887 digest message.
888
889 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
890 in which folder to put messages automatically.
891
892 ** Changes to TeX mode
893
894 The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
895 `latex-mode'.
896
897 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
898
899 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
900 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
901 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
902 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
903 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
904 can be edited from that buffer.
905
906 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
907 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
908 `A' to use all marked entries).
909
910 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
911 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
912
913 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
914 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
915 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
916 been cited.
917
918 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
919 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
920 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
921 in column 1 are always made leaves.
922
923 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
924 has the following new features:
925
926 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
927 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
928 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
929 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
930
931 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
932 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
933 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
934 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
935 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
936 defaults to 1.
937
938 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
939 file names.
940
941 +++
942 ** Tooltips.
943
944 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
945 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
946 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
947
948 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
949 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
950 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
951 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
952
953 +++
954 ** Customize changes
955
956 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
957 `State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
958 cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
959
960 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
961 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
962 default).
963
964 *** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
965 between custom options. Example:
966
967 (defcustom default-input-method nil
968 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
969 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
970 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
971 :group 'mule
972 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
973 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
974
975 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
976 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
977 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
978
979 ** New features in evaluation commands
980
981 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
982 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
983 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
984 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
985 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
986
987 *** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
988 code when called with a prefix argument.
989
990 ** Ispell changes
991
992 +++
993 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
994 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
995 spell-checks the current buffer.
996
997 +++
998 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
999 added.
1000
1001 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
1002 correction is made and re-checked.
1003
1004 *** An Italian and a Portuguese dictionary definition has been added.
1005
1006 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
1007 cases.
1008
1009 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
1010 on syntax errors.
1011
1012 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
1013 end of the buffer.
1014
1015 ** Dired changes
1016
1017 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
1018 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
1019 is, delete only empty directories.
1020
1021 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
1022 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
1023 copy directories recursively.
1024
1025 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
1026 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
1027 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
1028
1029 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
1030 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
1031 directory.
1032
1033 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `w') shows
1034 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
1035 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
1036 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
1037 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
1038
1039 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
1040 from ls switches.
1041
1042 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
1043 use the -f option when sending mail.
1044
1045 ** CC mode changes.
1046
1047 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
1048 current user setups (although it's believed that these
1049 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
1050 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
1051 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
1052 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
1053 release.
1054
1055 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
1056 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
1057 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
1058 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
1059 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
1060 have to bother.
1061
1062 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
1063 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
1064 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
1065 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
1066 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
1067 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
1068
1069 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
1070 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
1071 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
1072 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
1073 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
1074 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
1075 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
1076 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
1077
1078 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
1079 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
1080 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
1081 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
1082 above.
1083
1084 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
1085 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
1086 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
1087 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
1088 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
1089 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
1090 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
1091 function documentation for more info.
1092
1093 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
1094 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
1095 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
1096 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
1097 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
1098 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
1099 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
1100 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
1101
1102 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
1103
1104 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
1105 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
1106
1107 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
1108 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
1109 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
1110 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
1111 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
1112 style system.
1113
1114 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
1115 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
1116 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
1117 as far as possible.
1118
1119 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
1120 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
1121 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
1122 chapter about this in the manual.
1123
1124 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
1125 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
1126 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
1127 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
1128 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
1129
1130 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
1131 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
1132 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
1133
1134 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
1135 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
1136
1137 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
1138 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
1139 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
1140 inside CC Mode.
1141
1142 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
1143 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
1144 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
1145 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
1146 cc-mode/).
1147
1148 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
1149 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
1150 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
1151 literals.
1152
1153 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
1154 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
1155 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
1156 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
1157 this function.
1158
1159 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
1160 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
1161 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
1162 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
1163 Thanks to Eric Eide.
1164
1165 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
1166 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
1167 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
1168
1169 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
1170
1171 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
1172 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
1173 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
1174 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
1175
1176 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
1177 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
1178 the column specified by comment-column.
1179
1180 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
1181 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
1182 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
1183 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
1184 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
1185 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
1186
1187 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
1188 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
1189 arguments.
1190
1191 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
1192
1193 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
1194 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
1195 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
1196 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
1197 Provan).
1198
1199 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
1200
1201 ** Makefile mode changes
1202
1203 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
1204
1205 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
1206 Fontlock mode is active.
1207
1208 ** Isearch changes
1209
1210 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
1211 so that searches can be resumed.
1212
1213 *** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
1214 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
1215 that started the search.
1216
1217 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
1218 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
1219
1220 +++
1221 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
1222
1223 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
1224 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
1225 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
1226 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
1227 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
1228 `secondary-selection'.
1229
1230 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
1231 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
1232 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
1233 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
1234 usual snappy response.
1235
1236 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
1237 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
1238 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
1239 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
1240
1241 +++
1242 ** Changes in sort.el
1243
1244 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
1245 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
1246 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
1247 numeric base.
1248
1249 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
1250
1251 +++
1252 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
1253 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
1254 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
1255
1256 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
1257 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
1258
1259 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
1260 output ^M at the end of lines.
1261
1262 ** Shell script mode changes.
1263
1264 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
1265 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
1266 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
1267
1268 ** Etags changes.
1269
1270 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
1271
1272 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
1273 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
1274 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
1275 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
1276 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
1277
1278 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
1279 declarations when given the --declarations option.
1280
1281 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
1282 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
1283
1284 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
1285 types.
1286
1287 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
1288
1289 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
1290
1291 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
1292 are now tagged.
1293
1294 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
1295 variables are tagged.
1296
1297 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
1298
1299 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
1300 for PSWrap.
1301
1302 +++
1303 ** Changes in etags.el
1304
1305 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
1306 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
1307 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
1308
1309 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
1310 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
1311
1312 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
1313 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
1314 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
1315 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
1316
1317 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
1318
1319 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
1320 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
1321
1322 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
1323
1324 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
1325 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
1326 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
1327
1328 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
1329 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
1330
1331 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
1332 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
1333
1334 +++
1335 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1336 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1337 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1338
1339 +++
1340 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1341 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1342 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1343 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet; there are basic 8859-14 and
1344 8859-15 fonts at <URL:http://czyborra.com/charsets/> and recent X
1345 releases have 8859-15. There are new Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix
1346 (only) and Polish slash input methods in Leim.
1347
1348 +++
1349 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
1350 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
1351 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
1352
1353 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
1354
1355 +++
1356 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
1357
1358 +++
1359 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
1360 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
1361 expression from that list, are not checked.
1362
1363 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
1364 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
1365 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
1366 the buffer, just like for the local files.
1367
1368 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
1369
1370 +++
1371 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
1372 displays local abbrevs, only.
1373
1374 ** VC Changes
1375
1376 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
1377 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
1378 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
1379 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
1380 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
1381 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of atoms that identify
1382 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
1383 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
1384 file is registered in that backend.
1385
1386 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
1387 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
1388 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
1389 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
1390 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
1391 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
1392
1393 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
1394 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
1395 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
1396 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
1397 where it doesn't make sense.)
1398
1399 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
1400 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
1401 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
1402
1403 *** General Changes
1404
1405 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
1406 checks are always done now.
1407
1408 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
1409 operations.
1410
1411 *** Changes for CVS
1412
1413 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
1414 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
1415 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
1416 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
1417 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
1418 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
1419 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
1420
1421 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
1422 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
1423 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
1424 commit, you can either use C-u C-x v m to perform an update on the
1425 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
1426 entire directory tree.
1427
1428 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
1429 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
1430 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
1431 "watched" by other developers.)
1432
1433 *** Lisp Changes in VC
1434
1435 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
1436 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
1437 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
1438 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
1439 a version system named FOO, you write a library named vc-foo.el, which
1440 provides a number of functions vc-foo-... (see commentary at the end
1441 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
1442 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the atom
1443 `FOO' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
1444
1445 ** New modes and packages
1446
1447 +++
1448 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
1449 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
1450 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
1451 on certain projects.
1452
1453 +++
1454 *** The new package hi-lock.el, text matching interactively entered
1455 regexp's can be highlighted. For example,
1456
1457 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
1458
1459 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
1460 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
1461 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
1462 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
1463 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
1464 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
1465 corresponding file is read.
1466
1467 +++
1468 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
1469 Emacs is idle.
1470
1471 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
1472 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
1473
1474 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
1475 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
1476 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
1477
1478 +++
1479 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
1480 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
1481 separate Texinfo file.
1482
1483 +++
1484 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
1485 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
1486 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
1487 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
1488 enter checkin log messages.
1489
1490 +++
1491 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
1492 without invoking external programs.
1493
1494 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
1495 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
1496 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
1497 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
1498 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
1499
1500 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
1501 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
1502
1503 +++
1504 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
1505 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
1506
1507 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
1508 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
1509 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
1510 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
1511 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
1512 single step.
1513
1514 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
1515 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
1516 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
1517 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
1518
1519 +++
1520 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
1521 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1522 actually modifying content of a buffer.
1523
1524 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1525 PostScript.
1526
1527 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1528
1529 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1530
1531 ; comment (until end of line)
1532 A non-terminal
1533 "C" terminal
1534 ?C? special
1535 $A default non-terminal
1536 $"C" default terminal
1537 $?C? default special
1538 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1539 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1540 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1541 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1542 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1543 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1544 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1545 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1546 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1547 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1548 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1549 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1550 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1551 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1552 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1553
1554 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1555
1556 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1557 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1558 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1559 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1560 equal signs of assignments.
1561
1562 +++
1563 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1564 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1565
1566 +++
1567 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1568 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1569 buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1570 customize the package.
1571
1572 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
1573
1574 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1575 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1576 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1577 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1578 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1579 which answers different needs.
1580
1581 +++
1582 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1583 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1584 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1585 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1586 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1587 to be enabled.
1588
1589 +++
1590 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1591 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1592
1593 +++
1594 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1595
1596 +++
1597 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1598
1599 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1600
1601 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-shell-mode' and
1602 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
1603 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
1604 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
1605 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
1606 and background colors.
1607
1608 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1609 Pascal) language.
1610
1611 +++
1612 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1613 the text at point.
1614
1615 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1616
1617 +++
1618 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1619
1620 *** whitespace.el ???
1621
1622 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1623 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1624 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1625 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1626 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1627 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1628 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1629
1630 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1631
1632 Here is an example of columns:
1633
1634 horse apple bus
1635 dog pineapple car EXTRA
1636 porcupine strawberry airplane
1637
1638 Doing the following settings:
1639
1640 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1641 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1642 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1643 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1644
1645
1646 Selecting the lines above and typing:
1647
1648 M-x delimit-columns-region
1649
1650 It results:
1651
1652 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
1653 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1654 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1655
1656 delim-col has the following options:
1657
1658 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1659 before all columns.
1660
1661 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1662 between each column.
1663
1664 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1665 after all columns.
1666
1667 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1668 each column.
1669
1670 delim-col has the following commands:
1671
1672 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1673 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1674
1675 +++
1676 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1677 were operated on recently.
1678
1679 M-x recentf-mode RET toggles recentf mode.
1680
1681 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET can be used to enable
1682 recentf at Emacs startup.
1683
1684 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-menu-filter RET to specify a menu
1685 filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the recent
1686 file list can be displayed:
1687
1688 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
1689 - sorted by file pathes, file names, ascending or descending.
1690 - showing pathes relative to the current default-directory
1691
1692 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
1693 dynamically change the menu appearance.
1694
1695 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1696 text.
1697
1698 +++
1699 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
1700 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1701 specific to Message mode.
1702
1703 +++
1704 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1705 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1706 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1707
1708 +++
1709 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1710 interface to access directory servers using different directory
1711 protocols. It has a separate manual.
1712
1713 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1714 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1715
1716 +++
1717 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1718
1719 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
1720 minibuffer with completion.
1721
1722 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1723 with the diary features.
1724
1725 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1726 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1727
1728 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
1729 Fill mode.
1730
1731 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
1732 Gnus facilities.
1733
1734 ** Withdrawn packages
1735
1736 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1737 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
1738
1739 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1740
1741 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
1742
1743 \f
1744 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
1745 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
1746
1747 +++
1748 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
1749 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
1750 message.
1751
1752 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
1753 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
1754
1755 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
1756 with the more general `:mask' property.
1757
1758 ** Image specifications accept more `:algorithm's.
1759
1760 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
1761 backslash.
1762
1763 +++
1764 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
1765 is running in batch mode. For example,
1766
1767 (message "%s" (read t))
1768
1769 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
1770 to standard output.
1771
1772 +++
1773 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
1774 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
1775
1776 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
1777 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
1778 frame or window.
1779
1780 +++
1781 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
1782 were added
1783
1784 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
1785
1786 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
1787 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
1788
1789 - Function: remq ELT LIST
1790
1791 Return a copy of LIST with all occurences of ELT removed. The
1792 comparison is done with `eq'.
1793
1794 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
1795
1796 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
1797 has been changed.
1798
1799 +++
1800 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
1801 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
1802 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
1803
1804 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
1805 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
1806
1807 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
1808 function was declared obsolete.
1809
1810 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
1811 retained as an alias).
1812
1813 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
1814 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
1815 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
1816
1817 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
1818
1819 - Function: window-list &optional WINDOW MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES
1820
1821 Return a list of windows in canonical order. The parameters WINDOW,
1822 MINIBUF and ALL-FRAMES are defined like for `next-window'.
1823
1824 ** There's a new function `some-window' defined as follows
1825
1826 - Function: some-window PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
1827
1828 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
1829
1830 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
1831 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
1832 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
1833 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
1834 returned.
1835
1836 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
1837 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
1838 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
1839 minibuffer even if it is active.
1840
1841 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
1842 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
1843 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
1844 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
1845 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
1846 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
1847
1848 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
1849 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
1850 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
1851 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
1852 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
1853 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
1854 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
1855
1856 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
1857 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
1858 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
1859
1860 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
1861 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
1862 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
1863 Default value is nil.
1864
1865 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
1866 meaning no limit.
1867
1868 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
1869 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
1870 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
1871
1872 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information on the argument list
1873 of a primitive.
1874
1875 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
1876 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
1877 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
1878 than replacing the local map.
1879
1880 ** The obsolete variables before-change-function and
1881 after-change-function are no longer acted upon and have been removed.
1882
1883 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
1884
1885 +++
1886 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments, as
1887 promised long ago.
1888
1889 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
1890 \f
1891 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1892
1893 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1894 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1895 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1896 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1897
1898 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
1899 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
1900 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
1901 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
1902
1903 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
1904 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
1905 when it finds 8-bit characters. Previously, it included `ascii' in a
1906 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
1907
1908 *** The functions `set-buffer-modified', `string-as-multibyte' and
1909 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer if it
1910 contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
1911
1912 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
1913 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
1914 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
1915 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
1916 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
1917 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
1918 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
1919 eight-bit-graphic.
1920
1921 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
1922
1923 A fontset can now be specified for for each independent character, for
1924 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
1925 character set as previously.
1926
1927 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
1928 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
1929 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
1930
1931 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
1932 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
1933 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
1934 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
1935
1936 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
1937 name of a font and REGSITRY is a registry name of a font.
1938
1939 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
1940 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
1941 "fontset-default".
1942
1943 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
1944 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
1945
1946 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
1947 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
1948 buffers and strings.
1949
1950 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
1951 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
1952 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
1953 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
1954 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
1955 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
1956 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
1957 also been deleted.
1958
1959 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
1960 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
1961 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
1962
1963 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
1964 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
1965 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
1966 may differ between buffer and string text.
1967
1968 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
1969 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
1970
1971 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
1972 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
1973 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
1974 `composition' from STRING.
1975
1976 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
1977 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
1978
1979 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
1980 obsolete.
1981
1982 ** The new character set `mule-unicode-0100-24ff' is introduced for
1983 Unicode characters of the range U+0100..U+24FF. Currently, this
1984 character set is not used.
1985
1986 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
1987 `japanese-jisx0213-2' are introduced for the new Japanese standard JIS
1988 X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
1989
1990 +++
1991 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
1992 are introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
1993 0xA0..0xFF respectively.
1994
1995 +++
1996 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
1997 that offset in the file before writing.
1998
1999 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
2000 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
2001
2002 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
2003 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
2004 from which the command was issued.
2005
2006 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
2007 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
2008 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
2009 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
2010 operate on.
2011
2012 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
2013 to `window-buffer-height'.
2014
2015 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
2016
2017 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
2018 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
2019 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
2020
2021 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
2022 respectively.
2023
2024 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
2025 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
2026
2027 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
2028 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
2029 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
2030
2031 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
2032 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
2033 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
2034 is currently displayed in some window.
2035
2036 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
2037 argument function's results.
2038
2039 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
2040 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
2041
2042 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
2043 header in the list of headers passed to it.
2044
2045 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
2046 ignores differences in case and text representation.
2047
2048 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
2049 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
2050 as follows:
2051
2052 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
2053 nil don't display a cursor
2054 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
2055 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
2056 others display a box cursor.
2057
2058 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
2059 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
2060 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
2061 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
2062
2063 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
2064 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
2065 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
2066 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
2067
2068 Example:
2069
2070 (string-to-syntax "()")
2071 => (4 . 41)
2072
2073 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
2074 other than 10.
2075
2076 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
2077 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
2078
2079 #b1111
2080 => 15
2081 #b-1111
2082 => -15
2083
2084 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
2085
2086 #o666
2087 => 438
2088
2089 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
2090
2091 #xbeef
2092 => 48815
2093
2094 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
2095
2096 #2R-111
2097 => -7
2098 #25rah
2099 => 267
2100
2101 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
2102 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
2103 and isn't a string.
2104
2105 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
2106 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
2107 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
2108 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
2109
2110 +++
2111 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
2112
2113 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
2114 for a regexp in a string.
2115
2116 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
2117 `mouse-position-function'.
2118
2119 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
2120 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
2121
2122 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
2123 Keywords are now always considered constants.
2124
2125 +++
2126 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
2127 returns it.
2128
2129 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
2130 returned by function `recent-keys'.
2131
2132 +++
2133 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
2134 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
2135 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
2136 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
2137 mode.
2138
2139 +++
2140 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
2141 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
2142
2143 +++
2144 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
2145 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
2146 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
2147 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
2148 been performed."
2149
2150 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
2151 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
2152 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
2153 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
2154
2155 +++
2156 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
2157 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
2158 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
2159
2160 +++
2161 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
2162 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
2163 specified table.
2164
2165 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
2166
2167 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
2168 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
2169 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
2170 what BODY returns.
2171
2172 +++
2173 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
2174 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
2175
2176 +++
2177 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
2178 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
2179
2180 +++
2181 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
2182 instead of being optional.
2183
2184 +++
2185 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
2186 modify read-only text.
2187
2188 +++
2189 ** New functions and variables for locales.
2190
2191 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
2192 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
2193 time functions like strftime. The new variables
2194 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
2195 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
2196
2197 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
2198 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
2199 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
2200 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
2201 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
2202 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
2203 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
2204
2205 +++
2206 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
2207 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
2208 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
2209 start sequences.
2210
2211 +++
2212 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
2213 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
2214
2215 +++
2216 ** New function `propertize'
2217
2218 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
2219 strings with text properties.
2220
2221 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
2222
2223 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
2224 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
2225 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
2226 specified value of that property. Example:
2227
2228 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
2229
2230 +++
2231 ** push and pop macros.
2232
2233 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
2234 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
2235 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
2236
2237 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
2238 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
2239 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
2240
2241 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
2242
2243 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
2244 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
2245
2246 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
2247 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
2248 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
2249 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
2250
2251 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
2252 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
2253 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
2254 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
2255
2256 +++
2257 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
2258 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
2259
2260 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
2261 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
2262 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
2263 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
2264 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
2265 space, and DEL.
2266 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
2267 and DEL.
2268 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
2269 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2270 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2271 [:alpha:] matches letters.
2272 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2273 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2274 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
2275 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
2276 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
2277 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
2278 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2279 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
2280 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
2281 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
2282 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
2283
2284 +++
2285 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
2286
2287 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
2288
2289 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
2290
2291 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
2292 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
2293
2294 :test TEST
2295
2296 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
2297 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
2298 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
2299
2300 :size SIZE
2301
2302 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
2303 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
2304
2305 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
2306
2307 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
2308 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
2309 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
2310 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
2311 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
2312
2313 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
2314
2315 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
2316 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
2317 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
2318
2319 :weakness WEAK
2320
2321 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
2322 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
2323 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
2324 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
2325 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
2326
2327 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
2328
2329 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
2330
2331 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
2332
2333 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
2334
2335 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
2336
2337 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
2338 values are shared.
2339
2340 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
2341
2342 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
2343
2344 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2345
2346 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
2347
2348 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
2349
2350 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
2351
2352 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2353
2354 Returns the size of TABLE.
2355
2356 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
2357
2358 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
2359
2360 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
2361
2362 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
2363
2364 - Function: clrhash TABLE
2365
2366 Clear TABLE.
2367
2368 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
2369
2370 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
2371 not found.
2372
2373 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
2374
2375 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
2376 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
2377
2378 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
2379
2380 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
2381
2382 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
2383
2384 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
2385 arguments KEY and VALUE.
2386
2387 - Function: sxhash OBJ
2388
2389 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
2390
2391 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
2392
2393 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
2394 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
2395 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
2396 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
2397 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
2398
2399 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
2400
2401 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
2402 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
2403 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
2404
2405 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
2406 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
2407
2408 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
2409 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
2410
2411 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
2412 (sxhash (upcase a)))
2413
2414 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
2415 'case-fold-string-hash))
2416
2417 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
2418
2419 +++
2420 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
2421
2422 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
2423 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
2424 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
2425
2426 +++
2427 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
2428
2429 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
2430 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
2431
2432 +++
2433 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
2434 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
2435 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
2436 is too short to reach that column.
2437
2438 +++
2439 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
2440 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
2441 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
2442 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
2443
2444 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
2445 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
2446 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
2447
2448 +++
2449 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
2450 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
2451
2452 +++
2453 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
2454 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
2455
2456 +++
2457 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
2458 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
2459 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
2460 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
2461 temporary-file-directory instead.
2462
2463 +++
2464 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
2465 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
2466 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
2467 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
2468
2469 +++
2470 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
2471 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
2472
2473 +++
2474 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
2475
2476 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
2477 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
2478 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
2479
2480 +++
2481 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
2482
2483 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
2484 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
2485 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
2486 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
2487 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
2488 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
2489
2490 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
2491 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
2492 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
2493 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
2494
2495 +++
2496 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
2497
2498 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
2499 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
2500 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
2501 result string.
2502
2503 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
2504 string where arguments appear in the result string.
2505
2506 Example:
2507
2508 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
2509 (s2 "world"))
2510 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
2511 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
2512 (format s1 s2))
2513
2514 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
2515
2516 +++
2517 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
2518
2519 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
2520 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
2521 argument in it.
2522
2523 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
2524 (arg "world"))
2525 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
2526 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
2527 (message msg arg))
2528
2529 +++
2530 ** Sound support
2531
2532 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
2533 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
2534
2535 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
2536 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
2537 to enable sound support.
2538
2539 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
2540 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
2541 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
2542 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
2543 sound to play, before playing the sound.
2544
2545 The following sound properties are supported:
2546
2547 - `:file FILE'
2548
2549 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
2550 searched relative to `data-directory'.
2551
2552 - `:data DATA'
2553
2554 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
2555 may be present, but not both.
2556
2557 - `:volume VOLUME'
2558
2559 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
2560 0..1. This property is optional.
2561
2562 Other properties are ignored.
2563
2564 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
2565
2566 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
2567 a keyword symbol.
2568
2569 ** Changes to garbage collection
2570
2571 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
2572 of live and free strings.
2573
2574 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
2575 strings that have been consed so far.
2576
2577 \f
2578 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
2579 Lisp Manual
2580
2581 *** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
2582
2583 +++
2584 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
2585
2586 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
2587 image.
2588
2589 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
2590
2591 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
2592
2593 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
2594 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
2595 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
2596 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
2597 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
2598
2599 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
2600 has a mask bitmap.
2601
2602 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
2603
2604 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
2605 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
2606 or omitted means use the selected frame.
2607
2608 +++
2609 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
2610 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
2611
2612 +++
2613 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
2614 optional.
2615
2616 +++
2617 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
2618 below).
2619
2620 \f
2621 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
2622
2623 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2624 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2625 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2626 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2627
2628 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
2629 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
2630
2631 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
2632 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
2633 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
2634 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
2635 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
2636 just display it black instead.
2637
2638 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
2639 a line like
2640
2641 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
2642
2643 in your `.emacs'.
2644
2645 ** New face implementation.
2646
2647 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
2648 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
2649
2650 +++
2651 *** New faces.
2652
2653 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
2654
2655 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
2656
2657 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
2658 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
2659
2660 3. Font height in 1/10pt
2661
2662 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
2663
2664 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
2665
2666 6. Foreground color.
2667
2668 7. Background color.
2669
2670 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
2671
2672 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
2673
2674 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
2675
2676 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
2677
2678 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
2679 color.
2680
2681 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
2682 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
2683
2684 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
2685 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
2686 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
2687 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
2688 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
2689 attributes mentioned above.
2690
2691 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
2692 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
2693 created frames.
2694
2695 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
2696 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
2697 `fully-specified'.
2698
2699 +++
2700 *** Face merging.
2701
2702 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
2703 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
2704 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
2705 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
2706 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
2707 results in a fully-specified face.
2708
2709 +++
2710 *** Face realization.
2711
2712 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
2713 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
2714 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
2715 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
2716 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
2717 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
2718
2719 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
2720 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
2721 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
2722 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
2723
2724 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
2725 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
2726 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
2727 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
2728 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
2729
2730 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
2731 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
2732 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
2733 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
2734 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
2735 Emacs.
2736
2737 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
2738 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
2739 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
2740 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
2741
2742 ++++
2743 **** Clearing face caches.
2744
2745 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
2746 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
2747 unused fonts.
2748
2749 +++
2750 *** Font selection.
2751
2752 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
2753 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
2754 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
2755
2756 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
2757 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
2758 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
2759 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
2760 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
2761
2762 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
2763 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
2764 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
2765
2766 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
2767
2768 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
2769 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
2770 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
2771 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
2772 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
2773 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
2774 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
2775
2776 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
2777 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
2778 face doesn't exist.
2779
2780 +++
2781 **** Scalable fonts
2782
2783 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
2784 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
2785 servers.
2786
2787 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
2788 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
2789 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
2790 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
2791 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
2792 that list. Example:
2793
2794 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
2795
2796 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
2797
2798 +++
2799 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
2800
2801 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
2802
2803 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
2804 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
2805 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
2806
2807 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
2808 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
2809 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
2810 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
2811 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
2812 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
2813 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
2814 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
2815 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
2816 of the face font sort order.
2817
2818 - Function: x-font-family-list
2819
2820 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
2821 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
2822 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
2823 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
2824
2825 - Variable: font-list-limit
2826
2827 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
2828 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
2829 matching font. The default is currently 100.
2830
2831 +++
2832 *** Setting face attributes.
2833
2834 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
2835 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
2836 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
2837 `face-attribute'.
2838
2839 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
2840 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
2841
2842 The following attributes are recognized:
2843
2844 `:family'
2845
2846 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
2847 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
2848 and `?' are allowed.
2849
2850 `:width'
2851
2852 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
2853 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
2854 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
2855 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
2856
2857 `:height'
2858
2859 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
2860 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
2861 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
2862 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
2863
2864 `:weight'
2865
2866 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
2867 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
2868 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
2869
2870 `:slant'
2871
2872 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
2873 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
2874 `reverse-oblique'.
2875
2876 `:foreground', `:background'
2877
2878 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
2879
2880 `:underline'
2881
2882 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
2883 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
2884 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
2885 don't underline.
2886
2887 `:overline'
2888
2889 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
2890 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
2891 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
2892 overline.
2893
2894 `:strike-through'
2895
2896 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
2897 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
2898 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
2899 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
2900
2901 `:box'
2902
2903 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
2904 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
2905 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
2906 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
2907 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
2908 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
2909 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
2910 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
2911 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
2912 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
2913 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
2914 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
2915 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
2916 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
2917 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
2918 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
2919 box.
2920
2921 `:inverse-video'
2922
2923 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
2924 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
2925
2926 `:stipple'
2927
2928 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
2929 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
2930 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
2931 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
2932 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
2933 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
2934
2935 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
2936 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
2937
2938 `:font'
2939
2940 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
2941 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
2942 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
2943 versions of Emacs.
2944
2945 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
2946 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
2947 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
2948
2949 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
2950 `defface'.
2951
2952 `:inherit'
2953
2954 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
2955 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
2956 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
2957
2958 *** Face attributes and X resources
2959
2960 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
2961 from X resources:
2962
2963 Face attribute X resource class
2964 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
2965 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
2966 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
2967 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
2968 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
2969 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
2970 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
2971 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
2972 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
2973 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
2974 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
2975 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
2976 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
2977 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
2978 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
2979 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
2980 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2981 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
2982 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
2983 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2984
2985 +++
2986 *** Text property `face'.
2987
2988 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
2989 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
2990 specification can be
2991
2992 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
2993
2994 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
2995 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
2996 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
2997 for face attribute names.
2998
2999 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
3000 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
3001 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
3002
3003 +++
3004 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
3005
3006 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
3007 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
3008 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
3009 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
3010 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
3011 used to clear the mapping table.
3012
3013 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
3014
3015 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
3016 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
3017 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
3018 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
3019 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
3020 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
3021 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
3022 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
3023 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
3024 modify their color-related behavior.
3025
3026 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
3027 any frame type.
3028
3029 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
3030
3031 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
3032 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
3033 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
3034 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
3035 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
3036 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
3037 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
3038 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
3039 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
3040
3041 +++
3042 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
3043
3044 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
3045
3046 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
3047 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
3048 Otherwise, it returns zero.
3049
3050 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
3051
3052 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
3053 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
3054 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
3055
3056 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
3057 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
3058 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
3059 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
3060 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
3061 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
3062 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
3063 functions.
3064
3065 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
3066 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
3067 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
3068
3069 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
3070
3071 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
3072
3073 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
3074
3075 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3076 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
3077 constrained position if that is is different.
3078
3079 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
3080 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
3081 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
3082 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
3083 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
3084 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
3085 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
3086 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
3087 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
3088
3089 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
3090 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
3091 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
3092 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
3093 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
3094
3095 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
3096 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
3097
3098 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
3099
3100 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
3101
3102 Delete the field surrounding POS.
3103 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3104 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3105
3106 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
3107
3108 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
3109 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3110 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3111 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
3112 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
3113
3114 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
3115
3116 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
3117 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3118 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3119 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
3120 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
3121
3122 - Function: field-string &optional POS
3123
3124 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
3125 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3126 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3127
3128 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
3129
3130 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
3131 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
3132 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
3133
3134 +++
3135 ** Image support.
3136
3137 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
3138 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
3139 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
3140 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
3141
3142 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
3143 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
3144 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
3145 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
3146 area.
3147
3148 IMAGE is an image specification.
3149
3150 *** Image specifications
3151
3152 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
3153 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
3154 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
3155 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
3156 described below are ignored.
3157
3158 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
3159
3160 `:ascent ASCENT'
3161
3162 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
3163 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
3164 to use for its ascent.
3165
3166 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
3167 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
3168
3169 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
3170 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
3171 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
3172 overlays that apply to the image.
3173
3174 `:margin MARGIN'
3175
3176 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
3177 margin around the image. Default is 0.
3178
3179 `:relief RELIEF'
3180
3181 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
3182 around an image.
3183
3184 `:algorithm ALGO'
3185
3186 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
3187
3188 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
3189 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
3190
3191 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
3192 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
3193 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
3194 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
3195 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
3196 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
3197 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
3198 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
3199 below.
3200
3201 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
3202 x-1/y x/y x+1/y
3203 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
3204
3205 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
3206 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
3207 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
3208 of the factors' absolute values.
3209
3210 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
3211
3212 (1 0 0
3213 0 0 0
3214 9 9 -1)
3215
3216 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
3217
3218 ( 2 -1 0
3219 -1 0 1
3220 0 1 -2)
3221
3222 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
3223 ``disabled''.
3224
3225 `:mask MASK'
3226
3227 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
3228 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
3229 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
3230 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
3231 image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from the corners is
3232 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
3233 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
3234 image.
3235
3236 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
3237 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
3238 `:mask nil'.
3239
3240 `:file FILE'
3241
3242 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
3243 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
3244 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
3245 may be present in the image specification.
3246
3247 `:data DATA'
3248
3249 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
3250 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
3251 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
3252 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
3253
3254 *** Supported image types
3255
3256 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
3257
3258 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
3259 properties supported are
3260
3261 `:foreground FG'
3262
3263 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
3264 is the frame's foreground.
3265
3266 `:background FG'
3267
3268 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
3269 the frame's background color.
3270
3271 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
3272 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
3273 instead of a `:file' property.
3274
3275 `:width WIDTH'
3276
3277 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
3278
3279 `:height HEIGHT'
3280
3281 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
3282
3283 `:data DATA'
3284
3285 DATA must be either
3286
3287 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
3288 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
3289
3290 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
3291
3292 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
3293 bitmap.
3294
3295 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
3296 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
3297 in the file.
3298
3299 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
3300
3301 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
3302 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
3303 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
3304 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
3305
3306 Additional image properties supported are:
3307
3308 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
3309
3310 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
3311 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
3312 name.
3313
3314 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
3315 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
3316
3317 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
3318 to display compressed images.
3319
3320 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
3321
3322 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
3323 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
3324 defined.
3325
3326 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
3327
3328 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
3329 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
3330 are:
3331
3332 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
3333
3334 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
3335 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3336 properties defined.
3337
3338 **** GIF, image type `gif'
3339
3340 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
3341 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
3342
3343 Additional image properties supported are:
3344
3345 `:index INDEX'
3346
3347 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
3348 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
3349
3350 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
3351 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
3352 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
3353 every 0.1 seconds.
3354
3355 (defun show-anim (file max)
3356 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
3357 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
3358
3359 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
3360 (when (= idx max)
3361 (setq idx 0))
3362 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
3363 (save-excursion
3364 (set-buffer buffer)
3365 (goto-char (point-min))
3366 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
3367 (insert-image img "x"))
3368 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
3369
3370 **** PNG, image type `png'
3371
3372 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
3373 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3374 properties defined.
3375
3376 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
3377
3378 Additional image properties supported are:
3379
3380 `:pt-width WIDTH'
3381
3382 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
3383 integer. This is a required property.
3384
3385 `:pt-height HEIGHT'
3386
3387 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
3388 must be a integer. This is an required property.
3389
3390 `:bounding-box BOX'
3391
3392 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
3393 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
3394 files. This is an required property.
3395
3396 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
3397 lisp/gs.el.
3398
3399 *** Lisp interface.
3400
3401 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
3402 which are supported in the current configuration.
3403
3404 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
3405 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
3406 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
3407 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
3408 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
3409
3410 *** Simplified image API, image.el
3411
3412 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
3413 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
3414 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
3415 define an image based on available image types. The functions
3416 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
3417 buffer.
3418
3419 +++
3420 ** Display margins.
3421
3422 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
3423 and images.
3424
3425 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
3426 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
3427 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
3428 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
3429 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
3430 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
3431 of the display margins.
3432
3433 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
3434 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
3435 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
3436 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
3437 in this file).
3438
3439 +++
3440 ** Help display
3441
3442 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
3443 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
3444 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
3445 that have a `help-echo' property.
3446
3447 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
3448 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
3449 the window in which the help was found.
3450
3451 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
3452 `help-echo' text property was found.
3453
3454 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
3455 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
3456
3457 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
3458 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
3459 mouse.
3460
3461 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
3462 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
3463
3464 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
3465 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
3466 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
3467 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
3468 used as help string.
3469
3470 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
3471 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
3472 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
3473
3474 +++
3475 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
3476
3477 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
3478 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
3479
3480 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
3481 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
3482 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
3483 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
3484 used.
3485
3486 (global-set-key [A-down]
3487 #'(lambda ()
3488 (interactive)
3489 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3490 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
3491 (global-set-key [A-up]
3492 #'(lambda ()
3493 (interactive)
3494 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3495 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
3496
3497 +++
3498 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
3499
3500 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
3501 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
3502 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
3503 is called with one argument, POS.
3504
3505 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
3506 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
3507 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
3508 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
3509 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
3510
3511 +++
3512 ** Tool bar support.
3513
3514 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
3515 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
3516 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
3517 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
3518 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
3519 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
3520
3521 *** Tool bar item definitions
3522
3523 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
3524 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
3525 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
3526
3527 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
3528 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
3529 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
3530 property (see below).
3531
3532 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
3533 binding are currently ignored.
3534
3535 The following properties are recognized:
3536
3537 `:enable FORM'.
3538
3539 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
3540 or disabled.
3541
3542 `:visible FORM'
3543
3544 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
3545
3546 `:filter FUNCTION'
3547
3548 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
3549 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
3550 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
3551
3552 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
3553
3554 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
3555 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
3556
3557 `:image IMAGES'
3558
3559 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
3560 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
3561 meaning of each of the four elements:
3562
3563 Index Use when item is
3564 ----------------------------------------
3565 0 enabled and selected
3566 1 enabled and deselected
3567 2 disabled and selected
3568 3 disabled and deselected
3569
3570 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
3571 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
3572
3573 `:help HELP-STRING'.
3574
3575 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
3576 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
3577
3578 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
3579 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
3580 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
3581 menu bar.
3582
3583 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
3584
3585 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
3586 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
3587 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
3588
3589 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
3590 raised when the mouse moves over them.
3591
3592 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
3593 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
3594 pixels. Default is 1.
3595
3596 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
3597 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
3598
3599 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
3600
3601 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
3602 a tool bar item. If
3603
3604 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
3605 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
3606 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
3607
3608 is the original tool bar item definition, then
3609
3610 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
3611
3612 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
3613 item.
3614
3615 ** Mode line changes.
3616
3617 +++
3618 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3619
3620 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
3621 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
3622 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
3623
3624 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
3625 a `local-map' text property.
3626
3627 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
3628 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
3629
3630 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
3631 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
3632 `local-map' property.
3633
3634 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
3635 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
3636 example.
3637
3638 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
3639 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
3640
3641 +++
3642 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
3643 variable mode-line-format to nil.
3644
3645 +++
3646 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
3647
3648 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
3649 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
3650 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
3651 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
3652 line.
3653
3654 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
3655 `header-line'.
3656
3657 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
3658 position in the header-line.
3659
3660 +++
3661 ** Text property `display'
3662
3663 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
3664 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
3665 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
3666 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
3667 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
3668
3669 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
3670
3671 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
3672 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
3673
3674 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
3675 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
3676 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
3677 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
3678 simpler form STRING as property value.
3679
3680 *** Variable width and height spaces
3681
3682 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
3683 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
3684 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
3685 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
3686 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
3687 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
3688 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
3689
3690 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
3691 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
3692 properties described below.
3693
3694 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
3695 characters having the `display' property.
3696
3697 - :width WIDTH
3698
3699 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
3700 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
3701
3702 - :relative-width FACTOR
3703
3704 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
3705 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
3706 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
3707 width of that character by FACTOR.
3708
3709 - :align-to HPOS
3710
3711 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
3712 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
3713
3714 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
3715
3716 - :height HEIGHT
3717
3718 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
3719 normal line height.
3720
3721 - :relative-height FACTOR
3722
3723 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
3724 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
3725
3726 - :ascent ASCENT
3727
3728 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
3729 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
3730 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
3731 equal to 100.
3732
3733 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
3734
3735 *** Images
3736
3737 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
3738 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
3739 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
3740 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
3741 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
3742 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
3743 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
3744 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
3745 as display specification.
3746
3747 *** Other display properties
3748
3749 - :space-width FACTOR
3750
3751 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
3752 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
3753 integer or float.
3754
3755 - :height HEIGHT
3756
3757 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
3758
3759 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
3760 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
3761 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
3762 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
3763 a font is available counts as a step.
3764
3765 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
3766 as tall as the frame's default font.
3767
3768 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
3769 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
3770
3771 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
3772 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
3773
3774 - :raise FACTOR
3775
3776 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
3777 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
3778 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
3779 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
3780 `:height' subproperty.
3781
3782 *** Conditional display properties
3783
3784 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
3785 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
3786 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
3787 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
3788 the text having the `display' property.
3789
3790 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
3791 `(:when t SPEC)'.
3792
3793 +++
3794 ** New menu separator types.
3795
3796 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
3797 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
3798 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
3799 to specify other menu separator types.
3800
3801 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
3802
3803 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
3804 separator occurs.
3805
3806 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
3807
3808 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
3809
3810 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
3811
3812 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
3813
3814 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
3815
3816 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3817
3818 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
3819
3820 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3821
3822 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
3823
3824 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
3825 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
3826
3827 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
3828
3829 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
3830
3831 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
3832
3833 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
3834
3835 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
3836
3837 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
3838
3839 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
3840
3841 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3842
3843 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
3844
3845 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
3846
3847 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
3848
3849 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3850
3851 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
3852
3853 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
3854
3855 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
3856 the corresponding single-line separators.
3857
3858 +++
3859 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
3860
3861 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
3862 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
3863 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
3864 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
3865 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
3866 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
3867 default foreground is black.
3868
3869 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
3870 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
3871 `ScrollBarBackground').
3872
3873 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
3874 settings for scroll bar colors.
3875
3876 +++
3877 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
3878 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
3879
3880 ---
3881 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
3882 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
3883 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
3884 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
3885 the original window start.
3886
3887 ---
3888 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
3889 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
3890 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
3891
3892 +++
3893 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
3894
3895 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
3896 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
3897 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
3898 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
3899
3900 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
3901 fixed-width and fixed-height.
3902
3903 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
3904
3905 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
3906 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
3907 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
3908 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
3909 temporarily to nil, for example
3910
3911 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
3912 (enlarge-window 10))
3913
3914 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
3915 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
3916
3917 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
3918 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
3919 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
3920 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
3921 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
3922 support a vertical-bar cursor).
3923
3924
3925 ^L
3926 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
3927
3928 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
3929 input.
3930
3931 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
3932
3933 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
3934
3935 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
3936 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
3937 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
3938 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
3939 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
3940
3941 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
3942 been added.
3943
3944 ^L
3945 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
3946
3947 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
3948
3949 ^L
3950 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
3951
3952 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
3953 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
3954 \f
3955 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
3956
3957 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
3958
3959 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
3960 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
3961 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
3962
3963 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
3964 is the one that is used.
3965
3966 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
3967 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
3968 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
3969 separate from the command's regular output.
3970 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
3971 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
3972 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
3973 the buffer name.
3974
3975 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
3976 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
3977 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
3978 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
3979
3980 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
3981 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
3982 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
3983 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
3984
3985 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
3986 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
3987 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
3988 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
3989
3990 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
3991 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
3992 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
3993 they never ignore case.
3994
3995 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
3996 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
3997 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
3998 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
3999 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
4000 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
4001 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
4002
4003 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
4004 the same format that was used in the file before.
4005
4006 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
4007 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
4008
4009 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
4010 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
4011 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
4012
4013 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
4014 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
4015 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
4016 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
4017 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
4018 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
4019 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
4020
4021 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
4022 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
4023 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
4024 format. You can now customize these variables.
4025
4026 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
4027 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
4028 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
4029 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
4030
4031 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
4032 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
4033 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
4034
4035 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
4036 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
4037 doesn't have any effect.
4038
4039 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
4040 not one per buffer.
4041
4042 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
4043 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
4044 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
4045
4046 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
4047 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
4048 `auto-show-mode' command.
4049
4050 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
4051 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
4052 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
4053 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
4054 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
4055
4056 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
4057 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
4058
4059 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
4060 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
4061 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
4062
4063 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
4064 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
4065 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
4066 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
4067
4068 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
4069
4070 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
4071 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
4072 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
4073 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
4074 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
4075
4076 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
4077 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
4078
4079 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
4080 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
4081 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
4082 `?' on other systems.
4083
4084 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
4085 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
4086 Unix.
4087
4088 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
4089 current codepage when it starts.
4090
4091 ** Mail changes
4092
4093 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
4094 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
4095 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
4096 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
4097 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
4098 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
4099 latin-1:
4100
4101 MIME-version: 1.0
4102 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
4103 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
4104
4105 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
4106 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
4107 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
4108 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
4109 buffer-file-coding-system.
4110
4111 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
4112 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
4113 mail.
4114
4115 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
4116 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
4117 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
4118 list of possible coding systems.
4119
4120 ** CC Mode changes
4121
4122 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
4123 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
4124 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
4125 docstring for details.
4126
4127 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
4128 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
4129 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
4130 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
4131 lineup functions use this feature currently.
4132
4133 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
4134 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
4135
4136 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
4137 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
4138
4139 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
4140 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
4141 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
4142 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
4143 anonymous classes.
4144
4145 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
4146 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
4147
4148 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
4149 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
4150 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
4151 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
4152
4153 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
4154 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
4155 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
4156 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
4157 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
4158
4159 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
4160
4161 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
4162
4163 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
4164 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
4165
4166 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
4167
4168 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
4169 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
4170 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
4171 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
4172 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
4173
4174 ** Gnus changes.
4175
4176 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
4177 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
4178 Gnus manual for the full story.
4179
4180 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
4181 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
4182 group, which is created automatically.
4183
4184 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
4185 values.
4186
4187 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
4188
4189 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
4190 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
4191
4192 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
4193 `C-u C-c C-c'.
4194
4195 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
4196
4197 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
4198 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
4199
4200 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
4201
4202 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
4203 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
4204
4205 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
4206 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
4207
4208 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
4209 control over simplification.
4210
4211 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
4212
4213 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
4214 limit.
4215
4216 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
4217
4218 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
4219
4220 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
4221 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
4222 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
4223
4224 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
4225 `a' forces normal posting method.
4226
4227 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
4228 -- `W d'.
4229
4230 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
4231 to a non-nil value.
4232
4233 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
4234 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
4235
4236 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
4237 has been added.
4238
4239 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
4240
4241 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
4242
4243 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
4244 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
4245
4246 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
4247 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
4248
4249 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
4250
4251 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
4252 been added.
4253
4254 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
4255 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
4256
4257 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
4258 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
4259
4260 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
4261
4262 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
4263
4264 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
4265
4266 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
4267
4268 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
4269 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
4270 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
4271
4272 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
4273 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
4274 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
4275 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
4276 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
4277
4278 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
4279 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
4280 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
4281 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
4282
4283 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
4284 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
4285 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
4286 mismatch.
4287
4288 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4289
4290 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
4291 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
4292
4293 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
4294 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
4295 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
4296 removed from the label.
4297
4298 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
4299 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
4300
4301 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
4302 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
4303
4304 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
4305 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
4306 expressions.
4307
4308 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
4309
4310 ** New/deleted modes and packages
4311
4312 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
4313 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
4314
4315 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
4316 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
4317 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
4318
4319 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
4320 changes with a special face.
4321
4322 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
4323 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
4324 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
4325 \f
4326 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
4327
4328 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
4329 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
4330 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
4331 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
4332 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
4333
4334 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
4335 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
4336 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
4337
4338 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
4339 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
4340 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
4341 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
4342 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
4343 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
4344 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
4345 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
4346 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
4347
4348 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
4349 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
4350 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
4351 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
4352 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
4353 program.
4354
4355 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
4356 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
4357 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
4358 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
4359 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
4360 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
4361
4362 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
4363 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
4364 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
4365 was not documented clearly before.
4366
4367 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
4368 This includes Tetris and Snake.
4369 \f
4370 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
4371
4372 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
4373 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
4374 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
4375 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
4376
4377 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
4378 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
4379 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
4380
4381 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
4382
4383 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
4384 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
4385
4386 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
4387 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
4388 integers.
4389
4390 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
4391 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
4392 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
4393 file names and attributes are returned.
4394
4395 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
4396 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
4397 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
4398 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
4399 returns the result.
4400
4401 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
4402 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
4403
4404 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
4405
4406 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
4407 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
4408 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
4409 optionally.
4410
4411 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
4412 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
4413
4414 **
4415 The new function process-running-child-p
4416 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
4417 terminal to its own child process.
4418
4419 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
4420 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
4421 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
4422 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
4423
4424 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
4425 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
4426
4427 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
4428 :included is an alias for :visible.
4429
4430 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
4431 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
4432 to move or copy menu entries.
4433
4434 ** Multibyte editing changes
4435
4436 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
4437 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
4438 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
4439 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
4440 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
4441 (setq char (sref str idx)
4442 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
4443 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
4444
4445 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
4446 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
4447 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
4448
4449 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
4450 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
4451 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
4452
4453 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
4454
4455 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
4456 across the boundary.
4457
4458 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
4459 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
4460 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
4461 contains 8-bit characters.
4462 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
4463 contains invalid characters.
4464
4465 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
4466 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
4467 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
4468 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
4469 way.
4470
4471 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
4472 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
4473 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
4474 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
4475
4476 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
4477 compose Thai characters in a string.
4478
4479 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
4480 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
4481 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
4482 menus should always use the third argument.
4483
4484 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
4485 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
4486 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
4487 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
4488
4489 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
4490 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
4491 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
4492 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
4493
4494 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
4495 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
4496 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
4497 echo area contents.
4498
4499 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
4500
4501 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
4502 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
4503 requested feature cannot be loaded.
4504
4505 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
4506 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
4507 means to clear out that attribute.
4508
4509 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
4510 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
4511
4512 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
4513 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
4514 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
4515 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
4516
4517 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
4518 the gap of the current buffer.
4519
4520 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
4521 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
4522 current buffer.
4523
4524 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
4525 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
4526 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
4527 it back in after any modifications have been made.
4528 \f
4529 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
4530
4531 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
4532 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
4533 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
4534 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
4535 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
4536
4537 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
4538 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
4539 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
4540 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
4541 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
4542
4543 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
4544 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
4545 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
4546
4547 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
4548 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
4549 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
4550 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
4551 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
4552 results.
4553
4554 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
4555 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
4556 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
4557 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
4558 \f
4559 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
4560
4561 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
4562 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
4563 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
4564 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
4565
4566 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
4567 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
4568 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
4569 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
4570 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
4571 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
4572 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
4573 region.
4574
4575 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
4576 selective undo.
4577
4578 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
4579 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
4580 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
4581 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
4582 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
4583
4584 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
4585 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
4586 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
4587 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
4588
4589 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
4590 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
4591 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
4592 something that most users not do.
4593
4594 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
4595 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
4596 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
4597 applications.
4598
4599 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
4600 pasting operations.
4601
4602 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
4603 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
4604 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
4605 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
4606 `ps-printer-name'.
4607
4608 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
4609 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
4610 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
4611 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
4612 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
4613 hits a new word.
4614
4615 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
4616 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
4617 to be confused by TeX commands.
4618
4619 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
4620 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
4621 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
4622 of various alternative replacements and actions.
4623
4624 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
4625 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
4626 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
4627 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
4628 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
4629
4630 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
4631 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
4632
4633 ** Changes in input method usage.
4634
4635 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
4636 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
4637 respectively.
4638
4639 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
4640
4641 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
4642 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
4643
4644 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
4645 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
4646
4647 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
4648
4649 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
4650
4651 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
4652 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
4653
4654 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
4655 given in the following case:
4656 o When you are using a complex input method.
4657 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
4658
4659 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
4660 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
4661 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
4662 setting it to t is helpful.
4663
4664 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
4665
4666 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
4667 keys:
4668 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
4669 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
4670 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
4671 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
4672 environment.
4673
4674 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
4675 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
4676 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
4677 get
4678
4679 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
4680
4681 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
4682
4683 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
4684 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
4685
4686 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
4687 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
4688 its owner and group.
4689
4690 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
4691 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
4692
4693 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
4694 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
4695
4696 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
4697 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
4698 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
4699 by the left edge of the rectangle.
4700
4701 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
4702 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
4703 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
4704 for writing keyboard macros.
4705
4706 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
4707 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
4708 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
4709 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
4710 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
4711 info.
4712
4713 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
4714
4715 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
4716 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
4717 contents only.
4718
4719 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
4720 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
4721 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
4722 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
4723
4724 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
4725 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
4726 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
4727
4728 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
4729 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
4730 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
4731 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
4732
4733 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
4734 failure if the command produces no output.
4735
4736 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
4737 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
4738 the mouse.
4739
4740 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
4741 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
4742 function and variable names.
4743
4744 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
4745 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
4746 file-coding-system-alist.
4747
4748 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
4749 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
4750 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
4751 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
4752 according to the current fontset.
4753
4754 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
4755
4756 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
4757 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
4758 nonascii-insert-offset.
4759
4760 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
4761 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
4762 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
4763 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
4764
4765 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
4766 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
4767
4768 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
4769 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
4770
4771 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
4772 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
4773 command keys.
4774
4775 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
4776 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
4777
4778 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
4779 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
4780 all variables that have documentation.
4781
4782 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
4783 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
4784 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
4785 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
4786 it should show; the default is 20.
4787
4788 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
4789 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
4790 of your input.
4791
4792 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
4793 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
4794 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
4795 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
4796 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
4797 Newly added options are included as well.
4798
4799 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
4800 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
4801 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
4802
4803 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
4804 Customize menu.
4805
4806 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
4807 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
4808
4809 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
4810 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
4811 invoked.
4812
4813 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
4814 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
4815 The default is 1.
4816
4817 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
4818 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
4819 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
4820 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
4821 sensibly.
4822
4823 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
4824
4825 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
4826 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
4827 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
4828
4829 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
4830 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
4831 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
4832 every night.
4833
4834 ** Desktop changes
4835
4836 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
4837 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
4838
4839 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
4840 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
4841
4842 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
4843 read and post multi-lingual articles.
4844
4845 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
4846 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
4847 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
4848 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
4849 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
4850 made invisible again.
4851
4852 ** Mail reading and sending changes
4853
4854 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
4855 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
4856 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
4857 toggle.
4858
4859 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
4860 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
4861 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
4862 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
4863 rmail-default-body-file.
4864
4865 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
4866 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
4867 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
4868
4869 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
4870 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
4871 is evaluated to insert the signature.
4872
4873 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
4874 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
4875 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
4876 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
4877 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
4878 especially interested in trying feedmail.
4879
4880 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
4881 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
4882 provided by feedmail are:
4883
4884 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
4885 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
4886 there is also a queue for draft messages
4887
4888 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
4889 be prompted for confirmation
4890
4891 **** does smart filling of address headers
4892
4893 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
4894 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
4895 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
4896
4897 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
4898 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
4899 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
4900 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
4901
4902 ** Dired changes
4903
4904 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
4905 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
4906
4907 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
4908 run Dired on the directory name at point.
4909
4910 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
4911 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
4912 for a specified regexp.
4913
4914 ** VC Changes
4915
4916 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
4917 conveniently.
4918
4919 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
4920 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
4921 Dired.
4922
4923 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
4924 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
4925 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
4926 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
4927
4928 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
4929 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
4930 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
4931 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
4932 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
4933
4934 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
4935 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
4936 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
4937 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
4938 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
4939
4940 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
4941 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
4942 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
4943 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
4944
4945 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
4946 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
4947 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
4948
4949 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
4950 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
4951 session to resolve them.
4952
4953 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
4954 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
4955 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
4956 uses as well).
4957
4958 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
4959 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
4960 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
4961 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
4962 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
4963 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
4964 using ediff.
4965
4966 ** Changes in Font Lock
4967
4968 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
4969 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
4970 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
4971 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
4972 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
4973
4974 ** Frame name display changes
4975
4976 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
4977 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
4978 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
4979 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
4980
4981 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
4982 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
4983 menu.
4984
4985 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4986
4987 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
4988 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
4989 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
4990
4991 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
4992
4993 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
4994 that is, the line after the last line you got.
4995 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
4996
4997 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
4998 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
4999 the following line.
5000
5001 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
5002 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
5003 previously sent input.
5004
5005 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
5006 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
5007 as the search string.
5008
5009 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
5010 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
5011
5012 ** C mode changes
5013
5014 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
5015 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
5016 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
5017 definition.
5018
5019 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
5020 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
5021 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
5022 style is still the default however.
5023
5024 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
5025
5026 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
5027 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
5028 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
5029
5030 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
5031 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
5032
5033 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
5034 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
5035
5036 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
5037 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
5038
5039 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
5040 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
5041
5042 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
5043 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
5044 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
5045 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
5046
5047 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
5048
5049 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
5050 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
5051 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
5052
5053 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
5054 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
5055 expanding dynamically.
5056
5057 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
5058 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
5059
5060 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
5061 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
5062 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
5063 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
5064
5065 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
5066
5067 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
5068
5069 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
5070 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
5071 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
5072 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
5073 against the first word in the title.
5074
5075 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
5076 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
5077 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
5078 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
5079 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
5080 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
5081
5082 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
5083 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
5084 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
5085 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
5086
5087 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
5088
5089 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
5090 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
5091 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
5092 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
5093 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
5094 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
5095
5096 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
5097 Editing group once the package is loaded.
5098
5099 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
5100 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
5101 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
5102
5103 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
5104 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
5105
5106 ** Ispell changes.
5107
5108 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
5109 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
5110 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
5111
5112 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
5113 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
5114 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
5115 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
5116 include:
5117
5118 o URLs are automatically skipped
5119 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
5120
5121 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
5122
5123 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
5124
5125 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
5126 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
5127 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
5128 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
5129
5130 *** New recursive parser.
5131
5132 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
5133 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
5134 recursive parser scans the individual files.
5135
5136 *** Parsing only part of a document.
5137
5138 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
5139 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
5140 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
5141
5142 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
5143
5144 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
5145
5146 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
5147
5148 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
5149
5150 *** Using multiple selection buffers
5151
5152 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
5153 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
5154
5155 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
5156
5157 *** References to external documents.
5158
5159 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
5160 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
5161 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
5162 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
5163 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
5164 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
5165 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
5166
5167 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
5168
5169 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
5170 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
5171
5172 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
5173 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
5174
5175 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
5176
5177 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
5178 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
5179
5180 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
5181
5182 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
5183 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
5184 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
5185 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
5186 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
5187 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
5188 more.
5189
5190 *** Support for the varioref package
5191
5192 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
5193
5194 *** New hooks
5195
5196 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
5197 and citations are created. These hooks are
5198 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
5199 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
5200
5201 *** Citations outside LaTeX
5202
5203 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
5204 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
5205
5206 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
5207
5208 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
5209 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
5210 fontified, use
5211
5212 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
5213
5214 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
5215 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
5216 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
5217 directories that contain the same file name.
5218
5219 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
5220 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
5221 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
5222 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
5223 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
5224 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
5225 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
5226 directory.
5227
5228 ** New modes and packages
5229
5230 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
5231 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
5232 it, but some do not.
5233
5234 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
5235 code.
5236
5237 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
5238 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
5239 around in a buffer.
5240
5241 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
5242
5243 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
5244 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
5245 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
5246 established system of notation similar to Chess.
5247
5248 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
5249 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
5250 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
5251
5252 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
5253 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
5254 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
5255 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
5256 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
5257 the like.
5258
5259 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
5260 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
5261
5262 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
5263 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
5264 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
5265 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
5266
5267 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
5268
5269 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
5270 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
5271 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
5272 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
5273 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
5274 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
5275 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
5276 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
5277 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
5278 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
5279 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
5280
5281 Platform-specific modes:
5282
5283 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
5284 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
5285 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
5286 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
5287 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
5288 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
5289 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
5290 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
5291 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
5292 \f
5293 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
5294
5295 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
5296 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
5297 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
5298 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
5299
5300 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
5301 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
5302 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
5303
5304 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
5305 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
5306 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
5307 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
5308
5309 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
5310 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
5311 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
5312 environment.
5313
5314 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
5315 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
5316 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
5317 current input method for reading this one event.
5318
5319 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
5320 now control whether to output certain characters as
5321 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
5322 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
5323 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
5324 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
5325 \f
5326 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
5327
5328 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
5329 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
5330
5331 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
5332 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
5333 always increases point by 1.
5334
5335 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
5336 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
5337
5338 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
5339
5340 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
5341 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
5342 default value changed. For example,
5343
5344 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
5345 :type 'integer
5346 :group 'foo
5347 :version "20.3")
5348
5349 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
5350 :version "20.3")
5351
5352 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
5353 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
5354 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
5355 `:version' in the top level group.
5356
5357 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
5358
5359 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
5360 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
5361
5362 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
5363 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
5364 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
5365 to themselves.
5366
5367 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
5368 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
5369 values whatever.
5370
5371 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
5372 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
5373 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
5374
5375 ** Frame-local variables.
5376
5377 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
5378 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
5379 local bindings for that variable.
5380
5381 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
5382 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
5383 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
5384 parameter name.
5385
5386 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
5387 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
5388 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
5389 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
5390
5391 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
5392 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
5393 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
5394 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
5395
5396 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
5397 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
5398 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
5399 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
5400 See the documentation in sregex.el.
5401
5402 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
5403 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
5404 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
5405 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
5406
5407 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
5408 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
5409
5410 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
5411 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
5412 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
5413
5414 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
5415 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
5416 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
5417 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
5418
5419 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
5420 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
5421 empty input.
5422
5423 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
5424 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
5425 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
5426 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
5427 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
5428
5429 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
5430 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
5431 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
5432 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
5433
5434 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
5435 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
5436 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
5437 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
5438 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
5439
5440 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
5441 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
5442 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
5443 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
5444
5445 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
5446 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
5447 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
5448
5449 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
5450 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
5451 was directed to display this buffer.
5452
5453 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
5454 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
5455 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
5456 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
5457 set-window-configuration.
5458
5459 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
5460 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
5461 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
5462 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
5463
5464 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
5465 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
5466 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
5467
5468 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
5469 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
5470 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
5471
5472 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
5473 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
5474
5475 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
5476 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
5477
5478 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
5479 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
5480 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
5481
5482 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
5483 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
5484 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
5485 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
5486
5487 ** Menu changes
5488
5489 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
5490 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
5491 better supported.
5492
5493 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
5494 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
5495 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
5496 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
5497 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
5498
5499 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
5500
5501 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
5502 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
5503 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
5504 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
5505
5506 The format is:
5507 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
5508 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
5509 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
5510 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
5511 The supported properties include
5512
5513 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5514 item is enabled.
5515 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5516 item should appear in the menu.
5517 :filter FILTER-FN
5518 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
5519 which will be REAL-BINDING.
5520 It should return a binding to use instead.
5521 :keys DESCRIPTION
5522 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
5523 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
5524 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
5525 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
5526 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
5527 keyboard binding.
5528 :key-sequence nil
5529 This means that the command normally has no
5530 keyboard equivalent.
5531 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
5532 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
5533 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
5534 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
5535 value says whether this button is currently selected.
5536
5537 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
5538 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
5539
5540 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
5541
5542 ** New event types
5543
5544 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
5545 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
5546 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
5547 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
5548
5549 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
5550
5551 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5552 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
5553 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
5554 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
5555 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
5556 forward, away from the user.
5557
5558 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5559
5560 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
5561 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
5562 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
5563 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
5564 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
5565
5566 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
5567
5568 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5569 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
5570 that were dragged and dropped.
5571
5572 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5573
5574 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
5575
5576 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
5577 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
5578 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
5579
5580 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
5581 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
5582 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
5583
5584 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
5585 in Emacs 19 and before.
5586
5587 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
5588 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
5589
5590 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
5591 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
5592 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
5593 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
5594
5595 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
5596 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
5597 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
5598 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
5599 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
5600
5601 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
5602 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
5603 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
5604 consistent with the new representation.
5605
5606 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
5607 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
5608 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
5609 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5610
5611 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
5612 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
5613 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
5614
5615 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
5616 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
5617 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5618
5619 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
5620 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
5621 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
5622
5623 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5624 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
5625
5626 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5627 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
5628
5629 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
5630 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
5631 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
5632 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
5633
5634 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
5635 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
5636
5637 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
5638 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
5639 buffer or string being searched.
5640
5641 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
5642 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
5643 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
5644 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
5645 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
5646 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
5647 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
5648
5649 *** Structure of coding system changed.
5650
5651 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
5652 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
5653 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
5654 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
5655 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
5656 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
5657 define-coding-system-alias.
5658
5659 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
5660 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
5661 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
5662 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
5663 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
5664 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
5665 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
5666 `iso-8859-1'.
5667
5668 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
5669 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
5670 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
5671 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
5672
5673 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
5674 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
5675 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
5676 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
5677
5678 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
5679 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
5680 This function requires a user interaction.
5681
5682 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
5683 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
5684 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
5685 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
5686 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
5687 select-safe-coding-system.
5688
5689 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
5690 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
5691 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
5692 was done.
5693
5694 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
5695 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
5696 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
5697
5698 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
5699 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
5700 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
5701 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
5702
5703 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
5704 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
5705 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
5706 converted.
5707
5708 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
5709 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
5710
5711 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
5712 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
5713 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
5714 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
5715 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
5716 range of characters.
5717
5718 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
5719 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
5720
5721 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
5722 in the current buffer at position POS.
5723
5724 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
5725 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
5726 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
5727 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
5728 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
5729 binding input-method-function to nil.
5730
5731 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
5732 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
5733 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
5734 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
5735 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
5736
5737 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
5738 subsequent events of a key sequence.
5739
5740 *** You can customize any language environment by using
5741 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
5742
5743 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
5744 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
5745 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
5746 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
5747 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
5748 \f
5749 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
5750
5751 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
5752 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
5753 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
5754 tree structure.
5755
5756 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
5757 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
5758
5759 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
5760 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
5761 in your .emacs file.)
5762
5763 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
5764 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
5765
5766 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
5767 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
5768
5769 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
5770 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
5771 kills the region.
5772
5773 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
5774 delete the character before point, as usual.
5775
5776 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
5777 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
5778 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
5779
5780 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
5781 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
5782 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
5783 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
5784 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
5785 past.)
5786
5787 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
5788 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
5789 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
5790 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
5791 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
5792
5793 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
5794 and is an alias for it.
5795
5796 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
5797 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
5798
5799 ** Scrolling changes
5800
5801 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
5802 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
5803
5804 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
5805 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
5806 where it started.
5807
5808 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
5809 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
5810 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
5811 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
5812
5813 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
5814 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
5815 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
5816 recenters the window.
5817
5818 ** International character set support (MULE)
5819
5820 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
5821 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
5822 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
5823 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
5824 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
5825 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
5826
5827 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
5828 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
5829 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
5830 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
5831 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
5832
5833 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
5834 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
5835 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
5836 language, to make it possible to type them.
5837
5838 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
5839 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
5840
5841 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
5842 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
5843
5844 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
5845
5846 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
5847
5848 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
5849 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
5850 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
5851 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
5852 characters for their work until they want to change.
5853
5854 *** Input methods
5855
5856 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
5857 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
5858 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
5859 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
5860 support several input methods.
5861
5862 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
5863 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
5864 work.
5865
5866 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
5867 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
5868 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
5869 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
5870 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
5871 letter.
5872
5873 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
5874 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
5875 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
5876 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
5877 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
5878
5879 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
5880 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
5881 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
5882 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
5883
5884 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
5885 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
5886 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
5887 the first guess is wrong.
5888
5889 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
5890 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
5891
5892 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
5893 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
5894 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
5895 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
5896
5897 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
5898 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
5899 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
5900 translate automatically to and from either one.
5901
5902 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
5903
5904 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
5905 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
5906 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
5907 what you want.
5908
5909 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
5910 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
5911 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
5912 multibyte characters in that buffer.
5913
5914 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
5915 character conversion as well.
5916
5917 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
5918
5919 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
5920 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
5921 requires using many fonts.
5922
5923 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
5924 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
5925
5926 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
5927 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
5928 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
5929 you would use a font.
5930
5931 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
5932 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
5933 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
5934
5935 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
5936 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
5937 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
5938 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
5939 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
5940
5941 *** Defining fontsets.
5942
5943 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
5944 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
5945 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
5946
5947 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
5948 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
5949 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
5950 standard fontset are created automatically.
5951
5952 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
5953 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
5954 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
5955 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
5956 name is `fontset-startup'.
5957
5958 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
5959 The resource value should have this form:
5960 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
5961 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
5962 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
5963 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
5964 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
5965 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
5966 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
5967 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
5968 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
5969
5970 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
5971 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
5972 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
5973
5974 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
5975 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
5976 following resource,
5977 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
5978 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
5979 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
5980 Here is the substitution rule:
5981 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
5982 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
5983 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
5984 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
5985 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
5986
5987 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
5988 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
5989 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
5990
5991 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
5992 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
5993 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
5994 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
5995 fontsets.
5996
5997 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
5998 defaults for a particular choice of language.
5999
6000 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
6001 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
6002 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
6003 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
6004 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
6005 system for new files that you create.
6006
6007 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
6008 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
6009 whole Emacs session.
6010
6011 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
6012 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
6013 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
6014
6015 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
6016 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
6017 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
6018 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
6019 coding systems that Emacs supports.
6020
6021 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
6022 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
6023 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
6024 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
6025 is used for *the immediately following command*.
6026
6027 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
6028 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
6029
6030 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
6031 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
6032
6033 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
6034 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
6035
6036 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
6037 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
6038 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
6039 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
6040 of the file.
6041
6042 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
6043 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
6044 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
6045 translated into that character code.
6046
6047 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
6048 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
6049
6050 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
6051
6052 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
6053 the coding system for keyboard input.
6054
6055 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
6056 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
6057 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
6058
6059 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
6060
6061 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
6062 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
6063 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
6064 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
6065 designed to work with terminals.
6066
6067 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
6068 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
6069 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
6070 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
6071 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
6072 in the corresponding buffer.
6073
6074 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
6075
6076 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
6077 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
6078 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
6079
6080 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
6081 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
6082 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
6083 want to use.
6084
6085 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
6086 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
6087
6088 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
6089 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
6090 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
6091 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
6092
6093 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
6094 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
6095 related information.
6096
6097 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
6098 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
6099 scripts.
6100
6101 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
6102 information about the support for a particular language.
6103 You specify the language as an argument.
6104
6105 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
6106 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
6107 first dash.
6108
6109 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
6110 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
6111 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
6112 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
6113
6114 A alternativnyj (Russian)
6115 B big5 (Chinese)
6116 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
6117 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
6118 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
6119 E euc-japan (Japanese)
6120 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
6121 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
6122 K euc-korea (Korean)
6123 R koi8 (Russian)
6124 Q tibetan
6125 S shift_jis (Japanese)
6126 T lao
6127 T tis620 (Thai)
6128 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
6129 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
6130 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
6131 v viqr (Vietnamese)
6132 z hz (Chinese)
6133
6134 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
6135 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
6136 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
6137 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
6138
6139 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
6140 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
6141
6142 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
6143 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
6144 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
6145 Rmail files themselves.
6146
6147 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
6148 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
6149
6150 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
6151 for sending mail:
6152
6153 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
6154 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
6155 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
6156 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
6157 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
6158
6159 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
6160 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
6161 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
6162 translations.
6163
6164 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
6165 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
6166 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
6167 without any conversion.
6168
6169 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
6170 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
6171 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
6172 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
6173
6174 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
6175 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
6176
6177 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
6178 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
6179
6180 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
6181 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
6182
6183 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
6184 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
6185 in the buffer before point.
6186
6187 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
6188 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
6189 you are using.
6190
6191 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
6192 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
6193
6194 ** File locking works with NFS now.
6195
6196 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
6197 in the same directory as FILENAME.
6198
6199 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
6200 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
6201 can become a bottleneck.
6202
6203 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
6204 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
6205 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
6206 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
6207 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
6208 so useful that the change is worth while.
6209
6210 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
6211 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
6212 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
6213 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
6214
6215 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
6216 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
6217 show-paren-mode.
6218
6219 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
6220 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
6221 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
6222
6223 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
6224 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
6225 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
6226
6227 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
6228 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
6229 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
6230
6231 ** Changes in View mode.
6232
6233 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
6234 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
6235
6236 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
6237 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
6238
6239 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
6240 previous state.
6241
6242 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
6243 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
6244
6245 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
6246 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
6247 not just the selected window.
6248
6249 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
6250 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
6251 turns View mode on or off.
6252
6253 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
6254 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
6255 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
6256
6257 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
6258 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
6259
6260 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
6261 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
6262 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
6263 which version to compare with.
6264
6265 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
6266 blocks if a match is inside the block.
6267
6268 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
6269 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
6270 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
6271 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
6272
6273 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
6274 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
6275 blocks, all of them or none.
6276
6277 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
6278 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
6279 confirmation first.
6280
6281 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
6282 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
6283 However, the mode will not be changed if
6284 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
6285 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
6286 not suitable for ordinary files, or
6287 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
6288
6289 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
6290
6291 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
6292 these commands do not change the major mode.
6293
6294 ** M-x occur changes.
6295
6296 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
6297 it performs a case-sensitive search.
6298
6299 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
6300 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
6301 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
6302
6303 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
6304 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
6305 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
6306 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
6307 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
6308
6309 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
6310 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
6311 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
6312 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
6313
6314 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
6315 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
6316 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
6317
6318 ** Outline mode changes.
6319
6320 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
6321
6322 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
6323
6324 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
6325 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
6326 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
6327 was already active.
6328
6329 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
6330 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
6331 get confused by it.
6332
6333 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
6334 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
6335
6336 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
6337
6338 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
6339 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
6340 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
6341 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
6342
6343 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
6344 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
6345 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
6346
6347 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
6348 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
6349 values.
6350
6351 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
6352 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
6353 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
6354 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
6355
6356 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
6357 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
6358 can be. The default value is 30.
6359
6360 ** Changes in Mail mode.
6361
6362 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
6363 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
6364 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
6365 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
6366 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
6367 behavior.
6368
6369 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
6370 compose-mail-other-frame.
6371
6372 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
6373 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
6374 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
6375 buffer that shows the original message.
6376
6377 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
6378 with separator lines around the contents.
6379
6380 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
6381 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
6382 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
6383 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
6384
6385 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
6386
6387 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
6388 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
6389 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
6390 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
6391
6392 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
6393 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
6394 /etc/passwd.
6395
6396 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
6397 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
6398 /etc/passwd.
6399
6400 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
6401 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
6402 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
6403 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
6404
6405 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
6406 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
6407 be taken to be magic.
6408
6409 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
6410 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
6411 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
6412
6413 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
6414 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
6415
6416 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
6417 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
6418
6419 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
6420
6421 new key dired.el binding old key
6422 ------- ---------------- -------
6423 * c dired-change-marks c
6424 * m dired-mark m
6425 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
6426 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
6427 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
6428 * u dired-unmark u
6429 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
6430 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
6431 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
6432 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
6433 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
6434 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
6435
6436 ** Rmail changes.
6437
6438 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
6439 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
6440 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
6441 each time you run it.
6442
6443 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
6444 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
6445
6446 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
6447 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
6448 means to move in the opposite direction.
6449
6450 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
6451 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
6452
6453 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
6454 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
6455 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
6456 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
6457 for output.
6458
6459 ** Gnus changes.
6460
6461 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
6462
6463 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
6464 Gnus.
6465
6466 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
6467 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
6468
6469 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
6470 article mode line.
6471
6472 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
6473
6474 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
6475
6476 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
6477
6478 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
6479 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
6480 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
6481
6482 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
6483
6484 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
6485
6486 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
6487 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
6488
6489 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
6490 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
6491 used to pick articles.
6492
6493 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
6494 another have been added.
6495
6496 `M-x gnus-change-server'
6497
6498 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
6499 generating lines in buffers.
6500
6501 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
6502 `M-C-_'.
6503
6504 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
6505
6506 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
6507
6508 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
6509
6510 *** Scores can be decayed.
6511
6512 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
6513
6514 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
6515 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
6516
6517 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
6518 the native server.
6519
6520 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
6521
6522 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
6523 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
6524
6525 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
6526
6527 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
6528 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
6529
6530 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
6531 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
6532
6533 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
6534 a group.
6535
6536 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
6537 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
6538
6539 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
6540
6541 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
6542
6543 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
6544
6545 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
6546
6547 Use the `Y c' command.
6548
6549 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
6550
6551 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
6552
6553 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
6554
6555 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
6556 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
6557
6558 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
6559
6560 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
6561
6562 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
6563 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
6564
6565 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
6566
6567 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
6568 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
6569 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
6570 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
6571 this issue.)
6572
6573 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
6574 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
6575 particular news group. This can be done by:
6576
6577 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
6578
6579 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
6580 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
6581 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
6582 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
6583 for reading and posting).
6584
6585 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
6586 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
6587 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
6588 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
6589 there.
6590
6591 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
6592 default. Here are some of these default settings:
6593
6594 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
6595 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
6596 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
6597 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
6598 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
6599
6600 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
6601 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
6602
6603 ** CC mode changes.
6604
6605 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
6606 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
6607 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
6608 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
6609 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
6610 loaded.
6611
6612 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
6613 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
6614 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
6615 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
6616 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
6617 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
6618
6619 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
6620 of the current buffer.
6621
6622 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
6623 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
6624 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
6625
6626 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
6627 style that the Python developers like.
6628
6629 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
6630 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
6631 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
6632
6633 ** VC Changes [new]
6634
6635 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
6636 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
6637 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
6638
6639 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
6640 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
6641 developers.
6642
6643 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
6644 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
6645
6646 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
6647 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
6648 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
6649 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
6650
6651 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
6652 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
6653
6654 ** Calendar changes.
6655
6656 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
6657 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
6658 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
6659
6660 ** ps-print changes
6661
6662 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
6663
6664 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
6665
6666 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
6667 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
6668 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
6669 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
6670 It defaults to `letter'.
6671 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
6672
6673 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
6674 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
6675 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
6676
6677 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
6678 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
6679 It defaults to 1.
6680
6681 *** Horizontal layout
6682
6683 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
6684 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
6685 All are measured in points.
6686
6687 *** Vertical layout
6688
6689 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
6690 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
6691 All are measured in points.
6692
6693 *** Headers
6694
6695 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
6696 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
6697 margin above the text.
6698
6699 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
6700 framing box is printed around the header.
6701
6702 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
6703 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
6704
6705 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
6706 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
6707 `ps-header-font-size'.
6708
6709 *** Font managing
6710
6711 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
6712 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
6713 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
6714 elements to this alist.
6715
6716 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
6717 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
6718
6719 ** hideshow changes.
6720
6721 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
6722 C++, ; for lisp).
6723
6724 *** Support for java-mode added.
6725
6726 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
6727 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
6728
6729 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
6730 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
6731 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
6732
6733 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
6734 robust and a lot faster.
6735
6736 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
6737
6738 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
6739 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
6740 documentation for more details.
6741
6742 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
6743
6744 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
6745 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
6746 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
6747 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
6748 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
6749
6750 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
6751 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
6752 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
6753 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
6754
6755 ** Font Lock mode
6756
6757 *** Custom support
6758
6759 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
6760 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
6761 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
6762 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
6763 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
6764 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
6765
6766 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
6767
6768 *** Maximum decoration
6769
6770 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
6771 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
6772 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
6773 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
6774 to get the old behavior.
6775
6776 *** New support
6777
6778 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
6779
6780 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
6781 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
6782
6783 *** Configurable support
6784
6785 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
6786 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
6787 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
6788 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
6789 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
6790 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
6791 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
6792
6793 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
6794 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
6795 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
6796
6797 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
6798
6799 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
6800 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
6801 for any mode.
6802
6803 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
6804
6805 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
6806
6807 in your ~/.emacs.
6808
6809 *** New faces
6810
6811 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
6812 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
6813 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
6814 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
6815
6816 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
6817
6818 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
6819 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
6820 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
6821
6822 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
6823
6824 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
6825 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
6826 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
6827 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
6828 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
6829 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
6830 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
6831
6832 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
6833 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
6834 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
6835 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
6836 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
6837 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
6838
6839 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
6840
6841 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
6842 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
6843 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
6844 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
6845
6846 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
6847 settings.
6848
6849 ** Ada mode changes.
6850
6851 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
6852 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
6853 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
6854 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
6855 stubs.
6856
6857 *** There are two new commands:
6858 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
6859 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
6860
6861 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
6862 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
6863 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
6864
6865 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
6866 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
6867 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
6868
6869 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
6870 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
6871 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
6872 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
6873
6874 ** Scheme mode changes.
6875
6876 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
6877 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
6878 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
6879 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
6880 have any effect.
6881
6882 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
6883 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
6884 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
6885 variables as buffer-local variables.
6886
6887 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
6888 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
6889
6890 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
6891
6892 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
6893 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
6894 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
6895 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
6896
6897 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
6898 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
6899 buffer in Emacs.
6900
6901 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
6902 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
6903 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
6904 option takes precedence.
6905
6906 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
6907 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
6908 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
6909
6910 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
6911 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
6912 the current defun.
6913
6914 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
6915 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
6916
6917 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
6918 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
6919 necessary).
6920
6921 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
6922 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
6923 these register values no longer become completely useless.
6924 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
6925 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
6926 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
6927
6928 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
6929 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
6930 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
6931 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
6932
6933 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
6934 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
6935 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
6936 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
6937 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
6938
6939 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
6940 since it applies only to the current frame.
6941
6942 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
6943 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
6944 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
6945
6946 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
6947 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
6948 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
6949 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
6950 instead of just the file you are editing.
6951
6952 ** RefTeX mode
6953
6954 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
6955 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
6956 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
6957 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
6958 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
6959
6960 C-c ( reftex-label
6961 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
6962 knows which kind of label is needed.
6963
6964 C-c ) reftex-reference
6965 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
6966 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
6967
6968 C-c [ reftex-citation
6969 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
6970 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
6971
6972 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
6973 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
6974
6975 C-c = reftex-toc
6976 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
6977 can quickly jump to every section.
6978
6979 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
6980 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
6981 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
6982 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
6983 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
6984
6985 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6986
6987 *** Info documentation is now available.
6988
6989 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
6990 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
6991
6992 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
6993 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
6994
6995 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
6996 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
6997
6998 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
6999 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
7000 appropriate functions.
7001
7002 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
7003 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
7004
7005 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
7006 been cleaned.
7007
7008 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
7009 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
7010
7011 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
7012 shall be delimited.
7013
7014 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
7015 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
7016 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
7017
7018 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
7019 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
7020 prefixed with `ALT'.
7021
7022 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
7023 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
7024 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
7025 documentation).
7026
7027 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
7028 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
7029 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
7030
7031 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
7032 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
7033
7034 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
7035 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
7036 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
7037
7038 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
7039
7040 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
7041
7042 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
7043 from alien sources.
7044
7045 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
7046 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
7047 crossref entries.
7048
7049 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
7050 region.
7051
7052 *** Added support for imenu.
7053
7054 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
7055 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
7056 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
7057 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
7058
7059 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
7060 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
7061
7062 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
7063
7064 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
7065
7066 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
7067 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
7068 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
7069 as an argument.
7070
7071 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
7072 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
7073
7074 ** browse-url changes
7075
7076 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
7077 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
7078 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
7079 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
7080 customization variables.
7081
7082 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
7083
7084 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
7085 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
7086 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
7087
7088 ** Changes in Ediff
7089
7090 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
7091 pops up the Info file for this command.
7092
7093 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
7094 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
7095 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
7096 directories).
7097
7098 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
7099 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
7100 files in the same directory.
7101
7102 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
7103 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
7104 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
7105
7106 ** Changes in Viper
7107
7108 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
7109 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
7110 instead of vip-.
7111 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
7112 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
7113 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
7114 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
7115 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
7116 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
7117 color when Viper is in insert state.
7118 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
7119 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
7120 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
7121
7122 ** Etags changes.
7123
7124 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
7125 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
7126 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
7127 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
7128 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
7129
7130 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
7131
7132 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
7133 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
7134
7135 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
7136 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
7137 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
7138
7139 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
7140 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
7141 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
7142 methods and protocols.
7143
7144 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
7145 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
7146 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
7147 paragraph name.
7148
7149 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
7150 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
7151 at least M times and as many as N times.
7152
7153 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
7154 in files has changed slightly.
7155
7156 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
7157 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
7158 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
7159 with old time-stamp-format values.
7160
7161 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
7162 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
7163 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
7164 reasons.
7165
7166 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
7167 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
7168 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
7169 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
7170 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
7171 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
7172
7173 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
7174 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
7175 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
7176
7177 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
7178 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
7179 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
7180 recommended now will continue to work then.
7181
7182 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
7183 details.
7184
7185 ** There are some additional major modes:
7186
7187 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
7188 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
7189 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
7190
7191 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
7192 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
7193 into Emacs.
7194
7195 ** New Lisp packages include:
7196
7197 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
7198
7199 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
7200 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
7201
7202 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
7203
7204 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
7205 in shell buffers.
7206
7207 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
7208 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
7209 and `elint-defun'.
7210
7211 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
7212 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
7213 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
7214 strings or comments.
7215
7216 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
7217 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
7218 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
7219 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
7220 at these points.
7221
7222 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
7223 can visit them by short forms of their names.
7224
7225 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
7226 Emacs Lisp function at point.
7227
7228 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
7229
7230 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
7231 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
7232
7233 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
7234
7235 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
7236
7237 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
7238
7239 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
7240 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
7241
7242 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
7243 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
7244 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
7245 original place after inserting the copy.
7246
7247 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
7248 on the buffer.
7249
7250 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
7251 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
7252 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
7253
7254 Enable mouse-drag with:
7255 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
7256 -or-
7257 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
7258
7259 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
7260 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
7261
7262 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
7263 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
7264
7265 *** ogonek
7266
7267 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
7268 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
7269 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
7270 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
7271 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
7272 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
7273 instance) and vice versa.
7274
7275 To use this package load it using
7276 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
7277 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
7278 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
7279 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
7280 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
7281 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
7282
7283 *** Interface to ph.
7284
7285 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
7286
7287 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
7288 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
7289 these servers.
7290
7291 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
7292
7293 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
7294 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
7295 while the real cursor does not move.
7296
7297 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
7298 for visiting your favorite web sites.
7299
7300 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
7301 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
7302
7303 ** movemail change
7304
7305 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
7306 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
7307 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
7308 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
7309
7310 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
7311 \f
7312 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
7313
7314 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
7315
7316 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
7317 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
7318 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
7319 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
7320 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
7321
7322 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
7323 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
7324 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
7325 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
7326 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
7327 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
7328 \f
7329 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
7330
7331 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
7332 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
7333 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
7334 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
7335
7336 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
7337 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
7338
7339 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
7340 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
7341 "win".
7342
7343 ** Basic Lisp changes
7344
7345 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
7346 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
7347
7348 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
7349 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
7350 or by the user.
7351
7352 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
7353
7354 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
7355
7356 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
7357 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
7358
7359 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
7360 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
7361 its argument.
7362
7363 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
7364
7365 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
7366
7367 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
7368
7369 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
7370 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
7371 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
7372 `format' function.
7373
7374 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
7375 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
7376 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
7377
7378 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
7379 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
7380 adding one of these suffixes.
7381
7382 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
7383 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
7384 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
7385
7386 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
7387 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
7388
7389 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
7390
7391 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
7392 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
7393
7394 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
7395 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
7396
7397 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
7398
7399 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
7400 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
7401
7402 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
7403 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
7404 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
7405 works using `save-current-buffer'.
7406
7407 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
7408 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
7409 of the last form.
7410
7411 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
7412 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
7413 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
7414 as the last form.
7415
7416 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
7417 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
7418 matches.
7419
7420 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
7421
7422 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
7423 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
7424 Then it returns that string.
7425
7426 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
7427
7428 (with-output-to-string
7429 (princ "The buffer is ")
7430 (princ (buffer-name)))
7431
7432 returns "The buffer is foo".
7433
7434 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
7435 is non-nil.
7436
7437 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
7438 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
7439 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
7440
7441 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
7442 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
7443
7444 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
7445 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
7446 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
7447 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
7448 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
7449 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
7450
7451 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
7452 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
7453 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
7454 characters".
7455
7456 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
7457 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
7458 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
7459 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
7460 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
7461
7462 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
7463 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
7464 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
7465 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
7466
7467 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
7468 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
7469
7470 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
7471
7472 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
7473 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
7474 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
7475 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
7476 guaranteed.
7477
7478 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
7479 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
7480 character).
7481
7482 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
7483
7484 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
7485 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
7486 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
7487 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
7488 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
7489
7490 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
7491
7492 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
7493 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
7494 more than the number of characters.
7495
7496 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
7497 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
7498 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
7499 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
7500 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
7501 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
7502
7503 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
7504 and returns a string containing those characters.
7505
7506 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
7507 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
7508 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
7509 character, sref signals an error.
7510
7511 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
7512 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
7513 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7514
7515 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
7516 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
7517 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7518
7519 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
7520 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
7521 to a vector of the characters in it.
7522
7523 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
7524 of a string. You call it as follows:
7525
7526 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
7527
7528 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
7529 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
7530 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
7531 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
7532 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
7533
7534 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
7535 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7536
7537 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
7538 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7539
7540 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
7541 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
7542 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
7543 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
7544
7545 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
7546
7547 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
7548
7549 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
7550 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
7551 are not included in the resulting value.
7552
7553 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
7554 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
7555 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
7556 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
7557
7558 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
7559 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
7560 character extends across that column), then the padding character
7561 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
7562 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
7563 column START-COLUMN.
7564
7565 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
7566 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
7567 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
7568 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
7569 changed text, before the change.
7570
7571 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
7572 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
7573 one character set for each script, not for each language.
7574
7575 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
7576
7577 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
7578
7579 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
7580 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
7581
7582 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
7583 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
7584 which identify the character within that character set.
7585
7586 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
7587 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
7588 opposite of split-char.
7589
7590 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
7591 of all the characters between BEG and END.
7592
7593 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
7594 of all the characters in a string.
7595
7596 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
7597 and specifying coding systems.
7598
7599 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
7600 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
7601 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
7602 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
7603 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
7604 as what to do about code conversion.)
7605
7606 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
7607 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
7608
7609 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7610 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7611 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
7612
7613 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7614 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
7615 to match against a file name.
7616
7617 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7618 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7619 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7620 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7621 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7622 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7623
7624 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7625 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7626
7627 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
7628 the coding system to use for network sockets.
7629
7630 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7631 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
7632 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
7633 service names.
7634
7635 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7636 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7637 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7638 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7639 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7640 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7641
7642 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7643 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7644
7645 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7646 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7647 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
7648 start the subprocess.
7649
7650 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
7651 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
7652 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
7653 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
7654 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
7655
7656 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
7657 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
7658 subprocess.
7659
7660 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
7661 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
7662 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
7663 connection permanently or until overridden.
7664
7665 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
7666 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
7667 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
7668 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
7669 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
7670 system for one operation at a time.
7671
7672 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
7673 files, subprocesses or network connections.
7674
7675 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
7676 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
7677 The value is a cons cell,
7678 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
7679 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
7680 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
7681 input to the subprocess.
7682
7683 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
7684 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
7685
7686 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
7687 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
7688 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
7689
7690 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
7691 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
7692 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
7693 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
7694 customization.
7695
7696 Thus, instead of writing
7697
7698 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
7699 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
7700
7701 you would now write this:
7702
7703 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
7704 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
7705 :type 'boolean
7706 :group foo)
7707
7708 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
7709 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
7710 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
7711 for a description of them.
7712
7713 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
7714 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
7715
7716 (defgroup ispell nil
7717 "Spell checking using Ispell."
7718 :group 'processes)
7719
7720 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
7721 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
7722 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
7723 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
7724 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
7725
7726 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
7727 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
7728 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
7729 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
7730 first-level subgroups.
7731
7732 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
7733
7734 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
7735 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
7736
7737 ** easy-mmode
7738
7739 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
7740 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
7741 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
7742 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
7743 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
7744 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
7745
7746 ** Text property changes
7747
7748 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
7749 text property.
7750
7751 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
7752 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
7753 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
7754 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
7755 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
7756
7757 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
7758 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
7759 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
7760 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
7761
7762 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
7763 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
7764 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
7765
7766 ** Changes in invisibility features
7767
7768 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
7769 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
7770 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
7771 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
7772 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
7773 make the overlay visible.
7774
7775 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
7776 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
7777 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
7778 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
7779 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
7780 t when it should hide it.
7781
7782 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
7783
7784 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
7785 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
7786 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
7787 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
7788 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
7789 Here is an example of how to do this:
7790
7791 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
7792 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7793 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
7794 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7795
7796 ...
7797 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
7798
7799 ...
7800 ;; When done with the overlays:
7801 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7802 ;; Or respectively:
7803 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7804
7805 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
7806
7807 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
7808 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
7809 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
7810 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
7811
7812 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
7813 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
7814 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
7815
7816 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
7817 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
7818
7819 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
7820 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
7821
7822 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
7823 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
7824 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
7825
7826 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
7827 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
7828 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
7829 determine the syntax type of the character.
7830
7831 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
7832 of the current buffer.
7833
7834 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
7835 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
7836 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
7837
7838 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
7839 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
7840 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
7841 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
7842 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
7843
7844 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
7845 text property.
7846
7847 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
7848 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
7849 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
7850
7851 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
7852 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
7853 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
7854 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
7855 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
7856
7857 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
7858 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
7859 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
7860
7861 ** Changes in face features
7862
7863 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
7864 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
7865
7866 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
7867 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
7868
7869 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
7870 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
7871
7872 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
7873 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
7874
7875 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
7876 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
7877 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
7878 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
7879 overlay property).
7880
7881 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
7882 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
7883
7884 ** Changes in file-handling functions
7885
7886 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
7887 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
7888 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
7889 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
7890
7891 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
7892 begins with ~.
7893
7894 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
7895 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
7896
7897 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
7898 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
7899
7900 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
7901 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
7902
7903 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
7904 character code conversion as well as other things.
7905
7906 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
7907 (formerly it did not).
7908
7909 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
7910 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
7911
7912 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
7913 instead of constant strings.
7914
7915 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
7916 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
7917 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
7918
7919 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
7920 in the same way as before.
7921
7922 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
7923 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
7924 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
7925
7926 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
7927 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
7928 else, and returns nil.
7929
7930 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
7931 directory cannot be listed.
7932
7933 ** Changes in minibuffer input
7934
7935 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
7936 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
7937 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
7938 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
7939 ways:
7940
7941 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
7942 It is available through the history command M-n.
7943
7944 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
7945 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
7946 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
7947 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
7948 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
7949
7950 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
7951 argument in this way.
7952
7953 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
7954 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
7955 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
7956
7957 ** Echo area features
7958
7959 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
7960 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
7961 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
7962 after the echo area is cleared.
7963
7964 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
7965 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
7966
7967 ** Keyboard input features
7968
7969 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
7970 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
7971
7972 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
7973 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
7974 by keyboard macros.
7975
7976 ** Frame-related changes
7977
7978 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
7979 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
7980 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
7981
7982 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
7983 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
7984 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
7985
7986 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7987 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
7988 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
7989 in the selected frame.
7990
7991 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
7992 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
7993 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
7994
7995 ** X Windows features
7996
7997 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
7998 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
7999 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
8000
8001 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
8002 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
8003
8004 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
8005 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
8006 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
8007
8008 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
8009 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
8010
8011 ** Subprocess features
8012
8013 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
8014 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
8015 automatically.
8016
8017 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
8018 and returns the output from the command as a string.
8019
8020 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
8021 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
8022
8023 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
8024 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
8025
8026 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
8027 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
8028 goes after the other menu items.
8029
8030 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
8031 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
8032 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
8033 are in use.
8034
8035 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
8036 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
8037
8038 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
8039 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
8040 form.
8041
8042 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
8043 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
8044 but its hook is still run.
8045
8046 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
8047 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
8048
8049 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
8050 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
8051 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
8052
8053 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
8054 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
8055 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
8056 warned.
8057
8058 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
8059 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
8060
8061 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
8062 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
8063 functions like display-time.
8064
8065 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
8066 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
8067
8068 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
8069 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
8070 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
8071
8072 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
8073 if there is an error in compilation.
8074
8075 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
8076 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
8077 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
8078 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
8079
8080 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
8081 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
8082 the *scratch* buffer.
8083
8084 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
8085 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
8086 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
8087 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
8088
8089 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
8090 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
8091 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
8092
8093 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
8094 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
8095 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
8096 and compose-mail-other-frame.
8097
8098 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
8099 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
8100 full name of the specified user will be returned.
8101
8102 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
8103 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
8104 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
8105 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
8106 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
8107 files at all.
8108
8109 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
8110 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
8111 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
8112 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
8113
8114 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
8115 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
8116 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
8117 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
8118
8119 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
8120
8121 ** imenu.el changes.
8122
8123 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
8124 item from menu created by imenu.
8125
8126 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
8127 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
8128 select one of those items.
8129 \f
8130 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
8131 \f
8132 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
8133
8134 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
8135 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
8136
8137 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
8138 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
8139 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
8140 \f
8141 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
8142
8143 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
8144 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
8145
8146 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
8147 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
8148 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
8149 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
8150 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
8151 all caps.
8152
8153 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
8154 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
8155
8156 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
8157 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
8158 as in previous Emacs versions.
8159
8160 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
8161 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
8162 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
8163 frames.
8164
8165 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
8166 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
8167 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
8168 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
8169 accident.
8170
8171 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
8172 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
8173 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
8174 line and then executing the macro.
8175
8176 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
8177
8178 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
8179 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
8180 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
8181 characters.
8182
8183 ** Font Lock mode
8184
8185 *** Font Lock support modes
8186
8187 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
8188 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
8189 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
8190 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
8191 Font Lock mode is enabled.
8192
8193 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
8194
8195 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
8196
8197 in your ~/.emacs.
8198
8199 *** lazy-lock
8200
8201 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
8202 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
8203 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
8204 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
8205 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
8206 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
8207 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
8208
8209 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
8210
8211 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
8212
8213 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
8214
8215 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8216
8217 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
8218 paren and key.
8219
8220 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
8221 supported.
8222
8223 ** Gnus changes.
8224
8225 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
8226 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
8227 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
8228 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
8229
8230 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
8231 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
8232
8233 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
8234 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
8235 obsolete.
8236
8237 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
8238 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
8239
8240 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
8241
8242 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
8243
8244 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
8245
8246 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
8247 referred.
8248
8249 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
8250
8251 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
8252
8253 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
8254
8255 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
8256
8257 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
8258 buffers.
8259
8260 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
8261
8262 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
8263
8264 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
8265
8266 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
8267
8268 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
8269
8270 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
8271
8272 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
8273
8274 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
8275 is possible.
8276
8277 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
8278
8279 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
8280 groups of groups.
8281
8282 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
8283
8284 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
8285 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
8286
8287 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
8288
8289 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
8290
8291 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
8292
8293 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
8294
8295 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
8296 expiration times.
8297
8298 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
8299
8300 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
8301 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
8302
8303 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
8304 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
8305 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
8306
8307 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
8308 articles with the `*' command.
8309
8310 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
8311
8312 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
8313
8314 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
8315
8316 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
8317
8318 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
8319 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
8320
8321 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
8322 buffer.
8323
8324 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
8325
8326 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
8327
8328 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
8329
8330 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
8331
8332 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
8333
8334 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
8335
8336 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
8337
8338 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
8339
8340 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
8341
8342 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
8343 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
8344
8345 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
8346 refetching.
8347
8348 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
8349
8350 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
8351 buffer to allow easier treatment.
8352
8353 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
8354
8355 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
8356
8357 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
8358
8359 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
8360 articles.
8361
8362 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
8363
8364 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
8365
8366 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
8367 cited text to hide is now customizable.
8368
8369 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
8370
8371 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
8372
8373 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
8374
8375 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
8376
8377 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
8378
8379 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
8380 in greater detail.
8381 \f
8382 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
8383
8384 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
8385 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
8386 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
8387 exists.
8388
8389 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
8390 as well as lists.
8391
8392 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
8393 of a given keymap.
8394
8395 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
8396 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
8397 keymap or nil.
8398
8399 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
8400 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
8401 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
8402 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
8403 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
8404 alias.
8405 \f
8406 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
8407
8408 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
8409
8410 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
8411 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
8412 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
8413 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
8414 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
8415
8416 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
8417 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
8418 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
8419
8420 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
8421
8422 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
8423 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
8424 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
8425 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
8426 chapter of the manual for details.
8427
8428 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
8429 customization variables take effect.
8430
8431 ** Marking with the mouse.
8432
8433 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
8434 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
8435 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
8436
8437 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
8438
8439 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
8440
8441 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
8442 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
8443
8444 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
8445 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
8446 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
8447 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
8448 applications, these problems are significant.
8449
8450 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
8451 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
8452 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
8453 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
8454 other DOS application as a subprocess.
8455
8456 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
8457 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
8458
8459 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
8460 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
8461 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
8462 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
8463 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
8464 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
8465
8466 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
8467
8468 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
8469 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
8470 minibuffer contains.
8471
8472 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
8473
8474 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
8475 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
8476 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
8477 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
8478
8479 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
8480 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
8481 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
8482 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
8483
8484 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
8485 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
8486
8487 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
8488 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
8489 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
8490
8491 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
8492 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
8493 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
8494 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
8495
8496 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
8497
8498 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
8499 to replace the characters it "deletes".
8500
8501 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
8502
8503 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
8504 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
8505 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
8506 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
8507 immediately after the selected one.
8508
8509 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
8510 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
8511
8512 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
8513
8514 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
8515 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
8516 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
8517 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
8518 recover-session.
8519
8520 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
8521 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
8522 will not work.
8523
8524 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
8525 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
8526 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
8527 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
8528 now that the bug is fixed.
8529
8530 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
8531
8532 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
8533 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
8534 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
8535 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
8536
8537 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
8538 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
8539 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
8540 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
8541
8542 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
8543 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
8544 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
8545
8546 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
8547 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
8548 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
8549 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
8550 remain normal.
8551
8552 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
8553 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
8554
8555 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
8556 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
8557 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
8558 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
8559
8560 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
8561 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
8562 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
8563 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
8564 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
8565 `mail-directory-stream'.)
8566
8567 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
8568 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
8569 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
8570 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
8571
8572 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
8573 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
8574 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
8575
8576 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
8577 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
8578 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
8579 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
8580 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
8581 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
8582 to a limitation in font-lock).
8583
8584 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
8585
8586 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
8587 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
8588 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
8589 this example:
8590
8591 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
8592 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
8593
8594 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8595
8596 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
8597
8598 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
8599
8600 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
8601
8602 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
8603 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
8604 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
8605 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
8606 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
8607 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
8608
8609 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
8610 does the same job.
8611
8612 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
8613 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
8614
8615 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
8616 text.
8617
8618 ** Font Lock mode
8619
8620 *** Global Font Lock mode
8621
8622 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
8623 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
8624 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
8625 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
8626 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
8627
8628 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
8629
8630 (global-font-lock-mode t)
8631
8632 in your ~/.emacs.
8633
8634 *** Local Refontification
8635
8636 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
8637 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
8638 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
8639 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
8640
8641 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
8642 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
8643 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
8644 above and below point.
8645
8646 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
8647
8648 ** Follow mode
8649
8650 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
8651 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
8652 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
8653 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
8654 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
8655 follow-mode.
8656
8657 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
8658
8659 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
8660 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
8661
8662 ** hide-show changes.
8663
8664 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
8665 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
8666 normal hooks.
8667
8668 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
8669 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
8670
8671 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
8672 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
8673 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
8674
8675 ** MSDOS Changes
8676
8677 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
8678 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
8679
8680 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
8681 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
8682
8683 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
8684
8685 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
8686 pressing both mouse buttons.
8687
8688 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
8689 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
8690 are:
8691
8692 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
8693 now works.
8694
8695 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
8696
8697 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
8698 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
8699
8700 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
8701
8702 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
8703
8704 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
8705
8706 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
8707
8708 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
8709 \f
8710 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
8711
8712 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
8713 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
8714 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
8715 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
8716 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
8717
8718 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
8719
8720 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
8721 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
8722 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
8723 be different.
8724
8725 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
8726 than `system-type'.
8727
8728 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
8729
8730 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
8731 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
8732
8733 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
8734 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
8735
8736 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
8737 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
8738 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
8739
8740 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
8741 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
8742 like this:
8743
8744 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8745
8746 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
8747 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
8748 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
8749
8750 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
8751 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
8752 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
8753
8754 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
8755 up if too much time passes.
8756
8757 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
8758
8759 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
8760 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
8761 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
8762 form in BODY.
8763
8764 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
8765 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
8766 call looks like this:
8767
8768 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8769
8770 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
8771 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
8772 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
8773 ARGS.
8774
8775 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
8776 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
8777 command.
8778
8779 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
8780 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
8781 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
8782 each time Emacs becomes idle.
8783
8784 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
8785 idle for SECS seconds.
8786
8787 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
8788 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
8789 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
8790 instead.
8791
8792 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
8793 there is no answer within a certain time.
8794
8795 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
8796
8797 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
8798 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
8799 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
8800
8801 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
8802 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
8803 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
8804 arguments in between are ignored.
8805
8806 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
8807 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
8808
8809 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
8810 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
8811 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
8812 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
8813 version.
8814
8815 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
8816 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
8817 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
8818 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
8819 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
8820 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
8821
8822 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
8823 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
8824 systems with limited file name syntax.
8825
8826 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
8827 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
8828 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
8829 completions.el:
8830
8831 (defvar save-completions-file-name
8832 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
8833 "*The filename to save completions to.")
8834
8835 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
8836 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
8837 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
8838 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
8839 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
8840
8841 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
8842 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
8843 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
8844
8845 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
8846 marker from its buffer position.
8847
8848 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
8849 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
8850 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
8851
8852 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
8853 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
8854 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
8855 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
8856 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
8857 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
8858
8859 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
8860 errors that happen often during editing.
8861
8862 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
8863 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
8864 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
8865
8866 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
8867 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
8868
8869 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
8870 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
8871 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
8872 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
8873 and not get-buffer-window.
8874
8875 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
8876 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
8877 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
8878
8879 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
8880 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
8881 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
8882 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
8883 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
8884 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
8885 over and over for the same text.
8886
8887 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
8888
8889 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
8890 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
8891
8892 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
8893 ;; $HEADER: text $
8894
8895 in addition to the normal
8896
8897 ;; HEADER: text
8898
8899 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
8900 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
8901 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
8902
8903
8904 \f
8905 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
8906
8907 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
8908 Copyright information:
8909
8910 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8911
8912 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8913 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8914 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8915 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8916
8917 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8918 of this document, or of portions of it,
8919 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8920 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8921 \f
8922 Local variables:
8923 mode: outline
8924 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
8925 end: