1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2001-03-15
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
9 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
10 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
11 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
15 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.3
17 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
18 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
21 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
24 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
26 ** Controlling the left and right fringe widths.
28 The left and right fringe widths can now be controlled by setting the
29 `left-fringe' and `right-fringe' frame parameters to an integer value
30 specifying the width in pixels. Setting the width to 0 effectively
31 removes the corresponding fringe.
33 The actual fringe widths may deviate from the specified widths, since
34 the combined fringe widths must match an integral number of columns.
35 The extra width is distributed evenly between the left and right fringe.
36 For force a specific fringe width, specify the width as a negative
37 integer (if both widths are negative, only the left fringe gets the
40 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
41 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
42 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
43 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
45 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
46 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
47 changes the behavior of motion commands line C-e and C-p.
49 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
50 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
51 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
52 is only rarely needed.
54 ** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
56 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
57 idle time inseconds to wait before starting fontification. For
58 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
59 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
61 ** If you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp) repeatedly, the marked region
62 will now be extended each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with
63 M-C-SPC M-C-SPC, for example.
66 ** M-h (mark-pagaraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
67 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following pargraphs;
68 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
71 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
72 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
74 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on
75 your current locale settings. If it turns out that your terminal
76 does not support the encoding implied by your locale (for example,
77 it inserts non-ASCII chars if you hit M-i), you will need to add
79 (set-keyboard-coding-system nil)
81 to your .emacs to revert to the old behavior.
84 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
85 automatically at startup, if it exists. And it always offers to save
86 abbrevs (if you have changed them) when if offers to save modified
89 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
90 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
93 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
96 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
97 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
100 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
101 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
103 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
104 with a space, if they visit files.
106 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
107 filling can break lines. We provide two sample predicates,
108 fill-single-word-nobreak-p and fill-french-nobreak-p.
110 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
111 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry will always
112 start a new record regardless of when the last record is.
114 ** New user option `sgml-xml'.
115 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
116 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
117 When not customized, it becomes buffer-local when it can be inferred
118 from the file name or buffer contents.
120 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
121 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
122 instead of using default-major-mode.
124 ** Byte compiler warning and error messages have been brought more
125 in line with the output of other GNU tools.
127 ** Lisp-mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
129 ** perl-mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
131 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
132 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
135 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
136 much pure storage it will approximately need.
138 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
139 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
140 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
143 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
144 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
145 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
146 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
147 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
148 candidate is a directory.
150 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
151 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
152 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
154 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
156 ** When using M-x revert-buffer in a compilation buffer to rerun a
157 compilation, it is now made sure that the compilation buffer is reused
158 in case it has been renamed.
160 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
161 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
162 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
164 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
165 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
168 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
171 ** A French translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
173 ** New modes and packages
176 *** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
178 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
179 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
180 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
181 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
184 *** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
186 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
187 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
188 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
189 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
191 *** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
194 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
195 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
196 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
197 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
199 *** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
200 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
201 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
204 *** The reveal.el package provides the minor modes `reveal-mode' and
205 `global-reveal-mode' which will make text visible on the fly as you
206 move your cursor into hidden region of the buffer.
207 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
208 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
210 *** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
211 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
213 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
214 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
215 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
218 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
219 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
222 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
225 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
226 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
228 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
231 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.3
233 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
234 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
235 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
236 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
237 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
238 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
240 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
241 To that end, binding a key to t now behaves the same as binding it to
242 nil (it shadows parent bindings but not bindings in keymaps of lower
245 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
246 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
247 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
248 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
249 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
250 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
258 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
259 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
260 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
261 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
263 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
264 called to print the entries' values. It default to `princ'.
266 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
267 (the last group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
269 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
270 it receives a request from emacsclient.
272 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
273 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
274 than 3 levels of nesting.
276 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
277 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
278 in Indented-Text mode.
280 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
281 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
284 ** If you set `query-replace-skip-read-only' non-nil,
285 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
286 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
288 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
289 properties from surrounding text.
291 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
293 - Function: buffer-local-value variable buffer
295 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
296 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
297 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
299 ** The default value of `paragraph-start' and `indent-line-function' has
300 been changed to reflect the one used in Text mode rather than the one
301 used in Indented Text mode.
303 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
304 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
307 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
308 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
309 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP@ VAL2 ...) so you can set
310 other properties than `face'.
311 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
312 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
314 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
315 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
316 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
318 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
319 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
320 and run any code associated with the provided feature.
322 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
323 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
326 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
327 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
328 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
330 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
331 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
332 accepts a float as UID parameter.
334 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
336 ** `define-derived-mode' now accepts nil as the parent.
338 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
340 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
342 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
344 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
345 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
347 ** Variable aliases have been implemented
349 - Macro: defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR
351 This defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for symbol
352 BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR returns
353 the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR changes the
356 - Function: indirect-variable VARIABLE
358 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
359 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
360 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
362 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
363 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
365 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
366 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
368 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
369 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
371 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
372 have been moved from the CL package to the core.
374 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
375 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
376 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
380 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
381 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
383 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
384 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1 was not documented.
387 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
389 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
390 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
391 charsets in this release.
393 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
395 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
397 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
398 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
401 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
402 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
403 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
404 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
405 necessary changes to unexec.
407 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
408 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
410 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
411 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
413 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
414 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
416 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
417 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
418 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
419 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
420 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
422 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
423 new display features described below.
426 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
428 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
430 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
431 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
432 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
433 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
436 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
438 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
439 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
440 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
441 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
444 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
445 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
446 under Lisp changes, below.
448 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
450 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
451 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
452 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
453 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
454 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
455 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
458 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
459 supported on character terminals.
461 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
462 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
463 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
464 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
466 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
470 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
471 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
472 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
473 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
476 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
478 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
479 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
480 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
481 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
483 - User option: max-mini-window-height
485 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
486 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
487 specifies a number of lines.
491 - User option: resize-mini-windows
493 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
494 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
495 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
498 Default is `grow-only'.
502 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
503 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
505 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
507 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
508 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
511 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
513 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
514 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
515 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
517 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
519 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
520 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
521 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
522 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
523 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
526 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
527 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
528 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
529 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
530 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
531 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
533 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
534 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
535 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
536 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
537 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
538 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
540 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
541 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
542 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
543 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
544 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
548 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
549 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
550 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
551 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
552 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
555 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
556 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
560 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
561 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
562 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
564 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
565 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
566 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
567 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
569 ** Automatic Hscrolling
571 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
572 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
575 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
576 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
577 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
578 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
579 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
581 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
582 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
583 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
584 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
585 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
586 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
588 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
589 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
590 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
591 customizing face `fringe'.
593 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
594 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
595 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
596 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
597 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
598 the window to be partially obscured.)
600 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
601 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
602 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
603 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
605 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
607 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
608 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
609 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
610 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
611 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
614 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
616 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
618 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
620 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
621 `*') toggles the status.
623 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
627 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
628 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
632 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
633 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
634 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
637 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
639 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
640 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
641 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
644 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
645 have to do anything to activate it.
647 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
649 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
650 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
652 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
653 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
654 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
655 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
656 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
657 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
658 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
659 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
661 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
662 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
663 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
664 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
665 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
666 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
668 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
669 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
671 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
672 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
675 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
676 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
677 beginning and end of the buffer.
679 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
680 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
683 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
684 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
686 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
687 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
690 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
691 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
694 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
696 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
697 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
698 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
700 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
701 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
702 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
704 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
707 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
709 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
710 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
711 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
712 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
713 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
716 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
717 all frames except the selected one.
719 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
720 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
722 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
723 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
724 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
725 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
726 `Info-use-header-line'.
728 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
729 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
730 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
732 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
734 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
735 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
738 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
739 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
740 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
741 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
743 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
745 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
746 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
747 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
748 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
750 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
751 point in a pop-up window.
753 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
754 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
755 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
757 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
758 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
760 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
761 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
762 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
763 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
765 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
767 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
768 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
770 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
771 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
772 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
774 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
775 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
778 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
779 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
780 file that is already visited under a different name.
782 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
783 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
785 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
786 and displays information about that.
788 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
789 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
791 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
792 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
793 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
794 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
795 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
796 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
798 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
799 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
801 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
802 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
803 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
804 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
805 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
806 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
807 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
809 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
810 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
812 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
813 system for keyboard input.
815 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
816 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
817 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
818 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
819 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
820 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
821 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
822 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
823 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
825 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
826 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
828 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
829 displays all characters in that character set.
831 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
832 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
834 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
835 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
836 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
838 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
839 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
840 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
841 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
842 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
843 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
846 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
847 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
850 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
851 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
852 Lisp Coding Convention".
854 new command old-binding
855 --- ------- -----------
856 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
857 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
858 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
860 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
861 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
862 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
864 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
865 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
866 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
867 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
868 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
869 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
871 ** There are new Leim input methods.
872 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
873 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
876 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
877 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
878 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
879 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
880 "`", you must type "=q".
882 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
883 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
884 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
885 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
886 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
889 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
890 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
891 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
892 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
894 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
895 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
896 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
897 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
899 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
900 on the display using several methods
902 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
903 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
904 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
906 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
907 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
909 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
911 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
912 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
914 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
915 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
916 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
917 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
919 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
920 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
921 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
923 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
924 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
926 ** New X resources recognized
928 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
929 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
930 is useful for debugging X problems.
934 emacs.synchronous: true
936 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
937 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
938 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
939 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
940 visual class names are
949 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
950 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
953 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
954 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
955 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
960 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
962 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
963 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
964 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
965 resource values are `true' or `on'.
969 emacs.privateColormap: true
971 ** Faces and frame parameters.
973 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
974 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
975 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
976 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
977 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
978 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
979 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
981 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
982 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
983 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
984 `default' face and vice versa.
988 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
990 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
992 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
993 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
994 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
995 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
997 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
998 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
999 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
1001 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
1004 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
1006 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
1007 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
1008 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
1009 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
1011 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
1013 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
1015 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
1017 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
1020 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
1023 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
1025 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
1026 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
1027 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
1029 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
1030 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
1032 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
1033 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
1034 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
1036 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
1038 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
1039 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
1040 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
1041 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
1043 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
1044 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
1045 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
1046 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
1048 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
1049 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
1050 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
1053 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
1055 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
1056 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
1057 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
1059 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
1060 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
1061 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
1062 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
1063 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
1064 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
1066 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
1068 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
1069 notably at the end of lines.
1071 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
1072 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
1074 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
1076 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
1077 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
1079 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
1080 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
1081 after each match to get the replacement text.
1083 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
1084 you edit the replacement string.
1086 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
1087 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
1088 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
1090 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
1092 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
1093 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
1095 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
1096 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
1097 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
1098 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
1101 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
1102 read mail from the menu etc.
1104 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
1105 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
1106 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
1107 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
1109 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
1110 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
1112 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
1113 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
1114 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
1115 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
1116 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
1119 ** Customize changes
1121 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
1122 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
1123 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
1124 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
1125 earlier versions of Emacs.
1127 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
1128 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
1131 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
1132 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
1133 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
1134 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
1137 ** New features in evaluation commands
1139 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
1140 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
1141 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
1142 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
1143 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
1145 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
1146 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
1147 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
1148 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
1151 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
1152 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
1154 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
1155 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
1157 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
1158 code when called with a prefix argument.
1162 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
1163 current user setups (although it's believed that these
1164 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
1165 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
1166 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
1167 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
1170 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
1171 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
1172 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
1175 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
1176 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
1177 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
1178 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
1180 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
1181 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
1183 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
1184 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
1186 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
1187 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
1188 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
1189 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
1191 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
1192 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
1193 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
1194 earlier statement. An example:
1196 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
1198 res += a[i]->offset;
1201 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
1202 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
1203 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
1204 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
1207 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
1210 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
1211 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
1212 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
1213 documentation or other natural language text.
1215 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
1216 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
1217 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
1218 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
1219 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
1220 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
1221 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
1223 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
1224 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
1225 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
1226 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
1228 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
1229 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
1230 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
1231 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
1234 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
1235 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
1236 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
1237 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
1238 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
1239 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
1240 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
1241 is reported afterwards.
1243 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
1244 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
1245 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
1247 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
1248 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
1249 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
1250 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
1251 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
1252 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
1255 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
1256 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
1257 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
1258 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
1259 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
1262 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
1263 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
1264 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
1265 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
1266 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
1267 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
1269 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
1270 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
1271 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
1272 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
1273 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
1274 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
1275 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
1276 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
1278 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
1279 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
1280 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
1281 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
1284 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
1285 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
1286 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
1287 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
1288 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
1289 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
1290 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
1291 function documentation for more info.
1293 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
1294 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
1295 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
1296 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
1297 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
1298 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
1299 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
1300 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
1302 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
1304 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
1305 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
1307 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
1308 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
1309 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
1310 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
1311 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
1314 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
1315 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
1316 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
1319 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
1320 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
1321 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
1322 chapter about this in the manual.
1324 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
1325 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
1326 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
1327 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
1328 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
1330 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
1331 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
1332 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
1334 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
1335 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
1337 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
1338 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
1339 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
1342 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
1343 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
1344 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
1345 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
1348 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
1349 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
1350 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
1351 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
1352 they were before the filling.
1354 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
1355 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
1356 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
1359 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
1360 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
1361 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
1362 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
1365 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
1366 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
1367 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
1368 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
1369 Thanks to Eric Eide.
1371 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
1372 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
1373 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
1375 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
1377 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
1378 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
1379 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
1380 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
1382 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
1383 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
1384 the column specified by comment-column.
1386 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
1387 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
1388 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
1389 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
1390 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
1391 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
1393 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
1394 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
1397 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
1399 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
1400 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
1401 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
1402 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
1405 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
1409 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
1410 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
1411 is, delete only empty directories.
1413 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
1414 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
1415 copy directories recursively.
1417 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
1418 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
1419 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
1421 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
1422 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
1425 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
1426 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
1427 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
1428 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
1429 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
1431 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
1434 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
1435 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
1436 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
1437 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
1441 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
1442 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
1443 internationalization and mail-fetching.
1445 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
1446 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
1448 If you used procmail like in
1450 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
1451 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
1452 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
1453 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
1455 this now has changed to
1458 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
1461 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
1462 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
1464 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
1465 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
1466 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
1467 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
1469 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
1470 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
1471 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
1473 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
1474 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
1475 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
1476 now just a compatibility layer.
1478 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
1481 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
1482 called to position point.
1484 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
1485 summary buffers and NOV files.
1487 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
1488 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
1490 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
1491 subtly different manner.
1493 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
1494 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
1495 ever-changing layouts.
1497 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
1499 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
1501 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
1503 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
1507 -------------------------
1511 C-c C-c q @quotation
1513 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
1516 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
1518 ** Changes in Outline mode.
1520 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
1521 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
1522 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
1524 ** Changes to Emacs Server
1526 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
1527 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
1528 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
1529 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
1530 buffers to kill, as before.
1532 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
1533 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
1536 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
1537 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
1539 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
1541 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
1542 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
1543 use. Default is 1000.
1545 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
1546 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
1548 ** Changes to hideshow.el
1550 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
1552 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
1553 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
1554 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
1555 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
1557 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
1558 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
1559 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
1562 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
1563 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
1564 the normal block-hiding function.
1566 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
1568 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
1569 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
1570 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
1571 for `hs-minor-mode'.
1573 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
1574 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
1576 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
1578 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
1579 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
1580 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
1582 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
1585 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
1588 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
1589 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
1590 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
1591 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
1592 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
1593 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
1595 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
1597 ** Changes to cmuscheme
1599 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
1600 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
1602 ** Changes in Font Lock
1604 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
1605 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
1607 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
1608 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
1610 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
1611 the face used for each string/comment.
1613 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
1614 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
1616 ** Changes to Shell mode
1618 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
1619 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
1620 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
1621 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
1623 ** Comint (subshell) changes
1625 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
1626 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
1628 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
1629 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
1630 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
1631 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
1632 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
1633 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
1635 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
1636 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
1637 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
1638 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
1639 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
1640 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
1641 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
1642 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
1644 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
1645 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
1647 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
1648 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
1649 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
1651 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
1652 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
1653 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
1655 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
1656 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
1657 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
1659 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
1660 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
1661 argument, it appends to the file.
1663 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
1664 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
1667 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
1670 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
1671 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
1672 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
1674 ** Changes to Rmail mode
1676 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
1677 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
1678 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
1679 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
1680 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
1683 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
1684 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
1685 regexp matching your mail addresses.
1687 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
1688 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
1689 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
1690 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
1691 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
1693 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
1696 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
1697 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
1700 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
1701 in which folder to put messages automatically.
1703 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
1704 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
1705 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
1707 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
1708 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
1710 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
1711 use the -f option when sending mail.
1713 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
1714 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
1715 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
1716 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
1717 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
1718 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
1720 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
1721 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
1722 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
1724 ** Changes to TeX mode
1726 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
1729 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
1731 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
1733 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
1735 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
1737 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
1738 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
1739 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
1740 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
1741 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
1742 can be edited from that buffer.
1744 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
1745 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
1746 `A' to use all marked entries).
1748 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
1749 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
1751 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
1752 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
1753 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
1756 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
1757 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
1758 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
1759 in column 1 are always made leaves.
1761 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
1762 has the following new features:
1764 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
1765 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
1766 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
1767 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
1769 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
1770 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
1771 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
1772 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
1773 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
1776 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
1781 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
1782 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
1783 spell-checks the current buffer.
1785 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
1788 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
1789 correction is made and re-checked.
1791 *** An Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definition has been added.
1793 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
1796 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
1799 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
1802 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
1804 ** Makefile mode changes
1806 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
1808 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
1809 Fontlock mode is active.
1813 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
1814 so that searches can be resumed.
1816 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
1817 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
1818 that started the search.
1820 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
1821 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
1823 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
1825 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
1826 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
1827 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
1828 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
1829 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
1830 `secondary-selection'.
1832 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
1833 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
1834 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
1835 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
1836 usual snappy response.
1838 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
1839 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
1840 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
1841 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
1845 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
1846 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
1847 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
1848 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
1849 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
1850 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
1851 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
1852 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
1853 file is registered in that backend.
1855 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
1856 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
1857 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
1858 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
1859 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
1860 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
1862 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
1863 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
1864 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
1865 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
1866 where it doesn't make sense.)
1868 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
1869 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
1870 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
1874 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
1875 checks are always done now.
1877 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
1880 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
1881 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
1882 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
1884 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
1885 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
1886 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
1887 the working file (``merge news'').
1889 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
1890 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
1893 *** Multiple Backends
1895 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
1896 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
1897 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
1898 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
1901 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
1902 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
1903 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
1904 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
1906 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
1907 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
1908 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
1909 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
1910 current revision number from the more remote backend.
1912 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
1913 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
1914 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
1915 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
1917 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
1918 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
1919 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
1920 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
1924 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
1925 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
1926 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
1927 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
1928 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
1929 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
1930 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
1932 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
1933 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
1934 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
1935 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
1936 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
1937 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
1938 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
1939 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
1940 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
1941 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
1942 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
1945 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
1946 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
1947 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
1948 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
1949 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
1950 entire directory tree.
1952 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
1953 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
1954 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
1955 "watched" by other developers.)
1957 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
1958 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
1959 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
1960 starting at the given directory.
1962 *** Lisp Changes in VC
1964 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
1965 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
1966 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
1967 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
1968 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
1969 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
1970 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
1971 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
1972 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
1974 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
1975 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
1976 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
1977 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
1979 ** New modes and packages
1981 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
1982 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
1983 the default is not applicable.
1985 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
1986 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
1987 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
1991 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
1992 drawn, like this: | \ /
1996 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
1997 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
1998 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
1999 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
2000 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
2003 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
2004 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
2006 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
2009 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
2010 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
2011 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
2012 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
2014 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
2015 also do without the mouse.
2017 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
2018 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
2019 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
2020 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
2021 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
2023 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
2025 lines straight-lines
2027 poly-lines straight poly-lines
2029 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
2030 spray-can setting size for spraying
2031 vaporize line vaporize lines
2032 erase characters erase rectangles
2034 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
2035 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
2036 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
2039 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
2040 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
2041 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
2042 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
2044 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
2047 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
2048 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
2049 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
2050 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
2051 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
2052 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
2053 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
2054 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
2055 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
2057 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
2058 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
2059 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
2060 on certain projects.
2062 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
2063 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
2065 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
2067 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
2068 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
2069 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
2070 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
2071 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
2072 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
2073 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
2074 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
2076 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
2079 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
2080 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
2082 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
2083 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
2085 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
2086 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
2087 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
2088 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
2089 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
2091 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
2092 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
2093 separate Texinfo file.
2095 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
2096 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
2097 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
2098 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
2099 enter check-in log messages.
2101 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
2102 without invoking external programs.
2104 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
2105 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
2106 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
2107 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
2108 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
2110 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
2111 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
2113 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
2114 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
2116 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
2117 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
2118 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
2119 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
2120 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
2123 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
2124 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
2125 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
2126 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
2128 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
2129 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
2130 actually modifying content of a buffer.
2132 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
2135 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
2137 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
2139 ; comment (until end of line)
2143 $A default non-terminal
2144 $"C" default terminal
2145 $?C? default special
2146 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
2147 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
2148 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
2149 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
2150 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
2151 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
2152 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
2153 C+ one or more occurrences of C
2154 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
2155 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
2156 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
2157 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
2158 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
2159 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
2160 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
2162 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
2164 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
2165 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
2166 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
2167 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
2168 equal signs of assignments.
2170 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
2171 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
2173 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
2174 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
2175 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
2177 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
2179 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
2180 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
2181 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
2182 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
2183 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
2184 which answers different needs.
2186 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
2187 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
2188 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
2189 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
2190 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
2193 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
2194 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
2196 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
2198 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
2199 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
2200 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behaviour in all buffers.
2202 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
2204 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
2205 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
2206 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
2207 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
2208 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
2209 and background colors.
2211 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
2214 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
2217 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
2219 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
2221 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
2222 whitespace in a file.
2224 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
2225 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
2226 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
2227 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
2228 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
2229 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
2230 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
2232 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
2234 Here is an example of columns:
2237 dog pineapple car EXTRA
2238 porcupine strawberry airplane
2240 Doing the following settings:
2242 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
2243 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
2244 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
2245 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
2248 Selecting the lines above and typing:
2250 M-x delimit-columns-region
2254 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
2255 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
2256 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
2258 delim-col has the following options:
2260 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
2263 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
2264 between each column.
2266 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
2269 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
2272 delim-col has the following commands:
2274 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
2275 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
2277 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
2278 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
2279 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
2280 recent file list can be displayed:
2282 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
2283 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
2284 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
2286 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
2287 dynamically change the menu appearance.
2289 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
2292 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
2293 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
2294 specific to Message mode.
2296 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
2297 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
2298 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
2300 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
2301 interface to access directory servers using different directory
2302 protocols. It has a separate manual.
2304 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
2305 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
2307 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
2309 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
2310 minibuffer with completion.
2312 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
2313 with the diary features.
2315 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
2316 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
2318 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
2321 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
2322 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
2323 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
2324 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
2326 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
2327 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
2330 ** Changes in sort.el
2332 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
2333 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
2334 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
2337 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
2339 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
2340 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
2341 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
2343 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
2344 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
2346 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
2347 output ^M at the end of lines.
2349 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
2350 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
2352 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
2353 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
2356 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
2359 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
2360 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
2363 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
2364 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
2365 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
2366 nil -- just delete one character.
2368 Default value is `untabify'.
2370 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
2372 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
2373 symbol, not double-quoted.
2375 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
2376 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
2377 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
2378 moved to lisp/obsolete.
2380 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
2381 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
2382 `auto-compression-mode' command.
2384 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
2385 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
2386 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
2388 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
2389 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
2391 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
2392 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
2394 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
2395 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
2397 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
2398 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
2399 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
2400 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
2401 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
2402 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
2404 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
2405 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
2407 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
2409 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
2410 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
2412 ** Shell script mode changes.
2414 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
2415 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
2416 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
2420 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
2422 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
2423 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
2424 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
2425 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
2426 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
2428 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
2429 declarations when given the --declarations option.
2431 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
2432 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
2434 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
2435 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
2436 `template' keywords.
2438 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
2439 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
2441 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
2444 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
2446 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
2448 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
2451 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
2453 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
2454 variables are tagged.
2456 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
2458 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
2461 ** Changes in etags.el
2463 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
2464 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
2465 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
2467 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
2468 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
2470 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
2471 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
2472 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
2473 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
2475 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
2477 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
2478 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
2480 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
2482 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
2483 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
2484 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
2486 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
2487 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
2489 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
2490 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
2492 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
2493 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
2494 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
2495 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
2496 point will go to the beginning of the file.
2498 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
2499 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
2500 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
2502 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
2503 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
2504 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
2506 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
2507 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
2508 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
2510 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
2512 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
2514 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
2515 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
2516 expression from that list, are not checked.
2518 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
2519 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
2520 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
2521 the buffer, just like for the local files.
2523 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
2525 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
2526 displays local abbrevs, only.
2528 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
2529 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
2531 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
2532 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
2533 is measured in pixels.
2535 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
2536 to be visited as images.
2538 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
2539 were added to compile.el.
2541 ** Withdrawn packages
2543 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
2544 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
2546 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
2548 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
2551 * Incompatible Lisp changes
2553 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
2554 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
2555 See the sections below for details.
2557 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
2558 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
2559 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
2560 to remove the properties of the copy.
2562 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
2563 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
2564 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
2565 these properties are active.
2567 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
2568 ranges may affect some code.
2570 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
2571 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
2572 make a difference to some code.
2574 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
2575 operates on the minibuffer.
2577 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
2578 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
2579 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
2580 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
2581 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
2582 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
2583 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
2584 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
2585 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
2586 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
2587 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
2588 the buffer as multibyte characters.
2590 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
2591 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
2592 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
2594 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
2595 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
2596 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
2598 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
2601 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
2604 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
2605 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
2606 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
2607 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
2608 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
2609 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
2610 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
2611 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
2613 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
2614 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
2615 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
2616 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
2617 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
2618 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
2619 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
2620 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
2621 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
2622 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
2625 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
2626 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
2628 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
2630 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
2631 allows the animated display of strings.
2633 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
2634 interactive form of a function.
2636 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
2637 between custom options. Example:
2639 (defcustom default-input-method nil
2640 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
2641 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
2642 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
2644 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
2645 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
2647 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
2648 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
2649 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
2651 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
2652 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
2653 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
2654 (signal or normal termination).
2656 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
2657 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
2659 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
2660 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
2662 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
2663 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
2665 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
2667 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
2668 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
2671 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
2673 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
2674 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
2675 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
2676 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
2677 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
2680 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
2681 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
2684 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
2685 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
2687 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
2688 with the more general `:mask' property.
2690 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
2692 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
2695 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
2696 is running in batch mode. For example,
2698 (message "%s" (read t))
2700 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
2703 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
2704 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
2706 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
2707 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
2710 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
2713 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
2715 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
2716 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
2718 - Function: remq ELT LIST
2720 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
2721 comparison is done with `eq'.
2723 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
2725 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
2726 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
2727 `key-and-value', in addition the `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
2729 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
2730 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
2731 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
2733 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
2734 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
2736 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
2737 function was declared obsolete.
2739 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
2740 retained as an alias).
2742 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
2743 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
2744 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
2746 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
2748 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
2750 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
2751 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
2752 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
2753 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
2754 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
2755 means never include the minibuffer window.
2757 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
2759 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
2761 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
2763 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
2764 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
2765 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
2766 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
2769 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
2770 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
2771 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
2772 minibuffer even if it is active.
2774 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
2775 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
2776 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
2777 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
2778 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
2779 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
2781 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
2782 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
2783 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
2784 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
2785 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
2786 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
2787 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
2789 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
2790 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
2791 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
2793 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
2794 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
2795 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
2796 Default value is nil.
2798 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
2801 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
2802 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
2803 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
2805 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
2806 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
2807 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
2809 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
2810 list of a primitive.
2812 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
2814 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
2815 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
2816 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
2817 than replacing the local map.
2819 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
2820 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
2821 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
2824 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
2826 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
2827 as promised long ago.
2829 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
2831 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
2832 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
2833 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
2836 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
2838 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2839 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2840 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2841 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2843 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
2844 regular expressions.
2846 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
2848 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
2852 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
2854 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
2858 matches string STRING literally.
2861 matches character CHAR literally.
2864 matches any character except a newline.
2867 matches any character
2870 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
2871 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
2877 matches any character not in SET
2880 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
2881 in the text being matched
2884 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
2887 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
2888 string being matched against.
2891 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
2892 string being matched against.
2895 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
2896 buffer being matched against.
2899 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
2900 buffer being matched against.
2903 matches the empty string, but only at point.
2906 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
2910 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
2913 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
2916 `(not word-boundary)'
2917 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
2921 matches 0 through 9.
2924 matches ASCII control characters.
2927 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
2930 matches space and tab only.
2933 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
2937 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
2941 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2942 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2945 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2946 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2949 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
2952 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
2955 matches anything lower-case.
2958 matches anything upper-case.
2961 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2962 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
2965 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
2968 matches anything that has word syntax.
2971 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
2972 of the following symbols.
2974 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
2975 `punctuation' (\\s.)
2978 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
2979 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
2980 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
2981 `string-quote' (\\s\")
2982 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
2984 `character-quote' (\\s/)
2985 `comment-start' (\\s<)
2986 `comment-end' (\\s>)
2988 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
2989 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
2991 `(category CATEGORY)'
2992 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
2993 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
2995 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
2997 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
2998 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
3002 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
3004 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
3005 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
3006 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
3007 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
3008 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
3009 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
3010 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
3011 `indian-tow-byte' (\\cI)
3012 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
3013 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
3014 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
3023 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
3027 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
3034 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
3035 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
3037 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3038 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
3040 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3041 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
3042 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
3044 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3045 another name for `submatch'.
3047 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
3048 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
3049 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
3052 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
3053 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
3054 zero or more occurrances of something are \"greedy\" in that they
3055 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
3056 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
3058 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
3059 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
3061 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
3062 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
3065 like `zero-or-more'.
3068 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
3071 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
3073 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
3074 matches one or more occurrences of A.
3080 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
3083 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
3085 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
3086 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
3092 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
3095 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
3098 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
3101 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
3104 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
3108 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
3110 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
3112 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
3113 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
3114 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
3115 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
3117 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
3118 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
3119 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
3120 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
3122 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
3123 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
3124 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
3126 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
3127 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
3128 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
3129 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
3130 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
3131 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
3132 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
3135 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
3137 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
3138 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
3139 character set as previously.
3141 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
3142 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
3143 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
3145 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
3146 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
3147 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
3148 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
3150 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
3151 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
3153 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
3154 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
3157 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
3158 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
3160 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
3161 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
3162 buffers and strings.
3164 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
3165 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
3166 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
3167 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
3168 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
3169 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
3170 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
3173 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
3174 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
3175 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
3177 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
3178 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
3179 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
3180 may differ between buffer and string text.
3182 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
3183 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
3185 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
3186 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
3187 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
3188 `composition' from STRING.
3190 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
3191 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
3193 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
3196 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
3197 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
3199 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
3200 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
3201 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
3202 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
3204 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
3205 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
3206 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
3207 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
3208 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
3209 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
3211 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
3212 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
3213 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
3215 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
3216 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
3217 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
3219 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
3220 have been introduced.
3222 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
3223 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
3224 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
3225 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
3226 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
3227 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
3228 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
3229 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
3230 their multibyte equivalent.
3232 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
3233 that offset in the file before writing.
3235 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
3236 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
3238 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
3239 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
3240 from which the command was issued.
3242 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
3243 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
3244 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
3245 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
3248 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
3249 to `window-buffer-height'.
3251 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
3253 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
3254 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
3255 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
3257 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
3260 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
3261 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
3263 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
3264 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
3265 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
3267 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
3268 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
3269 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
3270 is currently displayed in some window.
3272 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
3273 argument function's results.
3275 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
3276 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
3277 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
3278 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
3281 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
3282 header in the list of headers passed to it.
3284 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
3285 ignores differences in case and text representation.
3287 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
3288 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
3291 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
3292 nil don't display a cursor
3293 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
3294 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
3295 others display a box cursor.
3297 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
3298 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
3299 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
3300 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
3302 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
3303 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
3304 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
3305 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
3309 (string-to-syntax "()")
3312 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
3315 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
3316 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
3323 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
3328 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
3333 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
3340 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
3341 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
3344 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
3345 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
3346 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
3347 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
3349 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
3351 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
3352 for a regexp in a string.
3354 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
3355 `mouse-position-function'.
3357 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
3358 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
3360 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
3361 Keywords are now always considered constants.
3363 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
3366 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
3367 returned by function `recent-keys'.
3369 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
3370 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
3371 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
3372 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
3375 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
3376 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
3378 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
3379 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
3380 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
3381 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
3384 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
3385 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
3386 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
3387 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
3389 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
3390 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
3391 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
3393 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
3394 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
3397 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
3399 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
3400 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
3401 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
3404 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
3405 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
3406 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
3407 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
3408 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
3410 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
3411 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
3413 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
3414 instead of being optional.
3416 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
3417 modify read-only text.
3419 ** New functions and variables for locales.
3421 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
3422 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
3423 time functions like strftime. The new variables
3424 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
3425 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
3427 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
3428 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
3429 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
3430 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
3431 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
3432 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
3433 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
3435 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
3436 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
3437 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
3440 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
3441 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
3443 ** New function `propertize'
3445 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
3446 strings with text properties.
3448 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
3450 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
3451 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
3452 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
3453 specified value of that property. Example:
3455 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
3457 ** push and pop macros.
3459 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
3460 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
3461 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
3463 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
3464 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
3465 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
3467 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
3469 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
3470 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
3472 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
3473 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
3474 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
3475 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
3477 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
3478 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
3479 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
3480 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
3482 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
3483 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
3484 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
3487 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
3488 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
3489 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
3490 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
3491 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
3493 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
3495 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
3496 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3497 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
3498 [:alpha:] matches letters.
3499 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3500 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
3501 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
3502 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
3503 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
3504 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
3505 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
3506 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
3507 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
3508 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
3509 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
3511 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
3513 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
3515 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
3517 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
3518 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
3522 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
3523 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
3524 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
3528 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
3529 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
3531 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
3533 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
3534 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
3535 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
3536 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
3537 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
3539 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
3541 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
3542 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
3543 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
3547 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
3548 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
3549 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
3550 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
3551 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
3553 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
3555 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
3557 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
3559 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
3561 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
3563 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
3566 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
3568 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
3570 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
3572 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
3574 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
3576 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
3578 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
3580 Returns the size of TABLE.
3582 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
3584 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
3586 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
3588 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
3590 - Function: clrhash TABLE
3594 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
3596 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
3599 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
3601 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
3602 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
3604 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
3606 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
3608 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
3610 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
3611 arguments KEY and VALUE.
3613 - Function: sxhash OBJ
3615 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
3617 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
3619 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
3620 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
3621 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
3622 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
3623 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
3625 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
3627 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
3628 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
3629 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
3631 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
3632 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
3634 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
3635 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
3637 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
3638 (sxhash (upcase a)))
3640 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
3641 'case-fold-string-hash))
3643 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
3645 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
3647 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
3648 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
3649 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
3651 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
3653 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
3654 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
3656 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
3657 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
3658 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
3659 is too short to reach that column.
3661 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
3662 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
3663 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
3664 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
3666 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
3667 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
3668 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
3670 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
3671 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
3673 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
3674 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
3676 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
3677 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
3678 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
3679 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
3680 temporary-file-directory instead.
3682 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
3683 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
3684 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
3685 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
3687 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
3688 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
3690 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
3692 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
3693 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
3694 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
3696 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
3698 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
3699 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
3700 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
3701 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
3702 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
3703 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
3705 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
3706 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
3707 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
3708 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
3710 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
3712 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
3713 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
3714 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
3717 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
3718 string where arguments appear in the result string.
3722 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
3724 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
3725 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
3728 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
3730 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
3732 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
3733 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
3736 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
3738 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
3739 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
3744 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
3745 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
3747 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
3748 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
3749 to enable sound support.
3751 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
3752 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
3753 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
3754 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
3755 sound to play, before playing the sound.
3757 The following sound properties are supported:
3761 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
3762 searched relative to `data-directory'.
3766 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
3767 may be present, but not both.
3771 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
3772 0..1. This property is optional.
3776 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
3777 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
3779 Other properties are ignored.
3781 An alternative interface is called as
3782 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
3784 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
3786 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
3789 ** Changes to garbage collection
3791 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
3792 of live and free strings.
3794 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
3795 strings that have been consed so far.
3798 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
3801 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
3804 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
3805 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
3806 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
3808 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
3810 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
3812 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
3815 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
3817 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
3819 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
3820 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
3821 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
3822 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
3823 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
3825 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
3828 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
3830 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
3831 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
3832 or omitted means use the selected frame.
3834 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
3835 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
3837 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
3840 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
3844 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
3846 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
3847 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
3848 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
3849 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
3851 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
3852 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
3854 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
3855 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
3856 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
3857 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
3858 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
3859 just display it black instead.
3861 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
3864 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
3868 ** New face implementation.
3870 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
3871 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
3875 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
3877 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
3879 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
3880 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
3882 3. Font height in 1/10pt
3884 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
3886 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
3888 6. Foreground color.
3890 7. Background color.
3892 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
3894 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
3896 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
3898 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
3900 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
3903 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
3904 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
3906 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
3907 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
3908 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
3909 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
3910 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
3911 attributes mentioned above.
3913 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
3914 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
3917 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
3918 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
3923 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
3924 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
3925 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
3926 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
3927 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
3928 results in a fully-specified face.
3930 *** Face realization.
3932 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
3933 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
3934 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
3935 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
3936 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
3937 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
3939 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
3940 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
3941 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
3942 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
3944 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
3945 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
3946 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
3947 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
3948 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
3950 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
3951 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
3952 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
3953 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
3954 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
3957 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
3958 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
3959 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
3960 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
3962 **** Clearing face caches.
3964 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
3965 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
3970 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
3971 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
3972 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
3974 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
3975 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
3976 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
3977 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
3978 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
3980 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
3981 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
3982 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
3984 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
3986 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
3987 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
3988 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
3989 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
3990 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
3991 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
3992 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
3994 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
3995 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
3998 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
3999 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
4002 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
4005 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
4010 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
4011 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
4014 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
4015 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
4016 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
4017 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
4018 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
4021 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
4023 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
4025 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
4027 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
4029 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
4030 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
4031 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
4033 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
4034 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
4035 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
4036 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
4037 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
4038 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
4039 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
4040 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
4041 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
4042 of the face font sort order.
4044 - Function: x-font-family-list
4046 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
4047 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
4048 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
4049 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
4051 - Variable: font-list-limit
4053 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
4054 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
4055 matching font. The default is currently 100.
4057 *** Setting face attributes.
4059 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
4060 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
4061 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
4064 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
4065 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
4067 The following attributes are recognized:
4071 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
4072 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
4073 and `?' are allowed.
4077 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
4078 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
4079 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
4080 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
4084 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
4085 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
4086 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
4087 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
4091 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
4092 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
4093 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
4097 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
4098 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
4101 `:foreground', `:background'
4103 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
4107 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
4108 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
4109 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
4114 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
4115 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
4116 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
4121 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
4122 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
4123 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
4124 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
4128 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
4129 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
4130 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
4131 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
4132 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
4133 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
4134 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
4135 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
4136 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
4137 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
4138 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
4139 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
4140 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
4141 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
4142 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
4143 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
4148 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
4149 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
4153 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
4154 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
4155 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
4156 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
4157 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
4158 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
4160 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
4161 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
4165 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
4166 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
4167 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
4170 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
4171 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
4172 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
4174 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
4179 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
4180 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
4181 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
4183 *** Face attributes and X resources
4185 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
4188 Face attribute X resource class
4189 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
4190 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
4191 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
4192 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
4193 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
4194 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
4195 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
4196 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
4197 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
4198 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
4199 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
4200 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
4201 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
4202 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
4203 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
4204 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
4205 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
4206 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
4207 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
4208 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
4210 *** Text property `face'.
4212 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
4213 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
4214 specification can be
4216 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
4218 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
4219 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
4220 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
4221 for face attribute names.
4223 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
4224 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
4225 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
4227 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
4229 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
4230 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
4231 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
4232 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
4233 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
4234 used to clear the mapping table.
4236 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
4238 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
4239 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
4240 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
4241 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
4242 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
4243 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
4244 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
4245 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
4246 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
4247 modify their color-related behavior.
4249 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
4252 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
4254 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
4255 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
4256 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
4257 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
4258 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
4259 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
4260 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
4261 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
4262 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
4264 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
4265 display can display image files.
4267 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
4269 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
4270 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
4271 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
4272 `Inviolable' option.
4274 The function minibuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
4275 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
4276 Otherwise, it returns zero.
4278 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
4280 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
4281 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
4282 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
4284 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
4285 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
4286 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
4287 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
4288 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
4289 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
4290 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
4293 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
4294 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
4295 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
4297 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
4299 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
4301 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
4303 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4304 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
4305 constrained position if that is different.
4307 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
4308 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
4309 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
4310 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
4311 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
4312 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
4313 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
4314 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
4315 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
4317 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
4318 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
4319 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
4320 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
4321 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
4323 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
4324 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
4326 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
4328 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
4330 Delete the field surrounding POS.
4331 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4332 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4334 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
4336 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
4337 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4338 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4339 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
4340 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
4342 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
4344 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
4345 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4346 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4347 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
4348 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
4350 - Function: field-string &optional POS
4352 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
4353 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4354 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4356 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
4358 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
4359 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
4360 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
4364 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
4365 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
4366 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
4367 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
4369 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
4370 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
4371 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
4372 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
4375 IMAGE is an image specification.
4377 *** Image specifications
4379 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
4380 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
4381 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
4382 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
4383 described below are ignored.
4385 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
4389 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
4390 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
4391 to use for its ascent.
4393 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
4394 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
4396 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
4397 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
4398 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
4399 overlays that apply to the image.
4403 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
4404 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
4405 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
4409 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
4414 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
4416 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
4417 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
4419 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
4420 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
4421 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
4422 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
4423 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
4424 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
4425 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
4426 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
4429 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
4431 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
4433 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
4434 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
4435 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
4436 of the factors' absolute values.
4438 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
4444 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
4450 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
4455 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
4456 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
4457 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
4458 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
4459 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
4460 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
4461 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
4464 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
4465 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
4470 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
4471 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
4472 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
4473 may be present in the image specification.
4477 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
4478 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
4479 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
4480 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
4482 *** Supported image types
4484 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
4486 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
4487 properties supported are
4491 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
4492 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground.
4496 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
4497 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
4499 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
4500 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
4501 instead of a `:file' property.
4505 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
4509 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
4515 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
4516 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
4518 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
4520 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
4523 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
4524 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
4527 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
4529 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
4530 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
4531 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
4532 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
4534 Additional image properties supported are:
4536 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
4538 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
4539 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
4542 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
4543 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
4545 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
4546 to display compressed images.
4548 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
4550 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
4551 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
4556 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
4557 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground.
4561 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
4562 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
4564 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
4566 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
4567 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
4570 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
4572 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
4573 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
4576 **** GIF, image type `gif'
4578 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
4579 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
4581 Additional image properties supported are:
4585 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
4586 multi-image GIF file. An error is signaled if INDEX is too large.
4588 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
4589 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
4590 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
4593 (defun show-anim (file max)
4594 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
4595 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
4597 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
4600 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
4603 (goto-char (point-min))
4604 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
4605 (insert-image img "x"))
4606 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
4608 **** PNG, image type `png'
4610 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
4611 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
4614 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
4616 Additional image properties supported are:
4620 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
4621 integer. This is a required property.
4625 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
4626 must be a integer. This is an required property.
4630 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
4631 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
4632 files. This is an required property.
4634 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
4639 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
4640 which are supported in the current configuration.
4642 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
4643 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
4644 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
4645 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
4646 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
4648 *** Simplified image API, image.el
4650 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
4651 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
4652 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
4653 define an image based on available image types. The functions
4654 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
4659 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
4662 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
4663 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
4664 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
4665 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
4666 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
4667 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
4668 of the display margins.
4670 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
4671 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
4672 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
4673 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
4678 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
4679 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
4680 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
4681 that have a `help-echo' property.
4683 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
4684 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
4685 the window in which the help was found.
4687 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
4688 `help-echo' text property was found.
4690 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
4691 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
4693 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
4694 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
4697 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
4698 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
4700 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
4701 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
4702 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
4703 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
4704 used as help string.
4706 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
4707 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
4708 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
4710 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
4712 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
4713 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
4715 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
4716 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
4717 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
4718 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
4721 (global-set-key [A-down]
4724 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
4725 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
4726 (global-set-key [A-up]
4729 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
4730 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
4732 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
4734 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
4735 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
4736 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
4737 is called with one argument, POS.
4739 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
4740 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
4741 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
4742 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
4743 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
4745 ** Tool bar support.
4747 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
4748 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
4749 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
4750 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
4751 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
4752 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
4754 *** Tool bar item definitions
4756 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
4757 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
4758 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
4760 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
4761 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
4762 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
4763 property (see below).
4765 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
4766 binding are currently ignored.
4768 The following properties are recognized:
4772 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
4777 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
4781 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
4782 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
4783 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
4785 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
4787 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
4788 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
4792 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
4793 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
4794 meaning of each of the four elements:
4796 Index Use when item is
4797 ----------------------------------------
4798 0 enabled and selected
4799 1 enabled and deselected
4800 2 disabled and selected
4801 3 disabled and deselected
4803 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
4804 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
4806 `:help HELP-STRING'.
4808 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
4809 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
4811 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
4812 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
4813 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
4816 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
4817 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
4818 buffer-locally to override the global map.
4820 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
4822 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
4823 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
4824 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
4826 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
4827 raised when the mouse moves over them.
4829 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
4830 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
4831 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
4832 vertical margins . Default is 1.
4834 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
4835 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
4837 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
4839 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
4842 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
4843 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
4844 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
4846 is the original tool bar item definition, then
4848 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
4850 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
4853 ** Mode line changes.
4855 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
4857 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
4858 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
4859 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
4861 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
4862 a `local-map' text property.
4864 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
4865 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
4867 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
4868 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
4869 `local-map' property.
4871 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
4872 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
4875 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
4876 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
4878 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
4879 variable mode-line-format to nil.
4881 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
4883 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
4884 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
4885 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
4886 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
4889 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
4892 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
4893 position in the header-line.
4895 ** Text property `display'
4897 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
4898 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
4899 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
4900 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
4901 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
4903 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
4905 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
4906 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
4908 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
4909 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
4910 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
4911 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
4912 simpler form STRING as property value.
4914 *** Variable width and height spaces
4916 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
4917 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
4918 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
4919 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
4920 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
4921 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
4922 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
4924 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
4925 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
4926 properties described below.
4928 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
4929 characters having the `display' property.
4933 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
4934 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
4936 - :relative-width FACTOR
4938 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
4939 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
4940 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
4941 width of that character by FACTOR.
4945 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
4946 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
4948 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
4952 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
4955 - :relative-height FACTOR
4957 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
4958 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
4962 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
4963 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
4964 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
4967 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
4971 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
4972 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
4973 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
4974 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
4975 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
4976 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
4977 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
4978 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
4979 as display specification.
4981 *** Other display properties
4983 - (space-width FACTOR)
4985 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
4986 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
4991 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
4993 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
4994 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
4995 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
4996 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
4997 a font is available counts as a step.
4999 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
5000 as tall as the frame's default font.
5002 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
5003 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
5005 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
5006 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
5010 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
5011 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
5012 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
5013 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
5014 `height' subproperty.
5016 *** Conditional display properties
5018 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
5019 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
5020 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
5021 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
5022 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
5023 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
5024 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
5025 different when object is a string.
5027 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
5030 ** New menu separator types.
5032 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
5033 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
5034 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
5035 to specify other menu separator types.
5037 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
5039 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
5042 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
5044 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
5046 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
5048 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
5050 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
5052 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
5054 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
5056 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
5058 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
5060 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
5061 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
5063 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
5065 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
5067 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
5069 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
5071 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
5073 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
5075 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
5077 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
5079 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
5081 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
5083 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
5085 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
5087 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
5089 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
5091 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
5092 the corresponding single-line separators.
5094 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
5096 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
5097 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
5098 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
5099 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
5100 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
5101 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
5102 default foreground is black.
5104 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
5105 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
5106 `ScrollBarBackground').
5108 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
5109 settings for scroll bar colors.
5111 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
5112 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
5114 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
5115 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
5116 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
5117 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
5118 the original window start.
5120 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
5121 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
5122 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
5124 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
5126 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
5127 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
5128 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
5129 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
5131 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
5132 fixed-width and fixed-height.
5134 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
5136 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
5137 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
5138 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
5139 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
5140 temporarily to nil, for example
5142 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
5143 (enlarge-window 10))
5145 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
5146 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
5148 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
5149 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
5150 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
5151 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
5152 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
5153 support a vertical-bar cursor).
5157 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
5159 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
5162 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
5164 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
5166 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
5167 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
5168 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
5169 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
5170 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
5172 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
5176 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
5178 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
5182 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
5184 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
5185 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
5187 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
5189 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
5191 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
5192 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
5193 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
5195 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
5196 is the one that is used.
5198 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
5199 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
5200 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
5201 separate from the command's regular output.
5202 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
5203 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
5204 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
5207 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
5208 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
5209 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
5210 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
5212 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
5213 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
5214 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
5215 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
5217 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
5218 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
5219 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
5220 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
5222 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
5223 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
5224 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
5225 they never ignore case.
5227 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
5228 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
5229 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
5230 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
5231 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
5232 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
5233 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
5235 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
5236 the same format that was used in the file before.
5238 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
5239 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
5241 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
5242 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
5243 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
5245 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
5246 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
5247 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
5248 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
5249 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
5250 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
5251 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
5253 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
5254 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
5255 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
5256 format. You can now customize these variables.
5258 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
5259 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
5260 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
5261 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
5263 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
5264 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
5265 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
5267 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
5268 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
5269 doesn't have any effect.
5271 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
5274 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
5275 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
5276 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
5278 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
5279 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
5280 `auto-show-mode' command.
5282 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
5283 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
5284 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
5285 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
5286 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
5288 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
5289 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
5291 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
5292 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
5293 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
5295 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
5296 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
5297 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
5298 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
5300 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
5302 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
5303 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
5304 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
5305 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
5306 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
5308 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
5309 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
5311 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
5312 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
5313 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
5314 `?' on other systems.
5316 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
5317 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
5320 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
5321 current codepage when it starts.
5325 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
5326 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
5327 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
5328 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
5329 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
5330 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
5334 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
5335 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
5337 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
5338 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
5339 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
5340 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
5341 buffer-file-coding-system.
5343 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
5344 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
5347 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
5348 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
5349 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
5350 list of possible coding systems.
5354 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
5355 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
5356 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
5357 docstring for details.
5359 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
5360 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
5361 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
5362 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
5363 lineup functions use this feature currently.
5365 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
5366 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
5368 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
5369 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
5371 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
5372 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
5373 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
5374 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
5377 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
5378 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
5380 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
5381 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
5382 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
5383 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
5385 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
5386 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
5387 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
5388 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
5389 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
5391 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
5393 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
5395 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
5396 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
5398 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
5400 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
5401 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
5402 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
5403 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
5404 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
5408 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
5409 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
5410 Gnus manual for the full story.
5412 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
5413 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
5414 group, which is created automatically.
5416 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
5419 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
5421 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
5422 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
5424 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
5427 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
5429 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
5430 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
5432 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
5434 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
5435 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
5437 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
5438 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
5440 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
5441 control over simplification.
5443 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
5445 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
5448 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
5450 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
5452 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
5453 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
5454 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
5456 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
5457 `a' forces normal posting method.
5459 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
5462 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
5465 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
5466 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
5468 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
5471 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
5473 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
5475 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
5476 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
5478 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
5479 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
5481 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
5483 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
5486 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
5487 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
5489 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
5490 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
5492 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
5494 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
5496 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
5498 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
5500 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
5501 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
5502 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
5504 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
5505 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
5506 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
5507 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
5508 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
5510 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
5511 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
5512 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
5513 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
5515 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
5516 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
5517 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
5520 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
5522 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
5523 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
5525 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
5526 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
5527 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
5528 removed from the label.
5530 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
5531 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
5533 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
5534 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
5536 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
5537 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
5540 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
5542 ** New/deleted modes and packages
5544 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
5545 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
5547 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
5548 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
5549 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
5551 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
5552 changes with a special face.
5554 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
5555 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
5556 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
5558 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
5560 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
5561 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
5562 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
5563 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
5564 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
5566 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
5567 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
5568 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
5570 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
5571 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
5572 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
5573 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
5574 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
5575 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
5576 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
5577 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
5578 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
5580 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
5581 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
5582 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
5583 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
5584 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
5587 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
5588 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
5589 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
5590 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
5591 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
5592 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
5594 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
5595 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
5596 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
5597 was not documented clearly before.
5599 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
5600 This includes Tetris and Snake.
5602 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
5604 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
5605 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
5606 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
5607 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
5609 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
5610 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
5611 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
5613 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
5615 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
5616 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
5618 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
5619 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
5622 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
5623 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
5624 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
5625 file names and attributes are returned.
5627 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
5628 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
5629 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
5630 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
5633 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
5634 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
5636 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
5638 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
5639 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
5640 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
5643 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
5644 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
5647 The new function process-running-child-p
5648 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
5649 terminal to its own child process.
5651 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
5652 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
5653 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
5654 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
5656 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
5657 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
5659 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
5660 :included is an alias for :visible.
5662 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
5663 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
5664 to move or copy menu entries.
5666 ** Multibyte editing changes
5668 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
5669 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
5670 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
5671 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
5672 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
5673 (setq char (sref str idx)
5674 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
5675 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
5677 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
5678 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
5679 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
5681 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
5682 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
5683 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
5685 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
5687 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
5688 across the boundary.
5690 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
5691 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
5692 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
5693 contains 8-bit characters.
5694 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
5695 contains invalid characters.
5697 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
5698 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
5699 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
5700 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
5703 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
5704 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
5705 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
5706 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
5708 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
5709 compose Thai characters in a string.
5711 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
5712 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
5713 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
5714 menus should always use the third argument.
5716 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
5717 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
5718 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
5719 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
5721 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
5722 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
5723 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
5724 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
5726 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
5727 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
5728 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
5731 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
5733 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
5734 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
5735 requested feature cannot be loaded.
5737 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
5738 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
5739 means to clear out that attribute.
5741 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
5742 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
5744 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
5745 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
5746 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
5747 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
5749 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
5750 the gap of the current buffer.
5752 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
5753 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
5756 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
5757 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
5758 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
5759 it back in after any modifications have been made.
5761 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
5763 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
5764 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
5765 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
5766 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
5767 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
5769 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
5770 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
5771 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
5772 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
5773 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
5775 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
5776 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
5777 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
5779 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
5780 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
5781 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
5782 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
5783 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
5786 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
5787 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
5788 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
5789 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
5791 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
5793 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
5794 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
5795 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
5796 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
5798 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
5799 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
5800 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
5801 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
5802 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
5803 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
5804 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
5807 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
5810 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
5811 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
5812 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
5813 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
5814 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
5816 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
5817 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
5818 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
5819 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
5821 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
5822 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
5823 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
5824 something that most users not do.
5826 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
5827 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
5828 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
5831 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
5834 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
5835 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
5836 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
5837 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
5840 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
5841 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
5842 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
5843 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
5844 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
5847 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
5848 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
5849 to be confused by TeX commands.
5851 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
5852 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
5853 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
5854 of various alternative replacements and actions.
5856 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
5857 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
5858 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
5859 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
5860 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
5862 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
5863 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
5865 ** Changes in input method usage.
5867 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
5868 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
5871 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
5873 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
5874 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
5876 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
5877 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
5879 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
5881 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
5883 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
5884 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
5886 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
5887 given in the following case:
5888 o When you are using a complex input method.
5889 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
5891 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
5892 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
5893 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
5894 setting it to t is helpful.
5896 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
5898 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
5900 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
5901 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
5902 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
5903 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
5906 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
5907 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
5908 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
5911 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
5913 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
5915 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
5916 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
5918 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
5919 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
5920 its owner and group.
5922 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
5923 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
5925 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
5926 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
5928 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
5929 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
5930 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
5931 by the left edge of the rectangle.
5933 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
5934 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
5935 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
5936 for writing keyboard macros.
5938 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
5939 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
5940 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
5941 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
5942 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
5945 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
5947 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
5948 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
5951 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
5952 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
5953 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
5954 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
5956 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
5957 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
5958 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
5960 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
5961 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
5962 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
5963 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
5965 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
5966 failure if the command produces no output.
5968 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
5969 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
5972 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
5973 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
5974 function and variable names.
5976 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
5977 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
5978 file-coding-system-alist.
5980 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
5981 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
5982 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
5983 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
5984 according to the current fontset.
5986 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
5988 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
5989 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
5990 nonascii-insert-offset.
5992 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
5993 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
5994 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
5995 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
5997 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
5998 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
6000 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
6001 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
6003 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
6004 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
6007 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
6008 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
6010 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
6011 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
6012 all variables that have documentation.
6014 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
6015 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
6016 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
6017 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
6018 it should show; the default is 20.
6020 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
6021 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
6024 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
6025 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
6026 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
6027 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
6028 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
6029 Newly added options are included as well.
6031 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
6032 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
6033 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
6035 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
6038 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
6039 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
6041 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
6042 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
6045 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
6046 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
6049 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
6050 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
6051 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
6052 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
6055 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
6057 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
6058 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
6059 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
6061 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
6062 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
6063 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
6068 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
6069 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
6071 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
6072 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
6074 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
6075 read and post multi-lingual articles.
6077 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
6078 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
6079 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
6080 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
6081 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
6082 made invisible again.
6084 ** Mail reading and sending changes
6086 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
6087 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
6088 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
6091 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
6092 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
6093 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
6094 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
6095 rmail-default-body-file.
6097 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
6098 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
6099 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
6101 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
6102 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
6103 is evaluated to insert the signature.
6105 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
6106 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
6107 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
6108 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
6109 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
6110 especially interested in trying feedmail.
6112 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
6113 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
6114 provided by feedmail are:
6116 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
6117 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
6118 there is also a queue for draft messages
6120 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
6121 be prompted for confirmation
6123 **** does smart filling of address headers
6125 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
6126 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
6127 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
6129 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
6130 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
6131 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
6132 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
6136 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
6137 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
6139 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
6140 run Dired on the directory name at point.
6142 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
6143 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
6144 for a specified regexp.
6148 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
6151 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
6152 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
6155 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
6156 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
6157 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
6158 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
6160 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
6161 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
6162 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
6163 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
6164 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
6166 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
6167 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
6168 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
6169 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
6170 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
6172 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
6173 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
6174 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
6175 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
6177 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
6178 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
6179 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
6181 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
6182 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
6183 session to resolve them.
6185 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
6186 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
6187 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
6190 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
6191 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
6192 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
6193 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
6194 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
6195 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
6198 ** Changes in Font Lock
6200 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
6201 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
6202 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
6203 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
6204 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
6206 ** Frame name display changes
6208 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
6209 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
6210 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
6211 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
6213 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
6214 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
6217 ** Comint (subshell) changes
6219 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
6220 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
6221 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
6223 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
6225 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
6226 that is, the line after the last line you got.
6227 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
6229 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
6230 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
6233 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
6234 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
6235 previously sent input.
6237 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
6238 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
6239 as the search string.
6241 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
6242 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
6246 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
6247 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
6248 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
6251 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
6252 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
6253 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
6254 style is still the default however.
6256 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
6258 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
6259 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
6260 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
6262 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
6263 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
6265 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
6266 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
6268 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
6269 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
6271 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
6272 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
6274 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
6275 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
6276 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
6277 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
6279 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
6281 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
6282 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
6283 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
6285 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
6286 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
6287 expanding dynamically.
6289 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
6290 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
6292 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
6293 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
6294 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
6295 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
6297 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
6299 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6301 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
6302 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
6303 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
6304 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
6305 against the first word in the title.
6307 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
6308 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
6309 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
6310 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
6311 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
6312 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
6314 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
6315 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
6316 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
6317 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
6319 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
6321 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
6322 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
6323 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
6324 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
6325 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
6326 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
6328 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
6329 Editing group once the package is loaded.
6331 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
6332 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
6333 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
6335 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
6336 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
6340 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
6341 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
6342 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
6344 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
6345 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
6346 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
6347 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
6350 o URLs are automatically skipped
6351 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
6353 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
6355 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
6357 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
6358 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
6359 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
6360 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
6362 *** New recursive parser.
6364 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
6365 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
6366 recursive parser scans the individual files.
6368 *** Parsing only part of a document.
6370 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
6371 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
6372 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
6374 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
6376 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
6378 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
6380 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
6382 *** Using multiple selection buffers
6384 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
6385 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
6387 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
6389 *** References to external documents.
6391 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
6392 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
6393 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
6394 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
6395 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
6396 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
6397 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
6399 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
6401 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
6402 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
6404 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
6405 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
6407 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
6409 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
6410 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
6412 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
6414 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
6415 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
6416 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
6417 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
6418 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
6419 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
6422 *** Support for the varioref package
6424 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
6428 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
6429 and citations are created. These hooks are
6430 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
6431 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
6433 *** Citations outside LaTeX
6435 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
6436 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
6438 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
6440 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
6441 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
6444 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
6446 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
6447 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
6448 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
6449 directories that contain the same file name.
6451 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
6452 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
6453 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
6454 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
6455 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
6456 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
6457 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
6460 ** New modes and packages
6462 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
6463 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
6464 it, but some do not.
6466 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
6469 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
6470 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
6473 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
6475 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
6476 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
6477 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
6478 established system of notation similar to Chess.
6480 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
6481 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
6482 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
6484 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
6485 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
6486 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
6487 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
6488 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
6491 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
6492 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
6494 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
6495 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
6496 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
6497 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
6499 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
6501 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
6502 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
6503 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
6504 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
6505 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
6506 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
6507 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
6508 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
6509 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
6510 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
6511 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
6513 Platform-specific modes:
6515 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
6516 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
6517 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
6518 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
6519 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
6520 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
6521 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
6522 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
6523 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
6525 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
6527 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
6528 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
6529 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
6530 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
6532 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
6533 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
6534 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
6536 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
6537 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
6538 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
6539 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
6541 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
6542 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
6543 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
6546 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
6547 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
6548 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
6549 current input method for reading this one event.
6551 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
6552 now control whether to output certain characters as
6553 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
6554 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
6555 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
6556 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
6558 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
6560 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
6561 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
6563 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
6564 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
6565 always increases point by 1.
6567 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
6568 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
6570 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
6572 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
6573 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
6574 default value changed. For example,
6576 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
6581 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
6584 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
6585 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
6586 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
6587 `:version' in the top level group.
6589 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
6591 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
6592 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
6594 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
6595 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
6596 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
6599 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
6600 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
6603 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
6604 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
6605 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
6607 ** Frame-local variables.
6609 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
6610 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
6611 local bindings for that variable.
6613 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
6614 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
6615 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
6618 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
6619 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
6620 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
6621 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
6623 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
6624 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
6625 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
6626 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
6628 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
6629 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
6630 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
6631 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
6632 See the documentation in sregex.el.
6634 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
6635 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
6636 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
6637 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
6639 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
6640 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
6642 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
6643 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
6644 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
6646 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
6647 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
6648 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
6649 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
6651 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
6652 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
6655 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
6656 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
6657 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
6658 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
6659 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
6661 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
6662 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
6663 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
6664 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
6666 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
6667 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
6668 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
6669 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
6670 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
6672 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
6673 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
6674 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
6675 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
6677 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
6678 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
6679 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
6681 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
6682 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
6683 was directed to display this buffer.
6685 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
6686 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
6687 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
6688 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
6689 set-window-configuration.
6691 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
6692 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
6693 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
6694 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
6696 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
6697 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
6698 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
6700 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
6701 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
6702 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
6704 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
6705 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
6707 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
6708 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
6710 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
6711 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
6712 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
6714 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
6715 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
6716 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
6717 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
6721 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
6722 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
6725 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
6726 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
6727 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
6728 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
6729 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
6731 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
6733 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
6734 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
6735 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
6736 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
6739 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
6740 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
6741 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
6742 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
6743 The supported properties include
6745 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
6747 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
6748 item should appear in the menu.
6750 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
6751 which will be REAL-BINDING.
6752 It should return a binding to use instead.
6754 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
6755 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
6756 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
6757 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
6758 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
6761 This means that the command normally has no
6762 keyboard equivalent.
6763 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
6764 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
6765 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
6766 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
6767 value says whether this button is currently selected.
6769 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
6770 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
6772 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
6776 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
6777 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
6778 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
6779 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
6781 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
6783 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
6784 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
6785 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
6786 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
6787 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
6788 forward, away from the user.
6790 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
6792 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
6793 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
6794 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
6795 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
6796 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
6798 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
6800 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
6801 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
6802 that were dragged and dropped.
6804 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
6806 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
6808 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
6809 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
6810 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
6812 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
6813 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
6814 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
6816 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
6817 in Emacs 19 and before.
6819 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
6820 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
6822 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
6823 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
6824 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
6825 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
6827 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
6828 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
6829 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
6830 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
6831 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
6833 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
6834 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
6835 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
6836 consistent with the new representation.
6838 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
6839 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
6840 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
6841 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
6843 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
6844 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
6845 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
6847 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
6848 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
6849 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
6851 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
6852 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
6853 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
6855 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
6856 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
6858 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
6859 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
6861 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
6862 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
6863 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
6864 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
6866 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
6867 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
6869 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
6870 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
6871 buffer or string being searched.
6873 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
6874 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
6875 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
6876 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
6877 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
6878 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
6879 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
6881 *** Structure of coding system changed.
6883 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
6884 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
6885 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
6886 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
6887 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
6888 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
6889 define-coding-system-alias.
6891 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
6892 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
6893 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
6894 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
6895 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
6896 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
6897 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
6900 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
6901 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
6902 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
6903 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
6905 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
6906 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
6907 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
6908 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
6910 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
6911 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
6912 This function requires a user interaction.
6914 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
6915 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
6916 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
6917 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
6918 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
6919 select-safe-coding-system.
6921 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
6922 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
6923 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
6926 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
6927 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
6928 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
6930 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
6931 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
6932 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
6933 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
6935 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
6936 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
6937 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
6940 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
6941 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
6943 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
6944 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
6945 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
6946 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
6947 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
6948 range of characters.
6950 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
6951 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
6953 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
6954 in the current buffer at position POS.
6956 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
6957 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
6958 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
6959 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
6960 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
6961 binding input-method-function to nil.
6963 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
6964 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
6965 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
6966 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
6967 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
6969 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
6970 subsequent events of a key sequence.
6972 *** You can customize any language environment by using
6973 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
6975 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
6976 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
6977 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
6978 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
6979 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
6981 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
6983 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
6984 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
6985 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
6988 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
6989 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
6991 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
6992 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
6993 in your .emacs file.)
6995 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
6996 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
6998 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
6999 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
7001 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
7002 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
7005 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
7006 delete the character before point, as usual.
7008 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
7009 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
7010 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
7012 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
7013 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
7014 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
7015 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
7016 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
7019 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
7020 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
7021 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
7022 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
7023 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
7025 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
7026 and is an alias for it.
7028 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
7029 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
7031 ** Scrolling changes
7033 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
7034 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
7036 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
7037 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
7040 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
7041 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
7042 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
7043 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
7045 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
7046 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
7047 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
7048 recenters the window.
7050 ** International character set support (MULE)
7052 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
7053 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
7054 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
7055 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
7056 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
7057 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
7059 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
7060 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
7061 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
7062 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
7063 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
7065 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
7066 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
7067 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
7068 language, to make it possible to type them.
7070 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
7071 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
7073 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
7074 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
7076 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
7078 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
7080 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
7081 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
7082 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
7083 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
7084 characters for their work until they want to change.
7088 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
7089 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
7090 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
7091 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
7092 support several input methods.
7094 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
7095 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
7098 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
7099 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
7100 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
7101 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
7102 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
7105 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
7106 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
7107 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
7108 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
7109 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
7111 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
7112 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
7113 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
7114 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
7116 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
7117 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
7118 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
7119 the first guess is wrong.
7121 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
7122 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
7124 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
7125 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
7126 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
7127 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
7129 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
7130 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
7131 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
7132 translate automatically to and from either one.
7134 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
7136 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
7137 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
7138 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
7141 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
7142 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
7143 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
7144 multibyte characters in that buffer.
7146 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
7147 character conversion as well.
7149 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
7151 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
7152 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
7153 requires using many fonts.
7155 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
7156 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
7158 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
7159 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
7160 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
7161 you would use a font.
7163 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
7164 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
7165 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
7167 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
7168 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
7171 *** Defining fontsets.
7173 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
7174 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
7175 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
7177 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
7178 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
7179 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
7180 standard fontset are created automatically.
7182 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
7183 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
7184 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
7185 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
7186 name is `fontset-startup'.
7188 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
7189 The resource value should have this form:
7190 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
7191 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
7192 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
7193 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
7194 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
7195 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
7196 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
7197 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
7198 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
7200 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
7201 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
7202 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
7204 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
7205 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
7207 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
7208 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
7209 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
7210 Here is the substitution rule:
7211 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
7212 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
7213 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
7214 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
7215 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
7217 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
7218 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
7219 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
7221 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
7222 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
7223 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
7224 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
7227 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
7228 defaults for a particular choice of language.
7230 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
7231 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
7232 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
7233 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
7234 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
7235 system for new files that you create.
7237 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
7238 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
7239 whole Emacs session.
7241 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
7242 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
7243 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
7245 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
7246 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
7247 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
7248 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
7249 coding systems that Emacs supports.
7251 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
7252 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
7253 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
7254 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
7255 is used for *the immediately following command*.
7257 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
7258 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
7260 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
7261 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
7263 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
7264 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
7266 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
7267 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
7268 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
7269 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
7272 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
7273 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
7274 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
7275 translated into that character code.
7277 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
7278 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
7280 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
7282 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
7283 the coding system for keyboard input.
7285 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
7286 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
7287 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
7289 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
7291 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
7292 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
7293 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
7294 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
7295 designed to work with terminals.
7297 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
7298 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
7299 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
7300 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
7301 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
7302 in the corresponding buffer.
7304 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
7306 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
7307 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
7308 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
7310 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
7311 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
7312 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
7315 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
7316 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
7318 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
7319 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
7320 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
7321 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
7323 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
7324 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
7325 related information.
7327 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
7328 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
7331 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
7332 information about the support for a particular language.
7333 You specify the language as an argument.
7335 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
7336 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
7339 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
7340 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
7341 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
7342 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
7344 A alternativnyj (Russian)
7346 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
7347 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
7348 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
7349 E euc-japan (Japanese)
7350 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
7351 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
7352 K euc-korea (Korean)
7355 S shift_jis (Japanese)
7358 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
7359 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
7360 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
7364 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
7365 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
7366 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
7367 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
7369 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
7370 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
7372 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
7373 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
7374 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
7375 Rmail files themselves.
7377 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
7378 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
7380 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
7383 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
7384 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
7385 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
7386 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
7387 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
7389 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
7390 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
7391 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
7394 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
7395 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
7396 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
7397 without any conversion.
7399 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
7400 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
7401 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
7402 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
7404 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
7405 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
7407 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
7408 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
7410 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
7411 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
7413 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
7414 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
7415 in the buffer before point.
7417 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
7418 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
7421 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
7422 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
7424 ** File locking works with NFS now.
7426 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
7427 in the same directory as FILENAME.
7429 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
7430 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
7431 can become a bottleneck.
7433 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
7434 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
7435 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
7436 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
7437 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
7438 so useful that the change is worth while.
7440 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
7441 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
7442 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
7443 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
7445 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
7446 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
7449 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
7450 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
7451 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
7453 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
7454 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
7455 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
7457 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
7458 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
7459 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
7461 ** Changes in View mode.
7463 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
7464 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
7466 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
7467 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
7469 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
7472 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
7473 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
7475 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
7476 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
7477 not just the selected window.
7479 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
7480 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
7481 turns View mode on or off.
7483 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
7484 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
7485 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
7487 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
7488 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
7490 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
7491 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
7492 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
7493 which version to compare with.
7495 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
7496 blocks if a match is inside the block.
7498 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
7499 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
7500 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
7501 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
7503 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
7504 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
7505 blocks, all of them or none.
7507 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
7508 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
7511 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
7512 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
7513 However, the mode will not be changed if
7514 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
7515 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
7516 not suitable for ordinary files, or
7517 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
7519 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
7521 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
7522 these commands do not change the major mode.
7524 ** M-x occur changes.
7526 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
7527 it performs a case-sensitive search.
7529 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
7530 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
7531 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
7533 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
7534 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
7535 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
7536 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
7537 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
7539 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
7540 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
7541 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
7542 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
7544 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7545 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
7546 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
7548 ** Outline mode changes.
7550 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
7552 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
7554 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
7555 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
7556 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
7559 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
7560 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
7563 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
7564 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
7566 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
7568 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
7569 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
7570 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
7571 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
7573 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
7574 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
7575 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
7577 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
7578 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
7581 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
7582 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
7583 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
7584 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
7586 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
7587 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
7588 can be. The default value is 30.
7590 ** Changes in Mail mode.
7592 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
7593 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
7594 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
7595 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
7596 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
7599 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
7600 compose-mail-other-frame.
7602 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
7603 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
7604 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
7605 buffer that shows the original message.
7607 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
7608 with separator lines around the contents.
7610 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
7611 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
7612 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
7613 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
7615 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
7617 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
7618 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
7619 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
7620 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
7622 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
7623 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
7626 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
7627 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
7630 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
7631 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
7632 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
7633 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
7635 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
7636 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
7637 be taken to be magic.
7639 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
7640 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
7641 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
7643 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
7644 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
7646 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
7647 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
7649 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
7651 new key dired.el binding old key
7652 ------- ---------------- -------
7653 * c dired-change-marks c
7655 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
7656 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
7657 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
7659 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
7660 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
7661 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
7662 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
7663 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
7664 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
7668 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
7669 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
7670 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
7671 each time you run it.
7673 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
7674 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
7676 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
7677 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
7678 means to move in the opposite direction.
7680 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
7681 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
7683 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
7684 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
7685 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
7686 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
7691 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
7693 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
7696 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
7697 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
7699 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
7702 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
7704 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
7706 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
7708 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
7709 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
7710 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
7712 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
7714 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
7716 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
7717 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
7719 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
7720 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
7721 used to pick articles.
7723 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
7724 another have been added.
7726 `M-x gnus-change-server'
7728 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
7729 generating lines in buffers.
7731 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
7734 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
7736 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
7738 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
7740 *** Scores can be decayed.
7742 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
7744 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
7745 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
7747 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
7750 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
7752 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
7753 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
7755 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
7757 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
7758 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
7760 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
7761 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
7763 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
7766 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
7767 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
7769 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
7771 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
7773 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
7775 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
7777 Use the `Y c' command.
7779 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
7781 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
7783 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
7785 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
7786 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
7788 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
7790 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
7792 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
7793 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
7795 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
7797 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
7798 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
7799 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
7800 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
7803 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
7804 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
7805 particular news group. This can be done by:
7807 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
7809 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
7810 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
7811 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
7812 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
7813 for reading and posting).
7815 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
7816 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
7817 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
7818 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
7821 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
7822 default. Here are some of these default settings:
7824 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
7825 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
7826 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
7827 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
7828 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
7830 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
7831 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
7835 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
7836 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
7837 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
7838 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
7839 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
7842 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
7843 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
7844 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
7845 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
7846 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
7847 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
7849 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
7850 of the current buffer.
7852 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
7853 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
7854 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
7856 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
7857 style that the Python developers like.
7859 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
7860 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
7861 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
7865 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
7866 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
7867 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
7869 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
7870 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
7873 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
7874 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
7876 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
7877 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
7878 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
7879 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
7881 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
7882 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
7884 ** Calendar changes.
7886 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
7887 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
7888 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
7889 following/previous years.
7891 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
7892 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
7893 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
7894 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
7895 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
7896 supposed attribute of God.
7900 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
7903 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
7905 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
7906 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
7907 printer system has this behavior, set variable
7908 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
7910 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
7911 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
7912 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
7914 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
7915 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
7917 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
7918 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
7919 printing for your printer.
7921 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
7922 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
7924 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
7925 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
7927 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
7928 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
7929 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
7930 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
7931 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
7932 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
7933 The default value is nil.
7935 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
7936 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
7938 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
7939 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
7940 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
7941 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
7942 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
7943 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
7944 color). The default is 0 ("black").
7946 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
7947 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
7949 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
7950 The default is 0 ("black").
7952 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
7953 The default is 0 ("black").
7955 border-width Specify the border width.
7958 Any other property is ignored.
7960 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
7961 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
7964 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
7965 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
7966 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
7967 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
7968 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
7969 controlling headers.
7971 *** Color management (subgroup)
7973 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
7976 *** Face Management (subgroup)
7978 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
7979 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
7980 background should be used. Valid values are:
7982 t always use face background color.
7983 nil never use face background color.
7984 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
7986 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
7988 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
7991 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
7992 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
7994 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
7997 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
7998 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
7999 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
8001 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
8005 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
8009 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
8013 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
8017 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
8019 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
8021 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
8024 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
8025 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
8026 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
8028 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
8029 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8030 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8031 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8032 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8036 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8037 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8038 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8041 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8042 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8043 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
8044 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
8045 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
8046 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8047 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8048 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
8049 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
8050 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
8051 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
8054 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
8056 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
8059 *** Printer management (subgroup)
8061 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
8062 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
8063 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
8064 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
8067 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
8068 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
8069 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
8071 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
8072 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
8075 *** Page settings (subgroup)
8077 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
8078 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
8079 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
8080 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
8081 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
8082 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
8085 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
8086 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
8087 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
8089 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
8090 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
8091 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
8092 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
8093 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
8094 its TO, are ignored.
8096 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
8097 pages. Valid values are:
8099 nil print all pages.
8101 `even-page' print only even pages.
8103 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
8105 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
8106 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
8107 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
8108 print only the even sheet of paper.
8110 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
8111 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
8112 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
8113 only the odd sheet of paper.
8115 Any other value is treated as nil.
8117 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
8118 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
8119 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
8121 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
8123 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
8124 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
8126 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
8127 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
8128 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
8129 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
8130 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
8131 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
8132 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
8134 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
8135 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
8136 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
8137 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
8138 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
8139 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
8140 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
8142 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
8144 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
8145 messages should be sent.
8147 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
8148 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
8149 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
8151 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
8153 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
8154 points for line numbers.
8156 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
8157 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
8159 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
8160 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
8161 to 2, the printing will look like:
8173 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
8174 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
8177 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
8178 zebra stripe is to be printed.
8180 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
8182 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
8183 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
8184 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
8185 3, the output will look like:
8199 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
8200 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
8202 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
8203 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
8206 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
8207 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
8210 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
8212 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
8213 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
8215 ** hideshow changes.
8217 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
8220 *** Support for java-mode added.
8222 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
8223 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
8225 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
8226 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
8227 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
8229 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
8230 robust and a lot faster.
8232 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
8234 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
8235 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
8236 documentation for more details.
8238 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
8240 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
8241 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
8242 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
8243 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
8244 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
8246 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
8247 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
8248 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
8249 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
8255 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
8256 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
8257 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
8258 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
8259 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
8260 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
8262 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
8264 *** Maximum decoration
8266 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
8267 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
8268 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
8269 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
8270 to get the old behavior.
8274 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
8276 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
8277 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
8279 *** Configurable support
8281 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
8282 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
8283 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
8284 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
8285 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
8286 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
8287 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
8289 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
8290 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
8291 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
8293 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
8295 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
8296 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
8299 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
8301 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
8307 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
8308 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
8309 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
8310 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
8312 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
8314 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
8315 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
8316 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
8318 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
8320 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
8321 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
8322 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
8323 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
8324 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
8325 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
8326 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
8328 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
8329 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
8330 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
8331 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
8332 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
8333 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
8335 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
8337 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
8338 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
8339 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
8340 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
8342 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
8345 ** Ada mode changes.
8347 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
8348 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
8349 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
8350 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
8353 *** There are two new commands:
8354 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
8355 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
8357 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
8358 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
8359 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
8361 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
8362 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
8363 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
8365 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
8366 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
8367 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
8368 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
8370 ** Scheme mode changes.
8372 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
8373 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
8374 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
8375 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
8378 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
8379 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
8380 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
8381 variables as buffer-local variables.
8383 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
8386 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
8388 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
8389 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
8390 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
8391 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
8393 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
8394 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
8397 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
8398 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
8399 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
8400 option takes precedence.
8402 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
8403 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
8404 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
8406 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
8407 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
8410 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
8411 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
8413 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
8414 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
8417 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
8418 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
8419 these register values no longer become completely useless.
8420 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
8421 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
8422 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
8424 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
8425 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
8426 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
8427 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
8429 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
8430 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
8431 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
8432 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
8433 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
8435 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
8436 since it applies only to the current frame.
8438 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
8439 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
8440 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
8442 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
8443 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
8444 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
8445 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
8446 instead of just the file you are editing.
8450 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
8451 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
8452 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
8453 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
8454 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
8457 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
8458 knows which kind of label is needed.
8460 C-c ) reftex-reference
8461 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
8462 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
8464 C-c [ reftex-citation
8465 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
8466 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
8468 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
8469 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
8472 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
8473 can quickly jump to every section.
8475 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
8476 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
8477 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
8478 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
8479 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
8481 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8483 *** Info documentation is now available.
8485 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
8486 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
8488 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
8489 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
8491 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
8492 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
8494 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
8495 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
8496 appropriate functions.
8498 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
8499 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
8501 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
8504 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
8505 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
8507 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
8510 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
8511 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
8512 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
8514 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
8515 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
8516 prefixed with `ALT'.
8518 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
8519 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
8520 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
8523 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
8524 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
8525 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
8527 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
8528 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
8530 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
8531 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
8532 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
8534 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
8536 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
8538 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
8541 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
8542 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
8545 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
8548 *** Added support for imenu.
8550 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
8551 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
8552 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
8553 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
8555 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
8556 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
8558 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
8560 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
8562 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
8563 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
8564 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
8567 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
8568 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
8570 ** browse-url changes
8572 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
8573 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
8574 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
8575 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
8576 customization variables.
8578 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
8580 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
8581 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
8582 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
8586 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
8587 pops up the Info file for this command.
8589 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
8590 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
8591 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
8594 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
8595 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
8596 files in the same directory.
8598 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
8599 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
8600 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
8604 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
8605 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
8607 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
8608 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
8609 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
8610 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
8611 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
8612 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
8613 color when Viper is in insert state.
8614 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
8615 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
8616 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
8620 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
8621 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
8622 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
8623 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
8624 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
8626 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
8628 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
8629 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
8631 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
8632 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
8633 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
8635 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
8636 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
8637 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
8638 methods and protocols.
8640 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
8641 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
8642 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
8645 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
8646 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
8647 at least M times and as many as N times.
8649 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
8650 in files has changed slightly.
8652 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
8653 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
8654 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
8655 with old time-stamp-format values.
8657 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
8658 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
8659 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
8662 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
8663 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
8664 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
8665 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
8666 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
8667 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
8669 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
8670 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
8671 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
8673 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
8674 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
8675 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
8676 recommended now will continue to work then.
8678 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
8681 ** There are some additional major modes:
8683 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
8684 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
8685 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
8687 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
8688 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
8691 ** New Lisp packages include:
8693 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
8695 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
8696 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
8698 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
8700 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
8703 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
8704 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
8707 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
8708 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
8709 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
8710 strings or comments.
8712 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
8713 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
8714 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
8715 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
8718 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
8719 can visit them by short forms of their names.
8721 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
8722 Emacs Lisp function at point.
8724 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
8726 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
8727 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
8729 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
8731 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
8733 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
8735 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
8736 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
8738 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
8739 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
8740 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
8741 original place after inserting the copy.
8743 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
8746 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
8747 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
8748 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
8750 Enable mouse-drag with:
8751 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
8753 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
8755 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
8756 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
8758 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
8759 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
8763 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
8764 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
8765 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
8766 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
8767 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
8768 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
8769 instance) and vice versa.
8771 To use this package load it using
8772 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
8773 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
8774 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
8775 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
8776 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
8777 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
8779 *** Interface to ph.
8781 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
8783 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
8784 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
8787 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
8789 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
8790 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
8791 while the real cursor does not move.
8793 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
8794 for visiting your favorite web sites.
8796 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
8797 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
8801 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
8802 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
8803 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
8804 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
8806 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
8808 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
8810 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
8812 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
8813 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
8814 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
8815 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
8816 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
8818 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
8819 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
8820 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
8821 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
8822 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
8823 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
8825 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
8827 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
8828 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
8829 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
8830 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
8832 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
8833 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
8835 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
8836 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
8839 ** Basic Lisp changes
8841 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
8842 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
8844 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
8845 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
8848 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
8850 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
8852 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
8853 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
8855 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
8856 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
8859 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
8861 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
8863 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
8865 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
8866 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
8867 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
8870 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
8871 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
8872 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
8874 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
8875 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
8876 adding one of these suffixes.
8878 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
8879 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
8880 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
8882 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
8883 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
8885 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
8887 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
8888 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
8890 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
8891 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
8893 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
8895 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
8896 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
8898 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
8899 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
8900 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
8901 works using `save-current-buffer'.
8903 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
8904 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
8907 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
8908 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
8909 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
8912 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
8913 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
8916 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
8918 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
8919 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
8920 Then it returns that string.
8922 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
8924 (with-output-to-string
8925 (princ "The buffer is ")
8926 (princ (buffer-name)))
8928 returns "The buffer is foo".
8930 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
8933 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
8934 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
8935 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
8937 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
8938 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
8940 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
8941 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
8942 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
8943 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
8944 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
8945 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
8947 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
8948 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
8949 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
8952 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
8953 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
8954 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
8955 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
8956 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
8958 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
8959 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
8960 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
8961 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
8963 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
8964 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
8966 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
8968 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
8969 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
8970 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
8971 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
8974 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
8975 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
8978 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
8980 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
8981 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
8982 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
8983 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
8984 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
8986 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
8988 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
8989 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
8990 more than the number of characters.
8992 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
8993 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
8994 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
8995 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
8996 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
8997 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
8999 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
9000 and returns a string containing those characters.
9002 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
9003 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
9004 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
9005 character, sref signals an error.
9007 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
9008 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
9009 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
9011 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
9012 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
9013 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
9015 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
9016 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
9017 to a vector of the characters in it.
9019 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
9020 of a string. You call it as follows:
9022 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
9024 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
9025 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
9026 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
9027 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
9028 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
9030 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
9031 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
9033 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
9034 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
9036 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
9037 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
9038 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
9039 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
9041 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
9043 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
9045 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
9046 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
9047 are not included in the resulting value.
9049 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
9050 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
9051 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
9052 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
9054 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
9055 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
9056 character extends across that column), then the padding character
9057 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
9058 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
9059 column START-COLUMN.
9061 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
9062 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
9063 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
9064 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
9065 changed text, before the change.
9067 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
9068 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
9069 one character set for each script, not for each language.
9071 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
9073 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
9075 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
9076 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
9078 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
9079 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
9080 which identify the character within that character set.
9082 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
9083 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
9084 opposite of split-char.
9086 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
9087 of all the characters between BEG and END.
9089 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
9090 of all the characters in a string.
9092 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
9093 and specifying coding systems.
9095 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
9096 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
9097 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
9098 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
9099 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
9100 as what to do about code conversion.)
9102 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
9103 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
9105 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
9106 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
9107 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
9109 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
9110 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
9111 to match against a file name.
9113 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
9114 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
9115 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
9116 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
9117 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
9118 specifies the coding system for encoding.
9120 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
9121 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
9123 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
9124 the coding system to use for network sockets.
9126 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
9127 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
9128 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
9131 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
9132 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
9133 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
9134 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
9135 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
9136 specifies the coding system for encoding.
9138 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
9139 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
9141 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
9142 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
9143 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
9144 start the subprocess.
9146 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
9147 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
9148 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
9149 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
9150 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
9152 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
9153 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
9156 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
9157 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
9158 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
9159 connection permanently or until overridden.
9161 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
9162 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
9163 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
9164 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
9165 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
9166 system for one operation at a time.
9168 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
9169 files, subprocesses or network connections.
9171 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
9172 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
9173 The value is a cons cell,
9174 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
9175 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
9176 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
9177 input to the subprocess.
9179 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
9180 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
9182 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
9183 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
9184 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
9186 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
9187 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
9188 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
9189 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
9192 Thus, instead of writing
9194 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
9195 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
9197 you would now write this:
9199 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
9200 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
9204 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
9205 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
9206 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
9207 for a description of them.
9209 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
9210 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
9212 (defgroup ispell nil
9213 "Spell checking using Ispell."
9216 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
9217 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
9218 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
9219 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
9220 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
9222 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
9223 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
9224 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
9225 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
9226 first-level subgroups.
9228 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
9230 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
9231 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
9235 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
9236 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
9237 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
9238 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
9239 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
9240 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
9242 ** Text property changes
9244 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
9247 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
9248 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
9249 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
9250 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
9251 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
9253 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
9254 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
9255 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
9256 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
9258 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
9259 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
9260 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
9262 ** Changes in invisibility features
9264 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
9265 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
9266 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
9267 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
9268 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
9269 make the overlay visible.
9271 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
9272 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
9273 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
9274 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
9275 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
9276 t when it should hide it.
9278 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
9280 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
9281 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
9282 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
9283 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
9284 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
9285 Here is an example of how to do this:
9287 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
9288 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
9289 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
9290 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
9293 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
9296 ;; When done with the overlays:
9297 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
9299 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
9301 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
9303 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
9304 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
9305 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
9306 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
9308 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
9309 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
9310 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
9312 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
9313 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
9315 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
9316 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
9318 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
9319 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
9320 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
9322 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
9323 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
9324 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
9325 determine the syntax type of the character.
9327 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
9328 of the current buffer.
9330 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
9331 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
9332 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
9334 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
9335 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
9336 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
9337 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
9338 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
9340 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
9343 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
9344 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
9345 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
9347 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
9348 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
9349 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
9350 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
9351 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
9353 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
9354 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
9355 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
9357 ** Changes in face features
9359 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
9360 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
9362 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
9363 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
9365 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
9366 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
9368 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
9369 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
9371 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
9372 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
9373 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
9374 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
9377 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
9378 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
9380 ** Changes in file-handling functions
9382 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
9383 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
9384 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
9385 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
9387 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
9390 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
9391 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
9393 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
9394 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
9396 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
9397 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
9399 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
9400 character code conversion as well as other things.
9402 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
9403 (formerly it did not).
9405 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
9406 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
9408 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
9409 instead of constant strings.
9411 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
9412 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
9413 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
9415 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
9416 in the same way as before.
9418 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
9419 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
9420 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
9422 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
9423 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
9424 else, and returns nil.
9426 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
9427 directory cannot be listed.
9429 ** Changes in minibuffer input
9431 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
9432 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
9433 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
9434 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
9437 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
9438 It is available through the history command M-n.
9440 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
9441 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
9442 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
9443 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
9444 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
9446 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
9447 argument in this way.
9449 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
9450 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
9451 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
9453 ** Echo area features
9455 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
9456 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
9457 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
9458 after the echo area is cleared.
9460 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
9461 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
9463 ** Keyboard input features
9465 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
9466 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
9468 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
9469 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
9472 ** Frame-related changes
9474 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
9475 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
9476 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
9478 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
9479 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
9480 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
9482 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
9483 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
9484 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
9485 in the selected frame.
9487 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
9488 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
9489 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
9491 ** X Windows features
9493 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
9494 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
9495 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
9497 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
9498 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
9500 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
9501 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
9502 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
9504 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
9505 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
9507 ** Subprocess features
9509 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
9510 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
9513 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
9514 and returns the output from the command as a string.
9516 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
9517 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
9519 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
9520 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
9522 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
9523 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
9524 goes after the other menu items.
9526 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
9527 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
9528 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
9531 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
9532 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
9534 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
9535 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
9538 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
9539 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
9540 but its hook is still run.
9542 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
9543 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
9545 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
9546 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
9547 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
9549 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
9550 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
9551 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
9554 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
9555 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
9557 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
9558 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
9559 functions like display-time.
9561 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
9562 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
9564 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
9565 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
9566 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
9568 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
9569 if there is an error in compilation.
9571 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
9572 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
9573 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
9574 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
9576 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
9577 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
9578 the *scratch* buffer.
9580 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
9581 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
9582 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
9583 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
9585 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
9586 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
9587 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
9589 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
9590 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
9591 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
9592 and compose-mail-other-frame.
9594 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
9595 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
9596 full name of the specified user will be returned.
9598 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
9599 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
9600 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
9601 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
9602 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
9605 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
9606 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
9607 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
9608 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
9610 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
9611 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
9612 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
9613 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
9615 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
9617 ** imenu.el changes.
9619 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
9620 item from menu created by imenu.
9622 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
9623 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
9624 select one of those items.
9626 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
9628 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
9629 Copyright information:
9631 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9633 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
9634 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
9635 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
9636 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
9638 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
9639 of this document, or of portions of it,
9640 under the above conditions, provided also that they
9641 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
9645 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"