1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * About external Lisp packages
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
29 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
31 ** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
34 ** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
36 ** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
39 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
41 ** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
42 You can also use any number of different ttys.
44 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
45 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
47 ** Emacs comes with a new set of icons for Mac OS X.
48 OS-X-style icons (an application icon and a relevant document icon)
49 were contributed by Kentaro Ohkouchi.
50 Source files for these icons can be found in Emacs.app/Contents/Resources.
52 ** Built-in functions (subr) can now have an interactive specification
53 that is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
54 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
56 ** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
57 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
59 ** split-window-preferred-function specifies whether display-buffer should
60 split windows vertically or horizontally.
62 ** Emacsclient has been extended to support opening a new terminal
63 frame. Its behavior has been changed to open a new Emacs frame by
64 default. Use the -c option to get the old behavior of opening files in
65 the currently selected Emacs frame.
67 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
69 ** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
71 ** If you set find-file-confirm-nonexistent-file to t, then C-x C-f
72 requires confirmation before opening a non-existent file.
74 ** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode enabled, Emacs uses a
75 Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server, rather than faking events
76 using the client program mev. This C level approach provides mouse
77 highlighting, and help echoing in the minibuffer.
79 ** The new variable next-error-recenter specifies how next-error should
80 recenter the visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example,
81 0 for top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
83 ** The mode-line displays a `@' if the default-directory for the current buffer
84 is on a remote machine, or a hyphen otherwise.
86 ** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both vertically
89 ** The new command close-display-connection can be used to close a connection
90 to a remote display, e.g. because the display is about to become unreachable.
92 ** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
93 called with a prefix, and the default directory is a remote file name.
94 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
95 run processes remotely.
97 ** The new command `display-time-world' starts an updating time display
98 using several time zones, in a buffer.
100 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
102 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
103 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
106 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
107 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
108 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
111 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
113 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
116 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
119 ** M-q now fills the region if the region is active and
120 `transient-mark-mode' is turned on. Otherwise, it fills the current
121 paragraph. The new command bound to M-q is `fill-paragraph-or-region'.
123 ** M-$ now checks spelling of the region if the region is active and
124 `transient-mark-mode' is turned on. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
127 ** TAB now indents the region if the region is active and
128 `transient-mark-mode' is turned on.
130 ** C-z now invokes `suspend-frame', C-x C-c now invokes
131 `save-buffers-kill-terminal'.
133 ** New command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name matches a regexp.
135 ** Minibuffer changes:
137 *** isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
138 Reverse isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
139 history elements, and forward isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
140 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
141 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
142 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
143 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
146 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
148 ** The package doc-view.el has been added. It supports viewing of PDF,
149 PostScript and DVI documents inside an Emacs buffer by converting the
150 document to a set of PNG images first. One can also search for a
151 regular expression in the document. The commentary of the file explains
154 ** A new game called `bubbles' has been added.
156 ** minibuffer-indicate-depth-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
159 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
161 ** diff-fine-highlight highlights char-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
162 ** archive-mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
163 ** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
165 ** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
166 the first error encountered during compilations.
168 ** In the `copyright' package, you can specify your copyright holders's names.
169 Only copyright lines with holders matching copyright-names-regexp will be
170 considered for update.
172 ** eldoc highlights the function argument under point
173 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
176 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
178 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
180 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
182 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
183 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, and
184 Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems
185 as a single changeset.
187 ** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
189 ** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
190 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
191 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
192 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
196 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
197 `string', disabled by default.
199 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
200 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref.
202 *** Command `bibtex-url' now allows multiple URLs per entry.
207 *** New connection methods.
208 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
209 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
210 "tunnel" and "socks".
212 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
213 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
214 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
216 *** More default settings.
217 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
218 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
220 *** Connection information is cached.
221 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
222 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
223 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
225 *** Control of remote processes.
226 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
227 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
229 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
230 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
231 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
233 ** Miscellaneous programming mode changes
235 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
236 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
238 *** The variable `fortran-line-length' can change the fixed-form line-length.
242 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
243 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
244 on the corresponding remote system.
246 *** C-x C-q in dired-mode now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
247 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
250 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
253 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
256 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
257 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
258 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. Previously IPv6 was
259 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
260 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
263 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
266 ** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
269 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
271 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
273 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
274 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
275 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
276 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
278 ** Changes related to multiple tty support.
280 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
281 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
283 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
285 *** The `window-system' variable has been made frame-local. The new
286 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
289 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
290 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
292 *** The new function `make-frame-on-tty' allows you to create a new
293 frame on another tty device interactively.
295 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
296 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
298 *** New functions: `delete-tty', `suspend-tty', `resume-tty'.
300 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
301 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
303 *** New hooks: `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions'
304 are called after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed,
305 respectively. The functions are called with the terminal id of the frame
306 being suspended/resumed as a parameter.
308 *** New function: `environment'.
310 *** New variable: `local-function-key-map'.
311 This in addition to the global function-key-map variable that
312 already existed. The global variable is not used directly any more;
313 instead, the local-function-key-map is initialized so as to inherit from
316 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
318 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
319 keyboard coding systems have been made terminal-local.
321 *** In addition to the global function-key-map, Emacs has terminal-local
322 local-function-key-map variables, and uses them instead of the
323 global keymaps to set up translations and function key sequences
324 relevant to a specific terminal device.
327 ** You can now also pass the value of the `invisible' property to invisible-p
328 to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible. Convenient when
329 checking invisibility of text which has no buffer position
330 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
332 ** Non-breaking space now acts as whitespace.
335 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
337 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
344 ** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
348 ** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
350 ** New function `window-full-width-p' returns t if a window is as wide
353 ** The new function `split-string-and-unquote' does (what?)
355 ** The new function `combine-and-quote-strings' does (what?)
357 ** The new function `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated
358 with a given image specification.
361 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
362 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
365 ** The new function `start-file-process is similar to `start-process',
366 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
367 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
368 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
369 `start-file-process and `process-file', respectively.
372 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
373 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
374 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
375 remote connection has been established already.
377 ** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
378 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
381 ** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
382 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex interactive
383 forms to subroutines.
385 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
387 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
390 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
391 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
393 GNU Emacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
394 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
395 the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option)
398 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
399 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
400 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
401 GNU General Public License for more details.
403 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
404 along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the
405 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
406 Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
411 paragraph-separate: "[
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414 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2