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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
10
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
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.
16
17 Temporary note:
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.
22
23 \f
24 * About external Lisp packages
25
26 \f
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
28
29 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
30
31 ** Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
32 backends. This requires the freetype and fontconfig libraries, and
33 supports local fonts (fonts installed on the machine where Emacs is
34 running). Additionally, the Xft library can be used for antialiasing
35 support, the otf library for complex text layout by OpenType fonts,
36 and the m17n library for text shaping. Fontconfig-like font names
37 (e.g. monospace-12) are accepted. The old font handling code can
38 be used by passing the configure option `--disable-font-backend'
39 (also available as a run-time option).
40
41 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
42 bindings for Emacs.
43
44 ** The Mac Carbon port is no longer supported.
45 Instead, use... [FIXME what?]
46
47 ** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
48 a GIF library.
49
50 ** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
51
52 ** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
53
54 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
55 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
56
57 ** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
58
59 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
60 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
61 you need control over which C compiler is used.
62
63 ** The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
64 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
65 \f
66 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
67
68 ** `completion-auto-help' can be set to `lazy' to list the completions only
69 if you repeat the completion. This was already supported in
70 `partial-completion-mode'.
71
72 ** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
73 Start the server (M-x server-start). Then `emacsclient -t' creates a
74 tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can also use any
75 number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11 frame on
76 the current $DISPLAY or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set.
77
78 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
79 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
80
81 ** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
82 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
83
84 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
85 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs'. utf-8-emacs is backwards
86 compatible with the UTF-8 encoding of Unicode. The `emacs-mule'
87 coding system can still read and write data in the old internal encoding.
88
89 Since the internal encoding is also used by default for byte-compiled
90 files -- i.e. the normal coding system for byte-compiled Lisp files is
91 now utf-8-Emacs -- Lisp containing non-ASCII characters which is
92 compiled by Emacs 23 can't be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files
93 compiled by Emacs 20, 21, or 22 are loaded correctly as emacs-mule
94 (whether or not they contain multibyte characters), which makes loading
95 them somewhat slower than Emacs 23-compiled files. Thus it may be worth
96 recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be shared with older
97 Emacsen.
98
99 ** There are assorted new coding systems/aliases -- see M-x list-coding-systems.
100
101 ** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
102 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
103 as tables of unicodes.
104
105 The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of each
106 dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
107
108 A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
109 characters for display.
110
111 ** There are new Chinese-GBK, Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali,
112 Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu, Sinhala, and TaiViet language
113 environments.
114
115 ** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
116 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line option
117 --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
118 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
119 for details about XEmbed.
120
121 ** Emacs comes with a new set of default icons.
122 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
123 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
124
125 ** Built-in functions (subr) can now have an interactive specification
126 that is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
127 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
128
129 ** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
130 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
131
132 ** split-window-preferred-function specifies whether display-buffer should
133 split windows vertically or horizontally.
134
135 ** Emacsclient has been extended to support opening a new terminal
136 frame. Its behavior has been changed to open a new Emacs frame by
137 default. Use the -c option to get the old behavior of opening files in
138 the currently selected Emacs frame.
139
140 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
141
142 ** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
143
144 ** If you set find-file-confirm-nonexistent-file to t, then C-x C-f
145 requires confirmation before opening a non-existent file.
146
147 ** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode enabled, Emacs uses a
148 Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server, rather than faking events
149 using the client program mev. This C level approach provides mouse
150 highlighting, and help echoing in the minibuffer.
151
152 ** Recentering changes
153
154 *** The new variable next-error-recenter specifies how next-error should
155 recenter the visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example,
156 0 for top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
157
158 *** New command recenter-top-bottom moves the current line to window
159 center, top and bottom on successive invokations.
160
161 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
162
163 ** The mode-line displays a `@' if the default-directory for the current buffer
164 is on a remote machine, or a hyphen otherwise.
165
166 ** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a minor mode,
167 in the same way as it already did for major modes.
168
169 ** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both vertically
170 and horizontally.
171
172 ** The new command close-display-connection can be used to close a connection
173 to a remote display, e.g. because the display is about to become unreachable.
174
175 ** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
176 called with a prefix, and the default directory is a remote file name.
177 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
178 run processes remotely.
179
180 ** The new command `display-time-world' starts an updating time display
181 using several time zones, in a buffer.
182
183 ** The new function `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a
184 readable string of days, hours, etc.
185
186 ** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
187 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
188
189 ** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
190
191 ** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
192 Emacs initialization.
193
194 ** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode, unify-8859-on-decoding-mode
195 are obsolete.
196
197 \f
198 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
199
200 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
201 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
202 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
203 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
204 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
205
206 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
207 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
208 file or directory.
209
210 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
211 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
212 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
213 following arguments.
214
215 ** The new command-line option `--disable-font-backend' disables the
216 new font backend code at runtime. This option is not available if
217 Emacs was compiled without font-backend support.
218
219 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
220 \f
221 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
222
223 +++
224 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
225 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
226 the history list.
227
228 \f
229 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
230
231 ** Mark changes
232
233 +++
234 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
235
236 +++
237 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
238
239 +++
240 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without activating it.
241
242 +++
243 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
244 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
245
246 +++
247 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
248 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
249 word at point.
250
251 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
252 region is active.
253
254 *** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
255 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty
256 region.
257
258 ** Temporarily active regions
259
260 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
261 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
262 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
263 region, similar to mouse-selection.
264
265 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
266 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
267 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
268 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
269 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
270 buffer).
271
272 +++
273 ** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
274 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
275 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
276
277 ** C-z now invokes `suspend-frame', C-x C-c now invokes
278 `save-buffers-kill-terminal'.
279
280 ** New command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name matches a regexp.
281
282 ** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary selection
283 by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
284
285 ** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
286 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
287 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to bind
288 `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
289
290 ** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring
291 also updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank,
292 just as M-w would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
293
294 ** Minibuffer changes
295
296 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
297
298 *** Operations like C-x b and C-x C-f which use switch-to-buffer do not fail
299 any more when used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they
300 fallback on using pop-to-buffer which will use some other window.
301
302 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
303 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
304 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
305 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
306 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
307 searching minibuffer completion items.
308
309 *** In C-x d, if you type M-n you get the visited file name of the
310 current buffer.
311
312 *** In Dired, a list of commands for ! extracted from mailcap according to
313 file extensions are added to the default list accessible by M-n.
314
315 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
316 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
317 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last isearch
318 regexp, the last isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
319
320 *** isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
321 Reverse isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
322 history elements, and forward isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
323 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
324 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
325 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
326 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
327
328 ** New faces
329
330 *** `mode-line-emphasis' is used to highlight certain mode-line information;
331 for example while waiting for a VC command to finish.
332
333 ** Face changes
334
335 *** The new function `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing
336 all the basic attributes of a given face.
337
338 \f
339 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
340
341 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
342 [Maybe some information from doc/misc/gnus-coding.texi can be reused]
343
344 ** The package doc-view.el has been added. It supports viewing of PDF,
345 PostScript and DVI documents inside an Emacs buffer by converting the
346 document to a set of PNG images first. One can also search for a
347 regular expression in the document. The commentary of the file explains
348 its usage.
349
350 ** The nXML package has been added. It is a new mode for editing XML
351 documents. nXML mode allows a schema to be associated with the XML
352 document being edited. nXML mode uses Relax NG as its schema
353 language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
354
355 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
356 any invalid parts of your document.
357
358 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
359 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
360 allowed by the schema in that context.
361
362 ** A new game called `bubbles' has been added. This is a version of
363 the "Same Game" with configurable difficulty level.
364
365 ** minibuffer-indicate-depth-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
366
367 ** Remember Mode (remember.el) is now included with Emacs. It is a
368 mode for quickly jotting down things to remember. Included with
369 remember.el is a backend that can save notes to a Diary file. Please
370 consult the Remember Manual for usage details.
371
372 ** D-Bus language bindings for Elisp are provided by the package
373 dbus.el and by extensions to the C modules of Emacs. D-Bus is an
374 inter-process communication mechanism for applications residing on the
375 same host, based on messages. See the manual for further details.
376
377 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
378 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
379 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
380 which have installed this software.
381
382 ** EasyPG is now part of the Emacs distribution. It is an all-in-one
383 GnuPG interface which includes GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic
384 operations on regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg
385 files. See the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual for further details.
386
387 ** json.el is now included with Emacs. It is a library for parsing
388 and generating JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). JSON is a
389 lightweight data-interchange format.
390
391 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
392 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
393 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
394
395 ** The package linum.el is now included with Emacs. It it a new minor
396 mode to display line numbers for the current buffer.
397
398 ** proced.el has been added. It operates on processes like dired.
399 Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the current processes
400 (using ps(1)). You can use the normal Emacs commands to move around in
401 this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the processes listed.
402
403 \f
404 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
405
406 ** A new `whitespace' package has been installed, and the pre-existing one
407 renamed to `old-whitespace'.
408 [FIXME someone explain why this is good, if it is...]
409
410 ** In Change Log mode, the new function `change-log-find-file', bound to
411 C-c C-f, finds the file associated with the current log entry.
412
413 ** abbrev was rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
414 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
415 abbrev-table-p.
416 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
417 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
418 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
419 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
420 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
421 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
422 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
423 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
424 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
425 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
426
427 ** Help mode
428 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
429 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
430 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
431 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
432 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
433 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
434
435 ** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
436 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
437
438 ** Isearch mode
439
440 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in isearch mode
441 runs `occur' with the current search string.
442
443 *** isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
444 When running isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
445 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
446 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
447
448 This is enabled if isearch-buffers-multi is non-nil.
449
450 *** The part of an isearch that failed to match is highlighted in `isearch-fail'
451 face.
452
453 ** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
454 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see smerge-auto-refine.
455
456 ** Diff mode
457
458 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
459 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
460 diff-auto-refine. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
461
462 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
463 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
464 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
465
466 ** archive-mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
467
468 ** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
469
470 ** Compile and grep modes
471
472 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
473 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
474 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
475
476 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
477 the first error encountered during compilations.
478
479 ** In the `copyright' package, you can specify your copyright holders' names.
480 Only copyright lines with holders matching copyright-names-regexp will be
481 considered for update.
482
483 ** eldoc highlights the function argument under point
484 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
485
486 ** hide-ifdef-mode permits to shadow ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
487 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
488
489 +++
490 ** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
491 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
492
493 ** Etags changes
494 *** The --members option is now the default.
495
496 Use --no-members if you want the old default behaviour of not tagging
497 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
498
499 ** VC
500
501 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
502
503 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
504
505 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
506
507 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
508 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
509 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
510 a single changeset.
511
512 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type V to toggle the annotation visibility.
513
514 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
515 the current line.
516
517 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
518
519 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
520 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
521 active.
522
523 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
524 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
525 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
526
527 ** log-edit now has a command bound to C-c C-d to show the diff for
528 the files involved.
529
530 ** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
531
532 ** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
533 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
534 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
535 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
536
537 ** BibTeX mode
538
539 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
540
541 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
542 `string', disabled by default.
543
544 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
545 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
546
547 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
548
549 +++
550 ** Tramp
551
552 *** New connection methods.
553 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
554 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
555 "tunnel" and "socks".
556
557 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
558 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
559 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
560
561 *** More default settings.
562 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
563 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
564
565 *** Connection information is cached.
566 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
567 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
568 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
569
570 *** Control of remote processes.
571 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
572 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
573
574 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
575 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
576 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
577
578 ** Calendar and diary
579
580 +++
581 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
582 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
583 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
584 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
585
586 +++
587 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
588 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
589 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
590 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
591 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
592 using the new names.
593
594 ** Miscellaneous programming mode changes
595
596 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
597 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
598
599 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
600 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
601 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
602 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
603
604 *** The variable `fortran-line-length' can change the fixed-form line-length.
605
606 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
607 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
608
609 +++
610 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
611
612 ** Gnus package
613
614 *** The Gnus package has been updated
615
616 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
617 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
618 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
619 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
620
621 *** There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements.
622
623 See the file GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
624
625 ** Miscellaneous
626
627 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
628 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
629 on the corresponding remote system.
630
631 *** C-x C-q in dired-mode now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
632 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
633 saving changes.
634
635 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
636
637 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
638
639 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
640 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
641
642 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
643 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
644
645 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
646 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
647
648 \f
649 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
650
651 ---
652 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
653 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
654 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. Previously IPv6 was
655 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
656 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
657
658 ---
659 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
660 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
661 Previously only X supported the busy cursor.
662
663 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
664 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
665 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
666 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
667 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
668
669 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
670 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
671 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
672 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
673 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
674 for the list of extra keys that are available.
675 \f
676 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
677
678 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
679 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
680
681 +++
682 ** The multibyteness of process filters is determined by the coding-system
683 used for decoding. The functions `process-filter-multibyte-p' and
684 `set-process-filter-multibyte' are obsolete.
685
686 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
687 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
688 that range have the same value.
689
690 ** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
691
692 ** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
693 have been removed.
694
695 ** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically. The
696 functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to enable
697 support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
698
699 +++
700 ** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
701
702 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
703 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
704 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
705 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
706 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
707 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
708 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
709
710 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
711 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
712
713 ** The following features have been removed. They were used for
714 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
715 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
716
717 *** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
718 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
719
720 *** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
721 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
722
723 *** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
724 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
725
726 *** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
727 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
728
729 \f
730 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
731
732 ** The variable `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the
733 key sequence invoking the current command was found by
734 shift-translation.
735
736 ** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
737 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
738 the command arguments.
739
740 ** When deleting a terminal, run the special hook `delete-terminal-functions'.
741
742 ** The `read-shell-command' function does what its name says, with completion.
743 It uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
744
745 ** The `buffer-swap-text' function can swap the text between two buffers.
746 This can be useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
747
748 ** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
749
750 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
751
752 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
753 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
754
755 ** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents the
756 search and match primitives from changing the match data.
757
758 +++
759 ** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
760 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
761
762 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
763 property, then `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from
764 the local value of the hook variable. This means it remains
765 even if you change major modes.
766
767 +++
768 ** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
769 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
770 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
771 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
772 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
773
774 ** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a certain
775 variable as having been made within Custom.
776
777 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
778 the selected frame.
779
780 ** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
781 an active region that they should operate on.
782
783 ** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode
784 is enabled and there is an active region. This is NOT the best function
785 to use to test whether a command should operate on the region instead
786 of the usual behavior -- for that, use `use-region-p'.
787
788 ** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
789 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
790 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
791 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
792 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
793
794 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
795 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
796 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
797 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
798
799 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
800 undefined functions. The new `check-declare' package verifies that such
801 statements are accurate (i.e. the functions are actually defined in
802 the specified files).
803
804 ** The new function `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
805
806 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
807 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
808 strings on the kill ring.
809
810 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
811
812 The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF with no gap.
813 Characters of code 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the same code points.
814 Characters of code 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit bytes.
815
816 Generic characters no longer exist.
817
818 In buffer and string, characters are represented by UTF-8 byte
819 sequence in a multibyte buffer/string.
820
821 The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may belong to
822 multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets unicode,
823 iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
824
825 *** The new function `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument
826 is a character. This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
827
828 *** The new function `max-char' returns the maximum character code
829 (currently it is #x3FFFFF).
830
831 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
832
833 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
834 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
835
836 *** The new function `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
837
838 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
839 priorities of charsets.
840
841 *** The new function `charset-priority-list' returns the list of
842 charsets ordered by priority.
843
844 *** The new function `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
845
846 *** The new function `unibyte-string' make a unibyte string from bytes.
847
848 *** The new function `define-char-code-property' defines a character
849 code property.
850
851 *** The new function `char-code-property-description' returns the
852 description string of a character code property.
853
854 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
855 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
856 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
857 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
858 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
859 `titlecase'.
860
861 *** The new variable `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a
862 char-table of functions to search for a word boundary.
863
864 *** The new variable `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
865
866 *** The new variable `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
867
868 *** The new variable `print-charset-text-property' controls how to
869 handle `charset' text property on printing a string.
870
871 *** The new variable `printable-chars' is a char-table defining if a
872 character is printable or not.
873
874 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
875 accepts a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
876 entries in that range of characters.
877
878 ** Code conversion changes
879
880 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
881 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
882
883 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
884 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
885 conversion should go.
886
887 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
888 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
889 of conversion.
890
891 *** The new function `with-coding-priority' executes the body part with
892 the specified coding system priority order.
893
894 *** The new function `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text
895 in the region is encodable by the specified coding systems.
896
897 *** The new function `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases
898 of a coding system.
899
900 *** The new function `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of
901 charsets supported by a coding system.
902
903 *** The new function `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of
904 coding systems ordered by their priorities.
905
906 *** The new function `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of
907 coding systems.
908
909 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
910
911 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
912 It has three functionalities:
913 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
914 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
915 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
916 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
917
918 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
919
920 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
921
922 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
923 as an input method.
924
925 ** Changes related to the new font backend
926
927 Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource "FontBackend".
928 For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
929
930 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
931
932 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
933 available on your graphic device.
934
935 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
936 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
937 currently `x' and `xft'.
938
939 *** New function `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
940
941 *** New function `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
942
943 *** New function `font-get' returns a font property value.
944
945 *** New function `font-put' sets a font property value.
946
947 *** New function `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching
948 the given specification.
949
950 *** New function `list-families' returns a list of family names of
951 available fonts.
952
953 *** New function `font-font' returns a font-entity best matching with
954 the given specification.
955
956 *** New function `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font
957 (font-spec, font-entity, or font-object).
958
959 *** New function `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
960
961 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
962 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
963 set the font.
964
965 ** Changes related to multiple tty support
966
967 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
968 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
969
970 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
971
972 *** The `window-system' variable has been made frame-local. The new
973 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
974 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
975 takes a frame argument.
976
977 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
978 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
979
980 *** The new function `make-frame-on-tty' allows you to create a new
981 frame on another tty device interactively.
982
983 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
984 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
985
986 *** New functions: `delete-tty', `suspend-tty', `resume-tty'.
987
988 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
989 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
990
991 *** New hooks: `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions'
992 are called after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed,
993 respectively. The functions are called with the terminal id of the frame
994 being suspended/resumed as a parameter.
995
996 *** New function: `environment'.
997
998 *** New variable: `local-function-key-map'.
999 This in addition to the global function-key-map variable that
1000 already existed. The global variable is not used directly any more;
1001 instead, the local-function-key-map is initialized so as to inherit from
1002 function-key-map.
1003
1004 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1005
1006 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1007 keyboard coding systems have been made terminal-local.
1008
1009 *** In addition to the global function-key-map, Emacs has terminal-local
1010 local-function-key-map variables, and uses them instead of the
1011 global keymaps to set up translations and function key sequences
1012 relevant to a specific terminal device.
1013
1014
1015 ** You can now also pass the value of the `invisible' property to invisible-p
1016 to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible. Convenient when
1017 checking invisibility of text which has no buffer position
1018 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
1019
1020 ** Non-breaking space now acts as whitespace.
1021
1022 +++
1023 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1024
1025 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1026 like this:
1027
1028 (condition-case nil
1029 (foo bar)
1030 ((debug error) nil))
1031
1032 ** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
1033 `confirm-only'.
1034
1035 +++
1036 ** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1037
1038 ** New function `window-full-width-p' returns t if a window is as wide
1039 as its frame.
1040
1041 ** The new function `split-string-and-unquote' does (what?)
1042
1043 ** The new function `combine-and-quote-strings' does (what?)
1044
1045 ** The new function `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated
1046 with a given image specification.
1047
1048 +++
1049 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1050 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1051
1052 +++
1053 ** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1054 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1055 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1056 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1057 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1058
1059 ** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1060 returns its output as a list of lines.
1061
1062 +++
1063 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1064 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1065 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1066 remote connection has been established already.
1067
1068 ** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
1069 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
1070 the match data.
1071
1072 ** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1073 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex interactive
1074 forms to subroutines.
1075 \f
1076 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
1077
1078 ** The package isearch-multi.el has been added. It implements a new mode
1079 `isearch-buffers-minor-mode' that allows isearch to search through
1080 multiple buffers. In this mode a new variable
1081 `isearch-buffers-next-buffer-function' defines the function to call
1082 to get the next buffer to search in the series of multiple buffers.
1083
1084 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
1085
1086 \f
1087 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1088 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1089
1090 GNU Emacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
1091 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1092 the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option)
1093 any later version.
1094
1095 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1096 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1097 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1098 GNU General Public License for more details.
1099
1100 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1101 along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the
1102 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
1103 Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
1104
1105 \f
1106 Local variables:
1107 mode: outline
1108 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
1109 end:
1110
1111 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2