1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 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.
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
27 ** Configure links against libselinux if it is found.
28 You can disable this by using --without-selinux.
31 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
32 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
35 ** There are new configure options:
36 --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
37 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
38 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
41 ** Emacs can be compiled against Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
42 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
43 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
46 ** There is a new configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
47 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
48 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
51 ** New translation of the Emacs Tutorial in Hebrew is available.
52 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
53 automatically select it.
56 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
58 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
59 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
60 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
62 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
63 from load-path. -Q now implies this.
65 ** On Windows, Emacs now warns when the obsolete _emacs init file is used,
66 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
69 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
71 ** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
72 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
74 ** emacsclient changes
76 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID can be used to open a
77 client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed. This works like the
78 --parent-id argument to Emacs.
81 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
83 *** If emacsclient shuts down as a result of Emacs signalling an
84 error, its exit status is 1.
86 ** Completion can cycle, depending on completion-cycle-threshold.
88 ** `completing-read' can be customized using the new variable
89 `completing-read-function'.
91 ** auto-mode-case-fold is now enabled by default.
93 ** Internationalization changes
96 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
98 See the node "Bidirectional Editing" in the Emacs Manual for some
99 initial documentation.
101 To turn this on in any given buffer, set the buffer-local variable
102 `bidi-display-reordering' to a non-nil value. The default is nil.
104 The buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction', if non-nil,
105 forces each paragraph in the buffer to have its base direction
106 according to the value of this variable. Possible values are
107 `right-to-left' and `left-to-right'. If the value is nil (the
108 default), Emacs determines the base direction of each paragraph from
109 its text, as specified by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm.
111 The function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction' returns the actual
112 value of paragraph base direction at point.
114 Reordering of bidirectional text for display in Emacs is a "Full
115 bidirectionality" class implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional
118 Note that some advanced display features, such as overlay strings and
119 `display' text properties, do not yet work correctly when
120 bidirectional text is reordered for display.
123 *** Enhanced support for characters that have no glyphs in available fonts.
124 If a character has no glyphs in any of the available fonts, Emacs by
125 default will display it either as a hexadecimal code in a box or as a
126 thin 1-pixel space. In addition to these two methods, Emacs can
127 display these characters as empty box, as an acronym, or not display
128 them at all. To change how these characters are displayed, customize
129 the variable `glyphless-char-display-control'.
131 On character terminals these methods are used for characters that
132 cannot be encoded by the `terminal-coding-system'.
134 *** There are two new input methods for Persian/Farsi: farsi and farsi-translit.
136 ** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
137 Use `set-scroll-bar-mode' to change this.
139 ** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
140 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose style. On a Gnome desktop, the default
141 is taken from the desktop settings.
143 ** GTK tool bars can be placed on the left/right or top/bottom of the frame.
144 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the values
145 top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has entries
148 ** ImageMagick support.
149 It is now possible to use the ImageMagick library to load many new
150 image formats in Emacs. By default, Emacs links with the ImageMagick
151 libraries if they are present at build time. This needs ImageMagick
152 6.2.8 or newer (versions newer than 6.0.7 _may_ work but have not been
153 tested). To disable ImageMagick support, use the configure option
154 `--without-imagemagick'.
156 The new function `imagemagick-types' returns a list of image file
157 extensions that your installation of ImageMagick supports. The
158 function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick support for
159 these image types, minus those listed in `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
161 See the Emacs Lisp Reference Manual for more information.
163 ** The colors for selected text (the region face) are taken from the GTK
164 theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
166 ** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK. You can turn that
167 off by customizing x-gtk-use-system-tooltips.
169 ** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is built
170 with Xft. To change font, use the X resource font, for example:
171 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
173 ** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
175 ** On Nextstep/OSX, the menu bar can be hidden by customizing
176 ns-auto-hide-menu-bar.
178 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
179 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
181 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up, and
182 optionally when copying files. To this end, copy-file has an extra
183 optional argument, and backup-buffer and friends include the SELinux
184 context in their return values.
186 *** The new functions file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
187 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
189 *** Tramp offers handlers for file-selinux-context and set-file-selinux-context
190 for remote machines which support SELinux.
193 ** The function format-time-string now supports the %N directive, for
194 higher-resolution time stamps.
196 ** The function kill-emacs is now run upon receipt of the signals SIGTERM
197 and SIGHUP, and upon SIGINT in batch mode.
199 ** kill-emacs-hook is now also run in batch mode.
200 If you have code that adds something to kill-emacs-hook, you should
201 consider if it is still appropriate to add it in the noninteractive case.
203 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
204 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
205 of buffer at first key-press (instead move to top/bottom of buffer)
206 when a new variable `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
208 ** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
209 scroll a line instead of full screen.
211 ** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
212 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
215 ** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
216 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
217 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
218 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
219 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
222 ** ``Aggressive'' scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
223 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
224 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
225 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
230 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
231 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
233 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
234 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
236 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
237 for `list-colors-display'.
239 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
240 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
241 from a package repository at elpa.gnu.org.
243 *** `M-x list-packages' shows a list of packages, which can be
244 selected for installation.
246 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
248 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded and activated
249 automatically when Emacs starts up. To disable this, set
250 `package-enable-at-startup' to nil. To change which packages are
251 loaded, customize `package-load-list'.
253 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
254 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
255 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
259 *** `M-x customize-themes' lists Custom themes which can be enabled.
261 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
262 Emacs no longer looks for custom themes in `load-path'. The default
263 is to search in `custom-theme-directory', followed by a built-in theme
264 directory named "themes/" in `data-directory'.
266 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
267 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
268 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
269 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
271 ** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
272 the remote file-name cache is used for read access.
275 ** The use of a "mode: minor" specification in a file local variables section
276 to enable a minor-mode is deprecated. Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode)".
278 ** The standalone programs lib-src/digest-doc and sorted-doc have been
279 replaced with Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
282 ** The standalone program `fakemail' has been removed.
283 If you need it, feedmail.el ought to provide a superset of the functionality.
285 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
288 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
293 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-kill, instead of
297 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-pop, instead of
301 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to isearch-yank-line.
304 ** There is a new command `count-words-region', which does what you expect.
306 ** completion-at-point now handles tags and semantic completion.
308 ** The default value of `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' is now t.
310 ** The command `just-one-space' (C-SPC), if given a negative argument,
311 also deletes newlines around point.
315 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
316 If non-nil, C-d, [delete], and DEL delete the region if it is active
317 and no prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', these commands
320 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to C-d and [delete].
321 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
322 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
324 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
325 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
326 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; you
327 should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
329 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
331 ** Selection changes.
333 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections was changed
334 to conform with modern X applications. In short, most commands for
335 killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while mouse commands
336 use the primary selection.
338 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
339 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
341 *** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
342 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
343 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
344 the kill-ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
345 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
347 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
348 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
349 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
350 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
351 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
353 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
354 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
355 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
357 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
358 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
359 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
360 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
362 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
363 exactly equivalent to, respectively M-w, C-w, and C-y.
365 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
366 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
367 between applications.
369 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
371 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
372 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
373 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
374 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
375 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
377 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
379 ** New command `rectangle-number-lines', bound to `C-x r N', numbers
380 the lines in the current rectangle. With an prefix argument, this
381 prompts for a number to count from and for a format string.
383 ** The command shell prompts for the shell path name, when the default
384 directory is a remote file name and neither environment variable
385 $ESHELL nor variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
388 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
390 ** comint and modes derived from it use the generic completion code.
394 *** Compilation mode can be used without font-lock-mode.
395 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
397 *** `compilation-filter-start' is let-bound to the start of the text
398 inserted by the compilation filter function, when calling
399 compilation-filter-hook.
401 ** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
403 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
404 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity, support for
405 more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
407 ** shell-mode can track your cwd by reading it from your prompt.
408 Just set shell-dir-cookie-re to an appropriate regexp.
410 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
412 ** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
414 ** FIXME: xdg-open for browse-url and reportbug, 2010/08.
416 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse 7z archives.
418 ** browse-url has gotten a new variable that is used for mailto: URLs,
419 `browse-url-mailto-function', which defaults to `browse-url-mail'.
421 ** `url-queue-retrieve' downloads web pages asynchronously, but allow
422 controlling the degree of parallelism.
424 ** Directory local variables can apply to file-less buffers, in certain modes
425 (eg dired, vc-dir, log-edit). For example, adding
426 "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to your .dir-locals.el file,
427 will turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should
428 call `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
431 ** You can prevent directory local variables from applying to subdirectories.
432 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
433 settings to indicate said section should not be applied to subdirectories.
437 *** New vars `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay'.
438 If the value of `erc-autojoin-timing' is 'ident, ERC autojoins after a
439 successful NickServ identification, or after `erc-autojoin-delay'
440 seconds. The default value, 'ident, means to autojoin immediately
443 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
444 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
445 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
446 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
450 *** The default value of eshell-directory-name is a directory named
451 "eshell" in `user-emacs-directory'. If the old "~/.eshell/" directory
452 exists, that is used instead.
454 ** In ido-mode, C-v is no longer bound to ido-toggle-vc.
455 The reason is that this interferes with cua-mode.
457 ** partial-completion-mode is now obsolete.
458 You can get a comparable behavior with:
459 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
460 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
462 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
464 ** server can listen on a specific port using the server-port option.
466 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
469 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing `comments'.
470 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
473 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
474 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
477 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
480 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
481 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
484 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt package
485 by adding appt-make-list to diary-hook has been removed. Use appt-activate.
488 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
489 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
490 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
493 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
494 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
498 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
499 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
500 To turn off the search field, set custom-search-field to nil.
502 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
503 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
505 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
507 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
508 choose a color via list-colors-display.
512 *** dired-jump and dired-jump-other-window called with a prefix argument
513 read a file name from the minibuffer instead of using buffer-file-name.
516 *** The `dired local variables' feature provided by Dired-x is obsolete.
517 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
519 ** SQL Mode enhancements.
521 *** `sql-dialect' is a synonym for `sql-product'.
523 *** Added ability to login with a port on MySQL and Postgres.
524 The custom variable `sql-port' can be specified for connection to
525 MySQL or Postgres servers. By default, the port is not listed in
526 either login parameter, but will be added to the command line if set
529 *** Dynamic selection of product in an SQL interactive session.
530 If you use `sql-product-interactive' to start an SQL interactive
531 session it uses the current value of `sql-product'. Preceding the
532 invocation with C-u will force it to ask for the product before
533 creating the session.
535 *** Renaming a SQL interactive buffer when it is created.
536 Prefixing the SQL interactive commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres',
537 `sql-mysql', etc.) with C-u will force a new interactive session to be
538 started and will prompt for the new name. This will reduce the need
539 for `sql-rename-buffer' is most common use cases.
541 *** Command continuation prompts in SQL interactive mode are suppressed.
542 Multiple line commands in SQL interactive mode, generate command
543 continuation prompts which needlessly confuse the output. These
544 prompts are now filtered out from the output. This change impacts
545 multiple line SQL statements entered with C-j between each line,
546 statements yanked into the buffer and statements sent with
547 `sql-send-*' functions.
549 *** Custom variables control prompting for login parameters.
550 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params'
551 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
552 connection is established.
554 The lists consist of the following five tokens: `user', `password',
555 `database', `server', and `port'. The order in which they appear is
556 the order in which they are prompted. The tokens symbols can be
557 replaced by a sublist starting with the token and followed by a plist
558 which control the prompting for values. The tokens `user',
559 `database', and `server' each can take a property of :default which
560 specifies the value to be used if no value is entered. The
561 `database', `server', and `port' tokens handle the :completion
562 property which restricts the entry to either one of the values in the
563 list or to one of the values returned by the function provided as the
564 property value. The `database' and `server' tokens also accept the
565 :file property whose value is a regexp to identify useful file names.
568 (database :default DEF
570 :completion COMPLETE)
573 :completion COMPLETE)
575 The FILEPAT when :file is specified is a regexp that will match valid
576 file names (without the directory portion). Generally these strings
577 will be of the form ".+\.SUF" where SUF is the desired file suffix.
579 When :completion is specified, the COMPLETE corresponds to the
580 PREDICATE argument to the `completing-read' function (a list of
581 possible values or a function returning such a list).
583 *** Added `sql-connection-alist' to record login parameter values.
584 An alist for recording different username, database and server
585 values. If there are multiple databases that you connect to the
586 parameters needed can be stored in this alist.
588 For example, the following might be set in the user's init.el:
590 (setq sql-connection-alist
591 '((dev (sql-product 'sqlite)
592 (sql-database "/home/mmaug/dev.db"))
593 (prd (sql-product 'oracle)
595 (sql-database "iprd2a"))))
597 This defines two connections named "dev" and "prd".
599 *** Added `sql-connect' to use predefined connections.
600 Sets the login parameters based on the values in the
601 `sql-connection-alist' and start a SQL interactive session. Any
602 values specified in the connection will not be prompted for.
604 In the example above, if the user were to invoke M-x sql-connect, they
605 would be prompted for the connection. The user can respond with
606 either "dev" or "prd". The "dev" connection would connect to the
607 SQLite database without prompting; the "prd" connection would prompt
608 for the users password and then connect to the Oracle database.
610 **** Added SQL->Start... submenu when connections are defined.
611 When connections have been defined, there is a submenu available that
612 allows the user to select one to start a SQLi session. The "Start
613 SQLi Session" item moves to the "Start..." submenu when cnnections
616 **** Added "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
617 When a SQLi session is not started by a connection then
618 `sql-save-connection' will gather the login params specified for the
619 session and save them as a new connection.
621 *** List database objects and details.
622 Once a SQL interactive session has been started, you can get a list of
623 the objects in the database and see details of those objects. The
624 objects shown and the details available are product specific.
626 **** List all objects.
627 Using `M-x sql-list-all', `C-c C-l a' or selecting "SQL->List all
628 objects" will list all the objects in the database. At a minimum it
629 lists the tables and views in the database. Preceding the command by
630 universal argument may provide additional details or extend the
631 listing to include other schemas objects. The list will appear in a
632 separate window in view-mode.
634 **** List Table details.
635 Using `M-x sql-list-table', `C-c C-l t' or selecting "SQL->List Table
636 details" will ask for the name of a database table or view and display
637 the list of columns in the relation. Preceding the command with the
638 universal argument may provide additional details about each column.
639 The list will appear in a separate window in view-mode.
641 *** Added option `sql-send-terminator'.
642 When set makes sure that each command sent with `sql-send-*' commands
643 are properly terminated and submitted to the SQL processor.
645 *** Added option `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
646 When set commands sent to Oracle's SQL*Plus are scanned for strings
647 starting with an ampersand and the user is asked for replacement text.
648 In general, the SQL*Plus option SCAN should always be set OFF under
649 SQL interactive mode and this option used in its place.
651 *** SQL interactive mode will replace tabs with spaces.
652 This prevents the command interpreter for MySQL and Postgres from
653 listing object name completions when being sent text via
654 `sql-send-*' functions.
656 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
658 ** sregex.el is now obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
660 ** s-region.el and pc-select are now declared obsolete,
661 superseded by shift-select-mode enabled by default in 23.1.
662 ** pc-mode.el is also declared obsolete.
665 *** GDB User Interface migrated to GDB Machine Interface and now
666 supports multithread non-stop debugging and debugging of several
667 threads simultaneously.
671 *** It is possible now, to access alternative buses than the default
672 system or session bus.
674 *** dbus-register-{service,method,property}
675 The -method and -property functions do not automatically register
678 The new function dbus-register-service registers a service known name
679 on a D-Bus without simultaneously registering a property or a method.
683 *** There exists a new inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
685 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
686 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
688 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
691 ** VC and related modes
693 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
694 The vc-pull command runs a "pull" operation, if it is supported.
695 This updates the current branch from upstream. A prefix argument
696 means to prompt the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
698 **** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
700 **** Currently supported by Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
702 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
703 The vc-merge command now runs a "merge" operation, if it is supported.
704 This merges another branch into the current one. This command prompts
705 the user for specifics, e.g. a merge source.
707 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
709 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
710 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
711 In the Log View buffers made by `C-x v L' (vc-print-root-log), you can
712 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
714 **** Currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial.
716 **** Packages using Log View mode can enable this functionality by
717 binding `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function' to a suitable function.
719 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
720 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
725 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
727 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
729 *** The new command `info-display-manual' will display an Info manual
730 specified by its name. If that manual is already visited in some Info
731 buffer within the current session, the command will display that
732 buffer. Otherwise, it will load the manual and display it. This is
733 handy if you have many manuals in many Info buffers, and don't
734 remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual you want to
738 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
740 ** New global minor modes electric-pair-mode, electric-indent-mode,
741 and electric-layout-mode.
743 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
744 from which other modes can be derived.
746 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
748 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
749 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
750 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
751 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
754 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
755 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
757 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
758 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
760 ** xmodmap-generic-mode for xmodmap files.
763 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
766 ** `char-direction-table' and the associated function `char-direction'
767 were deleted. They were buggy and inferior to the new support of
768 bidirectional editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the
769 bidirectional properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property'
770 with the last argument `bidi-class'.
772 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
773 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
774 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
775 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
777 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
778 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
779 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail.
780 This is currently used by Rmail to delete a mail window.
782 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
783 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
784 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
787 ** Remove obsolete name `e' (use `float-e' instead).
789 ** A backquote not followed by a space is now always treated as new-style.
791 ** Test for special mode-class was moved from view-file to view-buffer.
792 FIXME: This only says what was changed, but not what are the
793 programmer-visible consequences.
795 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function now turns the mode
798 ** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
799 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
800 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
801 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
802 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
803 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
805 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
806 similar to the ones created by shift-selection. In previous Emacs
807 versions, these regions were delineated by `mouse-drag-overlay', which
808 has now been removed.
810 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
812 ** The following functions and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
814 comint-kill-output, decompose-composite-char, outline-visible,
815 internal-find-face, internal-get-face, frame-update-faces,
816 frame-update-face-colors, x-frob-font-weight, x-frob-font-slant,
817 x-make-font-bold, x-make-font-demibold, x-make-font-unbold
818 x-make-font-italic, x-make-font-oblique, x-make-font-unitalic
819 x-make-font-bold-italic, mldrag-drag-mode-line, mldrag-drag-vertical-line,
820 iswitchb-default-keybindings, char-bytes, isearch-return-char,
823 ** The following variables and aliases, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1,
825 checkdoc-minor-keymap, vc-header-alist, directory-sep-char,
826 font-lock-defaults-alist
828 ** The following files, obsolete since at least Emacs 21.1, have been removed:
829 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
831 ** FIXME finder-inf.el changes.
834 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
836 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
837 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
839 ** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
840 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
841 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
842 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
843 must also be supplied.
845 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
846 The `lexical-binding' variable lets code use lexical scoping for local
847 variables. It is typically set via file-local variables, in which case it
848 applies to all the code in that file.
850 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
851 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
853 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
854 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
856 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
858 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
859 declared as dynamically bound.
861 ** pre/post-command-hook are not reset to nil upon error.
862 Instead, the offending function is removed.
864 ** New low-level function run-hook-wrapped.
866 ** `server-eval-at' is provided to allow evaluating forms on different
867 Emacs server instances.
869 ** `call-process' allows a `(:file "file")' spec to redirect STDOUT to
872 ** byte-compile-disable-print-circle is obsolete.
873 ** deferred-action-list and deferred-action-function are obsolete.
874 ** Removed the stack-trace-on-error variable.
875 Also the debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will jump
876 to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked instead of
877 jumping all the way to the top-level.
879 ** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of characters,
880 discarding any inputs not inside the set.
882 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
883 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
884 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
887 ** New variable syntax-propertize-function to set syntax-table properties.
888 Replaces font-lock-syntactic-keywords which are now obsolete.
889 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
890 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
891 Together with this new variable come a new hook
892 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
893 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
894 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
897 ** New hook post-self-insert-hook run at the end of self-insert-command.
900 ** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
901 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
902 ** prog-mode is a new major-mode meant to be the parent of programming mode.
903 ** define-minor-mode accepts a new keyword :variable.
905 ** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
906 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
907 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
908 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
910 ** buffer-substring-filters is obsoleted by filter-buffer-substring-functions.
912 ** New completion style `substring'.
914 ** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
915 The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name or RGB
916 triplet, instead of signalling an error if the user provides a invalid
919 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
920 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
921 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
925 *** When the image type is one of listed in `image-animated-types'
926 and the number of sub-images in the image is more than one, then the
927 new function `create-animated-image' creates an animated image where
928 sub-images are displayed successively with the duration defined by
929 `image-animate-max-time' and the delay between sub-images defined
930 by the Graphic Control Extension of the image.
932 *** `image-extension-data' is renamed to `image-metadata'.
934 ** XML and HTML parsing
936 *** If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support (which is the default),
937 two new Emacs Lisp-level functions are defined:
938 `libxml-parse-html-region' (which will parse "real world" HTML)
939 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
940 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
942 FIXME: These should be front-ended by xml.el.
946 *** Emacs can be compiled with libgnutls support
947 This is the default. You will then be able to use the functionality
948 in gnutls.el, namely the `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'
949 functions. It's easiest to use these functions through
950 `open-network-stream' because it can upgrade connections through
951 STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain SSL, depending on your needs.
953 Only versions 2.8.x and higher or GnuTLS have been tested.
956 Set `gnutls-log-level' higher than 0 to get debug output. 1 is for
957 important messages, 2 is for debug data, and higher numbers are as per
958 the GnuTLS logging conventions. The output is in *Messages*.
962 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
964 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
965 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
966 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
967 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
968 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
969 displayed with a "spinning bar".
971 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
972 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
974 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook' allow
975 deferring warnings until the main command loop is executed.
978 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
980 ** New configure.bat option --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra
983 ** New configure.bat option --distfiles to specify files to be
984 included in binary distribution.
986 ** New configure.bat option --without-gnutls to disable automatic
989 ** New configure.bat option --lib for general library linkage, works
990 with the USER_LIBS build variable.
992 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
995 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
996 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
998 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
999 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1000 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1001 (at your option) any later version.
1003 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1004 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1005 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1006 GNU General Public License for more details.
1008 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1009 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1014 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"