1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 5 Jan 2000
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS.
9 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
11 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
12 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
14 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
15 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
18 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
19 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if they these are available.
21 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
23 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
24 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
25 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
26 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
28 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable because it contains
29 a version-dependent component.
31 ** The <delete> function key is now bound to `delete-char' by default.
32 Note that this takes effect only on window systems. On TTYs, Emacs
33 will receive ASCII 127 when the DEL key is pressed. This
34 character is still bound as before.
36 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
39 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
40 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to executable-chmod.
42 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
43 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
44 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
45 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
46 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
47 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
48 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
50 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
51 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
52 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
53 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
54 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
55 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
56 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
57 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
58 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
60 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
61 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
63 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
64 point in a pop-up window.
66 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
67 displays all characters in that character set.
69 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
70 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
72 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
75 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
77 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
78 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
80 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
81 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
82 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
83 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
85 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
86 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
87 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
88 You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
90 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
91 on the display using several methods
93 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
94 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
95 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
97 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
98 equivalent ot specifying the frame parameter.
100 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
102 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
103 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
105 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
106 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
107 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
108 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
110 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
111 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
112 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
114 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
115 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
117 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
118 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
121 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
122 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
125 ** New X resources recognized
127 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
128 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
129 is useful for debugging X problems.
133 emacs.synchronous: true
135 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
136 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
137 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
138 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
139 visual class names are
148 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
149 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
152 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
153 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
154 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
159 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
161 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
162 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
163 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
164 resource values are `true' or `on'.
168 emacs.privateColormap: true
170 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
171 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
172 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
174 ** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
175 display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
176 shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
179 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
181 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
182 all frames except the selected one.
184 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
185 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
187 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
188 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X either in the echo
189 area or with tooltips.
191 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
192 read mail from the menu etc.
194 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
195 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
197 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
199 ** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
203 -------------------------
210 ** Changes in Outline mode.
212 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
213 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
214 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
216 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
217 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
219 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either M-x clone-buffer
220 or C-u m <entry> RET. M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and
221 several other special buffers.
223 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
224 under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
227 The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
228 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
230 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
231 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
232 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
234 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
235 is running in batch mode. For example,
237 (message "%s" (read t))
239 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
242 ** Faces and frame parameters.
244 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
245 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
246 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
247 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
248 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
249 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
250 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
252 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
253 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
254 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
255 `default' face and vice versa.
259 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
260 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
261 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
263 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
265 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
266 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
267 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
268 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
270 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
271 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
272 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
274 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
277 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
279 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
280 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
281 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
282 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
285 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
287 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
288 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
289 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
290 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
293 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
294 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
295 under Lisp changes, below.
297 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
299 ** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
300 its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
303 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
304 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
305 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
306 customizing face `fringe'.
308 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
309 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
313 Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
314 need a version 0.88.1 or later.
316 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
318 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
319 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
320 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
321 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
322 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
325 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
326 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
327 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
328 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
329 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
330 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
332 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
333 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
334 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
335 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
336 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
337 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
339 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
340 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
341 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
342 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
343 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
345 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
347 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
348 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
349 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
351 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
353 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
354 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
355 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
356 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
357 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
362 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
363 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
367 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
368 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
369 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
372 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
374 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
375 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
376 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
379 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
380 have to do anything to activate it.
382 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
384 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
385 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
386 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
387 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
389 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
391 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
393 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
395 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
398 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
401 ** Hscrolling in C code.
403 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
404 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
409 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
410 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
412 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
414 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
415 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
416 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
417 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
418 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
420 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
422 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
425 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
426 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
428 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
430 - Mouse-2 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
431 toggles the read-only status.
433 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
435 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
437 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
438 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
441 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
443 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
444 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
445 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
446 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
447 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
448 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
453 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
454 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
455 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
457 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
458 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
459 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
460 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
461 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
462 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
464 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
466 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
468 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
469 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
470 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
472 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
473 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
475 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
476 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
477 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
479 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
481 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
482 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
483 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
484 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
486 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
487 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
488 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
489 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
491 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
492 notably at the end of lines.
494 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
495 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
497 There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
499 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
500 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
501 after each match to get the replacement text.
503 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
504 you edit the replacement string.
506 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', let's
507 you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
508 lisp-complete-symbol.
510 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
512 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
513 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the minibuffer window unless
514 it is on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum minibuffer
515 window size by setting the following variable:
517 - User option: max-mini-window-height
519 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
520 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
521 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
525 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
527 ** Changes to hideshow.el
529 Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
530 selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
532 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
534 A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
535 (both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
536 which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
537 `forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
538 point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
539 (which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
541 If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
542 i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
543 backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
544 the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
546 *** Isearch support for updating mode line
548 During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
549 blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
550 line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
551 portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
552 is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
554 To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
555 something like this in your .emacs.
557 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
559 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
561 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
563 If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
564 entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
565 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
567 New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
568 buffer, fixing old-style date formats if necessary.
570 Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
571 if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
573 The search for a file's version number is performed based on regular
574 expressions from `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be
575 cutomized. Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of
578 ** Changes in Font Lock
580 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
581 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
584 ** Comint (subshell) changes
586 Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
587 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
589 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
590 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
591 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
593 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
594 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
595 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
597 Packages based on comint.el like shell-mode, and
598 scheme-interaction-mode now highlight user input, and support choosing
599 previous input with mouse-2. To control this feature, see the
600 user-option `comint-highlight-input'.
602 ** Changes to Rmail mode
604 *** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
605 set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
606 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
607 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
608 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
611 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
612 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
613 regexp matching your mail addresses.
615 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
616 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
617 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
618 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
619 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
621 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
624 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
625 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
628 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
629 in which folder to put messages automatically.
631 ** Changes to TeX mode
633 The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
636 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
638 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
639 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
640 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
641 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
642 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
643 can be edited from that buffer.
645 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
646 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
647 `A' to use all marked entries).
649 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
650 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
652 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
653 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
654 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
657 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
658 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
659 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
660 in column 1 are always made leaves.
662 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
663 has the following new features:
665 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
666 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
667 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
668 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
670 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
671 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
672 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
673 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
674 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
677 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
682 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
683 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
684 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
686 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
687 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
688 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
689 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
693 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
694 `State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
695 cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
697 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
698 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
701 *** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
702 between custom options. Example:
704 (defcustom default-input-method nil
705 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
706 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
707 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
709 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
710 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
712 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
713 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
714 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
716 ** New features in evaluation commands
718 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
719 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
720 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
721 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
722 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
724 *** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
725 code when called with a prefix argument.
729 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
730 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
731 is, delete only empty directories.
733 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
734 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
735 copy directories recursively.
737 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
738 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
739 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
741 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
742 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
745 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `w') shows
746 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
747 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
748 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
749 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
751 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
752 use the -f option when sending mail.
756 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
757 current user setups (although it's believed that these
758 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
759 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
760 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
761 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
764 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
765 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
766 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
767 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
768 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
769 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
770 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
771 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
773 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
774 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
775 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
776 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
779 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
780 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
781 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
782 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
783 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
784 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
785 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
786 function documentation for more info.
788 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
789 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
790 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
791 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
792 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
793 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
794 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
795 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
797 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
799 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
800 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
802 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
803 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
804 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
805 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
806 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
809 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
810 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
811 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
814 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
815 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
816 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
817 chapter about this in the manual.
819 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
820 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
821 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
822 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
823 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
825 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
826 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
827 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
829 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
830 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
832 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
833 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
834 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
837 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
838 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
839 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
840 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
843 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
844 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
845 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
848 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
849 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
850 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
851 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
854 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
855 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
856 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
857 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
860 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
861 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
862 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
864 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
866 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
867 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
868 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
869 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
871 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
872 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
873 the column specified by comment-column.
875 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
876 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
877 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
878 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
879 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
880 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
882 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
883 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
886 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
888 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
889 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
890 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
891 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
894 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
896 ** Makefile mode changes
898 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
900 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
901 Fontlock mode is active.
905 ** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
906 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
907 that started the search.
909 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
910 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
912 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
914 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
915 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
916 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
917 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
918 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
919 `secondary-selection'.
921 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
922 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
923 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
924 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
925 usual snappy response.
927 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
928 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
929 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
930 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
932 ** Changes in sort.el
934 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
935 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
936 new user-option sort-numberic-base can be used to specify a default
939 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
941 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
942 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
943 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
945 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
946 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
948 ** Shell script mode changes.
950 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
951 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
952 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
956 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
958 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
959 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
960 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
961 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
962 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
964 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
965 declarations when given the --declarations option.
967 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
968 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
970 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
973 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
975 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
977 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
980 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
981 variables are tagged.
983 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
985 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
988 ** Changes in etags.el
990 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
991 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
992 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
994 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
995 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
997 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
998 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
999 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
1000 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
1002 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
1004 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
1005 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
1007 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
1009 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
1010 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
1011 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
1013 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
1014 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
1016 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
1017 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
1019 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1020 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1021 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1023 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1024 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1025 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1026 There is currently no specific input method support for them.
1028 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
1029 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
1030 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
1032 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
1034 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
1036 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignore-regexps'
1037 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
1038 expression from that list, are not checked.
1040 ** New modes and packages
1042 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
1043 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
1045 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
1046 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
1047 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
1049 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
1050 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
1051 separate Texinfo file.
1053 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine
1054 or by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
1055 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS.
1056 It comes with log-view-mode to view RCS and SCCS logs and log-edit-mode
1057 used to enter checkin log messages.
1059 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
1060 without invoking external programs.
1062 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
1063 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
1064 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
1065 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
1066 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
1068 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
1069 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
1071 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
1072 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
1074 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
1075 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
1076 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
1077 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
1078 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
1081 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
1082 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
1083 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
1084 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
1086 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
1087 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1088 actually modifying content of a buffer.
1090 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1093 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1095 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1097 ; comment (until end of line)
1101 $A default non-terminal
1102 $"C" default terminal
1103 $?C? default special
1104 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1105 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1106 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1107 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1108 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1109 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1110 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1111 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1112 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1113 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1114 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1115 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1116 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1117 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1118 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1120 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1122 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1123 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1124 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1125 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1126 equal signs of assignments.
1128 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1129 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1131 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1132 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1133 buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1134 customize the package.
1136 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
1138 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1139 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1140 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1141 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1142 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1143 which answers different needs.
1145 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1146 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1147 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1148 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1149 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1152 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1153 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1155 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1157 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1159 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1161 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1164 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1167 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1169 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1171 *** whitespace.el ???
1173 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1174 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1175 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1176 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1177 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1178 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1179 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1181 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1183 Here is an example of columns:
1186 dog pineapple car EXTRA
1187 porcupine strawberry airplane
1189 Doing the following settings:
1191 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1192 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1193 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1194 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1197 Selecting the lines above and typing:
1199 M-x delimit-columns-region
1203 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
1204 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1205 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1207 delim-col has the following options:
1209 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1212 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1213 between each column.
1215 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1218 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1221 delim-col has the following commands:
1223 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1224 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1226 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1227 were operated on recently.
1229 M-x recentf-mode RET toggles recentf mode.
1231 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET can be used to enable
1232 recentf at Emacs startup.
1234 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-menu-filter RET to specify a menu
1235 filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the recent
1236 file list can be displayed:
1238 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
1239 - sorted by file pathes, file names, ascending or descending.
1240 - showing pathes relative to the current default-directory
1242 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
1243 dynamically change the menu appearance.
1245 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1248 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
1249 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1250 specific to Message mode.
1252 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1253 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1254 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1256 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1257 interface to access directory servers using different directory
1258 protocols. It has a separate manual.
1260 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1261 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1263 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1265 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
1266 minibuffer with completion.
1268 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1269 with the diary features.
1271 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1272 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1274 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
1277 ** Withdrawn packages
1279 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1280 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
1282 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1284 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
1287 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
1288 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
1290 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
1291 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
1292 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
1294 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
1295 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
1297 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
1298 function was declared obsolete.
1300 ** Function plist-member is renamed from widget-plist-member (which is
1301 retained as an alias).
1303 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
1304 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
1305 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
1307 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
1309 - Function: window-list &optional WINDOW MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES
1311 Return a list of windows in canonical order. The parameters WINDOW,
1312 MINIBUF and ALL-FRAMES are defined like for `next-window'.
1314 ** There's a new function `some-window' defined as follows
1316 - Function: some-window PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
1318 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
1320 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
1321 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
1322 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
1323 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
1326 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
1327 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
1328 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
1329 minibuffer even if it is active.
1331 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
1332 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
1333 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
1334 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
1335 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
1336 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
1338 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
1339 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
1340 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
1341 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
1342 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
1343 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
1344 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
1346 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key
1347 and event names in angle brackets.
1349 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
1350 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
1351 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
1352 Default value is nil.
1354 ** The user option line-number-display-limit can now be set to nil,
1357 ** select-safe-coding-system now also checks the most preferred
1358 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
1359 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
1361 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information on the argument list
1364 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
1365 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
1366 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
1367 than replacing the local map.
1369 ** The obsolete variables before-change-function and
1370 after-change-function are no longer acted upon and have been removed.
1372 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
1374 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments, as
1378 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1380 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1381 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1382 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1383 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1385 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
1386 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
1387 when it finds 8-bit characters. Previously, it included `ascii' in a
1388 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
1390 *** The functions `set-buffer-modified', `string-as-multibyte' and
1391 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer if it
1392 contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
1394 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
1395 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
1396 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
1397 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
1398 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
1399 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
1400 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
1403 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
1405 A fontset can now be specified for for each independent character, for
1406 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
1407 character set as previously.
1409 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
1410 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
1411 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
1413 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
1414 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
1415 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
1416 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
1418 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
1419 name of a font and REGSITRY is a registry name of a font.
1421 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
1422 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
1425 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
1426 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
1428 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
1429 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
1430 buffers and strings.
1432 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
1433 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
1434 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
1435 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
1436 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
1437 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
1438 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
1441 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
1442 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
1443 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
1445 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
1446 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
1447 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
1448 may differ between buffer and string text.
1450 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
1451 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
1453 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
1454 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
1455 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
1456 `composition' from STRING.
1458 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
1459 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
1461 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
1464 ** The new character set `mule-unicode-0100-24ff' is introduced for
1465 Unicode characters of the range U+0100..U+24FF. Currently, this
1466 character set is not used.
1468 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
1469 `japanese-jisx0213-2' are introduced for the new Japanese standard JIS
1470 X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
1473 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
1474 are introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
1475 0xA0..0xFF respectively.
1478 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
1479 that offset in the file before writing.
1481 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
1482 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
1484 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
1485 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
1486 from which the command was issued.
1488 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
1489 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
1490 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
1491 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
1494 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
1495 to `window-buffer-height'.
1497 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
1499 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
1500 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
1501 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
1503 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
1506 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
1507 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
1509 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
1510 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
1511 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
1513 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
1514 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
1515 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
1516 is currently displayed in some window.
1518 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
1519 argument function's results.
1521 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
1522 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
1524 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
1525 header is the list of headers passed to it.
1527 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
1528 ignores differences in case and text representation.
1530 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
1531 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
1534 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
1535 nil don't display a cursor
1536 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
1537 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
1538 others display a box cursor.
1540 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
1541 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
1542 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
1543 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
1545 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
1546 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
1547 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
1548 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
1552 (string-to-syntax "()")
1555 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
1558 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
1559 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
1566 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
1571 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
1576 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
1583 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
1584 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
1587 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
1588 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
1589 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
1590 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
1593 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
1595 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
1596 for a regexp in a string.
1598 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
1599 `mouse-position-function'.
1601 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
1602 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
1604 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
1605 Keywords are now always considered constants.
1608 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
1611 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
1612 returned by function `recent-keys'.
1615 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
1616 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
1617 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
1618 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
1622 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
1623 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
1626 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
1627 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
1628 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
1629 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
1632 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
1633 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
1634 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
1635 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
1638 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
1639 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
1640 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
1643 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
1644 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
1647 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
1649 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
1650 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
1651 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
1655 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
1656 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
1659 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
1660 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
1663 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
1664 instead of being optional.
1667 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
1668 modify read-only text.
1671 ** New functions and variables for locales.
1673 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
1674 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
1675 time functions like strftime. The new variables
1676 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
1677 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
1679 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
1680 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
1681 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
1682 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
1683 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
1684 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
1685 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
1688 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
1689 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
1690 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
1694 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
1695 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
1698 ** New function `propertize'
1700 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
1701 strings with text properties.
1703 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
1705 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
1706 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
1707 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
1708 specified value of that property. Example:
1710 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
1713 ** push and pop macros.
1715 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
1716 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
1717 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
1719 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
1720 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
1721 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
1723 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
1725 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
1726 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
1728 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
1729 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
1730 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
1731 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1733 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
1734 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
1735 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
1736 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1739 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
1740 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
1742 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
1743 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
1744 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
1745 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
1746 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
1748 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
1750 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
1751 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1752 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1753 [:alpha:] matches letters.
1754 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1755 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1756 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
1757 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
1758 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
1759 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
1760 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1761 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
1762 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
1763 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
1764 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
1767 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
1769 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
1771 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
1773 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
1774 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
1778 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
1779 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
1780 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
1784 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
1785 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
1787 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
1789 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
1790 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
1791 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
1792 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
1793 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
1795 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
1797 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
1798 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
1799 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
1803 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value', or t.
1804 Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage collection if
1805 their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere outside of the
1806 hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
1808 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
1810 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
1812 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
1814 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
1816 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
1818 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
1821 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
1823 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
1825 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1827 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
1829 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
1831 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
1833 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1835 Returns the size of TABLE.
1837 - Function: hash-table-rehash-test TABLE
1839 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
1841 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
1843 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
1845 - Function: clrhash TABLE
1849 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
1851 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
1854 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
1856 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
1857 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
1859 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
1861 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
1863 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
1865 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
1866 arguments KEY and VALUE.
1868 - Function: sxhash OBJ
1870 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
1872 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
1874 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
1875 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
1876 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
1877 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
1878 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
1880 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
1882 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
1883 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
1884 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
1886 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
1887 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
1889 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
1890 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
1892 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
1893 (sxhash (upcase a)))
1895 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
1896 'case-fold-string-hash))
1898 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
1901 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
1903 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
1904 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
1905 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
1908 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
1910 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
1911 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
1914 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
1915 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
1916 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
1917 is too short to reach that column.
1920 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
1921 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
1922 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
1923 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
1925 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
1926 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
1927 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
1930 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
1931 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
1934 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
1935 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
1938 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
1939 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
1940 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
1941 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
1942 temporary-file-directory instead.
1945 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
1946 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
1947 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
1948 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
1951 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
1952 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
1955 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
1957 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
1958 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
1959 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
1962 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
1964 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
1965 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
1966 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
1967 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
1968 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
1969 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
1971 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
1972 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
1973 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
1974 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
1977 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
1979 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
1980 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
1981 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
1984 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
1985 string where arguments appear in the result string.
1989 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
1991 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
1992 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
1995 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
1998 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
2000 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
2001 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
2004 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
2006 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
2007 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
2013 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
2014 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
2016 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
2017 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
2018 to enable sound support.
2020 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
2021 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
2022 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
2023 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
2024 sound to play, before playing the sound.
2026 The following sound properties are supported:
2030 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
2031 searched relative to `data-directory'.
2035 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
2036 may be present, but not both.
2040 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
2041 0..1. This property is optional.
2043 Other properties are ignored.
2045 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
2047 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
2050 ** Changes to garbage collection
2052 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
2053 of live and free strings.
2055 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
2056 strings that have been consed so far.
2059 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
2063 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
2065 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
2068 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
2070 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
2072 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
2073 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
2074 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
2075 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
2076 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
2078 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
2079 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
2082 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
2085 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center'.
2087 When this property is specified, the image is vertically centered
2088 around a centerline which would be the vertical center of text drawn
2089 at the position of the image, in the manner specified by the text
2090 properties and overlays that apply to the image.
2093 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
2095 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2096 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2097 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2098 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2100 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
2101 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
2103 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
2104 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
2105 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
2106 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
2107 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
2108 just display it black instead.
2110 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
2113 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
2117 ** New face implementation.
2119 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
2120 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
2125 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
2127 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
2129 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
2130 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
2132 3. Font height in 1/10pt
2134 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
2136 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
2138 6. Foreground color.
2140 7. Background color.
2142 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
2144 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
2146 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
2148 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
2150 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
2153 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
2154 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
2156 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
2157 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
2158 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
2159 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
2160 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
2161 attributes mentioned above.
2163 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
2164 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
2167 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
2168 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
2174 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
2175 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
2176 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
2177 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
2178 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
2179 results in a fully-specified face.
2182 *** Face realization.
2184 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
2185 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
2186 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
2187 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
2188 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
2189 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
2191 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
2192 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
2193 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
2194 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
2196 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
2197 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
2198 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
2199 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
2200 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
2202 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
2203 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
2204 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
2205 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
2206 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
2209 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
2210 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
2211 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
2212 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
2215 **** Clearing face caches.
2217 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
2218 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
2224 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
2225 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
2226 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
2228 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
2229 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
2230 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
2231 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
2232 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
2234 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
2235 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
2236 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
2238 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
2240 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
2241 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
2242 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
2243 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
2244 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
2245 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
2246 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
2248 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
2249 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
2255 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
2256 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
2259 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
2260 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
2261 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
2262 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
2263 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
2266 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
2268 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
2271 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
2273 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
2275 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
2276 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
2277 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
2279 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
2280 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
2281 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
2282 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
2283 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
2284 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
2285 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
2286 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
2287 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
2288 of the face font sort order.
2290 - Function: x-font-family-list
2292 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
2293 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
2294 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
2295 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
2297 - Variable: font-list-limit
2299 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
2300 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
2301 matching font. The default is currently 100.
2304 *** Setting face attributes.
2306 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
2307 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
2308 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
2311 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
2312 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
2314 The following attributes are recognized:
2318 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
2319 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
2320 and `?' are allowed.
2324 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
2325 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
2326 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
2327 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
2331 VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
2336 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
2337 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
2338 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
2342 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
2343 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
2346 `:foreground', `:background'
2348 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
2352 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
2353 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
2354 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
2359 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
2360 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
2361 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
2366 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
2367 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
2368 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
2369 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
2373 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
2374 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
2375 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
2376 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
2377 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
2378 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
2379 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
2380 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
2381 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
2382 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
2383 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
2384 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
2385 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
2386 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
2387 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
2388 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
2393 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
2394 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
2398 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
2399 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
2400 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
2401 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
2402 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
2403 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
2405 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
2406 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
2410 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
2411 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
2412 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
2415 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
2416 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
2417 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
2419 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
2422 *** Face attributes and X resources
2424 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
2427 Face attribute X resource class
2428 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
2429 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
2430 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
2431 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
2432 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
2433 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
2434 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
2435 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
2436 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
2437 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
2438 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
2439 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
2440 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
2441 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
2442 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
2443 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
2444 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2445 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
2446 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
2447 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2450 *** Text property `face'.
2452 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
2453 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
2454 specification can be
2456 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
2458 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
2459 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
2460 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
2461 for face attribute names.
2463 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
2464 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
2465 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
2468 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
2470 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
2471 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
2472 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
2473 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
2474 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
2475 used to clear the mapping table.
2477 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
2479 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
2480 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
2481 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
2482 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
2483 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
2484 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
2485 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
2486 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
2487 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
2488 modify their color-related behavior.
2490 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
2493 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
2495 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
2496 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
2497 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
2498 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
2499 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
2500 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
2501 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
2502 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
2503 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
2506 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
2508 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
2510 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
2511 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
2512 Otherwise, it returns zero.
2514 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
2516 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
2517 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
2520 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
2521 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
2522 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
2523 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
2524 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
2525 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
2526 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
2529 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
2530 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
2531 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
2533 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
2535 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE
2537 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
2538 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2539 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
2540 constrained position if that is is different.
2542 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
2543 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
2544 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
2545 constrained to the field that has the same `field' text-property
2546 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2547 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
2550 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
2551 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
2552 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
2553 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
2554 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
2556 - Function: erase-field &optional POS
2558 Erases the field surrounding POS.
2559 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2560 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2562 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2564 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
2565 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2566 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2567 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at beginning of an
2568 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
2570 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2572 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
2573 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2574 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2575 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is already at end of a field,
2576 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
2578 - Function: field-string &optional POS
2580 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
2581 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2582 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2584 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
2586 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
2587 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2588 If POS is nil, the position of the current buffer's point is used.
2593 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
2594 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
2595 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
2596 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
2598 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
2599 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
2600 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
2601 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
2604 IMAGE is an image specification.
2606 *** Image specifications
2608 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
2609 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
2610 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
2611 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
2612 described below are ignored.
2614 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
2618 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
2619 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
2620 to use for its ascent.
2622 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
2623 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
2625 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
2626 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
2627 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
2628 overlays that apply to the image.
2632 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
2633 margin around the image. Default is 0.
2637 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
2642 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
2643 be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
2644 supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
2645 which is intended to display images "disabled."
2647 `:heuristic-mask BG'
2649 If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
2650 background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
2651 determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
2652 corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
2653 the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
2654 be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
2655 background of the image.
2659 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
2660 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
2661 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
2662 may be present in the image specification.
2666 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
2667 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
2668 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
2669 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
2671 *** Supported image types
2673 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
2675 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
2676 properties supported are
2680 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
2681 is the frame's foreground.
2685 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
2686 the frame's background color.
2688 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
2689 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
2690 instead of a `:file' property.
2694 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
2698 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
2704 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
2705 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
2707 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
2709 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
2712 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
2713 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
2716 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
2718 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
2719 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
2720 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
2721 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
2723 Additional image properties supported are:
2725 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
2727 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
2728 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
2731 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
2732 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
2734 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
2735 to display compressed images.
2737 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
2739 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
2740 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
2743 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
2745 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
2746 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
2749 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
2751 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
2752 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2755 **** GIF, image type `gif'
2757 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
2758 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
2760 Additional image properties supported are:
2764 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
2765 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
2767 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
2768 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
2769 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
2772 (defun show-anim (file max)
2773 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
2774 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
2776 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
2779 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
2782 (goto-char (point-min))
2783 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
2784 (insert-image img "x"))
2785 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
2787 **** PNG, image type `png'
2789 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
2790 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2793 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
2795 Additional image properties supported are:
2799 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
2800 integer. This is a required property.
2804 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
2805 must be a integer. This is an required property.
2809 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
2810 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
2811 files. This is an required property.
2813 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
2818 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
2819 which are supported in the current configuration.
2821 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
2822 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
2823 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
2824 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
2825 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
2827 *** Simplified image API, image.el
2829 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
2830 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
2831 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
2832 define an image based on available image types. The functions
2833 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
2839 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
2842 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
2843 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
2844 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
2845 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
2846 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2847 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2848 of the display margins.
2850 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
2851 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
2852 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
2853 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
2859 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
2860 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
2861 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
2862 that have a `help-echo' property.
2864 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
2865 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
2866 the window in which the help was found.
2868 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
2869 `help-echo' text property was found.
2871 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
2872 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
2874 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
2875 the `display' property). POS is the position in that string under the
2878 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
2879 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
2881 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
2882 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
2883 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
2884 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
2885 used as help string.
2887 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
2888 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
2889 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
2892 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
2894 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
2895 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
2897 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
2898 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
2899 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
2900 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
2903 (global-set-key [A-down]
2906 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
2907 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
2908 (global-set-key [A-up]
2911 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
2912 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
2915 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
2917 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
2918 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
2919 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
2920 is called with one argument, POS.
2922 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
2923 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
2924 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
2925 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
2926 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
2929 ** Tool bar support.
2931 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
2932 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
2933 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
2934 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
2935 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
2936 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
2938 *** Tool bar item definitions
2940 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
2941 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
2942 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
2944 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
2945 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
2946 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
2947 property (see below).
2949 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
2950 binding are currently ignored.
2952 The following properties are recognized:
2956 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
2961 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
2965 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
2966 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
2967 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
2969 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
2971 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
2972 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
2976 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
2977 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
2978 meaning of each of the four elements:
2980 Index Use when item is
2981 ----------------------------------------
2982 0 enabled and selected
2983 1 enabled and deselected
2984 2 disabled and selected
2985 3 disabled and deselected
2987 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
2988 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
2990 `:help HELP-STRING'.
2992 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
2993 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
2995 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
2997 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
2998 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
2999 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
3001 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
3002 raised when the mouse moves over them.
3004 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
3005 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
3006 pixels. Default is 1.
3008 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
3009 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
3011 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
3013 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
3016 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
3017 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
3018 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
3020 is the original tool bar item definition, then
3022 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
3024 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
3027 ** Mode line changes.
3030 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3032 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
3033 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
3034 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
3036 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
3037 a `local-map' text property.
3039 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
3040 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
3042 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
3043 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
3044 `local-map' property.
3046 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
3047 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
3050 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
3051 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
3054 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
3055 variable mode-line-format to nil.
3058 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
3060 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
3061 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
3062 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
3063 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
3066 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
3069 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
3070 position in the header-line.
3073 ** Text property `display'
3075 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
3076 also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
3077 `display' property should be a display specification, as described
3078 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
3080 *** Variable width and height spaces
3082 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
3083 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
3084 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
3085 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
3086 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
3087 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
3088 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
3090 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
3091 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
3092 properties described below.
3094 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
3095 characters having the `display' property.
3099 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
3100 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
3102 - :relative-width FACTOR
3104 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
3105 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
3106 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
3107 width of that character by FACTOR.
3111 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
3112 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
3114 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
3118 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
3121 - :relative-height FACTOR
3123 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
3124 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
3128 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
3129 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
3130 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
3133 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
3137 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
3138 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
3139 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
3140 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
3141 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
3142 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
3143 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
3144 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
3145 as display specification.
3147 *** Other display properties
3149 - :space-width FACTOR
3151 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
3152 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
3157 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
3159 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
3160 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
3161 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
3162 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
3163 a font is available counts as a step.
3165 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
3166 as tall as the frame's default font.
3168 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
3169 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
3171 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
3172 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
3176 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
3177 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
3178 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
3179 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
3180 `:height' subproperty.
3182 *** Conditional display properties
3184 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
3185 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
3186 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
3187 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
3188 the text having the `display' property.
3190 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
3194 ** New menu separator types.
3196 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
3197 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
3198 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
3199 to specify other menu separator types.
3201 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
3203 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
3206 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
3208 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
3210 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
3212 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
3214 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
3216 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3218 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
3220 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3222 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
3224 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
3225 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
3227 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
3229 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
3231 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
3233 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
3235 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
3237 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
3239 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
3241 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3243 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
3245 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
3247 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
3249 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3251 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
3253 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
3255 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
3256 the corresponding single-line separators.
3259 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
3261 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
3262 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
3263 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
3264 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
3265 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
3266 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
3267 default foreground is black.
3269 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
3270 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
3271 `ScrollBarBackground').
3273 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
3274 settings for scroll bar colors.
3277 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
3278 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
3281 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
3282 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
3283 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
3284 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
3285 the original window start.
3288 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
3289 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
3290 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
3293 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
3295 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
3296 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
3297 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
3298 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
3300 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
3301 fixed-width and fixed-height.
3303 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
3305 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
3306 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
3307 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
3308 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
3309 temporarily to nil, for example
3311 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
3312 (enlarge-window 10))
3314 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
3315 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
3317 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
3318 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
3319 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
3320 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
3321 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
3322 support a vertical-bar cursor).
3324 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
3326 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
3329 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
3331 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
3333 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
3334 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
3335 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
3336 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
3337 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
3339 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
3343 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
3345 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
3348 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
3350 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
3351 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
3353 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
3355 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
3357 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
3358 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
3359 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
3361 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
3362 is the one that is used.
3364 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
3365 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
3366 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
3367 separate from the command's regular output.
3368 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
3369 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
3370 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
3373 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
3374 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
3375 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
3376 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
3378 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
3379 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
3380 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
3381 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
3383 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
3384 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
3385 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
3386 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
3388 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
3389 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
3390 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
3391 they never ignore case.
3393 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
3394 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
3395 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
3396 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
3397 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
3398 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
3399 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
3401 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
3402 the same format that was used in the file before.
3404 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
3405 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
3407 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
3408 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
3409 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
3411 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
3412 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
3413 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
3414 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
3415 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
3416 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
3417 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
3419 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
3420 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
3421 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
3422 format. You can now customize these variables.
3424 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
3425 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
3426 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
3427 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
3429 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
3430 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
3431 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
3433 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
3434 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
3435 doesn't have any effect.
3437 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
3440 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
3441 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
3442 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
3444 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
3445 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
3446 `auto-show-mode' command.
3448 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
3449 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
3450 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
3451 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
3452 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
3454 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
3455 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
3457 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
3458 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
3459 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
3461 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
3462 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
3463 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
3464 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
3466 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
3468 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
3469 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
3470 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
3471 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
3472 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
3474 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
3475 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
3477 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
3478 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
3479 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
3480 `?' on other systems.
3482 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
3483 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
3486 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
3487 current codepage when it starts.
3491 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
3492 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
3493 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
3494 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
3495 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
3496 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
3500 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
3501 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
3503 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
3504 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
3505 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
3506 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
3507 buffer-file-coding-system.
3509 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
3510 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
3513 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
3514 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
3515 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
3516 list of possible coding systems.
3520 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
3521 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
3522 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
3523 docstring for details.
3525 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
3526 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
3527 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
3528 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
3529 lineup functions use this feature currently.
3531 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
3532 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
3534 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
3535 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
3537 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
3538 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
3539 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
3540 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
3543 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
3544 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
3546 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
3547 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
3548 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
3549 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
3551 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
3552 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
3553 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
3554 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
3555 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
3557 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
3559 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
3561 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
3562 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
3564 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
3566 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
3567 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
3568 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
3569 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
3570 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
3574 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
3575 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
3576 Gnus manual for the full story.
3578 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
3579 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
3580 group, which is created automatically.
3582 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
3585 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
3587 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
3588 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
3590 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
3593 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
3595 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
3596 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
3598 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
3600 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
3601 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
3603 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
3604 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
3606 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
3607 control over simplification.
3609 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
3611 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
3614 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
3616 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
3618 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
3619 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
3620 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
3622 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
3623 `a' forces normal posting method.
3625 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
3628 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
3631 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
3632 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
3634 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
3637 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
3639 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
3641 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
3642 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
3644 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
3645 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
3647 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
3649 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
3652 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
3653 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
3655 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
3656 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
3658 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
3660 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
3662 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
3664 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
3666 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
3667 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
3668 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
3670 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
3671 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
3672 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
3673 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
3674 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
3676 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
3677 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
3678 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
3679 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
3681 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
3682 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
3683 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
3686 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
3688 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
3689 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
3691 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
3692 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
3693 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
3694 removed from the label.
3696 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
3697 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
3699 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
3700 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
3702 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
3703 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
3706 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
3708 ** New/deleted modes and packages
3710 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
3711 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
3713 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
3714 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
3715 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
3717 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
3718 changes with a special face.
3720 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
3721 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
3722 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
3724 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
3726 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
3727 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
3728 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
3729 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
3730 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
3732 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
3733 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
3734 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
3736 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
3737 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
3738 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
3739 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
3740 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
3741 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
3742 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
3743 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
3744 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
3746 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
3747 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
3748 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
3749 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
3750 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
3753 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
3754 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
3755 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
3756 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
3757 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
3758 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
3760 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
3761 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
3762 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
3763 was not documented clearly before.
3765 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
3766 This includes Tetris and Snake.
3768 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
3770 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
3771 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
3772 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
3773 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
3775 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
3776 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
3777 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
3779 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
3781 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
3782 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
3784 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
3785 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
3788 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
3789 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
3790 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
3791 file names and attributes are returned.
3793 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
3794 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
3795 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
3796 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
3799 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
3800 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
3802 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
3804 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
3805 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
3806 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
3809 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
3810 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
3813 The new function process-running-child-p
3814 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
3815 terminal to its own child process.
3817 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
3818 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
3819 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
3820 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
3822 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
3823 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
3825 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
3826 :included is an alias for :visible.
3828 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
3829 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
3830 to move or copy menu entries.
3832 ** Multibyte editing changes
3834 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
3835 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
3836 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
3837 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
3838 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
3839 (setq char (sref str idx)
3840 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
3841 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
3843 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
3844 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
3845 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
3847 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
3848 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
3849 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
3851 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
3853 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
3854 across the boundary.
3856 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
3857 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
3858 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
3859 contains 8-bit characters.
3860 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
3861 contains invalid characters.
3863 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
3864 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
3865 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
3866 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
3869 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
3870 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
3871 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
3872 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
3874 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
3875 compose Thai characters in a string.
3877 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
3878 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
3879 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
3880 menus should always use the third argument.
3882 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
3883 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
3884 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
3885 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
3887 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
3888 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
3889 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
3890 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
3892 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
3893 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
3894 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
3897 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
3899 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
3900 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
3901 requested feature cannot be loaded.
3903 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
3904 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
3905 means to clear out that attribute.
3907 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
3908 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
3910 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
3911 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
3912 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
3913 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
3915 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
3916 the gap of the current buffer.
3918 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
3919 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
3922 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
3923 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
3924 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
3925 it back in after any modifications have been made.
3927 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
3929 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
3930 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
3931 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
3932 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
3933 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
3935 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
3936 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
3937 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
3938 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
3939 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
3941 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
3942 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
3943 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
3945 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
3946 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
3947 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
3948 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
3949 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
3952 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
3953 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
3954 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
3955 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
3957 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
3959 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
3960 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
3961 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
3962 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
3964 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
3965 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
3966 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
3967 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
3968 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
3969 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
3970 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
3973 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
3976 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
3977 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
3978 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
3979 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
3980 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
3982 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
3983 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
3984 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
3985 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
3987 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
3988 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
3989 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
3990 something that most users not do.
3992 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
3993 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
3994 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
3997 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
4000 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
4001 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
4002 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
4003 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
4006 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
4007 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
4008 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
4009 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
4010 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
4013 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
4014 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
4015 to be confused by TeX commands.
4017 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
4018 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
4019 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
4020 of various alternative replacements and actions.
4022 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
4023 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
4024 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
4025 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
4026 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
4028 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
4029 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
4031 ** Changes in input method usage.
4033 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
4034 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
4037 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
4039 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
4040 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
4042 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
4043 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
4045 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
4047 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
4049 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
4050 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
4052 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
4053 given in the following case:
4054 o When you are using a complex input method.
4055 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
4057 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
4058 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
4059 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
4060 setting it to t is helpful.
4062 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
4064 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
4066 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
4067 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
4068 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
4069 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
4072 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
4073 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
4074 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
4077 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
4079 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
4081 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
4082 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
4084 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
4085 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
4086 its owner and group.
4088 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
4089 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
4091 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
4092 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
4094 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
4095 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
4096 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
4097 by the left edge of the rectangle.
4099 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
4100 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
4101 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
4102 for writing keyboard macros.
4104 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
4105 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
4106 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
4107 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
4108 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
4111 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
4113 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
4114 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
4117 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
4118 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
4119 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
4120 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
4122 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
4123 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
4124 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
4126 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
4127 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
4128 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
4129 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
4131 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
4132 failure if the command produces no output.
4134 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
4135 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
4138 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
4139 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
4140 function and variable names.
4142 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
4143 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
4144 file-coding-system-alist.
4146 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
4147 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
4148 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
4149 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
4150 according to the current fontset.
4152 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
4154 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
4155 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
4156 nonascii-insert-offset.
4158 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
4159 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
4160 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
4161 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
4163 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
4164 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
4166 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
4167 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
4169 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
4170 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
4173 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
4174 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
4176 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
4177 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
4178 all variables that have documentation.
4180 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
4181 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
4182 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
4183 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
4184 it should show; the default is 20.
4186 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
4187 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
4190 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
4191 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
4192 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
4193 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
4194 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
4195 Newly added options are included as well.
4197 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
4198 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
4199 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
4201 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
4204 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
4205 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
4207 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
4208 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
4211 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
4212 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
4215 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
4216 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
4217 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
4218 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
4221 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
4223 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
4224 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
4225 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
4227 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
4228 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
4229 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
4234 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
4235 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
4237 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
4238 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
4240 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
4241 read and post multi-lingual articles.
4243 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
4244 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
4245 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
4246 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
4247 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
4248 made invisible again.
4250 ** Mail reading and sending changes
4252 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
4253 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
4254 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
4257 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
4258 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
4259 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
4260 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
4261 rmail-default-body-file.
4263 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
4264 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
4265 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
4267 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
4268 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
4269 is evaluated to insert the signature.
4271 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
4272 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
4273 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
4274 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
4275 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
4276 especially interested in trying feedmail.
4278 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
4279 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
4280 provided by feedmail are:
4282 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
4283 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
4284 there is also a queue for draft messages
4286 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
4287 be prompted for confirmation
4289 **** does smart filling of address headers
4291 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
4292 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
4293 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
4295 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
4296 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
4297 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
4298 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
4302 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
4303 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
4305 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
4306 run Dired on the directory name at point.
4308 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
4309 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
4310 for a specified regexp.
4314 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
4317 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
4318 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
4321 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
4322 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
4323 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
4324 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
4326 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
4327 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
4328 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
4329 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
4330 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
4332 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
4333 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
4334 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
4335 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
4336 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
4338 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
4339 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
4340 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
4341 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
4343 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
4344 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
4345 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
4347 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
4348 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
4349 session to resolve them.
4351 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
4352 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
4353 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
4356 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
4357 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
4358 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
4359 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
4360 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
4361 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
4364 ** Changes in Font Lock
4366 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
4367 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
4368 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
4369 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
4370 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
4372 ** Frame name display changes
4374 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
4375 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
4376 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
4377 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
4379 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
4380 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
4383 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4385 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
4386 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
4387 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
4389 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
4391 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
4392 that is, the line after the last line you got.
4393 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
4395 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
4396 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
4399 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
4400 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
4401 previously sent input.
4403 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
4404 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
4405 as the search string.
4407 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
4408 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
4412 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
4413 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
4414 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
4417 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
4418 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
4419 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
4420 style is still the default however.
4422 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
4424 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
4425 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
4426 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
4428 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
4429 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
4431 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
4432 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
4434 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
4435 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
4437 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
4438 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
4440 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
4441 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
4442 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
4443 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
4445 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
4447 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
4448 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
4449 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
4451 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
4452 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
4453 expanding dynamically.
4455 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
4456 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
4458 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
4459 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
4460 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
4461 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
4463 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
4465 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
4467 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
4468 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
4469 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
4470 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
4471 against the first word in the title.
4473 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
4474 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
4475 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
4476 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
4477 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
4478 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
4480 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
4481 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
4482 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
4483 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
4485 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
4487 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
4488 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
4489 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
4490 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
4491 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
4492 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
4494 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
4495 Editing group once the package is loaded.
4497 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
4498 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
4499 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
4501 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
4502 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
4506 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
4507 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
4508 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
4510 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
4511 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
4512 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
4513 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
4516 o URLs are automatically skipped
4517 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
4519 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
4521 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4523 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
4524 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
4525 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
4526 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
4528 *** New recursive parser.
4530 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
4531 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
4532 recursive parser scans the individual files.
4534 *** Parsing only part of a document.
4536 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
4537 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
4538 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
4540 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
4542 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
4544 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
4546 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
4548 *** Using multiple selection buffers
4550 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
4551 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
4553 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
4555 *** References to external documents.
4557 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
4558 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
4559 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
4560 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
4561 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
4562 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
4563 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
4565 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
4567 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
4568 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
4570 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
4571 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
4573 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
4575 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
4576 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
4578 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
4580 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
4581 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
4582 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
4583 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
4584 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
4585 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
4588 *** Support for the varioref package
4590 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
4594 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
4595 and citations are created. These hooks are
4596 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
4597 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
4599 *** Citations outside LaTeX
4601 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
4602 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
4604 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
4606 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
4607 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
4610 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
4612 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
4613 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
4614 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
4615 directories that contain the same file name.
4617 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
4618 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
4619 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
4620 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
4621 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
4622 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
4623 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
4626 ** New modes and packages
4628 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
4629 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
4630 it, but some do not.
4632 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
4635 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
4636 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
4639 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
4641 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
4642 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
4643 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
4644 established system of notation similar to Chess.
4646 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
4647 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
4648 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
4650 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
4651 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
4652 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
4653 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
4654 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
4657 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
4658 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
4660 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
4661 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
4662 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
4663 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
4665 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
4667 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
4668 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
4669 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
4670 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
4671 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
4672 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
4673 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
4674 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
4675 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
4676 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
4677 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
4679 Platform-specific modes:
4681 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
4682 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
4683 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
4684 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
4685 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
4686 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
4687 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
4688 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
4689 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
4691 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4693 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
4694 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
4695 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
4696 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
4698 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
4699 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
4700 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
4702 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
4703 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
4704 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
4705 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
4707 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
4708 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
4709 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
4712 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
4713 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
4714 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
4715 current input method for reading this one event.
4717 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
4718 now control whether to output certain characters as
4719 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
4720 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
4721 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
4722 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
4724 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
4726 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
4727 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
4729 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
4730 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
4731 always increases point by 1.
4733 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
4734 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
4736 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
4738 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
4739 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
4740 default value changed. For example,
4742 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
4747 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
4750 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
4751 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
4752 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
4753 `:version' in the top level group.
4755 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
4757 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
4758 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
4760 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
4761 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
4762 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
4765 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
4766 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
4769 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
4770 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
4771 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
4773 ** Frame-local variables.
4775 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
4776 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
4777 local bindings for that variable.
4779 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
4780 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
4781 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
4784 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
4785 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
4786 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
4787 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
4789 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
4790 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
4791 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
4792 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
4794 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
4795 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
4796 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
4797 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
4798 See the documentation in sregex.el.
4800 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
4801 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
4802 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
4803 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
4805 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
4806 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
4808 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
4809 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
4810 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
4812 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
4813 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
4814 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
4815 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
4817 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
4818 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
4821 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
4822 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
4823 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
4824 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
4825 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
4827 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
4828 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
4829 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
4830 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
4832 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
4833 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
4834 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
4835 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
4836 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
4838 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
4839 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
4840 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
4841 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
4843 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
4844 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
4845 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
4847 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
4848 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
4849 was directed to display this buffer.
4851 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
4852 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
4853 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
4854 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
4855 set-window-configuration.
4857 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
4858 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
4859 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
4860 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
4862 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
4863 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
4864 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
4866 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
4867 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
4868 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
4870 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
4871 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
4873 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
4874 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
4876 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
4877 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
4878 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
4880 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
4881 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
4882 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
4883 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
4887 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
4888 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
4891 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
4892 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
4893 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
4894 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
4895 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
4897 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
4899 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
4900 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
4901 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
4902 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
4905 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
4906 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
4907 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
4908 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
4909 The supported properties include
4911 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4913 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
4914 item should appear in the menu.
4916 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
4917 which will be REAL-BINDING.
4918 It should return a binding to use instead.
4920 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
4921 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
4922 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
4923 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
4924 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
4927 This means that the command normally has no
4928 keyboard equivalent.
4929 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
4930 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
4931 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
4932 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
4933 value says whether this button is currently selected.
4935 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
4936 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
4938 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
4942 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
4943 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
4944 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
4945 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
4947 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
4949 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4950 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
4951 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
4952 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
4953 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
4954 forward, away from the user.
4956 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4958 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
4959 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
4960 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
4961 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
4962 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
4964 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
4966 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
4967 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
4968 that were dragged and dropped.
4970 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
4972 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
4974 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
4975 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
4976 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
4978 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
4979 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
4980 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
4982 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
4983 in Emacs 19 and before.
4985 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
4986 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
4988 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
4989 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
4990 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
4991 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
4993 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
4994 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
4995 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
4996 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
4997 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
4999 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
5000 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
5001 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
5002 consistent with the new representation.
5004 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
5005 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
5006 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
5007 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5009 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
5010 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
5011 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
5013 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
5014 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
5015 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5017 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
5018 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
5019 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
5021 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5022 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
5024 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5025 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
5027 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
5028 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
5029 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
5030 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
5032 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
5033 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
5035 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
5036 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
5037 buffer or string being searched.
5039 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
5040 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
5041 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
5042 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
5043 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
5044 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
5045 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
5047 *** Structure of coding system changed.
5049 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
5050 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
5051 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
5052 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
5053 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
5054 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
5055 define-coding-system-alias.
5057 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
5058 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
5059 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
5060 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
5061 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
5062 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
5063 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
5066 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
5067 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
5068 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
5069 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
5071 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
5072 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
5073 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
5074 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
5076 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
5077 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
5078 This function requires a user interaction.
5080 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
5081 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
5082 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
5083 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
5084 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
5085 select-safe-coding-system.
5087 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
5088 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
5089 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
5092 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
5093 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
5094 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
5096 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
5097 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
5098 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
5099 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
5101 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
5102 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
5103 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
5106 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
5107 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
5109 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
5110 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
5111 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
5112 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
5113 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
5114 range of characters.
5116 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
5117 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
5119 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
5120 in the current buffer at position POS.
5122 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
5123 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
5124 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
5125 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
5126 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
5127 binding input-method-function to nil.
5129 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
5130 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
5131 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
5132 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
5133 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
5135 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
5136 subsequent events of a key sequence.
5138 *** You can customize any language environment by using
5139 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
5141 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
5142 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
5143 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
5144 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
5145 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
5147 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
5149 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
5150 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
5151 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
5154 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
5155 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
5157 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
5158 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
5159 in your .emacs file.)
5161 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
5162 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
5164 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
5165 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
5167 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
5168 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
5171 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
5172 delete the character before point, as usual.
5174 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
5175 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
5176 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
5178 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
5179 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
5180 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
5181 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
5182 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
5185 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
5186 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
5187 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
5188 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
5189 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
5191 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
5192 and is an alias for it.
5194 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
5195 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
5197 ** Scrolling changes
5199 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
5200 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
5202 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
5203 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
5206 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
5207 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
5208 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
5209 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
5211 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
5212 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
5213 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
5214 recenters the window.
5216 ** International character set support (MULE)
5218 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
5219 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
5220 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
5221 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
5222 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
5223 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
5225 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
5226 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
5227 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
5228 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
5229 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
5231 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
5232 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
5233 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
5234 language, to make it possible to type them.
5236 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
5237 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
5239 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
5240 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
5242 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
5244 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
5246 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
5247 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
5248 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
5249 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
5250 characters for their work until they want to change.
5254 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
5255 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
5256 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
5257 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
5258 support several input methods.
5260 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
5261 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
5264 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
5265 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
5266 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
5267 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
5268 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
5271 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
5272 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
5273 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
5274 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
5275 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
5277 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
5278 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
5279 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
5280 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
5282 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
5283 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
5284 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
5285 the first guess is wrong.
5287 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
5288 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
5290 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
5291 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
5292 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
5293 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
5295 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
5296 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
5297 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
5298 translate automatically to and from either one.
5300 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
5302 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
5303 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
5304 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
5307 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
5308 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
5309 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
5310 multibyte characters in that buffer.
5312 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
5313 character conversion as well.
5315 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
5317 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
5318 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
5319 requires using many fonts.
5321 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
5322 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
5324 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
5325 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
5326 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
5327 you would use a font.
5329 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
5330 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
5331 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
5333 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
5334 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
5335 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
5336 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
5337 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
5339 *** Defining fontsets.
5341 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
5342 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
5343 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
5345 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
5346 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
5347 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
5348 standard fontset are created automatically.
5350 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
5351 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
5352 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
5353 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
5354 name is `fontset-startup'.
5356 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
5357 The resource value should have this form:
5358 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
5359 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
5360 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
5361 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
5362 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
5363 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
5364 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
5365 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
5366 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
5368 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
5369 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
5370 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
5372 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
5373 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
5375 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
5376 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
5377 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
5378 Here is the substitution rule:
5379 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
5380 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
5381 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
5382 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
5383 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
5385 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
5386 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
5387 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
5389 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
5390 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
5391 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
5392 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
5395 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
5396 defaults for a particular choice of language.
5398 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
5399 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
5400 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
5401 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
5402 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
5403 system for new files that you create.
5405 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
5406 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
5407 whole Emacs session.
5409 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
5410 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
5411 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
5413 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
5414 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
5415 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
5416 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
5417 coding systems that Emacs supports.
5419 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
5420 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
5421 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
5422 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
5423 is used for *the immediately following command*.
5425 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
5426 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
5428 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
5429 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
5431 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
5432 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
5434 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
5435 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
5436 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
5437 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
5440 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
5441 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
5442 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
5443 translated into that character code.
5445 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
5446 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
5448 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
5450 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
5451 the coding system for keyboard input.
5453 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
5454 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
5455 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
5457 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
5459 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
5460 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
5461 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
5462 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
5463 designed to work with terminals.
5465 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
5466 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
5467 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
5468 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
5469 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
5470 in the corresponding buffer.
5472 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
5474 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
5475 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
5476 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
5478 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
5479 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
5480 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
5483 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
5484 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
5486 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
5487 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
5488 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
5489 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
5491 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
5492 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
5493 related information.
5495 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
5496 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
5499 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
5500 information about the support for a particular language.
5501 You specify the language as an argument.
5503 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
5504 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
5507 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
5508 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
5509 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
5510 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
5512 A alternativnyj (Russian)
5514 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
5515 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
5516 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
5517 E euc-japan (Japanese)
5518 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5519 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
5520 K euc-korea (Korean)
5523 S shift_jis (Japanese)
5526 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
5527 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5528 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
5532 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
5533 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
5534 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
5535 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
5537 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
5538 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
5540 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
5541 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
5542 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
5543 Rmail files themselves.
5545 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
5546 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
5548 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
5551 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
5552 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
5553 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
5554 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
5555 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
5557 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
5558 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
5559 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
5562 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
5563 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
5564 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
5565 without any conversion.
5567 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
5568 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
5569 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
5570 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
5572 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
5573 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
5575 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
5576 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
5578 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
5579 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
5581 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
5582 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
5583 in the buffer before point.
5585 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
5586 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
5589 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
5590 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
5592 ** File locking works with NFS now.
5594 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
5595 in the same directory as FILENAME.
5597 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
5598 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
5599 can become a bottleneck.
5601 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
5602 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
5603 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
5604 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
5605 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
5606 so useful that the change is worth while.
5608 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
5609 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
5610 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
5611 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
5613 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
5614 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
5617 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
5618 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
5619 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
5621 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
5622 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
5623 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
5625 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
5626 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
5627 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
5629 ** Changes in View mode.
5631 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
5632 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
5634 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
5635 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
5637 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
5640 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
5641 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
5643 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
5644 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
5645 not just the selected window.
5647 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
5648 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
5649 turns View mode on or off.
5651 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
5652 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
5653 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
5655 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
5656 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
5658 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
5659 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
5660 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
5661 which version to compare with.
5663 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
5664 blocks if a match is inside the block.
5666 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
5667 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
5668 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
5669 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
5671 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
5672 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
5673 blocks, all of them or none.
5675 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
5676 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
5679 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
5680 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
5681 However, the mode will not be changed if
5682 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
5683 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
5684 not suitable for ordinary files, or
5685 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
5687 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
5689 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
5690 these commands do not change the major mode.
5692 ** M-x occur changes.
5694 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
5695 it performs a case-sensitive search.
5697 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
5698 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
5699 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
5701 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
5702 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
5703 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
5704 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
5705 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
5707 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
5708 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
5709 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
5710 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
5712 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
5713 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
5714 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
5716 ** Outline mode changes.
5718 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
5720 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
5722 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
5723 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
5724 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
5727 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
5728 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
5731 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
5732 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
5734 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
5736 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
5737 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
5738 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
5739 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
5741 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
5742 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
5743 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
5745 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
5746 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
5749 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
5750 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
5751 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
5752 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
5754 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
5755 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
5756 can be. The default value is 30.
5758 ** Changes in Mail mode.
5760 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
5761 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
5762 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
5763 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
5764 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
5767 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
5768 compose-mail-other-frame.
5770 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
5771 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
5772 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
5773 buffer that shows the original message.
5775 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
5776 with separator lines around the contents.
5778 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
5779 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
5780 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
5781 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
5783 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
5785 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
5786 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
5787 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
5788 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
5790 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
5791 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
5794 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
5795 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
5798 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
5799 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
5800 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
5801 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
5803 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
5804 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
5805 be taken to be magic.
5807 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
5808 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
5809 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
5811 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
5812 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
5814 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
5815 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
5817 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
5819 new key dired.el binding old key
5820 ------- ---------------- -------
5821 * c dired-change-marks c
5823 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
5824 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
5825 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
5827 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
5828 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
5829 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
5830 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
5831 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
5832 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
5836 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
5837 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
5838 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
5839 each time you run it.
5841 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
5842 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
5844 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
5845 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
5846 means to move in the opposite direction.
5848 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
5849 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
5851 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
5852 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
5853 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
5854 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
5859 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
5861 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
5864 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
5865 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
5867 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
5870 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
5872 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
5874 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
5876 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
5877 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
5878 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
5880 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
5882 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
5884 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
5885 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
5887 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
5888 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
5889 used to pick articles.
5891 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
5892 another have been added.
5894 `M-x gnus-change-server'
5896 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
5897 generating lines in buffers.
5899 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
5902 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
5904 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
5906 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
5908 *** Scores can be decayed.
5910 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
5912 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
5913 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
5915 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
5918 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
5920 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
5921 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
5923 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
5925 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
5926 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
5928 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
5929 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
5931 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
5934 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
5935 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
5937 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
5939 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
5941 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
5943 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
5945 Use the `Y c' command.
5947 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
5949 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
5951 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
5953 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
5954 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
5956 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
5958 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
5960 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
5961 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
5963 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
5965 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
5966 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
5967 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
5968 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
5971 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
5972 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
5973 particular news group. This can be done by:
5975 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
5977 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
5978 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
5979 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
5980 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
5981 for reading and posting).
5983 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
5984 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
5985 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
5986 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
5989 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
5990 default. Here are some of these default settings:
5992 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
5993 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
5994 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
5995 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
5996 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
5998 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
5999 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
6003 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
6004 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
6005 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
6006 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
6007 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
6010 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
6011 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
6012 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
6013 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
6014 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
6015 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
6017 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
6018 of the current buffer.
6020 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
6021 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
6022 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
6024 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
6025 style that the Python developers like.
6027 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
6028 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
6029 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
6033 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
6034 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
6035 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
6037 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
6038 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
6041 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
6042 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
6044 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
6045 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
6046 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
6047 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
6049 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
6050 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
6052 ** Calendar changes.
6054 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
6055 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
6056 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
6060 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
6062 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
6064 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
6065 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
6066 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
6067 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
6068 It defaults to `letter'.
6069 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
6071 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
6072 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
6073 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
6075 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
6076 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
6079 *** Horizontal layout
6081 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
6082 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
6083 All are measured in points.
6087 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
6088 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
6089 All are measured in points.
6093 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
6094 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
6095 margin above the text.
6097 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
6098 framing box is printed around the header.
6100 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
6101 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
6103 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
6104 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
6105 `ps-header-font-size'.
6109 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
6110 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
6111 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
6112 elements to this alist.
6114 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
6115 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
6117 ** hideshow changes.
6119 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
6122 *** Support for java-mode added.
6124 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
6125 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
6127 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
6128 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
6129 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
6131 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
6132 robust and a lot faster.
6134 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
6136 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
6137 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
6138 documentation for more details.
6140 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
6142 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
6143 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
6144 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
6145 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
6146 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
6148 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
6149 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
6150 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
6151 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
6157 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
6158 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
6159 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
6160 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
6161 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
6162 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
6164 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
6166 *** Maximum decoration
6168 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
6169 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
6170 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
6171 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
6172 to get the old behavior.
6176 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
6178 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
6179 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
6181 *** Configurable support
6183 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
6184 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
6185 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
6186 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
6187 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
6188 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
6189 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
6191 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
6192 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
6193 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
6195 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
6197 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
6198 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
6201 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
6203 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
6209 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
6210 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
6211 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
6212 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
6214 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
6216 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
6217 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
6218 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
6220 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
6222 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
6223 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
6224 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
6225 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
6226 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
6227 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
6228 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
6230 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
6231 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
6232 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
6233 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
6234 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
6235 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
6237 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
6239 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
6240 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
6241 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
6242 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
6244 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
6247 ** Ada mode changes.
6249 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
6250 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
6251 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
6252 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
6255 *** There are two new commands:
6256 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
6257 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
6259 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
6260 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
6261 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
6263 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
6264 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
6265 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
6267 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
6268 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
6269 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
6270 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
6272 ** Scheme mode changes.
6274 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
6275 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
6276 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
6277 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
6280 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
6281 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
6282 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
6283 variables as buffer-local variables.
6285 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
6288 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
6290 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
6291 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
6292 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
6293 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
6295 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
6296 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
6299 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
6300 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
6301 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
6302 option takes precedence.
6304 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
6305 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
6306 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
6308 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
6309 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
6312 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
6313 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
6315 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
6316 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
6319 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
6320 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
6321 these register values no longer become completely useless.
6322 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
6323 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
6324 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
6326 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
6327 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
6328 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
6329 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
6331 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
6332 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
6333 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
6334 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
6335 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
6337 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
6338 since it applies only to the current frame.
6340 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
6341 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
6342 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
6344 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
6345 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
6346 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
6347 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
6348 instead of just the file you are editing.
6352 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
6353 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
6354 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
6355 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
6356 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
6359 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
6360 knows which kind of label is needed.
6362 C-c ) reftex-reference
6363 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
6364 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
6366 C-c [ reftex-citation
6367 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
6368 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
6370 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
6371 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
6374 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
6375 can quickly jump to every section.
6377 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
6378 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
6379 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
6380 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
6381 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
6383 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6385 *** Info documentation is now available.
6387 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
6388 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
6390 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
6391 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
6393 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
6394 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
6396 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
6397 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
6398 appropriate functions.
6400 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
6401 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
6403 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
6406 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
6407 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
6409 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
6412 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
6413 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
6414 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
6416 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
6417 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
6418 prefixed with `ALT'.
6420 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
6421 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
6422 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
6425 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
6426 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
6427 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
6429 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
6430 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
6432 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
6433 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
6434 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
6436 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
6438 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
6440 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
6443 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
6444 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
6447 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
6450 *** Added support for imenu.
6452 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
6453 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
6454 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
6455 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
6457 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
6458 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
6460 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
6462 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
6464 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
6465 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
6466 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
6469 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
6470 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
6472 ** browse-url changes
6474 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
6475 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
6476 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
6477 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
6478 customization variables.
6480 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
6482 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
6483 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
6484 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
6488 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
6489 pops up the Info file for this command.
6491 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
6492 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
6493 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
6496 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
6497 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
6498 files in the same directory.
6500 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
6501 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
6502 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
6506 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
6507 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
6509 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
6510 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
6511 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
6512 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
6513 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
6514 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
6515 color when Viper is in insert state.
6516 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
6517 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
6518 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
6522 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
6523 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
6524 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
6525 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
6526 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
6528 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
6530 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
6531 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
6533 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
6534 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
6535 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
6537 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
6538 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
6539 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
6540 methods and protocols.
6542 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
6543 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
6544 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
6547 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
6548 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
6549 at least M times and as many as N times.
6551 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
6552 in files has changed slightly.
6554 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
6555 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
6556 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
6557 with old time-stamp-format values.
6559 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
6560 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
6561 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
6564 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
6565 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
6566 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
6567 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
6568 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
6569 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
6571 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
6572 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
6573 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
6575 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
6576 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
6577 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
6578 recommended now will continue to work then.
6580 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
6583 ** There are some additional major modes:
6585 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
6586 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
6587 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
6589 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
6590 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
6593 ** New Lisp packages include:
6595 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
6597 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
6598 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
6600 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
6602 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
6605 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
6606 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
6609 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
6610 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
6611 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
6612 strings or comments.
6614 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
6615 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
6616 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
6617 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
6620 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
6621 can visit them by short forms of their names.
6623 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
6624 Emacs Lisp function at point.
6626 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
6628 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
6629 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
6631 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
6633 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
6635 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
6637 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
6638 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
6640 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
6641 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
6642 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
6643 original place after inserting the copy.
6645 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
6648 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
6649 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
6650 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
6652 Enable mouse-drag with:
6653 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
6655 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
6657 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
6658 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
6660 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
6661 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
6665 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
6666 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
6667 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
6668 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
6669 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
6670 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
6671 instance) and vice versa.
6673 To use this package load it using
6674 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
6675 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
6676 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
6677 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
6678 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
6679 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
6681 *** Interface to ph.
6683 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
6685 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
6686 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
6689 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
6691 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
6692 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
6693 while the real cursor does not move.
6695 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
6696 for visiting your favorite web sites.
6698 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
6699 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
6703 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
6704 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
6705 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
6706 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
6708 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
6710 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
6712 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
6714 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
6715 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
6716 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
6717 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
6718 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
6720 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
6721 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
6722 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
6723 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
6724 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
6725 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
6727 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
6729 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
6730 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
6731 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
6732 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
6734 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
6735 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
6737 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
6738 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
6741 ** Basic Lisp changes
6743 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
6744 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
6746 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
6747 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
6750 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
6752 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
6754 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
6755 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
6757 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
6758 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
6761 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
6763 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
6765 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
6767 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
6768 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
6769 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
6772 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
6773 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
6774 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
6776 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
6777 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
6778 adding one of these suffixes.
6780 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
6781 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
6782 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
6784 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
6785 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
6787 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
6789 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
6790 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
6792 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
6793 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
6795 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
6797 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
6798 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
6800 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
6801 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
6802 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
6803 works using `save-current-buffer'.
6805 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
6806 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
6809 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
6810 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
6811 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
6814 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
6815 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
6818 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
6820 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
6821 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
6822 Then it returns that string.
6824 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
6826 (with-output-to-string
6827 (princ "The buffer is ")
6828 (princ (buffer-name)))
6830 returns "The buffer is foo".
6832 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
6835 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
6836 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
6837 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
6839 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
6840 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
6842 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
6843 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
6844 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
6845 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
6846 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
6847 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
6849 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
6850 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
6851 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
6854 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
6855 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
6856 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
6857 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
6858 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
6860 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
6861 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
6862 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
6863 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
6865 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
6866 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
6868 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
6870 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
6871 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
6872 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
6873 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
6876 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
6877 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
6880 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
6882 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
6883 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
6884 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
6885 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
6886 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
6888 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
6890 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
6891 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
6892 more than the number of characters.
6894 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
6895 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
6896 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
6897 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
6898 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
6899 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
6901 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
6902 and returns a string containing those characters.
6904 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
6905 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
6906 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
6907 character, sref signals an error.
6909 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
6910 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
6911 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6913 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
6914 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
6915 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
6917 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
6918 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
6919 to a vector of the characters in it.
6921 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
6922 of a string. You call it as follows:
6924 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
6926 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
6927 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
6928 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
6929 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
6930 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
6932 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
6933 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6935 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
6936 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
6938 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
6939 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
6940 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
6941 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
6943 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
6945 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
6947 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
6948 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
6949 are not included in the resulting value.
6951 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
6952 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
6953 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
6954 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
6956 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
6957 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
6958 character extends across that column), then the padding character
6959 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
6960 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
6961 column START-COLUMN.
6963 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
6964 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
6965 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
6966 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
6967 changed text, before the change.
6969 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
6970 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
6971 one character set for each script, not for each language.
6973 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
6975 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
6977 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
6978 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
6980 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
6981 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
6982 which identify the character within that character set.
6984 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
6985 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
6986 opposite of split-char.
6988 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
6989 of all the characters between BEG and END.
6991 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
6992 of all the characters in a string.
6994 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
6995 and specifying coding systems.
6997 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
6998 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
6999 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
7000 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
7001 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
7002 as what to do about code conversion.)
7004 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
7005 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
7007 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7008 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7009 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
7011 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7012 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
7013 to match against a file name.
7015 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7016 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7017 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7018 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7019 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7020 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7022 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7023 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7025 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
7026 the coding system to use for network sockets.
7028 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7029 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
7030 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
7033 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7034 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7035 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7036 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7037 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7038 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7040 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7041 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7043 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7044 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7045 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
7046 start the subprocess.
7048 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
7049 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
7050 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
7051 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
7052 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
7054 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
7055 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
7058 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
7059 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
7060 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
7061 connection permanently or until overridden.
7063 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
7064 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
7065 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
7066 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
7067 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
7068 system for one operation at a time.
7070 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
7071 files, subprocesses or network connections.
7073 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
7074 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
7075 The value is a cons cell,
7076 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
7077 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
7078 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
7079 input to the subprocess.
7081 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
7082 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
7084 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
7085 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
7086 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
7088 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
7089 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
7090 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
7091 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
7094 Thus, instead of writing
7096 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
7097 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
7099 you would now write this:
7101 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
7102 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
7106 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
7107 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
7108 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
7109 for a description of them.
7111 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
7112 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
7114 (defgroup ispell nil
7115 "Spell checking using Ispell."
7118 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
7119 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
7120 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
7121 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
7122 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
7124 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
7125 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
7126 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
7127 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
7128 first-level subgroups.
7130 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
7132 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
7133 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
7137 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
7138 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
7139 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
7140 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
7141 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
7142 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
7144 ** Text property changes
7146 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
7149 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
7150 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
7151 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
7152 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
7153 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
7155 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
7156 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
7157 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
7158 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
7160 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
7161 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
7162 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
7164 ** Changes in invisibility features
7166 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
7167 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
7168 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
7169 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
7170 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
7171 make the overlay visible.
7173 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
7174 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
7175 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
7176 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
7177 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
7178 t when it should hide it.
7180 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
7182 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
7183 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
7184 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
7185 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
7186 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
7187 Here is an example of how to do this:
7189 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
7190 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7191 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
7192 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7195 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
7198 ;; When done with the overlays:
7199 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7201 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7203 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
7205 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
7206 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
7207 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
7208 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
7210 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
7211 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
7212 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
7214 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
7215 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
7217 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
7218 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
7220 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
7221 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
7222 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
7224 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
7225 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
7226 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
7227 determine the syntax type of the character.
7229 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
7230 of the current buffer.
7232 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
7233 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
7234 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
7236 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
7237 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
7238 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
7239 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
7240 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
7242 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
7245 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
7246 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
7247 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
7249 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
7250 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
7251 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
7252 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
7253 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
7255 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
7256 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
7257 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
7259 ** Changes in face features
7261 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
7262 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
7264 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
7265 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
7267 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
7268 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
7270 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
7271 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
7273 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
7274 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
7275 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
7276 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
7279 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
7280 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
7282 ** Changes in file-handling functions
7284 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
7285 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
7286 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
7287 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
7289 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
7292 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
7293 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
7295 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
7296 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
7298 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
7299 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
7301 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
7302 character code conversion as well as other things.
7304 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
7305 (formerly it did not).
7307 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
7308 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
7310 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
7311 instead of constant strings.
7313 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
7314 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
7315 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
7317 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
7318 in the same way as before.
7320 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
7321 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
7322 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
7324 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
7325 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
7326 else, and returns nil.
7328 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
7329 directory cannot be listed.
7331 ** Changes in minibuffer input
7333 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
7334 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
7335 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
7336 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
7339 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
7340 It is available through the history command M-n.
7342 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
7343 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
7344 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
7345 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
7346 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
7348 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
7349 argument in this way.
7351 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
7352 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
7353 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
7355 ** Echo area features
7357 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
7358 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
7359 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
7360 after the echo area is cleared.
7362 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
7363 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
7365 ** Keyboard input features
7367 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
7368 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
7370 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
7371 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
7374 ** Frame-related changes
7376 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
7377 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
7378 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
7380 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
7381 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
7382 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
7384 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7385 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
7386 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
7387 in the selected frame.
7389 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
7390 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
7391 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
7393 ** X Windows features
7395 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
7396 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
7397 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
7399 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
7400 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
7402 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
7403 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
7404 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
7406 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
7407 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
7409 ** Subprocess features
7411 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
7412 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
7415 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
7416 and returns the output from the command as a string.
7418 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
7419 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
7421 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
7422 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
7424 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
7425 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
7426 goes after the other menu items.
7428 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
7429 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
7430 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
7433 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
7434 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
7436 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
7437 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
7440 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
7441 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
7442 but its hook is still run.
7444 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
7445 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
7447 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
7448 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
7449 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
7451 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
7452 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
7453 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
7456 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
7457 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
7459 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
7460 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
7461 functions like display-time.
7463 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
7464 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
7466 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
7467 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
7468 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
7470 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
7471 if there is an error in compilation.
7473 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
7474 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
7475 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
7476 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
7478 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
7479 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
7480 the *scratch* buffer.
7482 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
7483 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
7484 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
7485 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
7487 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
7488 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
7489 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
7491 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
7492 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
7493 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
7494 and compose-mail-other-frame.
7496 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
7497 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
7498 full name of the specified user will be returned.
7500 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
7501 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
7502 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
7503 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
7504 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
7507 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
7508 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
7509 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
7510 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
7512 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
7513 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
7514 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
7515 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
7517 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
7519 ** imenu.el changes.
7521 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
7522 item from menu created by imenu.
7524 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
7525 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
7526 select one of those items.
7528 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
7530 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
7532 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
7533 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
7535 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
7536 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
7537 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
7539 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
7541 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
7542 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
7544 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
7545 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
7546 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
7547 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
7548 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
7551 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
7552 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
7554 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
7555 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
7556 as in previous Emacs versions.
7558 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
7559 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
7560 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
7563 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
7564 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
7565 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
7566 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
7569 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
7570 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
7571 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
7572 line and then executing the macro.
7574 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
7576 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
7577 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
7578 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
7583 *** Font Lock support modes
7585 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
7586 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
7587 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
7588 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
7589 Font Lock mode is enabled.
7591 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
7593 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
7599 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
7600 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
7601 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
7602 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
7603 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
7604 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
7605 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
7607 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
7609 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
7611 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
7613 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7615 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
7618 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
7623 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
7624 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
7625 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
7626 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
7628 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
7629 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
7631 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
7632 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
7635 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
7636 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
7638 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
7640 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
7642 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
7644 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
7647 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
7649 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
7651 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
7653 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
7655 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
7658 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
7660 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
7662 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
7664 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
7666 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
7668 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
7670 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
7672 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
7675 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
7677 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
7680 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
7682 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
7683 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
7685 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
7687 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
7689 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
7691 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
7693 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
7696 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
7698 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
7699 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
7701 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
7702 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
7703 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
7705 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
7706 articles with the `*' command.
7708 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
7710 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
7712 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
7714 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
7716 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
7717 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
7719 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
7722 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
7724 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
7726 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
7728 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
7730 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
7732 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
7734 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
7736 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
7738 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
7740 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
7741 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
7743 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
7746 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
7748 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
7749 buffer to allow easier treatment.
7751 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
7753 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
7755 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
7757 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
7760 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
7762 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
7764 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
7765 cited text to hide is now customizable.
7767 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
7769 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
7771 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
7773 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
7775 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
7777 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
7780 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
7782 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
7783 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
7784 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
7787 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
7790 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
7793 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
7794 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
7797 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
7798 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
7799 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
7800 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
7801 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
7804 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
7806 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
7808 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
7809 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
7810 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
7811 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
7812 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
7814 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
7815 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
7816 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
7818 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
7820 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
7821 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
7822 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
7823 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
7824 chapter of the manual for details.
7826 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
7827 customization variables take effect.
7829 ** Marking with the mouse.
7831 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
7832 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
7833 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
7835 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
7837 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
7839 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
7840 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
7842 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
7843 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
7844 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
7845 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
7846 applications, these problems are significant.
7848 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
7849 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
7850 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
7851 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
7852 other DOS application as a subprocess.
7854 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
7855 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
7857 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
7858 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
7859 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
7860 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
7861 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
7862 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
7864 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
7866 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
7867 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
7868 minibuffer contains.
7870 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
7872 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
7873 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
7874 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
7875 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
7877 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
7878 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
7879 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
7880 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
7882 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
7883 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
7885 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
7886 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
7887 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
7889 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
7890 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
7891 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
7892 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
7894 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
7896 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
7897 to replace the characters it "deletes".
7899 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
7901 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
7902 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
7903 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
7904 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
7905 immediately after the selected one.
7907 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
7908 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
7910 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
7912 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
7913 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
7914 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
7915 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
7918 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
7919 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
7922 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
7923 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
7924 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
7925 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
7926 now that the bug is fixed.
7928 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
7930 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
7931 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
7932 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
7933 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
7935 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
7936 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
7937 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
7938 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
7940 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
7941 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
7942 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
7944 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
7945 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
7946 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
7947 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
7950 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
7951 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
7953 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
7954 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
7955 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
7956 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
7958 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
7959 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
7960 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
7961 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
7962 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
7963 `mail-directory-stream'.)
7965 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
7966 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
7967 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
7968 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
7970 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
7971 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
7972 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
7974 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
7975 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
7976 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
7977 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
7978 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
7979 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
7980 to a limitation in font-lock).
7982 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
7984 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
7985 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
7986 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
7989 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
7990 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
7992 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
7994 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
7996 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
7998 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
8000 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
8001 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
8002 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
8003 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
8004 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
8005 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
8007 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
8010 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
8011 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
8013 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
8018 *** Global Font Lock mode
8020 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
8021 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
8022 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
8023 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
8024 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
8026 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
8028 (global-font-lock-mode t)
8032 *** Local Refontification
8034 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
8035 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
8036 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
8037 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
8039 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
8040 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
8041 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
8042 above and below point.
8044 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
8048 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
8049 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
8050 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
8051 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
8052 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
8055 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
8057 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
8058 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
8060 ** hide-show changes.
8062 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
8063 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
8066 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
8067 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
8069 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
8070 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
8071 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
8075 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
8076 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
8078 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
8079 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
8081 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
8083 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
8084 pressing both mouse buttons.
8086 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
8087 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
8090 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
8093 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
8095 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
8096 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
8098 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
8100 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
8102 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
8104 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
8106 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
8108 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
8110 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
8111 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
8112 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
8113 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
8114 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
8116 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
8118 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
8119 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
8120 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
8123 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
8126 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
8128 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
8129 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
8131 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
8132 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
8134 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
8135 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
8136 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
8138 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
8139 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
8142 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8144 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
8145 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
8146 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
8148 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
8149 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
8150 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
8152 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
8153 up if too much time passes.
8155 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
8157 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
8158 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
8159 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
8162 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
8163 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
8164 call looks like this:
8166 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8168 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
8169 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
8170 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
8173 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
8174 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
8177 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
8178 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
8179 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
8180 each time Emacs becomes idle.
8182 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
8183 idle for SECS seconds.
8185 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
8186 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
8187 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
8190 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
8191 there is no answer within a certain time.
8193 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
8195 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
8196 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
8197 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
8199 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
8200 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
8201 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
8202 arguments in between are ignored.
8204 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
8205 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
8207 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
8208 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
8209 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
8210 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
8213 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
8214 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
8215 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
8216 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
8217 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
8218 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
8220 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
8221 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
8222 systems with limited file name syntax.
8224 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
8225 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
8226 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
8229 (defvar save-completions-file-name
8230 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
8231 "*The filename to save completions to.")
8233 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
8234 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
8235 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
8236 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
8237 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
8239 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
8240 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
8241 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
8243 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
8244 marker from its buffer position.
8246 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
8247 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
8248 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
8250 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
8251 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
8252 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
8253 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
8254 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
8255 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
8257 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
8258 errors that happen often during editing.
8260 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
8261 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
8262 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
8264 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
8265 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
8267 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
8268 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
8269 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
8270 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
8271 and not get-buffer-window.
8273 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
8274 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
8275 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
8277 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
8278 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
8279 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
8280 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
8281 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
8282 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
8283 over and over for the same text.
8285 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
8287 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
8288 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
8290 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
8293 in addition to the normal
8297 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
8298 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
8299 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
8301 * For older news, see the file ONEWS.
8303 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
8304 Copyright information:
8306 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8308 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8309 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8310 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8311 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8313 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8314 of this document, or of portions of it,
8315 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8316 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8320 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"