1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2003-05-21
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
9 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
10 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
11 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
12 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
15 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.4
17 ** You can build Emacs with Gtk+ widgets by specifying `--with-x-toolkit=gtk'
18 when you run configure. This requires Gtk+ 2.0 or newer. This port
19 provides a way to display multilingual text in menus (with some caveats).
22 ** Emacs can now be built without sound support.
24 ** The `emacsserver' program has been removed, replaced with elisp code.
27 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
28 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
32 ** By default, Emacs now uses a setgid helper program to update game
33 scores. The directory ${localstatedir}/games/emacs is the normal
34 place for game scores to be stored. This may be controlled by the
35 configure option `--with-game-dir'. The specific user that Emacs uses
36 to own the game scores is controlled by `--with-game-user'. If access
37 to a game user is not available, then scores will be stored separately
38 in each user's home directory.
41 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
42 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
46 ** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
48 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
49 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
50 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
51 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
54 ** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
57 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
58 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
59 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
60 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
62 ** Support for Cygwin was added.
65 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
68 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on S390 machines was added.
71 ** Support for MacOS X was added.
72 See the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
75 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on X86-64 machines was added.
78 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
81 ** A French translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
84 * Changes in Emacs 21.4
86 ** New command `display-local-help' displays any local help at point
87 in the echo area. It is bound to `C-h .'. It normally displays the
88 same string that would be displayed on mouse-over using the
89 `help-echo' property, but, in certain cases, it can display a more
90 keyboard oriented alternative.
92 ** New user option `help-at-pt-display-when-idle' allows to
93 automatically show the help provided by `display-local-help' on
94 point-over, after suitable idle time. The amount of idle time is
95 determined by the user option `help-at-pt-timer-delay' and defaults
96 to one second. This feature is turned off by default.
98 ** New commands `scan-buf-next-region' and `scan-buf-previous-region'
99 move to the start of the next (previous, respectively) region with
100 non-nil help-echo property and display any help found there in the
101 echo area, using `display-local-help'.
104 ** Help mode now only makes hyperlinks for faces when the face name is
105 preceded or followed by the word `face'. It no longer makes
106 hyperlinks for variables without variable documentation, unless
107 preceded by one of the words `variable' or `option'.
109 ** The max size of buffers and integers has been doubled.
110 On 32bit machines, it is now 256M (i.e. 268435455).
113 ** The -f option, used from the command line to call a function,
114 now reads arguments for the function interactively if it is
115 an interactively callable function.
120 *** The variable `sql-product' controls the highlightng of different
121 SQL dialects. This variable can be set globally via Customize, on a
122 buffer-specific basis via local variable settings, or for the current
123 session using the new SQL->Product submenu. (This menu replaces the
124 SQL->Highlighting submenu.)
126 The following values are supported:
128 ansi ANSI Standard (default)
142 The current product name will be shown on the mode line following the
145 The technique of setting `sql-mode-font-lock-defaults' directly in
146 your .emacs will no longer establish the default highlighting -- Use
147 `sql-product' to accomplish this.
149 *** The function `sql-add-product-keywords' can be used to add
150 font-lock rules to the product specific rules. For example, to have
151 all identifiers ending in "_t" under MS SQLServer treated as a type,
152 you would use the following line in your .emacs file:
154 (sql-add-product-keywords 'ms
155 '("\\<\\w+_t\\>" . font-lock-type-face))
157 *** Oracle support includes keyword highlighting for Oracle 9i. Most
158 SQL and PL/SQL keywords are implemented. SQL*Plus commands are
159 highlighted in `font-lock-doc-face'.
161 *** Microsoft SQLServer support has been significantly improved.
162 Keyword highlighting for SqlServer 2000 is implemented.
163 sql-interactive-mode defaults to use osql, rather than isql, because
164 osql flushes it's error stream more frequently. Thus error messages
165 are displayed when they occur rather than when the session is
168 If the username and password are not provided to `sql-ms', osql is
169 called with the -E command line argument to use the operating system
170 credentials to authenticate the user.
172 *** Imenu support has been enhanced to locate tables, views, indexes,
173 packages, procedures, functions, triggers, sequences, rules, and
176 *** Added SQL->Start SQLi Session menu entry which calls the
177 appropriate sql-interactive-mode wrapper for the current setting of
180 ** M-x view-file and commands that use it now avoid interfering
181 with special modes such as Tar mode.
183 ** Enhancements to apropos commands:
185 *** The apropos commands will now accept a list of words to match.
186 When more than one word is specified, at least two of those words must
187 be present for an item to match. Regular expression matching is still
190 *** The new option `apropos-sort-by-scores' causes the matching items
191 to be sorted according to their score. The score for an item is a
192 number calculated to indicate how well the item matches the words or
193 regular expression that you entered to the apropos command. The best
194 match is listed first, and the calculated score is shown for each
198 ** The old bindings C-M-delete and C-M-backspace have been deleted,
199 since there are situations where one or the other will shut down
200 the operating system or your X server.
202 ** New minor mode, Visible mode, toggles invisibility in the current buffer.
203 When enabled, it makes all invisible text visible. When disabled, it
204 restores the previous value of `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
206 ** New command `kill-whole-line' kills an entire line at once.
207 By default, it is bound to C-S-<backspace>.
210 ** Info now hides node names in menus and cross references by default.
211 If you prefer the old behavior, you can set the new user option
212 `Info-hide-note-references' to nil.
214 ** Support for the SQLite interpreter has been added to sql.el by calling
218 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `required-fields', enabled by default.
219 *** bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries can take values `plain',
220 `crossref', and `entry-class' which control the sorting scheme used
221 for BibTeX entries. `bibtex-sort-entry-class' controls the sorting
222 scheme `entry-class'. TAB completion for reference keys and
223 automatic detection of duplicates does not require anymore that
224 bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil.
226 *** If the new variable bibtex-parse-keys-fast is non-nil,
227 use fast but simplified algorithm for parsing BibTeX keys.
229 *** If the new variable bibtex-autoadd-commas is non-nil,
230 automatically add missing commas at end of BibTeX fields.
232 *** The new variable bibtex-autofill-types contains a list of entry
233 types for which fields are filled automatically (if possible).
235 *** The new command bibtex-complete completes word fragment before
236 point according to context (bound to M-tab).
238 *** The new commands bibtex-find-entry and bibtex-find-crossref
239 locate entries and crossref'd entries.
241 *** In BibTeX mode the command fill-paragraph (bound to M-q) fills
242 individual fields of a BibTeX entry.
244 ** When display margins are present in a window, the fringes are now
245 displayed between the margins and the buffer's text area, rather than
246 at the edges of the window.
248 ** A window may now have individual fringe and scroll-bar settings,
249 in addition to the individual display margin settings.
251 Such individual settings are now preserved when windows are split
252 horizontally or vertically, a saved window configuration is restored,
253 or when the frame is resized.
255 ** New functions frame-current-scroll-bars and window-current-scroll-bars.
257 These functions return the current locations of the vertical and
258 horisontal scroll bars in a frame or window.
260 ** Under X, mouse-wheel-mode is turned on by default.
262 ** The X resource useXIM can be used to turn off use of XIM, which may
263 speed up Emacs with slow networking to the X server.
265 If the configure option `--without-xim' was used to turn off use of
266 XIM by default, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn it on.
268 ** `describe-char' can show data from the Unicode database file. See
269 user option `unicode-data'.
271 ** `undo-only' does an undo which does not redo any previous undo.
273 ** `uniquify-strip-common-suffix' tells uniquify to prefer
274 `file|dir1' and `file|dir2' to `file|dir1/subdir' and `file|dir2/subdir'.
276 ** If the user visits a file larger than `large-file-warning-threshold',
277 Emacs will prompt her for confirmation.
279 ** A UTF-7 coding system is available in the library `utf-7'.
281 ** GUD mode has its own tool bar for controlling execution of the inferior
282 and other common debugger commands.
286 The recent file list is now automatically cleanup when recentf mode is
287 enabled. The new option `recentf-auto-cleanup' controls when to do
290 With the more advanced option: `recentf-filename-handler', you can
291 specify a function that transforms filenames handled by recentf. For
292 example, if set to `file-truename', the same file will not be in the
293 recent list with different symbolic links.
295 To follow naming convention, `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-flag'
296 and `recentf-menu-append-commands-flag' respectively replace the
297 misnamed options `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-p' and
298 `recentf-menu-append-commands-p'. The old names remain available as
299 aliases, but have been marked obsolete.
301 ** The default for the paper size (variable ps-paper-type) is taken
306 You can now put the init files .emacs and .emacs_SHELL under
307 ~/.emacs.d or directly under ~. Emacs will find them in either place.
309 ** partial-completion-mode now does partial completion on directory names.
311 ** skeleton.el now supports using - to mark the skeleton-point without
312 interregion interaction. @ has reverted to only setting
313 skeleton-positions and no longer sets skeleton-point. Skeletons
314 which used @ to mark skeleton-point independent of _ should now use -
315 instead. The updated skeleton-insert docstring explains these new
316 features along with other details of skeleton construction.
320 Upgraded to MH-E version 7.3. There have been major changes since
321 version 5.0.2; see MH-E-NEWS for details.
324 ** The `emacsclient' command understands the options `--eval' and
325 `--display' which tell Emacs respectively to evaluate the given elisp
326 expression and to use the given display when visiting files.
328 ** User option `server-mode' can be used to start a server process.
331 ** The mode line position information now comes before the major mode.
332 When the file is maintained under version control, that information
333 appears between the position information and the major mode.
335 ** C-x s (save-some-buffers) now offers an option `d' to diff a buffer
336 against its file, so you can see what changes you would be saving.
339 ** You can now customize the use of window fringes. To control this
340 for all frames, use M-x fringe-mode or the Show/Hide submenu of the
341 top-level Options menu, or customize the `fringe-mode' variable. To
342 control this for a specific frame, use the command M-x
346 ** There is a new user option `mail-default-directory' that allows you
347 to specify the value of `default-directory' for mail buffers. This
348 directory is used for auto-save files of mail buffers. It defaults to
352 ** When you are root, and you visit a file whose modes specify
353 read-only, the Emacs buffer is now read-only too. Type C-x C-q if you
354 want to make the buffer writable. (As root, you will in fact be able
357 ** The new command `revert-buffer-with-coding-system' (C-x RET r)
358 revisits the current file using a coding system that you specify.
360 ** The new command `recode-file-name' changes the encoding of the name
364 ** `ps-print' can now print characters from the mule-unicode charsets.
366 Printing text with characters from the mule-unicode-* sets works with
367 ps-print, provided that you have installed the appropriate BDF fonts.
368 See the file INSTALL for URLs where you can find these fonts.
371 ** The new options `buffers-menu-show-directories' and
372 `buffers-menu-show-status' let you control how buffers are displayed
373 in the menu dropped down when you click "Buffers" from the menu bar.
375 `buffers-menu-show-directories' controls whether the menu displays
376 leading directories as part of the file name visited by the buffer.
377 If its value is `unless-uniquify', the default, directories will be
378 shown unless uniquify-buffer-name-style' is non-nil. The value of nil
379 and t turn the display of directories off and on, respectively.
381 `buffers-menu-show-status' controls whether the Buffers menu includes
382 the modified and read-only status of the buffers. By default it is
383 t, and the status is shown.
385 Setting these variables directly does not take effect until next time
386 the Buffers menu is regenerated.
389 ** The commands M-x customize-face and M-x customize-face-other-window
390 now look at the character after point. If a face or faces are
391 specified for that character, the commands by default customize those
394 ** New language environments: French, Ukrainian, Tajik,
395 Bulgarian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, UTF-8, Windows-1255, Welsh, Latin-6,
396 Latin-7, Lithuanian, Latvian, Swedish, Slovenian, Croatian, Georgian,
397 Italian, Russian, Malayalam, Tamil, Russian, Chinese-EUC-TW. (Set up
398 automatically according to the locale.)
400 ** Indian support has been updated.
401 The in-is13194 coding system is now Unicode-based. CDAC fonts are
402 assumed. There is a framework for supporting various
403 Indian scripts, but currently only Devanagari, Malayalam and Tamil are
407 ** New input methods: latin-alt-postfix, latin-postfix, latin-prefix,
408 ukrainian-computer, belarusian, bulgarian-bds, russian-computer,
409 vietnamese-telex, lithuanian-numeric, lithuanian-keyboard,
410 latvian-keyboard, welsh, georgian, rfc1345, ucs, sgml,
411 bulgarian-phonetic, dutch, slovenian, croatian, malayalam-inscript,
415 ** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
416 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
417 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
420 ** Many new coding systems are available by loading the `code-pages'
421 library. These include complete versions of most of those in
422 codepage.el, based on Unicode mappings. `codepage-setup' is now
423 obsolete and is used only in the MS-DOS port of Emacs. windows-1252
424 and windows-1251 are preloaded since the former is so common and the
425 latter is used by GNU locales.
427 ** The utf-8/16 coding systems have been enhanced.
428 By default, untranslatable utf-8 sequences (mostly representing CJK
429 characters) are simply composed into single quasi-characters. User
430 option `utf-translate-cjk' arranges to translate many utf-8 CJK
431 character sequences into real Emacs characters in a similar way to the
432 Mule-UCS system. This uses significant space, so is not the default.
433 You can augment/amend the CJK translation via hash tables
434 `ucs-mule-cjk-to-unicode' and `ucs-unicode-to-mule-cjk'. The utf-8
435 coding system now also encodes characters from most of Emacs's
436 one-dimensional internal charsets, specifically the ISO-8859 ones.
437 The utf-16 coding system is affected similarly.
439 ** iso-10646-1 (`Unicode') fonts can be used to display any range of
440 characters encodable by the utf-8 coding system. Just specify the
441 fontset appropriately.
443 ** New command `ucs-insert' inserts a character specified by its
447 ** Limited support for character `unification' has been added.
448 Emacs now knows how to translate between different representations of
449 the same characters in various Emacs charsets according to standard
450 Unicode mappings. This applies mainly to characters in the ISO 8859
451 sets plus some other 8-bit sets, but can be extended. For instance,
452 translation works amongst the Emacs ...-iso8859-... charsets and the
453 mule-unicode-... ones.
455 By default this translation will happen automatically on encoding.
456 Self-inserting characters are translated to make the input conformant
457 with the encoding of the buffer in which it's being used, where
460 You can force a more complete unification with the user option
461 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode. That maps all the Latin-N character sets
462 into Unicode characters (from the latin-iso8859-1 and
463 mule-unicode-0100-24ff charsets) on decoding. Note that this mode
464 will often effectively clobber data with an iso-2022 encoding.
466 ** There is support for decoding Greek and Cyrillic characters into
467 either Unicode (the mule-unicode charsets) or the iso-8859 charsets,
468 when possible. The latter are more space-efficient. This is
469 controlled by user option utf-fragment-on-decoding.
471 ** The new command `set-file-name-coding-system' (C-x RET F) sets
472 coding system for encoding and decoding file names. A new menu item
473 (Options->Mule->Set Coding Systems->For File Name) invokes this
477 ** The scrollbar under LessTif or Motif has a smoother drag-scrolling.
478 On the other hand, the size of the thumb does not represent the actual
479 amount of text shown any more (only a crude approximation of it).
482 ** The file selection dialog for Gtk+, W32 and Motif/Lesstif can be
483 disabled by customizing the variable `use-file-dialog'.
486 ** Emacs can produce an underscore-like (horizontal bar) cursor.
487 The underscore cursor is set by putting `(cursor-type . hbar)' in
488 default-frame-alist. It supports variable heights, like the `bar'
492 ** On X, MS Windows, and Mac OS, the blinking cursor's "off" state is
493 now controlled by the variable `blink-cursor-alist'.
495 ** Filesets are collections of files. You can define a fileset in
496 various ways, such as based on a directory tree or based on
497 program files that include other program files.
499 Once you have defined a fileset, you can perform various operations on
500 all the files in it, such as visiting them or searching and replacing
504 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
505 when Emacs visits them.
508 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
510 `mpuz' now allows the 2nd factor not to have two identical digits. By
511 default, all trivial operations involving whole lines are performed
512 automatically. The game uses faces for better visual feedback.
514 ** The new variable `x-select-request-type' controls how Emacs
515 requests X selection. The default value is nil, which means that
516 Emacs requests X selection with types COMPOUND_TEXT and UTF8_STRING,
517 and use the more appropriately result.
520 ** The parameters of automatic hscrolling can now be customized.
521 The variable `hscroll-margin' determines how many columns away from
522 the window edge point is allowed to get before automatic hscrolling
523 will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
525 The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
526 hscrolling will scroll the window when point gets too close to the
527 window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
528 window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
529 many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
530 gives the fraction of the window's width to scroll the window.
532 The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to
533 `auto-hscroll-mode'. The old name is still available as an alias.
536 *** C-c C-c prompts for a command to run, and tries to offer a good default.
538 *** The user option `tex-start-options-string' has been replaced
539 by two new user options: `tex-start-options', which should hold
540 command-line options to feed to TeX, and `tex-start-commands' which should hold
541 TeX commands to use at startup.
542 *** verbatim environments are now highlighted in courier by font-lock
543 and super/sub-scripts are made into super/sub-scripts.
545 *** New major mode doctex-mode for *.dtx files.
548 ** New display feature: focus follows the mouse from one Emacs window
549 to another, even within a frame. If you set the variable
550 mouse-autoselect-window to non-nil value, moving the mouse to a
551 different Emacs window will select that window (minibuffer window can
552 be selected only when it is active). The default is nil, so that this
553 feature is not enabled.
556 ** The new command `describe-char' (C-u C-x =) pops up a buffer with
557 description various information about a character, including its
558 encodings and syntax, its text properties, overlays, and widgets at
559 point. You can get more information about some of them, by clicking
560 on mouse-sensitive areas or moving there and pressing RET.
563 ** The new command `multi-occur' is just like `occur', except it can
564 search multiple buffers. There is also a new command
565 `multi-occur-by-filename-regexp' which allows you to specify the
566 buffers to search by their filename. Internally, Occur mode has been
567 rewritten, and now uses font-lock, among other changes.
570 ** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
571 is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
572 can optionally enable mouse highlighting only after you move the
573 mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
574 also disable mouse highlighting.
577 ** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
578 an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
579 font-lock now highlights any such open-paren-in-column-zero in bold-red
580 if it is inside a string or a comment, to indicate that it can cause
581 trouble with fontification and/or indentation.
584 ** There's a new face `minibuffer-prompt'.
585 Emacs adds this face to the list of text properties stored in the
586 variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', which is used to display the
590 ** The new face `mode-line-inactive' is used to display the mode line
591 of non-selected windows. The `mode-line' face is now used to display
592 the mode line of the currently selected window.
594 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
595 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
598 ** A menu item "Show/Hide" was added to the top-level menu "Options".
599 This menu allows you to turn various display features on and off (such
600 as the fringes, the tool bar, the speedbar, and the menu bar itself).
601 You can also move the vertical scroll bar to either side here or turn
602 it off completely. There is also a menu-item to toggle displaying of
603 current date and time, current line and column number in the
607 ** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
610 ** Emacs can now indicate in the mode-line the presence of new e-mail
611 in a directory or in a file. See the documentation of the user option
612 `display-time-mail-directory'.
615 ** The default value for `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' is now nil.
618 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
621 ** You can now disable pc-selection-mode after enabling it.
622 M-x pc-selection-mode behaves like a proper minor mode, and with no
623 argument it toggles the mode.
625 Turning off PC-Selection mode restores the global key bindings
626 that were replaced by turning on the mode.
629 ** Emacs now displays a splash screen by default even if command-line
630 arguments were given. The new command-line option --no-splash
631 disables the splash screen; see also the variable
632 `inhibit-startup-message' (which is also aliased as
633 `inhibit-splash-screen').
635 ** Changes in support of colors on character terminals
638 *** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
639 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
640 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
641 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
642 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
643 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
644 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
645 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
646 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
649 *** Emacs now supports several character terminals which provide more
650 than 8 colors. For example, for `xterm', 16-color, 88-color, and
651 256-color modes are supported. Emacs automatically notes at startup
652 the extended number of colors, and defines the appropriate entries for
656 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
659 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
661 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
662 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
663 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
664 screen size. (For now, this does not work with some window managers.)
667 ** Info-index offers completion.
670 ** Emacs now tries to set up buffer coding systems for HTML/XML files
674 ** The new command `comint-insert-previous-argument' in comint-derived
675 modes (shell-mode etc) inserts arguments from previous command lines,
676 like bash's `ESC .' binding. It is bound by default to `C-c .', but
677 otherwise behaves quite similarly to the bash version.
680 ** Changes in C-h bindings:
682 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
684 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
687 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
688 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
690 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
691 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
693 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
695 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
696 run by the key sequence.
698 - C-h w and C-h f on a command which has been remapped now report the
699 command it is remapped to, and the keys which can be used to run
702 For example, if C-k is bound to kill-line, and kill-line is remapped
703 to new-kill-line, these commands now report:
705 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
706 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
708 - C-h w and C-h f kill-line reports:
709 kill-line is remapped to new-kill-line which is on C-k, <deleteline>
711 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
712 new-kill-line is on C-k
715 ** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
716 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
717 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
718 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
721 ** Yanking text now discards certain text properties that can
722 be inconvenient when you did not expect them. The variable
723 `yank-excluded-properties' specifies which ones. Insertion
724 of register contents and rectangles also discards these properties.
727 ** Occur, Info, and comint-derived modes now support using
728 M-x font-lock-mode to toggle fontification. The variable
729 `Info-fontify' is no longer applicable; to disable fontification,
730 remove `turn-on-font-lock' from `Info-mode-hook'.
733 ** M-x grep now tries to avoid appending `/dev/null' to the command line
734 by using GNU grep `-H' option instead. M-x grep will automatically
735 detect whether this is possible or not the first time it is invoked.
736 When `-H' is used, the grep command line supplied by the user is passed
737 unchanged to the system to execute, which allows more complicated
738 command lines to be used than was possible before.
741 ** The face-customization widget has been reworked to be less confusing.
742 In particular, when you enable a face attribute using the corresponding
743 check-box, there's no longer a redundant `*' option in value selection
744 for that attribute; the values you can choose are only those which make
745 sense for the attribute. When an attribute is de-selected by unchecking
746 its check-box, then the (now ignored, but still present temporarily in
747 case you re-select the attribute) value is hidden.
750 ** When you set or reset a variable's value in a Customize buffer,
751 the previous value becomes the "backup value" of the variable.
752 You can go back to that backup value by selecting "Use Backup Value"
753 under the "[State]" button.
755 ** The new customization type `float' specifies numbers with floating
756 point (no integers are allowed).
759 ** In GUD mode, when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
760 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
763 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
765 *** Search for source files using jdb classpath and class
766 information. Fast startup since there is no need to scan all
767 source files up front. There is also no need to create and maintain
768 lists of source directories to scan. Look at `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
769 and `gud-jdb-classpath' customization variables documentation.
771 *** Supports the standard breakpoint (gud-break, gud-clear)
772 set/clear operations from java source files under the classpath, stack
773 traversal (gud-up, gud-down), and run until current stack finish
776 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
779 *** The previous method of searching for source files has been
780 preserved in case someone still wants/needs to use it.
781 Set gud-jdb-use-classpath to nil.
783 Added Customization Variables
785 *** gud-jdb-command-name. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
787 *** gud-jdb-use-classpath. Allows selection of java source file searching
788 method: set to t for new method, nil to scan gud-jdb-directories for
789 java sources (previous method).
791 *** gud-jdb-directories. List of directories to scan and search for java
792 classes using the original gud-jdb method (if gud-jdb-use-classpath
797 *** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
800 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
801 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
802 changes the behavior of motion commands like C-e and C-p.
805 ** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
806 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
807 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
808 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
809 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
810 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
813 ** Dired's v command now runs external viewers to view certain
814 types of files. The variable `dired-view-command-alist' controls
815 what external viewers to use and when.
818 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
819 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
820 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
821 is only rarely needed.
824 ** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
826 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
827 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
828 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
829 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
832 ** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times. If
833 you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h (mark-paragraph), or
834 C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region will now be extended
835 each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC M-C-SPC,
836 for example. This feature also works for mark-end-of-sentence, if you
840 ** Some commands do something special in Transient Mark mode when the
841 mark is active--for instance, they limit their operation to the
842 region. Even if you don't normally use Transient Mark mode, you might
843 want to get this behavior from a particular command. There are two
844 ways you can enable Transient Mark mode and activate the mark, for one
847 One method is to type C-SPC C-SPC; this enables Transient Mark mode
848 and sets the mark at point. The other method is to type C-u C-x C-x.
849 This enables Transient Mark mode temporarily but does not alter the
852 After these commands, Transient Mark mode remains enabled until you
853 deactivate the mark. That typically happens when you type a command
854 that alters the buffer, but you can also deactivate the mark by typing
858 ** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
859 previous mark, i.e. C-u C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... will cycle through the
860 mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC to set the mark immediately after a jump.
863 ** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
864 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
868 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
869 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
870 affects the initial frame.
873 ** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
874 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
875 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
878 ** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
882 ** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
883 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
884 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
885 directory listing into a buffer.
888 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
889 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
891 ** Unexpected yanking of text due to accidental clicking on the mouse
892 wheel button (typically mouse-2) during wheel scrolling is now avoided.
893 This behaviour can be customized via the mouse-wheel-click-event and
894 mouse-wheel-inhibit-click-time variables.
897 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on your
898 current locale settings if you are not using a window system. This
899 may mean that the META key doesn't work but generates non-ASCII
900 characters instead, depending on how the terminal (or terminal
901 emulator) works. Use `set-keyboard-coding-system' (or customize
902 keyboard-coding-system) if you prefer META to work (the old default)
903 or if the locale doesn't describe the character set actually generated
904 by the keyboard. See Info node `Single-Byte Character Support'.
907 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
908 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
909 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
910 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
911 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
914 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
915 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
918 ** The variable `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' can now be set to any
919 of the recognized cursor types.
922 ** The variable `auto-save-file-name-transforms' now has a third element that
923 controls whether or not the function `make-auto-save-file-name' will
924 attempt to construct a unique auto-save name (e.g. for remote files).
927 ** Diary sexp entries can have custom marking in the calendar.
928 Diary sexp functions which only apply to certain days (such as
929 `diary-block' or `diary-cyclic' now take an optional parameter MARK,
930 which is the name of a face or a single-character string indicating
931 how to highlight the day in the calendar display. Specifying a
932 single-character string as @var{mark} places the character next to the
933 day in the calendar. Specifying a face highlights the day with that
934 face. This lets you have different colors or markings for vacations,
935 appointments, paydays or anything else using a sexp.
938 ** The new function `calendar-goto-day-of-year' (g D) prompts for a
939 year and day number, and moves to that date. Negative day numbers
940 count backward from the end of the year.
942 ** The function `simple-diary-display' now by default sets a header line.
943 This can be controlled through the variables `diary-header-line-flag'
944 and `diary-header-line-format'.
948 *** The key C-x C-q no longer checks files in or out, it only changes
949 the read-only state of the buffer (toggle-read-only). We made this
950 change because we held a poll and found that many users were unhappy
951 with the previous behavior. If you do prefer this behavior, you
952 can bind `vc-toggle-read-only' to C-x C-q in your .emacs:
954 (global-set-key "\C-x\C-q" 'vc-toggle-read-only)
956 The function `vc-toggle-read-only' will continue to exist.
959 *** There is a new user option `vc-cvs-global-switches' that allows
960 you to specify switches that are passed to any CVS command invoked
961 by VC. These switches are used as "global options" for CVS, which
962 means they are inserted before the command name. For example, this
963 allows you to specify a compression level using the "-z#" option for
966 *** New backends for Subversion and Meta-CVS.
971 *** When comparing directories.
972 Typing D brings up a buffer that lists the differences between the contents of
973 directories. Now it is possible to use this buffer to copy the missing files
974 from one directory to another.
977 *** When comparing files or buffers.
978 Typing the = key now offers to perform the word-by-word comparison of the
979 currently highlighted regions in an inferior Ediff session. If you answer 'n'
980 then it reverts to the old behavior and asks the user to select regions for
983 *** The new command `ediff-backup' compares a file with its most recent
984 backup using `ediff'. If you specify the name of a backup file,
985 `ediff-backup' compares it with the file of which it is a backup.
990 *** New regular expressions features
992 **** New syntax for regular expressions, multi-line regular expressions.
993 The syntax --ignore-case-regexp=/regex/ is now undocumented and retained
994 only for backward compatibility. The new equivalent syntax is
995 --regex=/regex/i. More generally, it is --regex=/TAGREGEX/TAGNAME/MODS,
996 where `/TAGNAME' is optional, as usual, and MODS is a string of 0 or
997 more characters among `i' (ignore case), `m' (multi-line) and `s'
998 (single-line). The `m' and `s' modifiers behave as in Perl regular
999 expressions: `m' allows regexps to match more than one line, while `s'
1000 (which implies `m') means that `.' matches newlines. The ability to
1001 span newlines allows writing of much more powerful regular expressions
1002 and rapid prototyping for tagging new languages.
1004 **** Regular expressions can use char escape sequences as in Gcc.
1005 The escaped character sequence \a, \b, \d, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v,
1006 respectively, stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
1009 **** Regular expressions can be bound to a given language.
1010 The syntax --regex={LANGUAGE}REGEX means that REGEX is used to make tags
1011 only for files of language LANGUAGE, and ignored otherwise. This is
1012 particularly useful when storing regexps in a file.
1014 **** Regular expressions can be read from a file.
1015 The --regex=@regexfile option means read the regexps from a file, one
1016 per line. Lines beginning with space or tab are ignored.
1018 *** New language parsing features
1020 **** The `::' qualifier triggers C++ parsing in C file.
1021 Previously, only the `template' and `class' keywords had this effect.
1023 **** In Perl, packages are tags.
1024 Subroutine tags are named from their package. You can jump to sub tags
1025 as you did before, by the sub name, or additionally by looking for
1028 **** New language PHP.
1029 Tags are functions, classes and defines.
1030 If the --members option is specified to etags, tags are vars also.
1032 **** New language HTML.
1033 Title and h1, h2, h3 are tagged. Also, tags are generated when name= is
1034 used inside an anchor and whenever id= is used.
1036 **** New default keywords for TeX.
1037 The new keywords are def, newcommand, renewcommand, newenvironment and
1040 **** In Makefiles, constants are tagged.
1041 If you want the old behavior instead, thus avoiding to increase the
1042 size of the tags file, use the --no-globals option.
1044 **** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
1046 *** Honour #line directives.
1047 When Etags parses an input file that contains C preprocessor's #line
1048 directives, it creates tags using the file name and line number
1049 specified in those directives. This is useful when dealing with code
1050 created from Cweb source files. When Etags tags the generated file, it
1051 writes tags pointing to the source file.
1053 *** New option --parse-stdin=FILE.
1054 This option is mostly useful when calling etags from programs. It can
1055 be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line. Etags
1056 will read from standard input and mark the produced tags as belonging to
1062 *** Font lock support.
1063 CC Mode now provides font lock support for all its languages. This
1064 supersedes the font lock patterns that have been in the core font lock
1065 package for C, C++, Java and Objective-C. Like indentation, font
1066 locking is done in a uniform way across all languages (except the new
1067 AWK mode - see below). That means that the new font locking will be
1068 different from the old patterns in various details for most languages.
1070 The main goal of the font locking in CC Mode is accuracy, to provide a
1071 dependable aid in recognizing the various constructs. Some, like
1072 strings and comments, are easy to recognize while others like
1073 declarations and types can be very tricky. CC Mode can go to great
1074 lengths to recognize declarations and casts correctly, especially when
1075 the types aren't recognized by standard patterns. This is a fairly
1076 demanding analysis which can be slow on older hardware, and it can
1077 therefore be disabled by choosing a lower decoration level with the
1078 variable font-lock-maximum-decoration.
1080 Note that the most demanding font lock level has been tuned with lazy
1081 fontification in mind, i.e. there should be a support mode that waits
1082 with the fontification until the text is actually shown
1083 (e.g. Just-in-time Lock mode, which is the default, or Lazy Lock
1084 mode). Fontifying a file with several thousand lines in one go can
1085 take the better part of a minute.
1087 **** The (c|c++|objc|java|idl|pike)-font-lock-extra-types variables
1088 are now used by CC Mode to recognize identifiers that are certain to
1089 be types. (They are also used in cases that aren't related to font
1090 locking.) At the maximum decoration level, types are often recognized
1091 properly anyway, so these variables should be fairly restrictive and
1092 not contain patterns for uncertain types.
1094 **** Support for documentation comments.
1095 There is a "plugin" system to fontify documentation comments like
1096 Javadoc and the markup within them. It's independent of the host
1097 language, so it's possible to e.g. turn on Javadoc font locking in C
1098 buffers. See the variable c-doc-comment-style for details.
1100 Currently two kinds of doc comment styles are recognized: Suns Javadoc
1101 and Autodoc which is used in Pike. This is by no means a complete
1102 list of the most common tools; if your doc comment extractor of choice
1103 is missing then please drop a note to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
1105 **** Better handling of C++ templates.
1106 As a side effect of the more accurate font locking, C++ templates are
1107 now handled much better. The angle brackets that delimit them are
1108 given parenthesis syntax so that they can be navigated like other
1111 This also improves indentation of templates, although there still is
1112 work to be done in that area. E.g. it's required that multiline
1113 template clauses are written in full and then refontified to be
1114 recognized, and the indentation of nested templates is a bit odd and
1115 not as configurable as it ought to be.
1117 **** Improved handling of Objective-C and CORBA IDL.
1118 Especially the support for Objective-C and IDL has gotten an overhaul.
1119 The special "@" declarations in Objective-C are handled correctly.
1120 All the keywords used in CORBA IDL, PSDL, and CIDL are recognized and
1121 handled correctly, also wrt indentation.
1123 *** Support for the AWK language.
1124 Support for the AWK language has been introduced. The implementation is
1125 based around GNU AWK version 3.1, but it should work pretty well with
1126 any AWK. As yet, not all features of CC Mode have been adapted for AWK.
1129 **** Indentation Engine
1130 The CC Mode indentation engine fully supports AWK mode.
1132 AWK mode handles code formatted in the conventional AWK fashion: `{'s
1133 which start actions, user-defined functions, or compound statements are
1134 placed on the same line as the associated construct; the matching `}'s
1135 are normally placed under the start of the respective pattern, function
1136 definition, or structured statement.
1138 The predefined indentation functions haven't yet been adapted for AWK
1139 mode, though some of them may work serendipitously. There shouldn't be
1140 any problems writing custom indentation functions for AWK mode.
1142 The command C-c C-q (c-indent-defun) hasn't yet been adapted for AWK,
1143 though in practice it works properly nearly all the time. Should it
1144 fail, explicitly set the region around the function (using C-u C-SPC:
1145 C-M-h probably won't work either) then do C-M-\ (indent-region).
1148 There is a single level of font locking in AWK mode, rather than the
1149 three distinct levels the other modes have. There are several
1150 idiosyncrasies in AWK mode's font-locking due to the peculiarities of
1151 the AWK language itself.
1153 **** Comment Commands
1154 M-; (indent-for-comment) works fine. None of the other CC Mode
1155 comment formatting commands have yet been adapted for AWK mode.
1157 **** Movement Commands
1158 Most of the movement commands work in AWK mode. The most important
1159 exceptions are M-a (c-beginning-of-statement) and M-e
1160 (c-end-of-statement) which haven't yet been adapted.
1162 The notion of "defun" has been augmented to include AWK pattern-action
1163 pairs. C-M-a (c-awk-beginning-of-defun) and C-M-e (c-awk-end-of-defun)
1164 recognise these pattern-action pairs, as well as user defined
1167 **** Auto-newline Insertion and Clean-ups
1168 Auto-newline insertion hasn't yet been adapted for AWK. Some of
1169 the clean-ups can actually convert good AWK code into syntactically
1170 invalid code. These features are best disabled in AWK buffers.
1172 *** New syntactic symbols in IDL mode.
1173 The top level constructs "module" and "composition" (from CIDL) are
1174 now handled like "namespace" in C++: They are given syntactic symbols
1175 module-open, module-close, inmodule, composition-open,
1176 composition-close, and incomposition.
1178 *** New functions to do hungry delete without enabling hungry delete mode.
1179 The functions c-hungry-backspace and c-hungry-delete-forward can be
1180 bound to keys to get this feature without toggling a mode.
1181 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
1183 *** Better control over require-final-newline.
1184 The variable that controls how to handle a final newline when the
1185 buffer is saved, require-final-newline, is now customizable on a
1186 per-mode basis through c-require-final-newline. The default is to set
1187 it to t only in languages that mandate a final newline in source files
1188 (C, C++ and Objective-C).
1190 *** Format change for syntactic context elements.
1191 The elements in the syntactic context returned by c-guess-basic-syntax
1192 and stored in c-syntactic-context has been changed somewhat to allow
1193 attaching more information. They are now lists instead of single cons
1194 cells. E.g. a line that previously had the syntactic analysis
1196 ((inclass . 11) (topmost-intro . 13))
1200 ((inclass 11) (topmost-intro 13))
1202 In some cases there are more than one position given for a syntactic
1205 This change might affect code that call c-guess-basic-syntax directly,
1206 and custom lineup functions if they use c-syntactic-context. However,
1207 the argument given to lineup functions is still a single cons cell
1208 with nil or an integer in the cdr.
1210 *** API changes for derived modes.
1211 There have been extensive changes "under the hood" which can affect
1212 derived mode writers. Some of these changes are likely to cause
1213 incompatibilities with existing derived modes, but on the other hand
1214 care has now been taken to make it possible to extend and modify CC
1215 Mode with less risk of such problems in the future.
1217 **** New language variable system.
1218 See the comment blurb near the top of cc-langs.el.
1220 **** New initialization functions.
1221 The initialization procedure has been split up into more functions to
1222 give better control: c-basic-common-init, c-font-lock-init, and
1223 c-init-language-vars.
1225 *** Changes in analysis of nested syntactic constructs.
1226 The syntactic analysis engine has better handling of cases where
1227 several syntactic constructs appear nested on the same line. They are
1228 now handled as if each construct started on a line of its own.
1230 This means that CC Mode now indents some cases differently, and
1231 although it's more consistent there might be cases where the old way
1232 gave results that's more to one's liking. So if you find a situation
1233 where you think that the indentation has become worse, please report
1234 it to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
1236 **** New syntactic symbol substatement-label.
1237 This symbol is used when a label is inserted between a statement and
1238 its substatement. E.g:
1244 *** Better handling of multiline macros.
1246 **** Syntactic indentation inside macros.
1247 The contents of multiline #define's are now analyzed and indented
1248 syntactically just like other code. This can be disabled by the new
1249 variable c-syntactic-indentation-in-macros. A new syntactic symbol
1250 cpp-define-intro has been added to control the initial indentation
1253 **** New lineup function c-lineup-cpp-define.
1254 Now used by default to line up macro continuation lines. The behavior
1255 of this function closely mimics the indentation one gets if the macro
1256 is indented while the line continuation backslashes are temporarily
1257 removed. If syntactic indentation in macros is turned off, it works
1258 much line c-lineup-dont-change, which was used earlier, but handles
1259 empty lines within the macro better.
1261 **** Automatically inserted newlines continues the macro if used within one.
1262 This applies to the newlines inserted by the auto-newline mode, and to
1263 c-context-line-break and c-context-open-line.
1265 **** Better alignment of line continuation backslashes.
1266 c-backslash-region tries to adapt to surrounding backslashes. New
1267 variable c-backslash-max-column which put a limit on how far out
1268 backslashes can be moved.
1270 **** Automatic alignment of line continuation backslashes.
1271 This is controlled by the new variable c-auto-align-backslashes. It
1272 affects c-context-line-break, c-context-open-line and newlines
1273 inserted in auto-newline mode.
1275 **** Line indentation works better inside macros.
1276 Regardless whether syntactic indentation and syntactic indentation
1277 inside macros are enabled or not, line indentation now ignores the
1278 line continuation backslashes. This is most noticeable when syntactic
1279 indentation is turned off and there are empty lines (save for the
1280 backslash) in the macro.
1282 *** indent-for-comment is more customizable.
1283 The behavior of M-; (indent-for-comment) is now configurable through
1284 the variable c-indent-comment-alist. The indentation behavior based
1285 on the preceding code on the line, e.g. to get two spaces after #else
1286 and #endif but indentation to comment-column in most other cases
1287 (something which was hardcoded earlier).
1289 *** New function c-context-open-line.
1290 It's the open-line equivalent of c-context-line-break.
1292 *** New lineup functions
1294 **** c-lineup-string-cont
1295 This lineup function lines up a continued string under the one it
1298 result = prefix + "A message "
1299 "string."; <- c-lineup-string-cont
1301 **** c-lineup-cascaded-calls
1302 Lines up series of calls separated by "->" or ".".
1304 **** c-lineup-knr-region-comment
1305 Gives (what most people think is) better indentation of comments in
1306 the "K&R region" between the function header and its body.
1308 **** c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg
1309 Provides better indentation inside asm blocks. Contributed by Kevin
1312 **** c-lineup-argcont
1313 Lines up continued function arguments after the preceding comma.
1314 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
1316 *** Better caching of the syntactic context.
1317 CC Mode caches the positions of the opening parentheses (of any kind)
1318 of the lists surrounding the point. Those positions are used in many
1319 places as anchor points for various searches. The cache is now
1320 improved so that it can be reused to a large extent when the point is
1321 moved. The less it moves, the less needs to be recalculated.
1323 The effect is that CC Mode should be fast most of the time even when
1324 opening parens are hung (i.e. aren't in column zero). It's typically
1325 only the first time after the point is moved far down in a complex
1326 file that it'll take noticeable time to find out the syntactic
1329 *** Statements are recognized in a more robust way.
1330 Statements are recognized most of the time even when they occur in an
1331 "invalid" context, e.g. in a function argument. In practice that can
1332 happen when macros are involved.
1334 *** Improved the way c-indent-exp chooses the block to indent.
1335 It now indents the block for the closest sexp following the point
1336 whose closing paren ends on a different line. This means that the
1337 point doesn't have to be immediately before the block to indent.
1338 Also, only the block and the closing line is indented; the current
1339 line is left untouched.
1341 *** Added toggle for syntactic indentation.
1342 The function c-toggle-syntactic-indentation can be used to toggle
1343 syntactic indentation.
1345 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
1346 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
1349 ** The command `list-text-properties-at' has been deleted because
1350 C-u C-x = gives the same information and more.
1353 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
1354 with a space, when those buffers are visiting files. Normally buffers
1355 whose names begin with space are omitted.
1358 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
1359 filling can break lines. We provide two sample predicates,
1360 fill-single-word-nobreak-p and fill-french-nobreak-p.
1363 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
1364 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry will always
1365 start a new record regardless of when the last record is.
1368 ** SGML mode has indentation and supports XML syntax.
1369 The new variable `sgml-xml-mode' tells SGML mode to use XML syntax.
1370 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
1371 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
1372 By default, its setting is inferred on a buffer-by-buffer basis
1373 from the file name or buffer contents.
1376 ** `xml-mode' is now an alias for `sgml-mode', which has XML support.
1379 ** New user option `isearch-resume-enabled'.
1380 This option can be disabled, to avoid the normal behavior of isearch
1381 which puts calls to `isearch-resume' in the command history.
1384 ** Lisp mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
1387 ** Perl mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
1390 ** Fortran mode has a new variable `fortran-directive-re'.
1391 Adapt this to match the format of any compiler directives you use.
1392 Lines that match are never indented, and are given distinctive font-locking.
1395 ** F90 mode has new navigation commands `f90-end-of-block',
1396 `f90-beginning-of-block', `f90-next-block', `f90-previous-block'.
1399 ** Prolog mode has a new variable `prolog-font-lock-keywords'
1400 to support use of font-lock.
1403 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
1404 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
1408 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
1409 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
1410 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
1413 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
1414 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
1415 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
1416 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
1417 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
1418 candidate is a directory.
1421 ** The completion commands TAB, SPC and ? in the minibuffer apply only
1422 to the text before point. If there is text in the buffer after point,
1423 it remains unchanged.
1426 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
1427 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
1428 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
1430 ** Compilation mode enhancements:
1432 *** New user option `compilation-environment'.
1433 This option allows you to specify environment variables for inferior
1434 compilation processes without affecting the environment that all
1435 subprocesses inherit.
1437 *** `next-error' now temporarily highlights the corresponding source line.
1439 ** Grep has been decoupled from compilation mode setup.
1441 *** Grep commands now have their own submenu and customization group.
1443 *** The new variables `grep-window-height', `grep-auto-highlight', and
1444 `grep-scroll-output' can be used to override the corresponding
1445 compilation mode settings for grep commands.
1447 *** Source line is temporarily highlighted when going to next match.
1449 *** New key bindings in grep output window:
1450 SPC and DEL scrolls window up and down. C-n and C-p moves to next and
1451 previous match in the grep window. RET jumps to the source line of
1452 the current match. `n' and `p' shows next and previous match in
1453 other window, but does not switch buffer. `{' and `}' jumps to the
1454 previous or next file in the grep output. TAB also jumps to the next
1458 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
1461 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
1462 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
1463 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
1466 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
1467 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
1470 ** Images are now supported on MS Windows.
1471 PBM and XBM images are supported out of the box. Other image formats
1472 depend on external libraries. All of these libraries have been ported
1473 to Windows, and can be found in both source and binary form at
1474 http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/. Note that libpng also depends on
1475 zlib, and tiff depends on the version of jpeg that it was compiled
1479 ** Sound is now supported on MS Windows.
1480 WAV format is supported on all versions of Windows, other formats such
1481 as AU, AIFF and MP3 may be supported in the more recent versions of
1482 Windows, or when other software provides hooks into the system level
1483 sound support for those formats.
1486 ** Different shaped mouse pointers are supported on MS Windows.
1487 The mouse pointer changes shape depending on what is under the pointer.
1490 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
1491 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
1492 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
1493 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
1496 ** Emacs takes note of colors defined in Control Panel on MS-Windows.
1497 The Control Panel defines some default colors for applications in
1498 much the same way as wildcard X Resources do on X. Emacs now
1499 adds these colors to the colormap prefixed by System (eg SystemMenu
1500 for the default Menu background, SystemMenuText for the foreground),
1501 and uses some of them to initialize some of the default faces.
1502 `list-colors-display' will show the list of System color names if you
1503 wish to use them in other faces.
1506 ** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
1507 The new variables `x-alt-keysym', `x-hyper-keysym', `x-meta-keysym',
1508 and `x-super-keysym' can be used to choose which keysyms Emacs should
1509 use for the modifiers. For example, the following two lines swap
1511 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
1512 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
1514 * New modes and packages in 21.4
1517 ** The new global minor mode `size-indication-mode' (off by default)
1518 shows the size of accessible part of the buffer on the mode line.
1520 ** GDB-Script-mode is used for files like .gdbinit.
1523 ** Ido mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1525 The ido (interactively do) package is an extension of the iswitchb
1526 package to do interactive opening of files and directories in addition
1527 to interactive buffer switching. Ido is a superset of iswitchb (with
1528 a few exceptions), so don't enable both packages.
1531 ** CUA mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1533 The new cua package provides CUA-like keybindings using C-x for
1534 cut (kill), C-c for copy, C-v for paste (yank), and C-z for undo.
1535 With cua, the region can be set and extended using shifted movement
1536 keys (like pc-selection-mode) and typed text replaces the active
1537 region (like delete-selection-mode). Do not enable these modes with
1538 cua-mode. Customize the variable `cua-mode' to enable cua.
1540 In addition, cua provides unified rectangle support with visible
1541 rectangle highlighting: Use S-return to start a rectangle, extend it
1542 using the movement commands (or mouse-3), and cut or copy it using C-x
1543 or C-c (using C-w and M-w also works).
1545 Use M-o and M-c to `open' or `close' the rectangle, use M-b or M-f, to
1546 fill it with blanks or another character, use M-u or M-l to upcase or
1547 downcase the rectangle, use M-i to increment the numbers in the
1548 rectangle, use M-n to fill the rectangle with a numeric sequence (such
1549 as 10 20 30...), use M-r to replace a regexp in the rectangle, and use
1550 M-' or M-/ to restrict command on the rectangle to a subset of the
1551 rows. See the commentary in cua-base.el for more rectangle commands.
1553 Cua also provides unified support for registers: Use a numeric
1554 prefix argument between 0 and 9, i.e. M-0 .. M-9, for C-x, C-c, and
1555 C-v to cut or copy into register 0-9, or paste from register 0-9.
1557 The last text deleted (not killed) is automatically stored in
1558 register 0. This includes text deleted by typing text.
1560 Finally, cua provides a global mark which is set using S-C-space.
1561 When the global mark is active, any text which is cut or copied is
1562 automatically inserted at the global mark position. See the
1563 commentary in cua-base.el for more global mark related commands.
1565 The features of cua also works with the standard emacs bindings for
1566 kill, copy, yank, and undo. If you want to use cua mode, but don't
1567 want the C-x, C-c, C-v, and C-z bindings, you may customize the
1568 `cua-enable-cua-keys' variable.
1570 Note: This version of cua mode is not backwards compatible with older
1571 versions of cua.el and cua-mode.el. To ensure proper operation, you
1572 must remove older versions of cua.el or cua-mode.el as well as the
1573 loading and customization of those packages from the .emacs file.
1575 ** The new keypad setup package provides several common bindings for
1576 the numeric keypad which is available on most keyboards. The numeric
1577 keypad typically has the digits 0 to 9, a decimal point, keys marked
1578 +, -, /, and *, an Enter key, and a NumLock toggle key. The keypad
1579 package only controls the use of the digit and decimal keys.
1581 By customizing the variables `keypad-setup', `keypad-shifted-setup',
1582 `keypad-numlock-setup', and `keypad-numlock-shifted-setup', or by
1583 using the function `keypad-setup', you can rebind all digit keys and
1584 the decimal key of the keypad in one step for each of the four
1585 possible combinations of the Shift key state (not pressed/pressed) and
1586 the NumLock toggle state (off/on).
1588 The choices for the keypad keys in each of the above states are:
1589 `Plain numeric keypad' where the keys generates plain digits,
1590 `Numeric keypad with decimal key' where the character produced by the
1591 decimal key can be customized individually (for internationalization),
1592 `Numeric Prefix Arg' where the keypad keys produce numeric prefix args
1593 for emacs editing commands, `Cursor keys' and `Shifted Cursor keys'
1594 where the keys work like (shifted) arrow keys, home/end, etc., and
1595 `Unspecified/User-defined' where the keypad keys (kp-0, kp-1, etc.)
1596 are left unspecified and can be bound individually through the global
1599 ** The new kmacro package provides a simpler user interface to
1600 emacs' keyboard macro facilities.
1602 Basically, it uses two function keys (default F3 and F4) like this:
1603 F3 starts a macro, F4 ends the macro, and pressing F4 again executes
1604 the last macro. While defining the macro, F3 inserts a counter value
1605 which automatically increments every time the macro is executed.
1607 There is now a keyboard macro ring which stores the most recently
1610 The C-x C-k sequence is now a prefix for the kmacro keymap which
1611 defines bindings for moving through the keyboard macro ring,
1612 C-x C-k C-p and C-x C-k C-n, editing the last macro C-x C-k C-e,
1613 manipulating the macro counter and format via C-x C-k C-c,
1614 C-x C-k C-a, and C-x C-k C-f. See the commentary in kmacro.el
1617 The normal macro bindings C-x (, C-x ), and C-x e now interfaces to
1618 the keyboard macro ring.
1620 The C-x e command now automatically terminates the current macro
1621 before calling it, if used while defining a macro.
1623 In addition, when ending or calling a macro with C-x e, the macro can
1624 be repeated immediately by typing just the `e'. You can customize
1625 this behaviour via the variable kmacro-call-repeat-key and
1626 kmacro-call-repeat-with-arg.
1628 Keyboard macros can now be debugged and edited interactively.
1629 C-x C-k SPC will step through the last keyboard macro one key sequence
1630 at a time, prompting for the actions to take.
1633 ** The old Octave mode bindings C-c f and C-c i have been changed
1634 to C-c C-f and C-c C-i. The C-c C-i subcommands now have duplicate
1635 bindings on control characters--thus, C-c C-i C-b is the same as
1636 C-c C-i b, and so on.
1638 ** The printing package is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1640 If you enable the printing package by including (require 'printing) in
1641 the .emacs file, the normal Print item on the File menu is replaced
1642 with a Print sub-menu which allows you to preview output through
1643 ghostview, use ghostscript to print (if you don't have a PostScript
1644 printer) or send directly to printer a PostScript code generated by
1645 `ps-print' package. Use M-x pr-help for more information.
1648 ** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1650 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
1651 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
1652 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
1653 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
1656 ** Tramp is now part of the distribution.
1658 This package is similar to Ange-FTP: it allows you to edit remote
1659 files. But whereas Ange-FTP uses FTP to access the remote host,
1660 Tramp uses a shell connection. The shell connection is always used
1661 for filename completion and directory listings and suchlike, but for
1662 the actual file transfer, you can choose between the so-called
1663 `inline' methods (which transfer the files through the shell
1664 connection using base64 or uu encoding) and the `out-of-band' methods
1665 (which invoke an external copying program such as `rcp' or `scp' or
1666 `rsync' to do the copying).
1668 Shell connections can be acquired via `rsh', `ssh', `telnet' and also
1672 ** The new global minor mode `file-name-shadow-mode' modifies the way
1673 filenames being entered by the user in the minibuffer are displayed, so
1674 that it's clear when part of the entered filename will be ignored due to
1675 emacs' filename parsing rules. The ignored portion can be made dim,
1676 invisible, or otherwise less visually noticable. The display method may
1677 be displayed by customizing the variable `file-name-shadow-properties'.
1680 ** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
1681 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
1682 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
1686 ** The minor mode Reveal mode makes text visible on the fly as you
1687 move your cursor into hidden regions of the buffer.
1688 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
1689 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
1691 There is also Global Reveal mode which affects all buffers.
1694 ** The new package ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
1695 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
1697 ** The new package table.el implements editable, WYSIWYG, embedded
1698 `text tables' in Emacs buffers. It simulates the effect of putting
1699 these tables in a special major mode. The package emulates WYSIWYG
1700 table editing available in modern word processors. The package also
1701 can generate a table source in typesetting and markup languages such
1702 as latex and html from the visually laid out text table.
1705 ** SES mode (ses-mode) is a new major mode for creating and editing
1706 spreadsheet files. Besides the usual Emacs features (intuitive command
1707 letters, undo, cell formulas in Lisp, plaintext files, etc.) it also offers
1708 viral immunity and import/export of tab-separated values.
1711 ** Support for `magic cookie' standout modes has been removed.
1712 Emacs will still work on terminals that require magic cookies in order
1713 to use standout mode, however they will not be able to display
1714 mode-lines in inverse-video.
1717 ** cplus-md.el has been removed to avoid problems with Custom.
1719 ** New package benchmark.el contains simple support for convenient
1720 timing measurements of code (including the garbage collection component).
1722 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
1723 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
1724 in Indented-Text mode.
1726 ** If you set `query-replace-skip-read-only' non-nil,
1727 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
1728 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
1730 ** The new Lisp library fringe.el controls the apperance of fringes.
1732 ** `cfengine-mode' is a major mode for editing GNU Cfengine
1733 configuration files.
1735 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.4
1737 ** The function `insert-for-yank' now supports strings where the
1738 `yank-handler' property does not span the first character of the
1739 string. The old behavior is available if you call
1740 `insert-for-yank-1' instead.
1742 ** New function `get-char-property-and-overlay' accepts the same
1743 arguments as `get-char-property' and returns a cons whose car is the
1744 return value of `get-char-property' called with those arguments and
1745 whose cdr is the overlay in which the property was found, or nil if
1746 it was found as a text property or not found at all.
1748 ** The mouse pointer shape in void text areas (i.e. after the end of a
1749 line or below the last line in the buffer) of the text window is now
1750 controlled by the new variable `void-text-area-pointer'. The default
1751 is to use the `arrow' (non-text) pointer. Other choices are `text'
1752 (or nil), `hand', `vdrag', `hdrag', `modeline', and `hourglass'.
1754 ** The mouse pointer shape over an image can now be controlled by the
1755 :pointer image property.
1757 ** The mouse pointer shape over ordinary text or images may now be
1758 controlled/overriden via the `pointer' text property.
1760 ** Images may now have an associated image map via the :map property.
1762 An image map is an alist where each element has the format (AREA ID PLIST).
1763 An AREA is specified as either a rectangle, a circle, or a polygon:
1764 A rectangle is a cons (rect . ((x0 . y0) . (x1 . y1))) specifying the
1765 pixel coordinates of the upper left and bottom right corners.
1766 A circle is a cons (circle . ((x0 . y0) . r)) specifying the center
1767 and the radius of the circle; r may be a float or integer.
1768 A polygon is a cons (poly . [x0 y0 x1 y1 ...]) where each pair in the
1769 vector describes one corner in the polygon.
1771 When the mouse pointer is above a hot-spot area of an image, the
1772 PLIST of that hot-spot is consulted; if it contains a `help-echo'
1773 property it defines a tool-tip for the hot-spot, and if it contains
1774 a `pointer' property, it defines the shape of the mouse cursor when
1775 it is over the hot-spot. See the variable 'void-area-text-pointer'
1776 for possible pointer shapes.
1778 When you click the mouse when the mouse pointer is over a hot-spot,
1779 an event is composed by combining the ID of the hot-spot with the
1780 mouse event, e.g. [area4 mouse-1] if the hot-spot's ID is `area4'.
1782 ** Mouse event enhancements:
1784 *** Mouse clicks on fringes now generates left-fringe or right-fringes
1785 events, rather than a text area click event.
1788 *** Mouse events now includes buffer position for all event types.
1791 *** `posn-point' now returns buffer position for non-text area events.
1793 *** Function `mouse-set-point' now works for events outside text area.
1796 *** New function `posn-area' returns window area clicked on (nil means
1800 *** Mouse events include actual glyph column and row for all event types.
1803 *** New function `posn-actual-col-row' returns actual glyph coordinates.
1806 *** Mouse events may now include image object in addition to string object.
1809 *** Mouse events include relative x and y pixel coordinates relative to
1810 the top left corner of the object (image or character) clicked on.
1812 *** New functions 'posn-object' and 'posn-object-x-y' return the image
1813 or string object of a mouse click, and the x and y pixel coordinates
1814 relative to the top left corner of that object.
1816 ** New function `force-window-update' can initiate a full redisplay of
1817 one or all windows. Normally, this is not needed as changes in window
1818 contents are detected automatically. However, certain implicit
1819 changes to mode lines, header lines, or display properties may require
1820 forcing an explicit window update.
1822 ** New function `redirect-debugging-output' can be used to redirect
1823 debugging output on the stderr file handle to a file.
1826 ** `split-string' now includes null substrings in the returned list if
1827 the optional argument SEPARATORS is non-nil and there are matches for
1828 SEPARATORS at the beginning or end of the string. If SEPARATORS is
1829 nil, or if the new optional third argument OMIT-NULLS is non-nil, all
1830 empty matches are omitted from the returned list.
1833 ** `makehash' is now obsolete. Use `make-hash-table' instead.
1836 ** If optional third argument APPEND to `add-to-list' is non-nil, a
1837 new element gets added at the end of the list instead of at the
1838 beginning. This change actually occurred in Emacs-21.1, but was not
1841 ** Major modes can define `eldoc-print-current-symbol-info-function'
1842 locally to provide Eldoc functionality by some method appropriate to
1846 ** New coding system property `mime-text-unsuitable' indicates that
1847 the coding system's `mime-charset' is not suitable for MIME text
1851 ** The argument to forward-word, backward-word, forward-to-indentation
1852 and backward-to-indentation is now optional, and defaults to 1.
1855 ** (char-displayable-p CHAR) returns non-nil if Emacs ought to be able
1856 to display CHAR. More precisely, if the selected frame's fontset has
1857 a font to display the character set that CHAR belongs to.
1859 Fontsets can specify a font on a per-character basis; when the fontset
1860 does that, this value may not be accurate.
1863 ** The new function `window-inside-edges' returns the edges of the
1864 actual text portion of the window, not including the scroll bar or
1865 divider line, the fringes, the display margins, the header line and
1869 ** The new functions `window-pixel-edges' and `window-inside-pixel-edges'
1870 return window edges in units of pixels, rather than columns and lines.
1873 ** The kill-buffer-hook is now permanent-local.
1876 ** `select-window' takes an optional second argument `norecord', like
1880 ** The new macro `with-selected-window' temporarily switches the
1881 selected window without impacting the order of buffer-list.
1884 ** The `keymap' property now also works at the ends of overlays and
1885 text-properties, according to their stickiness. This also means that it
1886 works with empty overlays. The same hold for the `local-map' property.
1889 ** (map-keymap FUNCTION KEYMAP) applies the function to each binding
1893 ** VC changes for backends:
1894 *** (vc-switches BACKEND OPERATION) is a new function for use by backends.
1895 *** The new `find-version' backend function replaces the `destfile'
1896 parameter of the `checkout' backend function.
1897 Old code still works thanks to a default `find-version' behavior that
1898 uses the old `destfile' parameter.
1901 ** The new macro dynamic-completion-table supports using functions
1902 as a dynamic completion table.
1904 (dynamic-completion-table FUN)
1906 FUN is called with one argument, the string for which completion is required,
1907 and it should return an alist containing all the intended possible
1908 completions. This alist may be a full list of possible completions so that FUN
1909 can ignore the value of its argument. If completion is performed in the
1910 minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer from which the minibuffer was
1911 entered. dynamic-completion-table then computes the completion.
1914 ** The new macro lazy-completion-table initializes a variable
1915 as a lazy completion table.
1917 (lazy-completion-table VAR FUN &rest ARGS)
1919 If the completion table VAR is used for the first time (e.g., by passing VAR
1920 as an argument to `try-completion'), the function FUN is called with arguments
1921 ARGS. FUN must return the completion table that will be stored in VAR. If
1922 completion is requested in the minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer
1923 from which the minibuffer was entered. The return value of
1924 `lazy-completion-table' must be used to initialize the value of VAR.
1927 ** `minor-mode-list' now holds a list of minor mode commands.
1930 ** The new function `modify-all-frames-parameters' modifies parameters
1931 for all (existing and future) frames.
1934 ** `sit-for' can now be called with args (SECONDS &optional NODISP).
1937 ** New standard font-lock face `font-lock-preprocessor-face'.
1940 ** The macro `with-syntax-table' does not copy the table any more.
1943 ** The variable `face-font-rescale-alist' specifies how much larger
1944 (or smaller) font we should use. For instance, if the value is
1945 '((SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN . 1.3)) and a face requests a font of 10
1946 point, we actually use a font of 13 point if the font matches
1947 SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN.
1950 ** The function `number-sequence' returns a list of equally-separated
1951 numbers. For instance, (number-sequence 4 9) returns (4 5 6 7 8 9).
1952 By default, the separation is 1, but you can specify a different separation
1953 as the third argument. (number-sequence 1.5 6 2) returns (1.5 3.5 5.5).
1956 ** `file-chase-links' now takes an optional second argument LIMIT which
1957 specifies the maximum number of links to chase through. If after that
1958 many iterations the file name obtained is still a symbolic link,
1959 `file-chase-links' returns it anyway.
1962 ** `set-fontset-font', `fontset-info', `fontset-font' now operate on
1963 the default fontset if the argument NAME is nil..
1966 ** The escape sequence \s is now interpreted as a SPACE character,
1967 unless it is followed by a `-' in a character constant (e.g. ?\s-A),
1968 in which case it is still interpreted as the super modifier.
1969 In strings, \s is always interpreted as a space.
1972 ** New function `set-process-filter-multibyte' sets the multibyteness
1973 of a string given to a process's filter.
1976 ** New function `process-filter-multibyte-p' returns t if
1977 a string given to a process's filter is multibyte.
1980 ** A filter function of a process is called with a multibyte string if
1981 the filter's multibyteness is t. That multibyteness is decided by the
1982 value of `default-enable-multibyte-characters' when the process is
1983 created and can be changed later by `set-process-filter-multibyte'.
1986 ** If a process's coding system is raw-text or no-conversion and its
1987 buffer is multibyte, the output of the process is at first converted
1988 to multibyte by `string-to-multibyte' then inserted in the buffer.
1989 Previously, it was converted to multibyte by `string-as-multibyte',
1990 which was not compatible with the behaviour of file reading.
1993 ** New function `string-to-multibyte' converts a unibyte string to a
1994 multibyte string with the same individual character codes.
1997 ** New variables `gc-elapsed' and `gcs-done' provide extra information
1998 on garbage collection.
2001 ** New function `decode-coding-inserted-region' decodes a region as if
2002 it is read from a file without decoding.
2005 ** New function `locale-info' accesses locale information.
2008 ** `save-selected-window' now saves and restores the selected window
2009 of every frame. This way, it restores everything that can be changed
2010 by calling `select-window'.
2013 ** `easy-menu-define' now allows you to use nil for the symbol name
2014 if you don't need to give the menu a name. If you install the menu
2015 into other keymaps right away (MAPS is non-nil), it usually doesn't
2016 need to have a name.
2018 ** Byte compiler changes:
2021 *** `(featurep 'xemacs)' is treated by the compiler as nil. This
2022 helps to avoid noisy compiler warnings in code meant to run under both
2023 Emacs and XEmacs and may sometimes make the result significantly more
2024 efficient. Since byte code from recent versions of XEmacs won't
2025 generally run in Emacs and vice versa, this optimization doesn't lose
2029 *** You can avoid warnings for possibly-undefined symbols with a
2030 simple convention that the compiler understands. (This is mostly
2031 useful in code meant to be portable to different Emacs versions.)
2032 Write forms like the following, or code that macroexpands into such
2035 (if (fboundp 'foo) <then> <else>)
2036 (if (boundp 'foo) <then> <else)
2038 In the first case, using `foo' as a function inside the <then> form
2039 won't produce a warning if it's not defined as a function, and in the
2040 second case, using `foo' as a variable won't produce a warning if it's
2041 unbound. The test must be in exactly one of the above forms (after
2042 macro expansion), but such tests may be nested. Note that `when' and
2043 `unless' expand to `if', but `cond' doesn't.
2046 *** The new macro `with-no-warnings' suppresses all compiler warnings
2047 inside its body. In terms of execution, it is equivalent to `progn'.
2050 ** The new translation table `translation-table-for-input'
2051 is used for customizing self-insertion. The character to
2052 be inserted is translated through it.
2055 ** `load-history' can now have elements of the form (t . FUNNAME),
2056 which means FUNNAME was previously defined as an autoload (before the
2057 current file redefined it).
2060 ** New Lisp library testcover.el works with edebug to help you determine
2061 whether you've tested all your Lisp code. Function testcover-start
2062 instruments all functions in a given file. Then test your code. Function
2063 testcover-mark-all adds overlay "splotches" to the Lisp file's buffer to
2064 show where coverage is lacking. Command testcover-next-mark (bind it to
2065 a key!) will move point forward to the next spot that has a splotch.
2067 *** Normally, a red splotch indicates the form was never completely evaluated;
2068 a brown splotch means it always evaluated to the same value. The red
2069 splotches are skipped for forms that can't possibly complete their evaluation,
2070 such as `error'. The brown splotches are skipped for forms that are expected
2071 to always evaluate to the same value, such as (setq x 14).
2073 *** For difficult cases, you can add do-nothing macros to your code to help
2074 out the test coverage tool. The macro `noreturn' suppresses a red splotch.
2075 It is an error if the argument to `noreturn' does return. The macro 1value
2076 suppresses a brown splotch for its argument. This macro is a no-op except
2077 during test-coverage -- then it signals an error if the argument actually
2078 returns differing values.
2081 ** New function unsafep returns nil if the given Lisp form can't possibly
2082 do anything dangerous; otherwise it returns a reason why the form might be
2083 unsafe (calls dangerous function, alters global variable, etc).
2086 ** The new variable `print-continuous-numbering', when non-nil, says
2087 that successive calls to print functions should use the same
2088 numberings for circular structure references. This is only relevant
2089 when `print-circle' is non-nil.
2091 When you bind `print-continuous-numbering' to t, you should
2092 also bind `print-number-table' to nil.
2095 ** When using non-toolkit scroll bars with the default width,
2096 the scroll-bar-width frame parameter value is nil.
2099 ** The new function copy-abbrev-table returns a new abbrev table that
2100 is a copy of a given abbrev table.
2103 ** The option --script FILE runs Emacs in batch mode and loads FILE.
2104 It is useful for writing Emacs Lisp shell script files, because they
2105 can start with this line:
2107 #!/usr/bin/emacs --script
2110 ** A function's docstring can now hold the function's usage info on
2111 its last line. It should match the regexp "\n\n(fn.*)\\'".
2114 ** New CCL functions `lookup-character' and `lookup-integer' access
2115 hash tables defined by the Lisp function `define-translation-hash-table'.
2118 ** The new function `minibufferp' returns non-nil if its optional buffer
2119 argument is a minibuffer. If the argument is omitted it defaults to
2123 ** There is a new Warnings facility; see the functions `warn'
2124 and `display-warning'.
2127 ** The functions all-completions and try-completion now accept lists
2128 of strings as well as hash-tables additionally to alists, obarrays
2129 and functions. Furthermore, the function `test-completion' is now
2133 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
2134 much pure storage it will approximately need.
2137 ** The new variable `auto-coding-functions' lets you specify functions
2138 to examine a file being visited and deduce the proper coding system
2139 for it. (If the coding system is detected incorrectly for a specific
2140 file, you can put a `coding:' tags to override it.)
2143 ** The new function `merge-coding-systems' fills in unspecified aspects
2144 of one coding system from another coding system.
2147 ** The variable `safe-local-eval-forms' specifies a list of forms that
2148 are ok to evaluate when they appear in an `eval' local variables
2149 specification. Normally Emacs asks for confirmation before evaluating
2150 such a form, but if the form appears in this list, no confirmation is
2154 ** If a function has a non-nil `safe-local-eval-function' property,
2155 that means it is ok to evaluate some calls to that function when it
2156 appears in an `eval' local variables specification. If the property
2157 is t, then any form calling that function with constant arguments is
2158 ok. If the property is a function or list of functions, they are called
2159 with the form as argument, and if any returns t, the form is ok to call.
2161 If the form is not "ok to call", that means Emacs asks for
2162 confirmation as before.
2165 ** Controlling the default left and right fringe widths.
2167 The default left and right fringe widths for all windows of a frame
2168 can now be controlled by setting the `left-fringe' and `right-fringe'
2169 frame parameters to an integer value specifying the width in pixels.
2170 Setting the width to 0 effectively removes the corresponding fringe.
2172 The actual default fringe widths for the frame may deviate from the
2173 specified widths, since the combined fringe widths must match an
2174 integral number of columns. The extra width is distributed evenly
2175 between the left and right fringe. For force a specific fringe width,
2176 specify the width as a negative integer (if both widths are negative,
2177 only the left fringe gets the specified width).
2179 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
2180 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
2181 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
2182 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
2185 ** Per-window fringes settings
2187 Windows can now have their own individual fringe widths and position
2190 To control the fringe widths of a window, either set the buffer-local
2191 variables `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', or call
2192 `set-window-fringes'.
2194 To control the fringe position in a window, that is, whether fringes
2195 are positioned between the display margins and the window's text area,
2196 or at the edges of the window, either set the buffer-local variable
2197 `fringes-outside-margins' or call `set-window-fringes'.
2199 The function `window-fringes' can be used to obtain the current
2200 settings. To make `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', and
2201 `fringes-outside-margins' take effect, you must set them before
2202 displaying the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force
2203 an update of the display margins.
2206 ** Per-window vertical scroll-bar settings
2208 Windows can now have their own individual scroll-bar settings
2209 controlling the width and position of scroll-bars.
2211 To control the scroll-bar of a window, either set the buffer-local
2212 variables `scroll-bar-mode' and `scroll-bar-width', or call
2213 `set-window-scroll-bars'. The function `window-scroll-bars' can be
2214 used to obtain the current settings. To make `scroll-bar-mode' and
2215 `scroll-bar-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2216 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2217 of the display margins.
2220 ** The function `set-window-buffer' now has an optional third argument
2221 KEEP-MARGINS which will preserve the window's current margin, fringe,
2222 and scroll-bar settings if non-nil.
2225 ** Renamed file hooks to follow the convention:
2226 find-file-hooks to find-file-hook,
2227 find-file-not-found-hooks to find-file-not-found-functions,
2228 write-file-hooks to write-file-functions,
2229 write-contents-hooks to write-contents-functions.
2230 Marked local-write-file-hooks as obsolete (use the LOCAL arg of `add-hook').
2233 ** The new variable `delete-frame-functions' replaces `delete-frame-hook'.
2234 It was renamed to follow the naming conventions for abnormal hooks. The old
2235 name remains available as an alias, but has been marked obsolete.
2238 ** The `read-file-name' function now takes an additional argument which
2239 specifies a predicate which the file name read must satify. The
2240 new variable `read-file-name-predicate' contains the predicate argument
2241 while reading the file name from the minibuffer; the predicate in this
2242 variable is used by read-file-name-internal to filter the completion list.
2245 ** The new variable `read-file-name-function' can be used by lisp code
2246 to override the internal read-file-name function.
2249 ** The new function `read-directory-name' can be used instead of
2250 `read-file-name' to read a directory name; when used, completion
2251 will only show directories.
2254 ** The new function `file-remote-p' tests a file name and returns
2255 non-nil if it specifies a remote file (one that Emacs accesses using
2256 its own special methods and not directly through the file system).
2259 ** When a Lisp file uses CL functions at run-time, compiling the file
2260 now issues warnings about these calls, unless the file performs
2261 (require 'cl) when loaded.
2264 ** The `defmacro' form may contain declarations specifying how to
2265 indent the macro in Lisp mode and how to debug it with Edebug. The
2266 syntax of defmacro has been extended to
2268 (defmacro NAME LAMBDA-LIST [DOC-STRING] [DECLARATION ...] ...)
2270 DECLARATION is a list `(declare DECLARATION-SPECIFIER ...)'. The
2271 declaration specifiers supported are:
2274 Set NAME's `lisp-indent-function' property to INDENT.
2277 Set NAME's `edebug-form-spec' property to DEBUG. (This is
2278 equivalent to writing a `def-edebug-spec' for the macro.
2281 ** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
2283 This is an alternative to using defadvice or substitute-key-definition
2284 to modify the behavior of a key binding using the normal keymap
2285 binding and lookup functionality.
2287 When a key sequence is bound to a command, and that command is
2288 remapped to another command, that command is run instead of the
2292 Suppose that minor mode my-mode has defined the commands
2293 my-kill-line and my-kill-word, and it wants C-k (and any other key
2294 bound to kill-line) to run the command my-kill-line instead of
2295 kill-line, and likewise it wants to run my-kill-word instead of
2298 Instead of rebinding C-k and the other keys in the minor mode map,
2299 command remapping allows you to directly map kill-line into
2300 my-kill-line and kill-word into my-kill-word through the minor mode
2301 map using define-key:
2303 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
2304 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
2306 Now, when my-mode is enabled, and the user enters C-k or M-d,
2307 the commands my-kill-line and my-kill-word are run.
2309 Notice that only one level of remapping is supported. In the above
2310 example, this means that if my-kill-line is remapped to other-kill,
2311 then C-k still runs my-kill-line.
2313 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
2315 - Command remappings are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
2316 `remap', i.e. `(define-key MAP [remap CMD] DEF)' remaps command CMD
2317 to definition DEF in keymap MAP. The definition is not limited to
2318 another command; it can be anything accepted for a normal binding.
2320 - The new function `command-remapping' returns the binding for a
2321 remapped command in the current keymaps, or nil if not remapped.
2323 - key-binding now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
2324 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
2326 - where-is-internal now returns nil for a remapped command (e.g.
2327 kill-line if my-mode is enabled), and the actual key binding for
2328 the command it is remapped to (e.g. C-k for my-kill-line).
2329 It also has a new optional fifth argument, NO-REMAP, which inhibits
2330 remapping if non-nil (e.g. it returns C-k for kill-line and
2331 <kill-line> for my-kill-line).
2333 - The new variable `this-original-command' contains the original
2334 command before remapping. It is equal to `this-command' when the
2335 command was not remapped.
2338 ** New variable emulation-mode-map-alists.
2340 Lisp packages using many minor mode keymaps can now maintain their own
2341 keymap alist separate from minor-mode-map-alist by adding their keymap
2345 ** Atomic change groups.
2347 To perform some changes in the current buffer "atomically" so that
2348 they either all succeed or are all undone, use `atomic-change-group'
2349 around the code that makes changes. For instance:
2351 (atomic-change-group
2353 (delete-region x y))
2355 If an error (or other nonlocal exit) occurs inside the body of
2356 `atomic-change-group', it unmakes all the changes in that buffer that
2357 were during the execution of the body. The change group has no effect
2358 on any other buffers--any such changes remain.
2360 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
2361 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
2363 To set up a change group for one buffer, call `prepare-change-group'.
2364 Specify the buffer as argument; it defaults to the current buffer.
2365 This function returns a "handle" for the change group. You must save
2366 the handle to activate the change group and then finish it.
2368 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
2369 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
2372 After you make the changes, you must finish the change group. You can
2373 either accept the changes or cancel them all. Call
2374 `accept-change-group' to accept the changes in the group as final;
2375 call `cancel-change-group' to undo them all.
2377 You should use `unwind-protect' to make sure the group is always
2378 finished. The call to `activate-change-group' should be inside the
2379 `unwind-protect', in case the user types C-g just after it runs.
2380 (This is one reason why `prepare-change-group' and
2381 `activate-change-group' are separate functions.) Once you finish the
2382 group, don't use the handle again--don't try to finish the same group
2385 To make a multibuffer change group, call `prepare-change-group' once
2386 for each buffer you want to cover, then use `nconc' to combine the
2387 returned values, like this:
2389 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
2390 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
2392 You can then activate the multibuffer change group with a single call
2393 to `activate-change-group', and finish it with a single call to
2394 `accept-change-group' or `cancel-change-group'.
2396 Nested use of several change groups for the same buffer works as you
2397 would expect. Non-nested use of change groups for the same buffer
2398 will lead to undesirable results, so don't let it happen; the first
2399 change group you start for any given buffer should be the last one
2403 ** New variable char-property-alias-alist.
2405 This variable allows you to create alternative names for text
2406 properties. It works at the same level as `default-text-properties',
2407 although it applies to overlays as well. This variable was introduced
2408 to implement the `font-lock-face' property.
2411 ** New special text property `font-lock-face'.
2413 This property acts like the `face' property, but it is controlled by
2414 M-x font-lock-mode. It is not, strictly speaking, a builtin text
2415 property. Instead, it is implemented inside font-core.el, using the
2416 new variable `char-property-alias-alist'.
2419 ** New function remove-list-of-text-properties.
2421 The new function `remove-list-of-text-properties' is almost the same
2422 as `remove-text-properties'. The only difference is that it takes
2423 a list of property names as argument rather than a property list.
2426 ** New function insert-for-yank.
2428 This function normally works like `insert' but removes the text
2429 properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list. However, if the
2430 inserted text has a `yank-handler' text property on the first
2431 character of the string, the insertion of the text may be modified in
2432 a number of ways. See the description of `yank-handler' below.
2435 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-as-yank.
2437 This function works like `insert-buffer-substring', but removes the
2438 text properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list.
2441 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-no-properties.
2443 This function is like insert-buffer-substring, but removes all
2444 text properties from the inserted substring.
2447 ** New `yank-handler' text property may be used to control how
2448 previously killed text on the kill-ring is reinserted.
2450 The value of the yank-handler property must be a list with one to four
2451 elements with the following format:
2452 (FUNCTION PARAM NOEXCLUDE UNDO).
2454 The `insert-for-yank' function looks for a yank-handler property on
2455 the first character on its string argument (typically the first
2456 element on the kill-ring). If a yank-handler property is found,
2457 the normal behaviour of `insert-for-yank' is modified in various ways:
2459 When FUNCTION is present and non-nil, it is called instead of `insert'
2460 to insert the string. FUNCTION takes one argument--the object to insert.
2461 If PARAM is present and non-nil, it replaces STRING as the object
2462 passed to FUNCTION (or `insert'); for example, if FUNCTION is
2463 `yank-rectangle', PARAM should be a list of strings to insert as a
2465 If NOEXCLUDE is present and non-nil, the normal removal of the
2466 yank-excluded-properties is not performed; instead FUNCTION is
2467 responsible for removing those properties. This may be necessary
2468 if FUNCTION adjusts point before or after inserting the object.
2469 If UNDO is present and non-nil, it is a function that will be called
2470 by `yank-pop' to undo the insertion of the current object. It is
2471 called with two arguments, the start and end of the current region.
2472 FUNCTION may set `yank-undo-function' to override the UNDO value.
2474 *** The functions kill-new, kill-append, and kill-region now have an
2475 optional argument to specify the yank-handler text property to put on
2478 *** The function yank-pop will now use a non-nil value of the variable
2479 `yank-undo-function' (instead of delete-region) to undo the previous
2480 yank or yank-pop command (or a call to insert-for-yank). The function
2481 insert-for-yank automatically sets that variable according to the UNDO
2482 element of the string argument's yank-handler text property if present.
2485 ** New function display-supports-face-attributes-p may be used to test
2486 whether a given set of face attributes is actually displayable.
2488 A new predicate `supports' has also been added to the `defface' face
2489 specification language, which can be used to do this test for faces
2490 defined with defface.
2493 ** face-attribute, face-foreground, face-background, and face-stipple now
2494 accept a new optional argument, INHERIT, which controls how face
2495 inheritance is used when determining the value of a face attribute.
2498 ** New functions face-attribute-relative-p and merge-face-attribute
2499 help with handling relative face attributes.
2502 ** Enhancements to process support
2504 *** Function list-processes now has an optional argument; if non-nil,
2505 only the processes whose query-on-exit flag is set are listed.
2507 *** New set-process-query-on-exit-flag and process-query-on-exit-flag
2508 functions. The existing process-kill-without-query function is still
2509 supported, but new code should use the new functions.
2511 *** Function signal-process now accepts a process object or process
2512 name in addition to a process id to identify the signalled process.
2514 *** Processes now have an associated property list where programs can
2515 maintain process state and other per-process related information.
2517 The new functions process-get and process-put are used to access, add,
2518 and modify elements on this property list.
2520 The new low-level functions process-plist and set-process-plist are
2521 used to access and replace the entire property list of a process.
2524 ** Enhanced networking support.
2526 *** There is a new `make-network-process' function which supports
2527 opening of stream and datagram connections to a server, as well as
2528 create a stream or datagram server inside emacs.
2530 - A server is started using :server t arg.
2531 - Datagram connection is selected using :type 'datagram arg.
2532 - A server can open on a random port using :service t arg.
2533 - Local sockets are supported using :family 'local arg.
2534 - Non-blocking connect is supported using :nowait t arg.
2535 - The process' property list may be initialized using :plist PLIST arg;
2536 a copy of the server process' property list is automatically inherited
2537 by new client processes created to handle incoming connections.
2539 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
2540 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
2542 *** Original open-network-stream is now emulated using make-network-process.
2544 *** New function open-network-stream-nowait.
2546 This function initiates a non-blocking connect and returns immediately
2547 without waiting for the connection to be established. It takes the
2548 filter and sentinel functions as arguments; when the non-blocking
2549 connect completes, the sentinel is called with a status string
2550 matching "open" or "failed".
2552 *** New function open-network-stream-server.
2554 This function creates a network server process for a TCP service.
2555 When a client connects to the specified service, a new subprocess
2556 is created to handle the new connection, and the sentinel function
2557 is called for the new process.
2559 *** New functions process-datagram-address and set-process-datagram-address.
2561 These functions are used with datagram-based network processes to get
2562 and set the current address of the remote partner.
2564 *** New function format-network-address.
2566 This function reformats the lisp representation of a network address
2567 to a printable string. For example, an IP address A.B.C.D and port
2568 number P is represented as a five element vector [A B C D P], and the
2569 printable string returned for this vector is "A.B.C.D:P". See the doc
2570 string for other formatting options.
2572 *** By default, the function process-contact still returns (HOST SERVICE)
2573 for a network process. Using the new optional KEY arg, the complete list
2574 of network process properties or a specific property can be selected.
2576 Using :local and :remote as the KEY, the address of the local or
2577 remote end-point is returned. An Inet address is represented as a 5
2578 element vector, where the first 4 elements contain the IP address and
2579 the fifth is the port number.
2581 *** Network processes can now be stopped and restarted with
2582 `stop-process' and `continue-process'. For a server process, no
2583 connections are accepted in the stopped state. For a client process,
2584 no input is received in the stopped state.
2586 *** New function network-interface-list.
2588 This function returns a list of network interface names and their
2589 current network addresses.
2591 *** New function network-interface-info.
2593 This function returns the network address, hardware address, current
2594 status, and other information about a specific network interface.
2597 ** New function copy-tree.
2600 ** New function substring-no-properties.
2603 ** New function minibuffer-selected-window.
2606 ** New function `call-process-shell-command'.
2609 ** The dummy function keys made by easymenu
2610 are now always lower case. If you specify the
2611 menu item name "Ada", for instance, it uses `ada'
2612 as the "key" bound by that key binding.
2614 This is relevant only if Lisp code looks for
2615 the bindings that were made with easymenu.
2618 ** The function `commandp' takes an additional optional
2619 argument. If it is non-nil, then `commandp' checks
2620 for a function that could be called with `call-interactively',
2621 and does not return t for keyboard macros.
2624 ** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
2625 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
2627 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
2628 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
2629 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
2632 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
2633 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
2636 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
2637 (function (lambda ()
2639 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
2640 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
2641 (function (lambda ()
2642 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
2645 ** File local variables.
2647 A file local variables list cannot specify a string with text
2648 properties--any specified text properties are discarded.
2651 ** New function window-body-height.
2653 This is like window-height but does not count the mode line
2657 ** New function format-mode-line.
2659 This returns the mode-line or header-line of the selected (or a
2660 specified) window as a string with or without text properties.
2663 ** New functions `lax-plist-get' and `lax-plist-put'.
2665 These functions are like `plist-get' and `plist-put' except that they
2666 compare the property name using `equal' rather than `eq'.
2669 ** New function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu'
2671 The `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' must not be used (as previously
2672 recommended) for making entries in the tool bar for local keymaps.
2673 Instead, use the function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu', which lets
2674 you specify the map to use as an argument.
2677 ** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
2679 When called with 2 arguments, as in `(atan Y X)', `atan' returns the
2680 angle in radians between the vector [X, Y] and the X axis. (This is
2681 equivalent to the standard C library function `atan2'.)
2684 ** You can now make a window as short as one line.
2686 A window that is just one line tall does not display either a mode
2687 line or a header line, even if the variables `mode-line-format' and
2688 `header-line-format' call for them. A window that is two lines tall
2689 cannot display both a mode line and a header line at once; if the
2690 variables call for both, only the mode line actually appears.
2693 ** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
2694 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
2695 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
2696 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
2699 ** The new mode-line construct `(:propertize ELT PROPS...)' can be
2700 used to add text properties to mode-line elements.
2703 ** Mode line display ignores text properties as well as the
2704 :propertize and :eval forms in the value of a variable whose
2705 `risky-local-variable' property is nil.
2708 ** The new `%i' and `%I' constructs for `mode-line-format' can be used
2709 to display the size of the accessible part of the buffer on the mode
2713 ** Indentation of simple and extended loop forms has been added to the
2714 cl-indent package. The new user options
2715 `lisp-loop-keyword-indentation', `lisp-loop-forms-indentation', and
2716 `lisp-simple-loop-indentation' can be used to customize the
2717 indentation of keywords and forms in loop forms.
2720 ** Indentation of backquoted forms has been made customizable in the
2721 cl-indent package. See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
2724 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
2726 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
2727 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
2728 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
2731 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
2733 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
2734 the time it takes to convert the format.
2736 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
2740 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
2741 over minor mode keymaps.
2744 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
2745 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
2748 ** At the end of a command, point moves out from within invisible
2749 text, in the same way it moves out from within text covered by an
2750 image or composition property.
2752 This makes it generally unnecessary to mark invisible text as intangible.
2753 This is particularly good because the intangible property often has
2754 unexpected side-effects since the property applies to everything
2755 (including `goto-char', ...) whereas this new code is only run after
2756 post-command-hook and thus does not care about intermediate states.
2759 ** field-beginning and field-end now accept an additional optional
2763 ** define-abbrev now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG. If
2764 non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means that
2765 it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the abbrevs.
2766 Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always specify this
2770 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
2773 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
2776 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
2777 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
2778 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
2779 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
2780 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
2781 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
2784 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
2785 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
2786 bindings of the parent keymap.
2789 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
2790 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
2791 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
2792 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
2793 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
2794 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
2802 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
2803 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
2804 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
2805 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
2808 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
2809 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
2811 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
2812 (the last prior group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
2815 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
2816 it receives a request from emacsclient.
2819 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
2820 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
2821 than 3 levels of nesting.
2824 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
2825 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
2829 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
2830 properties from surrounding text.
2833 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
2835 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
2836 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
2837 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
2840 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
2841 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
2845 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
2846 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
2847 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP2 VAL2 ...) so you can set
2848 other properties than `face'.
2849 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
2850 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
2853 ** The special treatment of faces whose names are of the form `fg:COLOR'
2854 or `bg:COLOR' has been removed. Lisp programs should use the
2855 `defface' facility for defining faces with specific colors, or use
2856 the feature of specifying the face attributes :foreground and :background
2857 directly in the `face' property instead of using a named face.
2860 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
2861 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
2862 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
2865 ** define-minor-mode now accepts arbitrary additional keyword arguments
2866 and simply passes them to defcustom, if applicable.
2869 ** define-derived-mode by default creates a new empty abbrev table.
2870 It does not copy abbrevs from the parent mode's abbrev table.
2873 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
2874 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
2875 and runs any code associated with the provided feature.
2878 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
2879 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
2880 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
2883 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
2884 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
2885 accepts a float as UID parameter.
2888 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
2891 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
2894 ** The Emacs Lisp byte-compiler now displays the actual line and
2895 character position of errors, where possible. Additionally, the form
2896 of its warning and error messages have been brought more in line with
2897 the output of other GNU tools.
2900 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
2903 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
2906 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
2907 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
2910 ** Variable aliases have been implemented:
2912 *** defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR [DOCSTRING]
2914 This function defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for
2915 symbol BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR
2916 returns the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR
2917 changes the value of BASE-VAR.
2919 DOCSTRING, if present, is the documentation for ALIAS-VAR; else it has
2920 the same documentation as BASE-VAR.
2922 *** indirect-variable VARIABLE
2924 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
2925 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
2926 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
2928 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
2929 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
2932 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
2933 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
2936 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
2937 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
2940 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
2941 hold the largest and smallest possible integer values.
2944 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
2945 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
2946 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
2948 ** Functions y-or-n-p, read-char, read-key-sequence and the like, that
2949 display a prompt but don't use the minibuffer, now display the prompt
2950 using the text properties (esp. the face) of the prompt string.
2952 ** New function x-send-client-message sends a client message when
2957 *** The new package gdb-ui.el provides an enhanced graphical interface to
2958 GDB. You can interact with GDB through the GUD buffer in the usual way, but
2959 there are also further buffers which control the execution and describe the
2960 state of your program. It separates the input/output of your program from
2961 that of GDB and watches expressions in the speedbar. It also uses features of
2962 Emacs 21 such as the display margin for breakpoints, and the toolbar.
2964 Use M-x gdba to start GDB-UI.
2966 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
2967 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
2969 *** The new package bindat.el provides functions to unpack and pack
2970 binary data structures, such as network packets, to and from Lisp
2973 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
2974 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
2976 *** The new package button.el implements simple and fast `clickable buttons'
2977 in emacs buffers. `buttons' are much lighter-weight than the `widgets'
2978 implemented by widget.el, and can be used by lisp code that doesn't
2979 require the full power of widgets. Emacs uses buttons for such things
2980 as help and apropos buffers.
2983 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.3
2985 ** Support for GNU/Linux on little-endian MIPS and on IBM S390 has
2989 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
2991 ** The obsolete C mode (c-mode.el) has been removed to avoid problems
2994 ** UTF-16 coding systems are available, encoding the same characters
2995 as mule-utf-8. Coding system `utf-16-le-dos' is useful as the value
2996 of `selection-coding-system' in MS Windows, allowing you to paste
2997 multilingual text from the clipboard. Set it interactively with
2998 C-x RET x or in .emacs with `(set-selection-coding-system 'utf-16-le-dos)'.
3000 ** There is a new language environment for UTF-8 (set up automatically
3003 ** Translation tables are available between equivalent characters in
3004 different Emacs charsets -- for instance `e with acute' coming from the
3005 Latin-1 and Latin-2 charsets. User options `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode'
3006 and `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' respectively turn on translation
3007 between ISO 8859 character sets (`unification') on encoding
3008 (e.g. writing a file) and decoding (e.g. reading a file). Note that
3009 `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is useful and safe, but
3010 `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' can cause text to change when you read
3011 it and write it out again without edits, so it is not generally advisable.
3012 By default `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is turned on.
3014 ** In Emacs running on the X window system, the default value of
3015 `selection-coding-system' is now `compound-text-with-extensions'.
3017 If you want the old behavior, set selection-coding-system to
3018 compound-text, which may be significantly more efficient. Using
3019 compound-text-with-extensions seems to be necessary only for decoding
3020 text from applications under XFree86 4.2, whose behaviour is actually
3021 contrary to the compound text specification.
3024 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.2
3026 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 has been added.
3028 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
3031 * Changes in Emacs 21.2
3033 ** Emacs now supports compound-text extended segments in X selections.
3035 X applications can use `extended segments' to encode characters in
3036 compound text that belong to character sets which are not part of the
3037 list of approved standard encodings for X, e.g. Big5. To paste
3038 selections with such characters into Emacs, use the new coding system
3039 compound-text-with-extensions as the value of selection-coding-system.
3041 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
3044 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
3045 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
3047 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
3048 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
3049 instead of using default-major-mode.
3051 ** The new option `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' causes Info to behave
3052 like the stand-alone Info reader (from the GNU Texinfo package) as far
3053 as motion between nodes and their subnodes is concerned. If it is t
3054 (the default), Emacs behaves as before when you type SPC in a menu: it
3055 visits the subnode pointed to by the first menu entry. If this option
3056 is nil, SPC scrolls to the end of the current node, and only then goes
3057 to the first menu item, like the stand-alone reader does.
3059 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
3063 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.2
3065 ** The meanings of scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively
3066 have been interchanged, so that the former now controls scrolling up,
3067 and the latter now controls scrolling down.
3069 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
3070 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
3073 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
3075 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
3076 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
3077 charsets in this release.
3079 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
3081 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
3083 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
3084 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
3087 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
3088 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
3089 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
3090 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
3091 necessary changes to unexec.
3093 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
3094 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
3096 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
3097 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
3099 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
3100 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
3102 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
3103 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
3104 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
3105 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
3106 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
3108 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
3109 new display features described below.
3112 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
3114 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
3116 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
3117 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
3118 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
3119 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
3122 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
3124 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
3125 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
3126 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
3127 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
3130 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
3131 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
3132 under Lisp changes, below.
3134 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
3136 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
3137 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
3138 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
3139 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
3140 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
3141 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
3144 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
3145 supported on character terminals.
3147 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
3148 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
3149 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
3150 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
3152 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
3156 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
3157 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
3158 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
3159 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
3162 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
3164 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
3165 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
3166 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
3167 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
3169 - User option: max-mini-window-height
3171 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
3172 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
3173 specifies a number of lines.
3177 - User option: resize-mini-windows
3179 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
3180 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
3181 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
3184 Default is `grow-only'.
3188 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
3189 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
3191 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
3193 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
3194 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
3197 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
3199 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
3200 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
3201 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
3203 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
3205 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
3206 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
3207 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
3208 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
3209 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
3212 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
3213 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
3214 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
3215 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
3216 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
3217 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
3219 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
3220 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
3221 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
3222 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
3223 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
3224 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
3226 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
3227 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
3228 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
3229 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
3230 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
3232 ** Tool bar support.
3234 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
3235 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
3236 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
3237 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
3238 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
3241 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
3242 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
3246 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
3247 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
3248 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
3250 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
3251 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
3252 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
3253 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
3255 ** Automatic Hscrolling
3257 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
3258 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
3261 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
3262 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
3263 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
3264 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
3265 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
3267 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
3268 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
3269 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
3270 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
3271 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
3272 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
3274 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
3275 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
3276 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
3277 customizing face `fringe'.
3279 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
3280 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
3281 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
3282 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
3283 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
3284 the window to be partially obscured.)
3286 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
3287 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
3288 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
3289 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
3291 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3293 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
3294 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
3295 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
3296 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
3297 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
3300 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
3302 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
3304 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
3306 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
3307 `*') toggles the status.
3309 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
3311 ** Hourglass pointer
3313 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
3314 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
3318 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
3319 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
3320 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
3323 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
3325 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
3326 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
3327 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
3330 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
3331 have to do anything to activate it.
3333 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
3335 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
3336 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
3338 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
3339 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
3340 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
3341 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
3342 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
3343 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
3344 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
3345 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
3347 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
3348 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
3349 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
3350 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
3351 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
3352 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
3354 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
3355 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
3357 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
3358 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
3361 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
3362 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
3363 beginning and end of the buffer.
3365 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
3366 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
3369 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
3370 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
3372 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
3373 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
3376 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
3377 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
3380 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
3382 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
3383 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
3384 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
3386 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
3387 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
3388 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
3390 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
3393 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
3395 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
3396 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
3397 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
3398 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
3399 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
3402 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
3403 all frames except the selected one.
3405 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
3406 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
3408 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
3409 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
3410 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
3411 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
3412 `Info-use-header-line'.
3414 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
3415 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
3416 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
3418 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
3420 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
3421 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
3424 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
3425 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
3426 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
3427 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
3429 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
3431 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
3432 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
3433 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
3434 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
3436 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
3437 point in a pop-up window.
3439 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
3440 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
3441 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
3443 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
3444 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
3446 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
3447 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
3448 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
3449 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
3451 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
3453 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
3454 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
3456 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
3457 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
3458 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
3460 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
3461 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
3464 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
3465 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
3466 file that is already visited under a different name.
3468 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
3469 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
3471 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
3472 and displays information about that.
3474 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
3475 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
3477 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
3478 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
3479 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
3480 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
3481 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
3482 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
3484 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
3485 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
3487 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
3488 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
3489 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
3490 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
3491 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
3492 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
3493 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
3495 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
3496 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
3498 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
3499 system for keyboard input.
3501 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
3502 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
3503 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
3504 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
3505 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
3506 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
3507 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
3508 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
3509 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
3511 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
3512 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
3514 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
3515 displays all characters in that character set.
3517 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
3518 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
3520 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
3521 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
3522 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
3524 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
3525 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
3526 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
3527 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
3528 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
3529 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
3532 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
3533 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
3536 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
3537 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
3538 Lisp Coding Convention".
3540 new command old-binding
3541 --- ------- -----------
3542 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
3543 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
3544 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
3546 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
3547 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
3548 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
3550 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
3551 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
3552 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
3553 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
3554 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
3555 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
3557 ** There are new Leim input methods.
3558 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
3559 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
3562 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
3563 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
3564 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
3565 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
3566 "`", you must type "=q".
3568 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
3569 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
3570 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
3571 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
3572 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
3575 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
3576 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
3577 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
3578 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
3580 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
3581 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
3582 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
3583 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
3585 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
3586 on the display using several methods
3588 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
3589 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
3590 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
3592 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
3593 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
3595 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
3597 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
3598 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
3600 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
3601 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
3602 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
3603 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
3605 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
3606 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
3607 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
3609 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
3610 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
3612 ** New X resources recognized
3614 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
3615 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
3616 is useful for debugging X problems.
3620 emacs.synchronous: true
3622 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
3623 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
3624 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
3625 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
3626 visual class names are
3635 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
3636 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
3639 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
3640 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
3641 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
3646 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
3648 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
3649 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
3650 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
3651 resource values are `true' or `on'.
3655 emacs.privateColormap: true
3657 ** Faces and frame parameters.
3659 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
3660 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
3661 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
3662 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
3663 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
3664 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
3665 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
3667 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
3668 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
3669 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
3670 `default' face and vice versa.
3674 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
3676 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
3678 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
3679 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
3680 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
3681 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
3683 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
3684 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
3685 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
3687 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
3690 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
3692 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
3693 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
3694 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
3695 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
3697 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
3699 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
3701 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
3703 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
3706 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
3709 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
3711 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
3712 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
3713 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
3715 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
3716 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
3718 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
3719 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
3720 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
3722 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
3724 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
3725 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
3726 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
3727 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
3729 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
3730 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
3731 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
3732 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
3734 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
3735 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
3736 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
3739 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
3741 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
3742 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
3743 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
3745 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
3746 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
3747 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
3748 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
3749 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
3750 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
3752 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
3754 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
3755 notably at the end of lines.
3757 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
3758 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
3760 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
3762 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
3763 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
3765 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
3766 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
3767 after each match to get the replacement text.
3769 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
3770 you edit the replacement string.
3772 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
3773 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
3774 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
3776 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
3778 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
3779 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
3781 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
3782 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
3783 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
3784 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
3787 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
3788 read mail from the menu etc.
3790 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
3791 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
3792 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
3793 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
3795 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
3796 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
3798 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
3799 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
3800 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
3801 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
3802 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
3805 ** Customize changes
3807 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
3808 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
3809 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
3810 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
3811 earlier versions of Emacs.
3813 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
3814 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
3817 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
3818 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
3819 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
3820 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
3823 ** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
3824 does not save disabled and enabled commands for future sessions, to
3825 avoid overwriting existing customizations of this kind that are
3826 already in your init file.
3828 ** New features in evaluation commands
3830 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
3831 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
3832 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
3833 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
3834 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
3836 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
3837 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
3838 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
3839 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
3842 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
3843 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
3845 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
3846 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
3848 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
3849 code when called with a prefix argument.
3853 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
3854 current user setups (although it's believed that these
3855 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
3856 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
3857 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
3858 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
3861 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
3862 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
3863 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
3866 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
3867 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
3868 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
3869 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
3871 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
3872 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
3874 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
3875 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
3877 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
3878 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
3879 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
3880 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
3882 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
3883 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
3884 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
3885 earlier statement. An example:
3887 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
3889 res += a[i]->offset;
3892 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
3893 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
3894 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
3895 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
3898 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
3901 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
3902 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
3903 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
3904 documentation or other natural language text.
3906 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
3907 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
3908 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
3909 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
3910 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
3911 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
3912 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
3914 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
3915 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
3916 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
3917 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
3919 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
3920 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
3921 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
3922 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
3925 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
3926 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
3927 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
3928 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
3929 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
3930 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
3931 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
3932 is reported afterwards.
3934 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
3935 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
3936 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
3938 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
3939 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
3940 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
3941 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
3942 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
3943 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
3946 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
3947 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
3948 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
3949 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
3950 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
3953 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
3954 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
3955 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
3956 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
3957 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
3958 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
3960 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
3961 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
3962 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
3963 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
3964 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
3965 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
3966 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
3967 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
3969 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
3970 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
3971 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
3972 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
3975 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
3976 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
3977 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
3978 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
3979 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
3980 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
3981 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
3982 function documentation for more info.
3984 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
3985 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
3986 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
3987 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
3988 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
3989 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
3990 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
3991 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
3993 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
3995 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
3996 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
3998 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
3999 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
4000 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
4001 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
4002 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
4005 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
4006 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
4007 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
4010 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
4011 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
4012 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
4013 chapter about this in the manual.
4015 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
4016 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
4017 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
4018 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
4019 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
4021 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
4022 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
4023 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
4025 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
4026 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
4028 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
4029 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
4030 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
4033 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
4034 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
4035 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
4036 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
4039 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
4040 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
4041 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
4042 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
4043 they were before the filling.
4045 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
4046 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
4047 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
4050 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
4051 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
4052 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
4053 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
4056 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
4057 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
4058 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
4059 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
4060 Thanks to Eric Eide.
4062 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
4063 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
4064 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
4066 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
4068 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
4069 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
4070 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
4071 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
4073 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
4074 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
4075 the column specified by comment-column.
4077 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
4078 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
4079 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
4080 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
4081 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
4082 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
4084 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
4085 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
4088 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
4090 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
4091 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
4092 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
4093 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
4096 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
4100 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
4101 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
4102 is, delete only empty directories.
4104 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
4105 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
4106 copy directories recursively.
4108 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
4109 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
4110 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
4112 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
4113 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
4116 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
4117 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
4118 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
4119 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
4120 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
4122 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
4125 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
4126 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
4127 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
4128 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
4132 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
4133 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
4134 internationalization and mail-fetching.
4136 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
4137 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
4139 If you used procmail like in
4141 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
4142 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
4143 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
4144 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
4146 this now has changed to
4149 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
4152 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
4153 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
4155 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
4156 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
4157 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
4158 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
4160 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
4161 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
4162 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
4164 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
4165 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
4166 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
4167 now just a compatibility layer.
4169 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
4172 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
4173 called to position point.
4175 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
4176 summary buffers and NOV files.
4178 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
4179 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
4181 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
4182 subtly different manner.
4184 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
4185 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
4186 ever-changing layouts.
4188 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
4190 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
4192 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
4194 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
4198 -------------------------
4202 C-c C-c q @quotation
4204 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
4207 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
4209 ** Changes in Outline mode.
4211 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
4212 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
4213 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
4215 ** Changes to Emacs Server
4217 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
4218 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
4219 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
4220 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
4221 buffers to kill, as before.
4223 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
4224 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
4227 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
4228 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
4230 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
4232 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
4233 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
4234 use. Default is 1000.
4236 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
4237 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
4239 ** Changes to hideshow.el
4241 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
4243 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
4244 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
4245 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
4246 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
4248 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
4249 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
4250 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
4253 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
4254 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
4255 the normal block-hiding function.
4257 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
4259 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
4260 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
4261 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
4262 for `hs-minor-mode'.
4264 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
4265 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
4267 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
4269 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
4270 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
4271 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
4273 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
4276 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
4279 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
4280 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
4281 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
4282 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
4283 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
4284 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
4286 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
4288 ** Changes to cmuscheme
4290 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
4291 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
4293 ** Changes in Font Lock
4295 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
4296 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
4298 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
4299 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
4301 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
4302 the face used for each string/comment.
4304 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
4305 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
4307 ** Changes to Shell mode
4309 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
4310 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
4311 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
4312 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
4314 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4316 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
4317 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
4319 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
4320 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
4321 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
4322 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
4323 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
4324 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
4326 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
4327 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
4328 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
4329 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
4330 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
4331 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
4332 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
4333 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
4335 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
4336 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
4338 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
4339 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
4340 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
4342 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
4343 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
4344 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
4346 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
4347 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
4348 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
4350 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
4351 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
4352 argument, it appends to the file.
4354 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
4355 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
4358 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
4361 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
4362 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
4363 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
4365 ** Changes to Rmail mode
4367 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
4368 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
4369 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
4370 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
4371 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
4374 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
4375 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
4376 regexp matching your mail addresses.
4378 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
4379 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
4380 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
4381 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
4382 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
4384 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
4387 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
4388 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
4391 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
4392 in which folder to put messages automatically.
4394 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
4395 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
4396 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
4398 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
4399 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
4401 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
4402 use the -f option when sending mail.
4404 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
4405 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
4406 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
4407 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
4408 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
4409 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
4411 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
4412 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
4413 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
4415 ** Changes to TeX mode
4417 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
4420 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
4422 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
4424 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
4426 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4428 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
4429 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
4430 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
4431 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
4432 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
4433 can be edited from that buffer.
4435 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
4436 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
4437 `A' to use all marked entries).
4439 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
4440 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
4442 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
4443 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
4444 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
4447 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
4448 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
4449 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
4450 in column 1 are always made leaves.
4452 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
4453 has the following new features:
4455 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
4456 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
4457 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
4458 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
4460 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
4461 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
4462 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
4463 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
4464 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
4467 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
4472 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
4473 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
4474 spell-checks the current buffer.
4476 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
4479 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
4480 correction is made and re-checked.
4482 *** Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definitions have been added.
4484 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
4487 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
4490 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
4493 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
4495 ** Makefile mode changes
4497 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
4499 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
4500 Fontlock mode is active.
4504 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
4505 so that searches can be resumed.
4507 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
4508 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
4509 that started the search.
4511 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
4512 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
4514 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
4516 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
4517 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
4518 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
4519 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
4520 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
4521 `secondary-selection'.
4523 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
4524 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
4525 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
4526 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
4527 usual snappy response.
4529 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
4530 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
4531 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
4532 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
4536 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
4537 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
4538 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
4539 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
4540 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
4541 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
4542 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
4543 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
4544 file is registered in that backend.
4546 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
4547 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
4548 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
4549 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
4550 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
4551 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
4553 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
4554 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
4555 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
4556 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
4557 where it doesn't make sense.)
4559 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
4560 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
4561 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
4565 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
4566 checks are always done now.
4568 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
4571 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
4572 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
4573 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
4575 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
4576 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
4577 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
4578 the working file (``merge news'').
4580 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
4581 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
4584 *** Multiple Backends
4586 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
4587 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
4588 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
4589 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
4592 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
4593 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
4594 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
4595 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
4597 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
4598 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
4599 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
4600 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
4601 current revision number from the more remote backend.
4603 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
4604 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
4605 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
4606 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
4608 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
4609 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
4610 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
4611 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
4615 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
4616 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
4617 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
4618 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
4619 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
4620 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
4621 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
4623 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
4624 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
4625 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
4626 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
4627 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
4628 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
4629 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
4630 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
4631 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
4632 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
4633 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
4636 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
4637 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
4638 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
4639 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
4640 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
4641 entire directory tree.
4643 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
4644 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
4645 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
4646 "watched" by other developers.)
4648 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
4649 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
4650 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
4651 starting at the given directory.
4653 *** Lisp Changes in VC
4655 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
4656 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
4657 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
4658 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
4659 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
4660 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
4661 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
4662 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
4663 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
4665 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
4666 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
4667 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
4668 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
4670 ** New modes and packages
4672 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
4673 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
4674 the default is not applicable.
4676 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
4677 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
4678 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
4682 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
4683 drawn, like this: | \ /
4687 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
4688 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
4689 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
4690 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
4691 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
4694 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
4695 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
4697 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
4700 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
4701 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
4702 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
4703 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
4705 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
4706 also do without the mouse.
4708 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
4709 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
4710 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
4711 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
4712 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
4714 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
4716 lines straight-lines
4718 poly-lines straight poly-lines
4720 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
4721 spray-can setting size for spraying
4722 vaporize line vaporize lines
4723 erase characters erase rectangles
4725 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
4726 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
4727 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
4730 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
4731 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
4732 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
4733 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
4735 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
4738 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
4739 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
4740 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
4741 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
4742 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
4743 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
4744 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
4745 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
4746 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
4748 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
4749 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
4750 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
4751 on certain projects.
4753 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
4754 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
4756 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
4758 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
4759 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
4760 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
4761 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
4762 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
4763 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
4764 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
4765 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
4767 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
4770 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
4771 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
4773 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
4774 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
4776 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
4777 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
4778 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
4779 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
4780 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
4782 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
4783 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
4784 separate Texinfo file.
4786 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
4787 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
4788 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
4789 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
4790 enter check-in log messages.
4792 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
4793 without invoking external programs.
4795 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
4796 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
4797 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
4798 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
4799 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
4801 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
4802 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
4804 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
4805 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
4807 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
4808 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
4809 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
4810 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
4811 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
4814 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
4815 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
4816 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
4817 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
4819 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
4820 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
4821 actually modifying content of a buffer.
4823 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
4826 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
4828 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
4830 ; comment (until end of line)
4834 $A default non-terminal
4835 $"C" default terminal
4836 $?C? default special
4837 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
4838 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
4839 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
4840 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
4841 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
4842 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
4843 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
4844 C+ one or more occurrences of C
4845 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
4846 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
4847 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
4848 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
4849 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
4850 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
4851 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
4853 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
4855 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
4856 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
4857 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
4858 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
4859 equal signs of assignments.
4861 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
4862 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
4864 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
4865 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
4866 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
4868 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
4870 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
4871 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
4872 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
4873 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
4874 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
4875 which answers different needs.
4877 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
4878 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
4879 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
4880 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
4881 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
4884 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
4885 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
4887 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
4889 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
4890 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
4891 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behavior in all buffers.
4893 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
4895 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
4896 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
4897 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
4898 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
4899 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
4900 and background colors.
4902 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
4905 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
4908 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
4910 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
4912 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
4913 whitespace in a file.
4915 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
4916 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
4917 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
4918 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
4919 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
4920 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
4921 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
4923 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
4925 Here is an example of columns:
4928 dog pineapple car EXTRA
4929 porcupine strawberry airplane
4931 Doing the following settings:
4933 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
4934 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
4935 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
4936 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
4939 Selecting the lines above and typing:
4941 M-x delimit-columns-region
4945 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
4946 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
4947 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
4949 delim-col has the following options:
4951 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
4954 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
4955 between each column.
4957 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
4960 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
4963 delim-col has the following commands:
4965 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
4966 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
4968 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
4969 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
4970 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
4971 recent file list can be displayed:
4973 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
4974 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
4975 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
4977 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
4978 dynamically change the menu appearance.
4980 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
4983 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
4984 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
4985 specific to Message mode.
4987 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
4988 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
4989 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
4991 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
4992 interface to access directory servers using different directory
4993 protocols. It has a separate manual.
4995 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
4996 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
4998 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
5000 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
5001 minibuffer with completion.
5003 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
5004 with the diary features.
5006 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
5007 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
5009 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
5012 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
5013 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
5014 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
5015 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
5017 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
5018 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
5021 ** Changes in sort.el
5023 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
5024 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
5025 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
5028 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
5030 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
5031 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
5032 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
5034 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
5035 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
5037 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
5038 output ^M at the end of lines.
5040 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
5041 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
5043 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
5044 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
5047 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
5050 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
5051 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
5054 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
5055 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
5056 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
5057 nil -- just delete one character.
5059 Default value is `untabify'.
5061 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
5063 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
5064 symbol, not double-quoted.
5066 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
5067 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
5068 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
5069 moved to lisp/obsolete.
5071 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
5072 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
5073 `auto-compression-mode' command.
5075 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
5076 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
5077 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
5079 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
5080 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
5082 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
5083 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
5085 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
5086 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
5088 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
5089 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
5090 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
5091 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
5092 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
5093 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
5095 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
5096 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
5098 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
5100 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
5101 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
5103 ** Shell script mode changes.
5105 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
5106 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
5107 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
5111 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
5113 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
5114 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
5115 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
5116 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
5117 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
5119 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
5120 declarations when given the --declarations option.
5122 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
5123 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
5125 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
5126 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
5127 `template' keywords.
5129 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
5130 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
5132 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
5135 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
5137 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
5139 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
5142 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
5144 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
5145 variables are tagged.
5147 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
5149 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
5152 ** Changes in etags.el
5154 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
5155 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
5156 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
5158 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
5159 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
5161 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
5162 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
5163 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
5164 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
5166 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
5168 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
5169 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
5171 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
5173 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
5174 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
5175 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
5177 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
5178 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
5180 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
5181 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
5183 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
5184 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
5185 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
5186 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
5187 point will go to the beginning of the file.
5189 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
5190 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
5191 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
5193 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
5194 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
5195 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
5197 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
5198 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
5199 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
5201 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
5203 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
5205 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
5206 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
5207 expression from that list, are not checked.
5209 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
5210 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
5211 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
5212 the buffer, just like for the local files.
5214 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
5216 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
5217 displays local abbrevs, only.
5219 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
5220 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
5222 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
5223 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
5224 is measured in pixels.
5226 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
5227 to be visited as images.
5229 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
5230 were added to compile.el.
5232 ** Withdrawn packages
5234 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
5235 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
5237 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
5239 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
5242 * Incompatible Lisp changes
5244 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
5245 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
5246 See the sections below for details.
5248 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
5249 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
5250 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
5251 to remove the properties of the copy.
5253 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
5254 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
5255 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
5256 these properties are active.
5258 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
5259 ranges may affect some code.
5261 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
5262 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
5263 make a difference to some code.
5265 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
5266 operates on the minibuffer.
5268 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
5269 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
5270 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
5271 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
5272 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
5273 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
5274 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
5275 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
5276 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
5277 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
5278 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
5279 the buffer as multibyte characters.
5281 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
5282 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
5283 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
5285 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
5286 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
5287 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
5289 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
5290 long promised. So does any code that uses derivatives of `concat',
5291 such as `mapconcat'.
5293 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
5296 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
5297 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
5298 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
5299 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
5300 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
5301 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
5302 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
5303 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
5305 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
5306 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
5307 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
5308 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
5309 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
5310 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
5311 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
5312 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
5313 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
5314 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
5317 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
5318 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
5320 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
5322 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
5323 allows the animated display of strings.
5325 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
5326 interactive form of a function.
5328 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
5329 between custom options. Example:
5331 (defcustom default-input-method nil
5332 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
5333 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
5334 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
5336 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
5337 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
5339 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
5340 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
5341 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
5343 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
5344 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
5345 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
5346 (signal or normal termination).
5348 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
5349 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
5351 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
5352 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
5354 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
5355 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
5357 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
5359 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
5360 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
5363 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
5365 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
5366 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
5367 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
5368 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
5369 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
5372 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
5373 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
5376 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
5377 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
5379 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
5380 with the more general `:mask' property.
5382 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
5384 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
5387 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
5388 is running in batch mode. For example,
5390 (message "%s" (read t))
5392 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
5395 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
5396 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
5398 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
5399 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
5402 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
5405 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
5407 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
5408 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
5410 - Function: remq ELT LIST
5412 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
5413 comparison is done with `eq'.
5415 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
5417 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
5418 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
5419 `key-and-value', in addition to `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
5421 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
5422 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
5423 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
5425 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
5426 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
5428 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
5429 function was declared obsolete.
5431 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
5432 retained as an alias).
5434 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
5435 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
5436 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
5438 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
5440 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
5442 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
5443 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
5444 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
5445 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
5446 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
5447 means never include the minibuffer window.
5449 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
5451 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
5453 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
5455 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
5456 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
5457 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
5458 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
5461 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
5462 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
5463 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
5464 minibuffer even if it is active.
5466 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
5467 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
5468 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
5469 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
5470 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
5471 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
5473 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
5474 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
5475 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
5476 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
5477 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
5478 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
5479 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
5481 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
5482 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
5483 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
5485 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
5486 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
5487 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
5488 Default value is nil.
5490 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
5493 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
5494 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
5495 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
5497 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
5498 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
5499 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
5501 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
5502 list of a primitive.
5504 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
5506 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
5507 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
5508 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
5509 than replacing the local map.
5511 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
5512 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
5513 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
5516 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
5518 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
5519 as promised long ago.
5521 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
5523 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
5524 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
5525 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
5528 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
5530 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
5531 regular expressions.
5533 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
5535 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
5539 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
5541 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
5545 matches string STRING literally.
5548 matches character CHAR literally.
5551 matches any character except a newline.
5554 matches any character
5557 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
5558 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
5564 matches any character not in SET
5567 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
5568 in the text being matched
5571 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
5574 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
5575 string being matched against.
5578 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
5579 string being matched against.
5582 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
5583 buffer being matched against.
5586 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
5587 buffer being matched against.
5590 matches the empty string, but only at point.
5593 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
5597 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
5600 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
5603 `(not word-boundary)'
5604 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
5608 matches 0 through 9.
5611 matches ASCII control characters.
5614 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
5617 matches space and tab only.
5620 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
5624 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
5628 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
5629 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
5632 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
5633 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
5636 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
5639 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
5642 matches anything lower-case.
5645 matches anything upper-case.
5648 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
5649 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
5652 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
5655 matches anything that has word syntax.
5658 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
5659 of the following symbols.
5661 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
5662 `punctuation' (\\s.)
5665 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
5666 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
5667 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
5668 `string-quote' (\\s\")
5669 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
5671 `character-quote' (\\s/)
5672 `comment-start' (\\s<)
5673 `comment-end' (\\s>)
5675 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
5676 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
5678 `(category CATEGORY)'
5679 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
5680 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
5682 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
5684 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
5685 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
5689 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
5691 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
5692 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
5693 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
5694 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
5695 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
5696 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
5697 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
5698 `indian-two-byte' (\\cI)
5699 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
5700 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
5701 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
5710 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
5714 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
5721 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
5722 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
5724 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
5725 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
5727 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
5728 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
5729 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
5731 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
5732 another name for `submatch'.
5734 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
5735 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
5736 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
5739 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
5740 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
5741 zero or more occurrences of something are \"greedy\" in that they
5742 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
5743 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
5745 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
5746 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
5748 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
5749 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
5752 like `zero-or-more'.
5755 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
5758 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
5760 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
5761 matches one or more occurrences of A.
5767 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
5770 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
5772 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
5773 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
5779 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
5782 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
5785 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
5788 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
5791 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
5795 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
5797 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
5799 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
5800 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
5801 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
5802 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
5804 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
5805 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
5806 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
5807 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
5809 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
5810 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
5811 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
5813 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
5814 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
5815 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
5816 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
5817 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
5818 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
5819 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
5822 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
5824 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
5825 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
5826 character set as previously.
5828 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
5829 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
5830 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
5832 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
5833 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
5834 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
5835 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
5837 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
5838 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
5840 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
5841 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
5844 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
5845 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
5847 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
5848 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
5849 buffers and strings.
5851 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
5852 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
5853 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
5854 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
5855 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
5856 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
5857 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
5860 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
5861 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
5862 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
5864 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
5865 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
5866 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
5867 may differ between buffer and string text.
5869 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
5870 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
5872 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
5873 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
5874 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
5875 `composition' from STRING.
5877 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
5878 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
5880 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
5883 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
5884 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
5886 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
5887 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
5888 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
5889 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
5891 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
5892 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
5893 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
5894 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
5895 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
5896 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
5898 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
5899 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
5900 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
5902 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
5903 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
5904 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
5906 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
5907 have been introduced.
5909 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
5910 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
5911 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
5912 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
5913 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
5914 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
5915 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
5916 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
5917 their multibyte equivalent.
5919 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
5920 that offset in the file before writing.
5922 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
5923 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
5925 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
5926 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
5927 from which the command was issued.
5929 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
5930 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
5931 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
5932 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
5935 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
5936 to `window-buffer-height'.
5938 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
5940 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
5941 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
5942 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
5944 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
5947 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
5948 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
5950 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
5951 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
5952 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
5954 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
5955 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
5956 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
5957 is currently displayed in some window.
5959 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
5960 argument function's results.
5962 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
5963 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
5964 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
5965 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
5968 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
5969 header in the list of headers passed to it.
5971 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
5972 ignores differences in case and text representation.
5974 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
5975 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
5978 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
5979 nil don't display a cursor
5980 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
5981 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
5982 others display a box cursor.
5984 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
5985 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
5986 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
5987 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
5989 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
5990 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
5991 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
5992 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
5996 (string-to-syntax "()")
5999 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
6002 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
6003 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
6010 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
6015 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
6020 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
6027 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
6028 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
6031 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
6032 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
6033 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
6034 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
6036 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
6038 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
6039 for a regexp in a string.
6041 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
6042 `mouse-position-function'.
6044 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
6045 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
6047 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
6048 Keywords are now always considered constants.
6050 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
6053 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
6054 returned by function `recent-keys'.
6056 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
6057 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
6058 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
6059 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
6062 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
6063 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
6065 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
6066 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
6067 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
6068 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
6071 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
6072 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
6073 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
6074 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
6076 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
6077 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
6078 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
6080 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
6081 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
6084 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
6086 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
6087 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
6088 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
6091 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
6092 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
6093 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
6094 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
6095 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
6097 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
6098 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
6100 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
6101 instead of being optional.
6103 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
6104 modify read-only text.
6106 ** New functions and variables for locales.
6108 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
6109 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
6110 time functions like strftime. The new variables
6111 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
6112 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
6114 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
6115 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
6116 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
6117 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
6118 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
6119 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
6120 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
6122 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
6123 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
6124 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
6127 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
6128 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
6130 ** New function `propertize'
6132 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
6133 strings with text properties.
6135 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
6137 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
6138 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
6139 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
6140 specified value of that property. Example:
6142 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
6144 ** push and pop macros.
6146 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
6147 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
6148 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
6150 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
6151 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
6152 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
6154 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
6156 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
6157 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
6159 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
6160 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
6161 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
6162 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
6164 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
6165 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
6166 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
6167 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
6169 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
6170 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
6171 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
6174 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
6175 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
6176 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
6177 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
6178 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
6180 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
6182 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
6183 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6184 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6185 [:alpha:] matches letters.
6186 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6187 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6188 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
6189 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
6190 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
6191 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
6192 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6193 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
6194 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
6195 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
6196 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
6198 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
6200 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
6202 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
6204 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
6205 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
6209 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
6210 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
6211 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
6215 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
6216 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
6218 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
6220 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
6221 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
6222 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
6223 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
6224 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
6226 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
6228 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
6229 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
6230 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
6234 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
6235 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
6236 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
6237 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
6238 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
6240 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
6242 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
6244 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
6246 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
6248 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
6250 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
6253 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
6255 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
6257 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
6259 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
6261 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
6263 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
6265 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
6267 Returns the size of TABLE.
6269 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
6271 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
6273 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
6275 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
6277 - Function: clrhash TABLE
6281 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
6283 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
6286 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
6288 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
6289 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
6291 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
6293 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
6295 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
6297 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
6298 arguments KEY and VALUE.
6300 - Function: sxhash OBJ
6302 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
6304 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
6306 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
6307 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
6308 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
6309 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
6310 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
6312 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
6314 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
6315 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
6316 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
6318 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
6319 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
6321 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
6322 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
6324 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
6325 (sxhash (upcase a)))
6327 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
6328 'case-fold-string-hash))
6330 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
6332 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
6334 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
6335 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
6336 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
6338 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
6340 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
6341 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
6343 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
6344 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
6345 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
6346 is too short to reach that column.
6348 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
6349 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
6350 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
6351 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
6353 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
6354 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
6355 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
6357 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
6358 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
6360 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
6361 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
6363 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
6364 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
6365 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
6366 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
6367 temporary-file-directory instead.
6369 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
6370 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
6371 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
6372 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
6374 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
6375 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
6377 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
6379 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
6380 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
6381 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
6383 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
6385 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
6386 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
6387 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
6388 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
6389 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
6390 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
6392 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
6393 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
6394 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
6395 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
6397 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
6399 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
6400 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
6401 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
6404 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
6405 string where arguments appear in the result string.
6409 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
6411 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
6412 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
6415 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
6417 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
6419 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
6420 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
6423 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
6425 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
6426 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
6431 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
6432 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
6434 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
6435 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
6436 to enable sound support.
6438 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
6439 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
6440 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
6441 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
6442 sound to play, before playing the sound.
6444 The following sound properties are supported:
6448 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
6449 searched relative to `data-directory'.
6453 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
6454 may be present, but not both.
6458 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
6459 0..1. This property is optional.
6463 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
6464 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
6466 Other properties are ignored.
6468 An alternative interface is called as
6469 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
6471 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
6473 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
6476 ** Changes to garbage collection
6478 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
6479 of live and free strings.
6481 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
6482 strings that have been consed so far.
6485 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
6488 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
6491 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
6492 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
6493 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
6495 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
6497 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
6499 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
6502 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
6504 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
6506 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
6507 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
6508 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
6509 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
6510 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
6512 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
6515 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
6517 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
6518 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
6519 or omitted means use the selected frame.
6521 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
6522 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
6524 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
6527 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
6531 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
6533 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
6534 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
6536 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
6537 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
6538 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
6539 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
6540 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
6541 just display it black instead.
6543 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
6546 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
6550 ** New face implementation.
6552 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
6553 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
6557 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
6559 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
6561 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
6562 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
6564 3. Font height in 1/10pt
6566 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
6568 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
6570 6. Foreground color.
6572 7. Background color.
6574 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
6576 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
6578 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
6580 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
6582 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
6585 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
6586 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
6588 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
6589 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
6590 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
6591 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
6592 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
6593 attributes mentioned above.
6595 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
6596 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
6599 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
6600 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
6605 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
6606 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
6607 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
6608 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
6609 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
6610 results in a fully-specified face.
6612 *** Face realization.
6614 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
6615 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
6616 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
6617 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
6618 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
6619 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
6621 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
6622 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
6623 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
6624 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
6626 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
6627 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
6628 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
6629 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
6630 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
6632 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
6633 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
6634 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
6635 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
6636 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
6639 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
6640 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
6641 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
6642 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
6644 **** Clearing face caches.
6646 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
6647 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
6652 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
6653 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
6654 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
6656 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
6657 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
6658 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
6659 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
6660 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
6662 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
6663 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
6664 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
6666 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
6668 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
6669 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
6670 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
6671 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
6672 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
6673 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
6674 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
6676 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
6677 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
6680 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
6681 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
6684 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
6687 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
6692 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
6693 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
6696 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
6697 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
6698 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
6699 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
6700 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
6703 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
6705 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
6707 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
6709 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
6711 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
6712 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
6713 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
6715 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
6716 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
6717 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
6718 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
6719 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
6720 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
6721 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
6722 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
6723 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
6724 of the face font sort order.
6726 - Function: x-font-family-list
6728 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
6729 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
6730 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
6731 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
6733 - Variable: font-list-limit
6735 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
6736 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
6737 matching font. The default is currently 100.
6739 *** Setting face attributes.
6741 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
6742 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
6743 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
6746 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
6747 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
6749 The following attributes are recognized:
6753 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
6754 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
6755 and `?' are allowed.
6759 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
6760 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
6761 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
6762 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
6766 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
6767 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
6768 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
6769 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
6773 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
6774 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
6775 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
6779 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
6780 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
6783 `:foreground', `:background'
6785 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
6789 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
6790 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
6791 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
6796 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
6797 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
6798 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
6803 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
6804 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
6805 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
6806 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
6810 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
6811 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
6812 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
6813 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
6814 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
6815 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
6816 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
6817 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
6818 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
6819 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
6820 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
6821 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
6822 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
6823 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
6824 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
6825 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
6830 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
6831 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
6835 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
6836 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
6837 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
6838 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
6839 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
6840 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
6842 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
6843 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
6847 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
6848 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
6849 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
6852 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
6853 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
6854 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
6856 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
6861 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
6862 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
6863 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
6865 *** Face attributes and X resources
6867 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
6870 Face attribute X resource class
6871 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
6872 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
6873 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
6874 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
6875 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
6876 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
6877 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
6878 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
6879 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
6880 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
6881 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
6882 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
6883 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
6884 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
6885 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
6886 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
6887 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
6888 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
6889 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
6890 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
6892 *** Text property `face'.
6894 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
6895 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
6896 specification can be
6898 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
6900 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
6901 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
6902 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
6903 for face attribute names.
6905 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
6906 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
6907 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
6909 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
6911 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
6912 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
6913 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
6914 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
6915 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
6916 used to clear the mapping table.
6918 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
6920 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
6921 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
6922 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
6923 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
6924 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
6925 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
6926 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
6927 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
6928 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
6929 modify their color-related behavior.
6931 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
6934 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
6936 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
6937 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
6938 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
6939 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
6940 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
6941 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
6942 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
6943 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
6944 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
6946 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
6947 display can display image files.
6949 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
6951 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
6952 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
6953 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
6954 `Inviolable' option.
6956 The function `minibuffer-prompt-end' returns the current position of the
6957 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
6958 Otherwise, it returns `(point-min)'.
6960 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
6962 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
6963 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
6964 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
6966 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
6967 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
6968 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
6969 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
6970 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
6971 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
6972 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
6975 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
6976 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
6977 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
6979 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
6981 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
6983 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
6985 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
6986 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
6987 constrained position if that is different.
6989 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
6990 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
6991 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
6992 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
6993 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
6994 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
6995 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
6996 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
6997 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
6999 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
7000 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
7001 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
7002 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
7003 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
7005 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
7006 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
7008 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
7010 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
7012 Delete the field surrounding POS.
7013 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7014 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7016 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7018 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
7019 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7020 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7021 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
7022 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
7024 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7026 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
7027 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7028 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7029 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
7030 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
7032 - Function: field-string &optional POS
7034 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
7035 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7036 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7038 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
7040 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
7041 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7042 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7046 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
7047 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
7048 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
7049 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
7051 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
7052 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
7053 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
7054 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
7057 IMAGE is an image specification.
7059 *** Image specifications
7061 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
7062 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
7063 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
7064 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
7065 described below are ignored.
7067 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
7071 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
7072 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
7073 to use for its ascent.
7075 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
7076 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
7078 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
7079 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
7080 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
7081 overlays that apply to the image.
7085 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
7086 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
7087 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
7091 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
7096 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
7098 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
7099 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
7101 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
7102 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
7103 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
7104 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
7105 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
7106 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
7107 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
7108 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
7111 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
7113 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
7115 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
7116 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
7117 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
7118 of the factors' absolute values.
7120 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
7126 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
7132 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
7137 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
7138 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
7139 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
7140 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
7141 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
7142 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
7143 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
7146 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
7147 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
7152 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
7153 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
7154 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
7155 may be present in the image specification.
7159 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
7160 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
7161 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
7162 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
7164 *** Supported image types
7166 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
7168 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
7169 properties supported are:
7173 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
7174 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
7178 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
7179 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
7181 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
7182 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
7183 instead of a `:file' property.
7187 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
7191 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
7197 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
7198 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
7200 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
7202 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
7205 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
7206 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
7209 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
7211 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
7212 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
7213 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
7214 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
7216 Additional image properties supported are:
7218 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
7220 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
7221 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
7224 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
7225 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
7227 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
7228 to display compressed images.
7230 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
7232 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
7233 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
7238 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
7239 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
7243 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
7244 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
7246 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
7248 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
7249 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7252 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
7254 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
7255 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7258 **** GIF, image type `gif'
7260 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
7261 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
7263 Additional image properties supported are:
7267 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
7268 multi-image GIF file. If INDEX is too large, the image displays
7271 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
7272 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
7273 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
7276 (defun show-anim (file max)
7277 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
7278 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
7280 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
7283 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
7286 (goto-char (point-min))
7287 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
7288 (insert-image img "x"))
7289 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
7291 **** PNG, image type `png'
7293 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
7294 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7297 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
7299 Additional image properties supported are:
7303 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
7304 integer. This is a required property.
7308 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
7309 must be a integer. This is an required property.
7313 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
7314 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
7315 files. This is an required property.
7317 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
7322 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
7323 which are supported in the current configuration.
7325 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
7326 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
7327 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
7328 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
7329 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
7331 *** Simplified image API, image.el
7333 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
7334 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
7335 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
7336 define an image based on available image types. The functions
7337 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
7342 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
7345 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
7346 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
7347 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
7348 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
7349 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
7350 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
7351 of the display margins.
7353 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
7354 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
7355 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
7356 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
7361 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
7362 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
7363 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
7364 that have a `help-echo' property.
7366 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
7367 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
7368 the window in which the help was found.
7370 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
7371 `help-echo' text property was found.
7373 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
7374 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
7376 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
7377 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
7380 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
7381 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
7383 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
7384 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
7385 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
7386 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
7387 used as help string.
7389 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
7390 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
7391 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
7393 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
7395 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
7396 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
7398 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
7399 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
7400 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
7401 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
7404 (global-set-key [A-down]
7407 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
7408 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
7409 (global-set-key [A-up]
7412 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
7413 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
7415 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
7417 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
7418 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
7419 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
7420 is called with one argument, POS.
7422 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
7423 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
7424 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
7425 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
7426 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
7428 ** Tool bar support.
7430 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
7431 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
7432 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
7433 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
7434 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
7435 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
7437 *** Tool bar item definitions
7439 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
7440 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
7441 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
7443 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
7444 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
7445 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
7446 property (see below).
7448 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
7449 binding are currently ignored.
7451 The following properties are recognized:
7455 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
7460 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
7464 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
7465 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
7466 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
7468 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
7470 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
7471 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
7475 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
7476 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
7477 meaning of each of the four elements:
7479 Index Use when item is
7480 ----------------------------------------
7481 0 enabled and selected
7482 1 enabled and deselected
7483 2 disabled and selected
7484 3 disabled and deselected
7486 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
7487 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
7489 `:help HELP-STRING'.
7491 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
7492 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
7494 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
7495 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
7496 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
7499 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
7500 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
7501 buffer-locally to override the global map.
7503 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
7505 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
7506 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
7507 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
7509 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
7510 raised when the mouse moves over them.
7512 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
7513 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
7514 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
7515 vertical margins . Default is 1.
7517 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
7518 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
7520 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
7522 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
7525 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
7526 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
7527 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
7529 is the original tool bar item definition, then
7531 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
7533 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
7536 ** Mode line changes.
7538 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
7540 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
7541 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
7542 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
7544 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
7545 a `local-map' text property.
7547 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
7548 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
7550 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
7551 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
7552 `local-map' property.
7554 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
7555 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
7558 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
7559 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
7561 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
7562 variable mode-line-format to nil.
7564 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
7566 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
7567 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
7568 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
7569 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
7572 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
7575 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
7576 position in the header-line.
7578 ** Text property `display'
7580 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
7581 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
7582 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
7583 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
7584 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
7586 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
7588 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
7589 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
7591 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
7592 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
7593 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
7594 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
7595 simpler form STRING as property value.
7597 *** Variable width and height spaces
7599 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
7600 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
7601 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
7602 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
7603 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
7604 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
7605 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
7607 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
7608 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
7609 properties described below.
7611 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
7612 characters having the `display' property.
7616 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
7617 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
7619 - :relative-width FACTOR
7621 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
7622 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
7623 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
7624 width of that character by FACTOR.
7628 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
7629 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
7631 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
7635 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
7638 - :relative-height FACTOR
7640 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
7641 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
7645 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
7646 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
7647 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
7650 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
7654 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
7655 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
7656 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
7657 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
7658 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
7659 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
7660 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
7661 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
7662 as display specification.
7664 *** Other display properties
7666 - (space-width FACTOR)
7668 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
7669 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
7674 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
7676 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
7677 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
7678 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
7679 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
7680 a font is available counts as a step.
7682 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
7683 as tall as the frame's default font.
7685 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
7686 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
7688 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
7689 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
7693 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
7694 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
7695 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
7696 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
7697 `height' subproperty.
7699 *** Conditional display properties
7701 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
7702 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
7703 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
7704 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
7705 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
7706 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
7707 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
7708 different when object is a string.
7710 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
7713 ** New menu separator types.
7715 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
7716 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
7717 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
7718 to specify other menu separator types.
7720 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
7722 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
7725 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
7727 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
7729 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
7731 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
7733 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
7735 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
7737 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
7739 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
7741 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
7743 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
7744 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
7746 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
7748 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
7750 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
7752 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
7754 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
7756 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
7758 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
7760 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
7762 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
7764 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
7766 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
7768 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
7770 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
7772 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
7774 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
7775 the corresponding single-line separators.
7777 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
7779 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
7780 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
7781 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
7782 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
7783 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
7784 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
7785 default foreground is black.
7787 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
7788 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
7789 `ScrollBarBackground').
7791 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
7792 settings for scroll bar colors.
7794 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
7795 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
7797 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
7798 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
7799 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
7800 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
7801 the original window start.
7803 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
7804 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
7805 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
7807 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
7809 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
7810 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
7811 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
7812 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
7814 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
7815 fixed-width and fixed-height.
7817 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
7819 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
7820 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
7821 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
7822 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
7823 temporarily to nil, for example
7825 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
7826 (enlarge-window 10))
7828 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
7829 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
7831 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
7832 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
7833 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
7834 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
7835 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
7836 support a vertical-bar cursor).
7840 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
7842 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
7845 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
7847 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
7849 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
7850 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
7851 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
7852 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
7853 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
7855 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
7859 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
7861 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
7865 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
7867 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
7868 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
7870 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
7872 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
7874 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
7875 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
7876 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
7878 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
7879 is the one that is used.
7881 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
7882 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
7883 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
7884 separate from the command's regular output.
7885 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
7886 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
7887 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
7890 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
7891 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
7892 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
7893 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
7895 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
7896 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
7897 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
7898 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
7900 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
7901 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
7902 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
7903 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
7905 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
7906 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
7907 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
7908 they never ignore case.
7910 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
7911 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
7912 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
7913 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
7914 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
7915 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
7916 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
7918 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
7919 the same format that was used in the file before.
7921 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
7922 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
7924 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
7925 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
7926 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
7928 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
7929 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
7930 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
7931 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
7932 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
7933 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
7934 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
7936 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
7937 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
7938 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
7939 format. You can now customize these variables.
7941 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
7942 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
7943 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
7944 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
7946 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
7947 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
7948 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
7950 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
7951 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
7952 doesn't have any effect.
7954 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
7957 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
7958 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
7959 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
7961 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
7962 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
7963 `auto-show-mode' command.
7965 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
7966 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
7967 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
7968 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
7969 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
7971 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
7972 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
7974 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
7975 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
7976 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
7978 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
7979 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
7980 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
7981 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
7983 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
7985 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
7986 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
7987 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
7988 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
7989 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
7991 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
7992 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
7994 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
7995 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
7996 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
7997 `?' on other systems.
7999 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
8000 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
8003 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
8004 current codepage when it starts.
8008 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
8009 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
8010 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
8011 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
8012 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
8013 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
8017 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
8018 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
8020 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
8021 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
8022 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
8023 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
8024 buffer-file-coding-system.
8026 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
8027 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
8030 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
8031 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
8032 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
8033 list of possible coding systems.
8037 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
8038 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
8039 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
8040 docstring for details.
8042 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
8043 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
8044 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
8045 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
8046 lineup functions use this feature currently.
8048 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
8049 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
8051 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
8052 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
8054 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
8055 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
8056 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
8057 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
8060 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
8061 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
8063 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
8064 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
8065 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
8066 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
8068 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
8069 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
8070 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
8071 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
8072 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
8074 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
8076 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
8078 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
8079 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
8081 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
8083 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
8084 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
8085 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
8086 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
8087 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
8091 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
8092 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
8093 Gnus manual for the full story.
8095 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
8096 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
8097 group, which is created automatically.
8099 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
8102 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
8104 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
8105 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
8107 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
8110 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
8112 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
8113 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
8115 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
8117 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
8118 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
8120 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
8121 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
8123 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
8124 control over simplification.
8126 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
8128 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
8131 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
8133 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
8135 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
8136 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
8137 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
8139 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
8140 `a' forces normal posting method.
8142 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
8145 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
8148 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
8149 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
8151 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
8154 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
8156 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
8158 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
8159 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
8161 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
8162 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
8164 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
8166 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
8169 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
8170 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
8172 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
8173 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
8175 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
8177 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
8179 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
8181 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
8183 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
8184 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
8185 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
8187 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
8188 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
8189 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
8190 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
8191 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
8193 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
8194 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
8195 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
8196 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
8198 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
8199 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
8200 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
8203 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
8205 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
8206 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
8208 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
8209 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
8210 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
8211 removed from the label.
8213 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
8214 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
8216 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
8217 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
8219 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
8220 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
8223 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
8225 ** New/deleted modes and packages
8227 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
8228 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
8230 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
8231 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
8232 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
8234 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
8235 changes with a special face.
8237 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
8238 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
8239 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
8241 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
8243 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
8244 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
8245 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
8246 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
8247 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
8249 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
8250 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
8251 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
8253 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
8254 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
8255 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
8256 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
8257 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
8258 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
8259 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
8260 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
8261 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
8263 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
8264 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
8265 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
8266 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
8267 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
8270 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
8271 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
8272 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
8273 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
8274 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
8275 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
8277 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
8278 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
8279 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
8280 was not documented clearly before.
8282 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
8283 This includes Tetris and Snake.
8285 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
8287 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
8288 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
8289 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
8290 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
8292 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
8293 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
8294 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
8296 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
8298 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
8299 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
8301 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
8302 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
8305 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
8306 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
8307 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
8308 file names and attributes are returned.
8310 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
8311 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
8312 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
8313 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
8316 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
8317 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
8319 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
8321 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
8322 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
8323 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
8326 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
8327 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
8330 The new function process-running-child-p
8331 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
8332 terminal to its own child process.
8334 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
8335 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
8336 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
8337 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
8339 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
8340 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
8342 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
8343 :included is an alias for :visible.
8345 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
8346 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
8347 to move or copy menu entries.
8349 ** Multibyte editing changes
8351 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
8352 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
8353 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
8354 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
8355 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
8356 (setq char (sref str idx)
8357 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
8358 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
8360 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
8361 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
8362 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
8364 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
8365 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
8366 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
8368 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
8370 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
8371 across the boundary.
8373 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
8374 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
8375 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
8376 contains 8-bit characters.
8377 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
8378 contains invalid characters.
8380 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
8381 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
8382 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
8383 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
8386 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
8387 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
8388 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
8389 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
8391 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
8392 compose Thai characters in a string.
8394 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
8395 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
8396 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
8397 menus should always use the third argument.
8399 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
8400 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
8401 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
8402 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
8404 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
8405 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
8406 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
8407 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
8409 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
8410 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
8411 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
8414 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
8416 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
8417 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
8418 requested feature cannot be loaded.
8420 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
8421 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
8422 means to clear out that attribute.
8424 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
8425 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
8427 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
8428 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
8429 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
8430 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
8432 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
8433 the gap of the current buffer.
8435 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
8436 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
8439 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
8440 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
8441 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
8442 it back in after any modifications have been made.
8444 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
8446 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
8447 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
8448 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
8449 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
8450 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
8452 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
8453 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
8454 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
8455 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
8456 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
8458 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
8459 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
8460 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
8462 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
8463 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
8464 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
8465 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
8466 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
8469 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
8470 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
8471 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
8472 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
8474 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
8476 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
8477 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
8478 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
8479 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
8481 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
8482 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
8483 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
8484 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
8485 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
8486 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
8487 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
8490 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
8493 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
8494 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
8495 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
8496 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
8497 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
8499 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
8500 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
8501 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
8502 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
8504 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
8505 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
8506 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
8507 something that most users not do.
8509 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
8510 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
8511 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
8514 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
8517 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
8518 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
8519 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
8520 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
8523 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
8524 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
8525 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
8526 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
8527 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
8530 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
8531 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
8532 to be confused by TeX commands.
8534 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
8535 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
8536 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
8537 of various alternative replacements and actions.
8539 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
8540 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
8541 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
8542 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
8543 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
8545 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
8546 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
8548 ** Changes in input method usage.
8550 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
8551 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
8554 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
8556 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
8557 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
8559 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
8560 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
8562 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
8564 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
8566 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
8567 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
8569 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
8570 given in the following case:
8571 o When you are using a complex input method.
8572 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
8574 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
8575 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
8576 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
8577 setting it to t is helpful.
8579 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
8581 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
8583 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
8584 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
8585 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
8586 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
8589 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
8590 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
8591 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
8594 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
8596 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
8598 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
8599 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
8601 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
8602 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
8603 its owner and group.
8605 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
8606 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
8608 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
8609 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
8611 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
8612 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
8613 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
8614 by the left edge of the rectangle.
8616 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
8617 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
8618 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
8619 for writing keyboard macros.
8621 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
8622 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
8623 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
8624 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
8625 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
8628 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
8630 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
8631 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
8634 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
8635 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
8636 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
8637 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
8639 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
8640 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
8641 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
8643 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
8644 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
8645 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
8646 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
8648 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
8649 failure if the command produces no output.
8651 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
8652 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
8655 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
8656 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
8657 function and variable names.
8659 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
8660 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
8661 file-coding-system-alist.
8663 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
8664 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
8665 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
8666 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
8667 according to the current fontset.
8669 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
8671 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
8672 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
8673 nonascii-insert-offset.
8675 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
8676 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
8677 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
8678 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
8680 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
8681 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
8683 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
8684 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
8686 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
8687 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
8690 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
8691 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
8693 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
8694 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
8695 all variables that have documentation.
8697 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
8698 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
8699 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
8700 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
8701 it should show; the default is 20.
8703 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
8704 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
8707 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
8708 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
8709 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
8710 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
8711 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
8712 Newly added options are included as well.
8714 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
8715 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
8716 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
8718 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
8721 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
8722 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
8724 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
8725 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
8728 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
8729 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
8732 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
8733 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
8734 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
8735 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
8738 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
8740 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
8741 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
8742 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
8744 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
8745 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
8746 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
8751 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
8752 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
8754 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
8755 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
8757 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
8758 read and post multi-lingual articles.
8760 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
8761 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
8762 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
8763 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
8764 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
8765 made invisible again.
8767 ** Mail reading and sending changes
8769 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
8770 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
8771 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
8774 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
8775 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
8776 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
8777 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
8778 rmail-default-body-file.
8780 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
8781 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
8782 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
8784 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
8785 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
8786 is evaluated to insert the signature.
8788 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
8789 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
8790 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
8791 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
8792 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
8793 especially interested in trying feedmail.
8795 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
8796 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
8797 provided by feedmail are:
8799 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
8800 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
8801 there is also a queue for draft messages
8803 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
8804 be prompted for confirmation
8806 **** does smart filling of address headers
8808 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
8809 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
8810 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
8812 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
8813 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
8814 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
8815 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
8819 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
8820 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
8822 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
8823 run Dired on the directory name at point.
8825 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
8826 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
8827 for a specified regexp.
8831 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
8834 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
8835 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
8838 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
8839 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
8840 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
8841 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
8843 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
8844 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
8845 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
8846 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
8847 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
8849 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
8850 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
8851 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
8852 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
8853 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
8855 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
8856 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
8857 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
8858 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
8860 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
8861 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
8862 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
8864 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
8865 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
8866 session to resolve them.
8868 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
8869 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
8870 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
8873 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
8874 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
8875 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
8876 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
8877 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
8878 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
8881 ** Changes in Font Lock
8883 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
8884 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
8885 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
8886 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
8887 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
8889 ** Frame name display changes
8891 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
8892 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
8893 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
8894 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
8896 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
8897 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
8900 ** Comint (subshell) changes
8902 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
8903 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
8904 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
8906 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
8908 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
8909 that is, the line after the last line you got.
8910 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
8912 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
8913 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
8916 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
8917 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
8918 previously sent input.
8920 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
8921 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
8922 as the search string.
8924 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
8925 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
8929 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
8930 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
8931 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
8934 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
8935 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
8936 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
8937 style is still the default however.
8939 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
8941 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
8942 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
8943 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
8945 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
8946 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
8948 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
8949 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
8951 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
8952 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
8954 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
8955 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
8957 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
8958 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
8959 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
8960 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
8962 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
8964 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
8965 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
8966 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
8968 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
8969 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
8970 expanding dynamically.
8972 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
8973 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
8975 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
8976 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
8977 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
8978 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
8980 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
8982 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8984 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
8985 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
8986 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
8987 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
8988 against the first word in the title.
8990 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
8991 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
8992 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
8993 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
8994 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
8995 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
8997 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
8998 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
8999 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
9000 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
9002 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
9004 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
9005 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
9006 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
9007 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
9008 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
9009 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
9011 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
9012 Editing group once the package is loaded.
9014 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
9015 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
9016 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
9018 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
9019 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
9023 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
9024 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
9025 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
9027 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
9028 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
9029 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
9030 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
9033 o URLs are automatically skipped
9034 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
9036 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
9038 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
9040 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
9041 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
9042 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
9043 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
9045 *** New recursive parser.
9047 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
9048 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
9049 recursive parser scans the individual files.
9051 *** Parsing only part of a document.
9053 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
9054 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
9055 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
9057 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
9059 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
9061 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
9063 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
9065 *** Using multiple selection buffers
9067 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
9068 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
9070 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
9072 *** References to external documents.
9074 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
9075 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
9076 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
9077 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
9078 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
9079 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
9080 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
9082 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
9084 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
9085 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
9087 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
9088 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
9090 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
9092 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
9093 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
9095 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
9097 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
9098 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
9099 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
9100 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
9101 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
9102 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
9105 *** Support for the varioref package
9107 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
9111 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
9112 and citations are created. These hooks are
9113 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
9114 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
9116 *** Citations outside LaTeX
9118 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
9119 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
9121 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
9123 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
9124 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
9127 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
9129 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
9130 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
9131 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
9132 directories that contain the same file name.
9134 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
9135 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
9136 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
9137 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
9138 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
9139 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
9140 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
9143 ** New modes and packages
9145 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
9146 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
9147 it, but some do not.
9149 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
9152 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
9153 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
9156 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
9158 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
9159 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
9160 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
9161 established system of notation similar to Chess.
9163 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
9164 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
9165 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
9167 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
9168 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
9169 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
9170 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
9171 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
9174 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
9175 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
9177 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
9178 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
9179 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
9180 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
9182 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
9184 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
9185 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
9186 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
9187 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
9188 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
9189 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
9190 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
9191 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
9192 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
9193 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
9194 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
9196 Platform-specific modes:
9198 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
9199 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
9200 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
9201 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
9202 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
9203 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
9204 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
9205 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
9206 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
9208 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
9210 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
9211 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
9212 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
9213 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
9215 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
9216 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
9217 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
9219 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
9220 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
9221 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
9222 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
9224 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
9225 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
9226 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
9229 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
9230 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
9231 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
9232 current input method for reading this one event.
9234 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
9235 now control whether to output certain characters as
9236 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
9237 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
9238 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
9239 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
9241 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
9243 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
9244 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
9246 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
9247 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
9248 always increases point by 1.
9250 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
9251 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
9253 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
9255 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
9256 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
9257 default value changed. For example,
9259 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
9264 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
9267 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
9268 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
9269 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
9270 `:version' in the top level group.
9272 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
9274 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
9275 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
9277 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
9278 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
9279 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
9282 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
9283 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
9286 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
9287 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
9288 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
9290 ** Frame-local variables.
9292 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
9293 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
9294 local bindings for that variable.
9296 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
9297 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
9298 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
9301 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
9302 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
9303 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
9304 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
9306 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
9307 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
9308 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
9309 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
9311 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
9312 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
9313 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
9314 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
9315 See the documentation in sregex.el.
9317 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
9318 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
9319 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
9320 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
9322 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
9323 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
9325 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
9326 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
9327 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
9329 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
9330 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
9331 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
9332 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
9334 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
9335 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
9338 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
9339 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
9340 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
9341 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
9342 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
9344 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
9345 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
9346 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
9347 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
9349 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
9350 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
9351 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
9352 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
9353 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
9355 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
9356 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
9357 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
9358 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
9360 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
9361 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
9362 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
9364 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
9365 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
9366 was directed to display this buffer.
9368 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
9369 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
9370 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
9371 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
9372 set-window-configuration.
9374 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
9375 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
9376 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
9377 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
9379 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
9380 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
9381 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
9383 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
9384 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
9385 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
9387 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
9388 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
9390 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
9391 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
9393 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
9394 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
9395 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
9397 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
9398 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
9399 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
9400 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
9404 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
9405 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
9408 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
9409 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
9410 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
9411 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
9412 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
9414 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
9416 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
9417 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
9418 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
9419 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
9422 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
9423 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
9424 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
9425 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
9426 The supported properties include
9428 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
9430 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
9431 item should appear in the menu.
9433 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
9434 which will be REAL-BINDING.
9435 It should return a binding to use instead.
9437 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
9438 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
9439 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
9440 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
9441 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
9444 This means that the command normally has no
9445 keyboard equivalent.
9446 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
9447 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
9448 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
9449 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
9450 value says whether this button is currently selected.
9452 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
9453 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
9455 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
9459 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
9460 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
9461 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
9462 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
9464 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
9466 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
9467 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
9468 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
9469 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
9470 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
9471 forward, away from the user.
9473 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
9475 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
9476 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
9477 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
9478 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
9479 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
9481 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
9483 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
9484 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
9485 that were dragged and dropped.
9487 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
9489 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
9491 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
9492 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
9493 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
9495 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
9496 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
9497 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
9499 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
9500 in Emacs 19 and before.
9502 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
9503 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
9505 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
9506 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
9507 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
9508 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
9510 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
9511 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
9512 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
9513 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
9514 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
9516 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
9517 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
9518 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
9519 consistent with the new representation.
9521 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
9522 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
9523 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
9524 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
9526 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
9527 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
9528 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
9530 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
9531 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
9532 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
9534 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
9535 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
9536 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
9538 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
9539 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
9541 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
9542 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
9544 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
9545 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
9546 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
9547 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
9549 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
9550 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
9552 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
9553 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
9554 buffer or string being searched.
9556 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
9557 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
9558 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
9559 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
9560 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
9561 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
9562 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
9564 *** Structure of coding system changed.
9566 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
9567 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
9568 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
9569 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
9570 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
9571 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
9572 define-coding-system-alias.
9574 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
9575 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
9576 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
9577 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
9578 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
9579 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
9580 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
9583 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
9584 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
9585 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
9586 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
9588 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
9589 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
9590 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
9591 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
9593 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
9594 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
9595 This function requires a user interaction.
9597 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
9598 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
9599 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
9600 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
9601 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
9602 select-safe-coding-system.
9604 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
9605 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
9606 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
9609 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
9610 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
9611 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
9613 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
9614 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
9615 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
9616 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
9618 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
9619 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
9620 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
9623 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
9624 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
9626 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
9627 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
9628 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
9629 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
9630 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
9631 range of characters.
9633 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
9634 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
9636 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
9637 in the current buffer at position POS.
9639 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
9640 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
9641 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
9642 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
9643 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
9644 binding input-method-function to nil.
9646 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
9647 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
9648 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
9649 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
9650 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
9652 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
9653 subsequent events of a key sequence.
9655 *** You can customize any language environment by using
9656 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
9658 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
9659 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
9660 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
9661 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
9662 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
9664 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
9666 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
9667 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
9668 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
9671 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
9672 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
9674 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
9675 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
9676 in your .emacs file.)
9678 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
9679 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
9681 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
9682 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
9684 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
9685 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
9688 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
9689 delete the character before point, as usual.
9691 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
9692 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
9693 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
9695 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
9696 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
9697 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
9698 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
9699 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
9702 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
9703 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
9704 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
9705 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
9706 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
9708 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
9709 and is an alias for it.
9711 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
9712 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
9714 ** Scrolling changes
9716 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
9717 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
9719 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
9720 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
9723 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
9724 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
9725 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
9726 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
9728 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
9729 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
9730 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
9731 recenters the window.
9733 ** International character set support (MULE)
9735 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
9736 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
9737 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
9738 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
9739 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
9740 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
9742 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
9743 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
9744 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
9745 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
9746 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
9748 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
9749 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
9750 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
9751 language, to make it possible to type them.
9753 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
9754 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
9756 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
9757 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
9759 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
9761 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
9763 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
9764 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
9765 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
9766 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
9767 characters for their work until they want to change.
9771 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
9772 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
9773 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
9774 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
9775 support several input methods.
9777 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
9778 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
9781 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
9782 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
9783 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
9784 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
9785 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
9788 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
9789 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
9790 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
9791 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
9792 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
9794 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
9795 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
9796 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
9797 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
9799 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
9800 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
9801 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
9802 the first guess is wrong.
9804 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
9805 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
9807 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
9808 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
9809 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
9810 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
9812 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
9813 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
9814 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
9815 translate automatically to and from either one.
9817 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
9819 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
9820 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
9821 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
9824 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
9825 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
9826 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
9827 multibyte characters in that buffer.
9829 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
9830 character conversion as well.
9832 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
9834 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
9835 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
9836 requires using many fonts.
9838 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
9839 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
9841 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
9842 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
9843 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
9844 you would use a font.
9846 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
9847 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
9848 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
9850 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
9851 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
9854 *** Defining fontsets.
9856 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
9857 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
9858 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
9860 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
9861 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
9862 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
9863 standard fontset are created automatically.
9865 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
9866 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
9867 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
9868 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
9869 name is `fontset-startup'.
9871 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
9872 The resource value should have this form:
9873 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
9874 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
9875 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
9876 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
9877 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
9878 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
9879 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
9880 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
9881 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
9883 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
9884 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
9885 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
9887 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
9888 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
9890 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
9891 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
9892 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
9893 Here is the substitution rule:
9894 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
9895 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
9896 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
9897 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
9898 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
9900 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
9901 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
9902 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
9904 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
9905 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
9906 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
9907 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
9910 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
9911 defaults for a particular choice of language.
9913 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
9914 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
9915 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
9916 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
9917 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
9918 system for new files that you create.
9920 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
9921 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
9922 whole Emacs session.
9924 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
9925 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
9926 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
9928 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
9929 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
9930 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
9931 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
9932 coding systems that Emacs supports.
9934 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
9935 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
9936 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
9937 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
9938 is used for *the immediately following command*.
9940 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
9941 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
9943 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
9944 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
9946 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
9947 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
9949 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
9950 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
9951 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
9952 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
9955 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
9956 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
9957 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
9958 translated into that character code.
9960 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
9961 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
9963 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
9965 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
9966 the coding system for keyboard input.
9968 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
9969 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
9970 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
9972 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
9974 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
9975 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
9976 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
9977 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
9978 designed to work with terminals.
9980 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
9981 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
9982 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
9983 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
9984 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
9985 in the corresponding buffer.
9987 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
9989 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
9990 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
9991 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
9993 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
9994 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
9995 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
9998 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
9999 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
10001 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
10002 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
10003 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
10004 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
10006 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
10007 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
10008 related information.
10010 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
10011 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
10014 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
10015 information about the support for a particular language.
10016 You specify the language as an argument.
10018 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
10019 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
10022 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
10023 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
10024 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
10025 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
10027 A alternativnyj (Russian)
10029 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
10030 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
10031 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
10032 E euc-japan (Japanese)
10033 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
10034 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
10035 K euc-korea (Korean)
10038 S shift_jis (Japanese)
10041 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
10042 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
10043 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
10044 v viqr (Vietnamese)
10047 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
10048 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
10049 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
10050 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
10052 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
10053 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
10055 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
10056 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
10057 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
10058 Rmail files themselves.
10060 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
10061 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
10063 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
10066 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
10067 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
10068 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
10069 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
10070 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
10072 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
10073 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
10074 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
10077 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
10078 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
10079 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
10080 without any conversion.
10082 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
10083 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
10084 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
10085 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
10087 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
10088 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
10090 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
10091 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
10093 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
10094 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
10096 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
10097 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
10098 in the buffer before point.
10100 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
10101 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
10104 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
10105 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
10107 ** File locking works with NFS now.
10109 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
10110 in the same directory as FILENAME.
10112 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
10113 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
10114 can become a bottleneck.
10116 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
10117 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
10118 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
10119 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
10120 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
10121 so useful that the change is worth while.
10123 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
10124 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
10125 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
10126 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
10128 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
10129 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
10132 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
10133 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
10134 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
10136 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
10137 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
10138 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
10140 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
10141 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
10142 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
10144 ** Changes in View mode.
10146 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
10147 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
10149 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
10150 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
10152 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
10155 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
10156 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
10158 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
10159 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
10160 not just the selected window.
10162 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
10163 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
10164 turns View mode on or off.
10166 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
10167 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
10168 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
10170 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
10171 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
10173 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
10174 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
10175 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
10176 which version to compare with.
10178 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
10179 blocks if a match is inside the block.
10181 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
10182 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
10183 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
10184 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
10186 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
10187 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
10188 blocks, all of them or none.
10190 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
10191 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
10192 confirmation first.
10194 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
10195 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
10196 However, the mode will not be changed if
10197 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
10198 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
10199 not suitable for ordinary files, or
10200 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
10202 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
10204 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
10205 these commands do not change the major mode.
10207 ** M-x occur changes.
10209 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
10210 it performs a case-sensitive search.
10212 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
10213 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
10214 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
10216 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
10217 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
10218 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
10219 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
10220 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
10222 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
10223 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
10224 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
10225 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
10227 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
10228 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
10229 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
10231 ** Outline mode changes.
10233 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
10235 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
10237 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
10238 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
10239 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
10240 was already active.
10242 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
10243 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
10244 get confused by it.
10246 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
10247 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
10249 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
10251 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
10252 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
10253 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
10254 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
10256 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
10257 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
10258 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
10260 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
10261 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
10264 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
10265 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
10266 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
10267 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
10269 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
10270 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
10271 can be. The default value is 30.
10273 ** Changes in Mail mode.
10275 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
10276 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
10277 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
10278 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
10279 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
10282 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
10283 compose-mail-other-frame.
10285 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
10286 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
10287 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
10288 buffer that shows the original message.
10290 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
10291 with separator lines around the contents.
10293 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
10294 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
10295 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
10296 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
10298 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
10300 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
10301 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
10302 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
10303 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
10305 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
10306 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
10309 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
10310 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
10313 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
10314 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
10315 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
10316 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
10318 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
10319 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
10320 be taken to be magic.
10322 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
10323 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
10324 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
10326 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
10327 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
10329 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
10330 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
10332 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
10334 new key dired.el binding old key
10335 ------- ---------------- -------
10336 * c dired-change-marks c
10338 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
10339 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
10340 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
10342 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
10343 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
10344 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
10345 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
10346 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
10347 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
10351 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
10352 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
10353 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
10354 each time you run it.
10356 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
10357 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
10359 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
10360 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
10361 means to move in the opposite direction.
10363 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
10364 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
10366 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
10367 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
10368 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
10369 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
10374 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
10376 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
10379 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
10380 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
10382 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
10385 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
10387 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
10389 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
10391 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
10392 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
10393 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
10395 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
10397 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
10399 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
10400 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
10402 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
10403 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
10404 used to pick articles.
10406 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
10407 another have been added.
10409 `M-x gnus-change-server'
10411 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
10412 generating lines in buffers.
10414 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
10417 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
10419 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
10421 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
10423 *** Scores can be decayed.
10425 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
10427 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
10428 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
10430 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
10433 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
10435 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
10436 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
10438 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
10440 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
10441 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
10443 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
10444 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
10446 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
10449 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
10450 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
10452 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
10454 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
10456 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
10458 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
10460 Use the `Y c' command.
10462 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
10464 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
10466 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
10468 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
10469 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
10471 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
10473 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
10475 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
10476 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
10478 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
10480 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
10481 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
10482 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
10483 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
10486 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
10487 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
10488 particular news group. This can be done by:
10490 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
10492 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
10493 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
10494 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
10495 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
10496 for reading and posting).
10498 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
10499 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
10500 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
10501 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
10504 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
10505 default. Here are some of these default settings:
10507 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
10508 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
10509 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
10510 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
10511 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
10513 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
10514 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
10516 ** CC mode changes.
10518 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
10519 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
10520 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
10521 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
10522 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
10525 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
10526 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
10527 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
10528 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
10529 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
10530 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
10532 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
10533 of the current buffer.
10535 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
10536 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
10537 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
10539 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
10540 style that the Python developers like.
10542 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
10543 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
10544 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
10546 ** VC Changes [new]
10548 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
10549 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
10550 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
10552 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
10553 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
10556 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
10557 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
10559 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
10560 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
10561 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
10562 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
10564 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
10565 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
10567 ** Calendar changes.
10569 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
10570 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
10571 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
10572 following/previous years.
10574 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
10575 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
10576 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
10577 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
10578 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
10579 supposed attribute of God.
10581 ** ps-print changes
10583 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
10586 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
10588 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
10589 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
10590 printer system has this behavior, set variable
10591 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
10593 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
10594 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
10595 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
10597 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
10598 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
10600 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
10601 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
10602 printing for your printer.
10604 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
10605 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
10607 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
10608 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
10610 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
10611 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
10612 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
10613 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
10614 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
10615 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
10616 The default value is nil.
10618 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
10619 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
10621 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
10622 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
10623 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
10624 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
10625 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
10626 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
10627 color). The default is 0 ("black").
10629 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
10630 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
10632 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
10633 The default is 0 ("black").
10635 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
10636 The default is 0 ("black").
10638 border-width Specify the border width.
10639 The default is 0.4.
10641 Any other property is ignored.
10643 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
10644 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
10647 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
10648 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
10649 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
10650 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
10651 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
10652 controlling headers.
10654 *** Color management (subgroup)
10656 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
10659 *** Face Management (subgroup)
10661 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
10662 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
10663 background should be used. Valid values are:
10665 t always use face background color.
10666 nil never use face background color.
10667 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
10669 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
10671 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
10674 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
10675 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
10677 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
10680 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
10681 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
10682 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
10684 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
10688 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
10692 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
10696 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
10700 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
10702 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
10704 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
10707 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
10708 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
10709 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
10711 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
10712 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
10713 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10714 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10715 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10719 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10720 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10721 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10724 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
10725 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
10726 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
10727 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
10728 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
10729 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10730 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10731 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
10732 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
10733 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
10734 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
10737 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
10739 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
10742 *** Printer management (subgroup)
10744 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
10745 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
10746 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
10747 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
10750 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
10751 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
10752 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
10754 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
10755 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
10758 *** Page settings (subgroup)
10760 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
10761 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
10762 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
10763 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
10764 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
10765 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
10768 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
10769 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
10770 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
10772 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
10773 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
10774 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
10775 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
10776 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
10777 its TO, are ignored.
10779 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
10780 pages. Valid values are:
10782 nil print all pages.
10784 `even-page' print only even pages.
10786 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
10788 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
10789 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
10790 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
10791 print only the even sheet of paper.
10793 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
10794 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
10795 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
10796 only the odd sheet of paper.
10798 Any other value is treated as nil.
10800 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
10801 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
10802 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
10804 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
10806 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
10807 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
10809 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
10810 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
10811 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
10812 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
10813 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
10814 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
10815 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
10817 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
10818 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
10819 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
10820 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
10821 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
10822 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
10823 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
10825 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
10827 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
10828 messages should be sent.
10830 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
10831 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
10832 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
10834 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
10836 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
10837 points for line numbers.
10839 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
10840 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
10842 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
10843 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
10844 to 2, the printing will look like:
10856 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
10857 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
10860 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
10861 zebra stripe is to be printed.
10863 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
10865 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
10866 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
10867 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
10868 3, the output will look like:
10882 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
10883 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
10885 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
10886 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
10889 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
10890 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
10893 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
10895 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
10896 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
10898 ** hideshow changes.
10900 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
10903 *** Support for java-mode added.
10905 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
10906 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
10908 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
10909 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
10910 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
10912 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
10913 robust and a lot faster.
10915 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
10917 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
10918 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
10919 documentation for more details.
10921 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
10923 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
10924 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
10925 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
10926 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
10927 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
10929 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
10930 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
10931 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
10932 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
10938 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
10939 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
10940 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
10941 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
10942 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
10943 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
10945 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
10947 *** Maximum decoration
10949 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
10950 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
10951 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
10952 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
10953 to get the old behavior.
10957 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
10959 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
10960 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
10962 *** Configurable support
10964 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
10965 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
10966 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
10967 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
10968 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
10969 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
10970 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
10972 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
10973 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
10974 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
10976 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
10978 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
10979 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
10982 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
10984 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
10990 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
10991 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
10992 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
10993 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
10995 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
10997 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
10998 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
10999 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
11001 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
11003 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
11004 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
11005 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
11006 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
11007 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
11008 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
11009 Lock mode behavior and the behavior of Font Lock mode.
11011 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
11012 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
11013 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
11014 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
11015 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
11016 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
11018 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
11020 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
11021 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
11022 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
11023 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
11025 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
11028 ** Ada mode changes.
11030 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
11031 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
11032 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
11033 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
11036 *** There are two new commands:
11037 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
11038 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
11040 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
11041 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
11042 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
11044 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
11045 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
11046 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
11048 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
11049 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
11050 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
11051 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
11053 ** Scheme mode changes.
11055 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
11056 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
11057 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
11058 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
11061 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
11062 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
11063 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
11064 variables as buffer-local variables.
11066 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
11067 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
11069 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
11071 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
11072 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
11073 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
11074 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
11076 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
11077 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
11080 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
11081 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
11082 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
11083 option takes precedence.
11085 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
11086 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
11087 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
11089 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
11090 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
11093 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
11094 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
11096 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
11097 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
11100 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
11101 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
11102 these register values no longer become completely useless.
11103 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
11104 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
11105 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
11107 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
11108 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
11109 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
11110 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
11112 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
11113 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
11114 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
11115 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
11116 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
11118 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
11119 since it applies only to the current frame.
11121 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
11122 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
11123 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
11125 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
11126 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
11127 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
11128 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
11129 instead of just the file you are editing.
11133 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
11134 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
11135 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
11136 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
11137 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
11140 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
11141 knows which kind of label is needed.
11143 C-c ) reftex-reference
11144 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
11145 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
11147 C-c [ reftex-citation
11148 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
11149 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
11151 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
11152 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
11155 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
11156 can quickly jump to every section.
11158 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
11159 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
11160 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
11161 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
11162 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
11164 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
11166 *** Info documentation is now available.
11168 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
11169 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
11171 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
11172 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
11174 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
11175 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
11177 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
11178 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
11179 appropriate functions.
11181 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
11182 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
11184 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
11187 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
11188 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
11190 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
11191 shall be delimited.
11193 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
11194 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
11195 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
11197 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
11198 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
11199 prefixed with `ALT'.
11201 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
11202 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
11203 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
11206 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
11207 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
11208 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
11210 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
11211 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
11213 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
11214 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
11215 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
11217 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
11219 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
11221 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
11222 from alien sources.
11224 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
11225 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
11228 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
11231 *** Added support for imenu.
11233 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
11234 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
11235 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
11236 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
11238 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
11239 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
11241 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
11243 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
11245 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
11246 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
11247 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
11250 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
11251 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
11253 ** browse-url changes
11255 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
11256 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
11257 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
11258 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
11259 customization variables.
11261 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
11263 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
11264 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
11265 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
11267 ** Changes in Ediff
11269 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
11270 pops up the Info file for this command.
11272 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
11273 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
11274 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
11277 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
11278 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
11279 files in the same directory.
11281 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
11282 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
11283 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
11285 ** Changes in Viper
11287 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
11288 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
11290 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
11291 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
11292 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
11293 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
11294 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
11295 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
11296 color when Viper is in insert state.
11297 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
11298 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
11299 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
11303 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
11304 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
11305 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
11306 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
11307 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
11309 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
11311 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
11312 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
11314 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
11315 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
11316 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
11318 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
11319 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
11320 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
11321 methods and protocols.
11323 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
11324 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
11325 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
11328 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
11329 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
11330 at least M times and as many as N times.
11332 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
11333 in files has changed slightly.
11335 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
11336 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
11337 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
11338 with old time-stamp-format values.
11340 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
11341 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
11342 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
11345 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
11346 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
11347 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
11348 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
11349 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
11350 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
11352 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
11353 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
11354 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
11356 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
11357 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
11358 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
11359 recommended now will continue to work then.
11361 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
11364 ** There are some additional major modes:
11366 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
11367 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
11368 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
11370 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
11371 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
11374 ** New Lisp packages include:
11376 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
11378 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
11379 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
11381 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
11383 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
11386 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
11387 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
11390 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
11391 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
11392 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
11393 strings or comments.
11395 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
11396 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
11397 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
11398 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
11401 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
11402 can visit them by short forms of their names.
11404 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
11405 Emacs Lisp function at point.
11407 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
11409 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
11410 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
11412 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
11414 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
11416 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
11418 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
11419 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
11421 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
11422 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
11423 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
11424 original place after inserting the copy.
11426 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
11429 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
11430 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
11431 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
11433 Enable mouse-drag with:
11434 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
11436 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
11438 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
11439 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
11441 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
11442 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
11446 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
11447 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
11448 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
11449 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
11450 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
11451 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
11452 instance) and vice versa.
11454 To use this package load it using
11455 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
11456 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
11457 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
11458 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
11459 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
11460 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
11462 *** Interface to ph.
11464 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
11466 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
11467 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
11470 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
11472 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
11473 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
11474 while the real cursor does not move.
11476 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
11477 for visiting your favorite web sites.
11479 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
11480 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
11484 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
11485 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
11486 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
11487 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
11489 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
11491 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
11493 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
11495 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
11496 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
11497 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
11498 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
11499 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
11501 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
11502 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
11503 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
11504 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
11505 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
11506 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
11508 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
11510 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
11511 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
11512 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
11513 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
11515 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
11516 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
11518 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
11519 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
11522 ** Basic Lisp changes
11524 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
11525 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
11527 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
11528 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
11531 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
11533 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
11535 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
11536 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
11538 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
11539 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
11542 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
11544 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
11546 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
11548 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
11549 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
11550 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
11553 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
11554 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
11555 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
11557 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
11558 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
11559 adding one of these suffixes.
11561 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
11562 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
11563 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
11565 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
11566 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
11568 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
11570 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
11571 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
11573 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
11574 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
11576 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
11578 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
11579 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
11581 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
11582 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
11583 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
11584 works using `save-current-buffer'.
11586 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
11587 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
11590 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
11591 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
11592 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
11595 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
11596 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
11599 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
11601 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
11602 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
11603 Then it returns that string.
11605 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
11607 (with-output-to-string
11608 (princ "The buffer is ")
11609 (princ (buffer-name)))
11611 returns "The buffer is foo".
11613 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
11616 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
11617 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
11618 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
11620 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
11621 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
11623 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
11624 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
11625 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
11626 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
11627 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
11628 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
11630 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
11631 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
11632 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
11635 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
11636 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
11637 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
11638 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
11639 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
11641 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
11642 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
11643 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
11644 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
11646 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
11647 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
11649 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
11651 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
11652 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
11653 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
11654 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
11657 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
11658 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
11661 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
11663 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
11664 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
11665 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
11666 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
11667 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
11669 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
11671 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
11672 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
11673 more than the number of characters.
11675 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
11676 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
11677 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
11678 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
11679 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
11680 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
11682 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
11683 and returns a string containing those characters.
11685 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
11686 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
11687 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
11688 character, sref signals an error.
11690 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
11691 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
11692 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
11694 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
11695 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
11696 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
11698 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
11699 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
11700 to a vector of the characters in it.
11702 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
11703 of a string. You call it as follows:
11705 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
11707 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
11708 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
11709 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
11710 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
11711 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
11713 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
11714 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
11716 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
11717 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
11719 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
11720 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
11721 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
11722 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
11724 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
11726 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
11728 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
11729 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
11730 are not included in the resulting value.
11732 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
11733 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
11734 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
11735 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
11737 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
11738 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
11739 character extends across that column), then the padding character
11740 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
11741 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
11742 column START-COLUMN.
11744 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
11745 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
11746 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
11747 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
11748 changed text, before the change.
11750 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
11751 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
11752 one character set for each script, not for each language.
11754 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
11756 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
11758 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
11759 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
11761 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
11762 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
11763 which identify the character within that character set.
11765 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
11766 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
11767 opposite of split-char.
11769 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
11770 of all the characters between BEG and END.
11772 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
11773 of all the characters in a string.
11775 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
11776 and specifying coding systems.
11778 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
11779 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
11780 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
11781 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
11782 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
11783 as what to do about code conversion.)
11785 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
11786 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
11788 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
11789 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
11790 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
11792 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
11793 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
11794 to match against a file name.
11796 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
11797 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
11798 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
11799 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
11800 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
11801 specifies the coding system for encoding.
11803 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
11804 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
11806 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
11807 the coding system to use for network sockets.
11809 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
11810 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
11811 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
11814 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
11815 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
11816 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
11817 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
11818 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
11819 specifies the coding system for encoding.
11821 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
11822 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
11824 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
11825 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
11826 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
11827 start the subprocess.
11829 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
11830 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
11831 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
11832 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
11833 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
11835 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
11836 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
11839 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
11840 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
11841 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
11842 connection permanently or until overridden.
11844 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
11845 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
11846 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
11847 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
11848 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
11849 system for one operation at a time.
11851 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
11852 files, subprocesses or network connections.
11854 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
11855 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
11856 The value is a cons cell,
11857 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
11858 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
11859 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
11860 input to the subprocess.
11862 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
11863 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
11865 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
11866 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
11867 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
11869 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
11870 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
11871 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
11872 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
11875 Thus, instead of writing
11877 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
11878 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
11880 you would now write this:
11882 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
11883 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
11887 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
11888 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
11889 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
11890 for a description of them.
11892 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
11893 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
11895 (defgroup ispell nil
11896 "Spell checking using Ispell."
11899 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
11900 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
11901 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
11902 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
11903 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
11905 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
11906 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
11907 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
11908 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
11909 first-level subgroups.
11911 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
11913 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
11914 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
11918 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
11919 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
11920 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
11921 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
11922 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
11923 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
11925 ** Text property changes
11927 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
11930 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
11931 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
11932 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
11933 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
11934 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
11936 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
11937 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
11938 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
11939 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
11941 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
11942 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
11943 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
11945 ** Changes in invisibility features
11947 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
11948 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
11949 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
11950 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
11951 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
11952 make the overlay visible.
11954 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
11955 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
11956 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
11957 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
11958 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
11959 t when it should hide it.
11961 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
11963 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
11964 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
11965 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
11966 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
11967 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
11968 Here is an example of how to do this:
11970 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
11971 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
11972 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
11973 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
11976 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
11979 ;; When done with the overlays:
11980 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
11981 ;; Or respectively:
11982 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
11984 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
11986 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
11987 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
11988 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
11989 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
11991 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
11992 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
11993 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
11995 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
11996 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
11998 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
11999 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
12001 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
12002 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
12003 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
12005 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
12006 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
12007 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
12008 determine the syntax type of the character.
12010 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
12011 of the current buffer.
12013 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
12014 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
12015 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
12017 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
12018 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
12019 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
12020 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
12021 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
12023 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
12026 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
12027 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
12028 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
12030 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
12031 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
12032 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
12033 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
12034 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
12036 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
12037 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
12038 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
12040 ** Changes in face features
12042 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
12043 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
12045 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
12046 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
12048 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
12049 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
12051 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
12052 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
12054 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
12055 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
12056 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
12057 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
12060 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
12061 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
12063 ** Changes in file-handling functions
12065 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
12066 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
12067 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
12068 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
12070 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
12073 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
12074 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
12076 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
12077 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
12079 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
12080 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
12082 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
12083 character code conversion as well as other things.
12085 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
12086 (formerly it did not).
12088 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
12089 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
12091 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
12092 instead of constant strings.
12094 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
12095 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
12096 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
12098 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
12099 in the same way as before.
12101 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
12102 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
12103 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
12105 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
12106 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
12107 else, and returns nil.
12109 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
12110 directory cannot be listed.
12112 ** Changes in minibuffer input
12114 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
12115 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
12116 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
12117 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
12120 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
12121 It is available through the history command M-n.
12123 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
12124 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
12125 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
12126 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
12127 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
12129 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
12130 argument in this way.
12132 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
12133 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
12134 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
12136 ** Echo area features
12138 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
12139 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
12140 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
12141 after the echo area is cleared.
12143 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
12144 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
12146 ** Keyboard input features
12148 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
12149 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
12151 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
12152 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
12153 by keyboard macros.
12155 ** Frame-related changes
12157 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
12158 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
12159 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
12161 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
12162 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
12163 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
12165 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
12166 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
12167 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
12168 in the selected frame.
12170 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
12171 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
12172 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
12174 ** X Windows features
12176 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
12177 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
12178 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
12180 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
12181 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
12183 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
12184 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
12185 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
12187 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
12188 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
12190 ** Subprocess features
12192 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
12193 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
12196 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
12197 and returns the output from the command as a string.
12199 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
12200 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
12202 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
12203 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
12205 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
12206 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
12207 goes after the other menu items.
12209 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
12210 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
12211 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
12214 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
12215 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
12217 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
12218 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
12221 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
12222 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
12223 but its hook is still run.
12225 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
12226 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
12228 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
12229 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
12230 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
12232 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
12233 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
12234 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
12237 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
12238 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
12240 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
12241 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
12242 functions like display-time.
12244 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
12245 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
12247 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
12248 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
12249 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
12251 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
12252 if there is an error in compilation.
12254 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
12255 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
12256 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
12257 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
12259 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
12260 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
12261 the *scratch* buffer.
12263 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
12264 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
12265 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
12266 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
12268 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
12269 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
12270 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
12272 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
12273 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
12274 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
12275 and compose-mail-other-frame.
12277 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
12278 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
12279 full name of the specified user will be returned.
12281 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
12282 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
12283 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
12284 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
12285 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
12288 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
12289 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
12290 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
12291 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
12293 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
12294 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
12295 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
12296 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
12298 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
12300 ** imenu.el changes.
12302 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
12303 item from menu created by imenu.
12305 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
12306 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
12307 select one of those items.
12309 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
12311 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
12312 Copyright information:
12314 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
12316 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
12317 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
12318 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
12319 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
12321 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
12322 of this document, or of portions of it,
12323 under the above conditions, provided also that they
12324 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
12328 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
12331 arch-tag: 1aca9dfa-2ac4-4d14-bebf-0007cee12793