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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.
4
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
7
8 Temporary note:
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.
13
14 \f
15 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.4
16
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).
20
21 ---
22 ** Emacs can now be built without sound support.
23
24 ** The `emacsserver' program has been removed, replaced with elisp code.
25
26 ---
27 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
28 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
29 installed programs.
30
31 ---
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.
39
40 ---
41 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
42 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
43 Emacs with Leim.
44
45 +++
46 ** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
47
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).
52
53 ---
54 ** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
55 the distribution.
56
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).
61
62 ** Support for Cygwin was added.
63
64 ---
65 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
66
67 ---
68 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on S390 machines was added.
69
70 ---
71 ** Support for MacOS X was added.
72 See the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
73
74 ---
75 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on X86-64 machines was added.
76
77 ---
78 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
79
80 ---
81 ** A French translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
82
83 \f
84 * Changes in Emacs 21.4
85
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.
91
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.
97
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'.
102
103 +++
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'.
108
109 ** The max size of buffers and integers has been doubled.
110 On 32bit machines, it is now 256M (i.e. 268435455).
111
112 +++
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.
116
117
118 ** sql changes.
119
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.)
125
126 The following values are supported:
127
128 ansi ANSI Standard (default)
129 db2 DB2
130 informix Informix
131 ingres Ingres
132 interbase Interbase
133 linter Linter
134 ms Microsoft
135 mysql MySQL
136 oracle Oracle
137 postgres Postgres
138 solid Solid
139 sqlite SQLite
140 sybase Sybase
141
142 The current product name will be shown on the mode line following the
143 SQL mode indicator.
144
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.
148
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:
153
154 (sql-add-product-keywords 'ms
155 '("\\<\\w+_t\\>" . font-lock-type-face))
156
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'.
160
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
166 terminated.
167
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.
171
172 *** Imenu support has been enhanced to locate tables, views, indexes,
173 packages, procedures, functions, triggers, sequences, rules, and
174 defaults.
175
176 *** Added SQL->Start SQLi Session menu entry which calls the
177 appropriate sql-interactive-mode wrapper for the current setting of
178 `sql-product'.
179
180 ** M-x view-file and commands that use it now avoid interfering
181 with special modes such as Tar mode.
182
183 ** Enhancements to apropos commands:
184
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
188 available.
189
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
195 matching item.
196
197 +++
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.
201
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'.
205
206 ** New command `kill-whole-line' kills an entire line at once.
207 By default, it is bound to C-S-<backspace>.
208
209 +++
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.
213
214 ** Support for the SQLite interpreter has been added to sql.el by calling
215 'sql-sqlite'.
216
217 ** BibTeX mode:
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.
225
226 *** If the new variable bibtex-parse-keys-fast is non-nil,
227 use fast but simplified algorithm for parsing BibTeX keys.
228
229 *** If the new variable bibtex-autoadd-commas is non-nil,
230 automatically add missing commas at end of BibTeX fields.
231
232 *** The new variable bibtex-autofill-types contains a list of entry
233 types for which fields are filled automatically (if possible).
234
235 *** The new command bibtex-complete completes word fragment before
236 point according to context (bound to M-tab).
237
238 *** The new commands bibtex-find-entry and bibtex-find-crossref
239 locate entries and crossref'd entries.
240
241 *** In BibTeX mode the command fill-paragraph (bound to M-q) fills
242 individual fields of a BibTeX entry.
243
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.
247
248 ** A window may now have individual fringe and scroll-bar settings,
249 in addition to the individual display margin settings.
250
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.
254
255 ** New functions frame-current-scroll-bars and window-current-scroll-bars.
256
257 These functions return the current locations of the vertical and
258 horisontal scroll bars in a frame or window.
259
260 ** Under X, mouse-wheel-mode is turned on by default.
261
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.
264
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.
267
268 ** `describe-char' can show data from the Unicode database file. See
269 user option `unicode-data'.
270
271 ** `undo-only' does an undo which does not redo any previous undo.
272
273 ** `uniquify-strip-common-suffix' tells uniquify to prefer
274 `file|dir1' and `file|dir2' to `file|dir1/subdir' and `file|dir2/subdir'.
275
276 ** If the user visits a file larger than `large-file-warning-threshold',
277 Emacs will prompt her for confirmation.
278
279 ** A UTF-7 coding system is available in the library `utf-7'.
280
281 ** GUD mode has its own tool bar for controlling execution of the inferior
282 and other common debugger commands.
283
284 ** recentf changes.
285
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
288 automatic cleanup.
289
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.
294
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.
300
301 ** The default for the paper size (variable ps-paper-type) is taken
302 from the locale.
303
304 ** Init file changes
305
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.
308
309 ** partial-completion-mode now does partial completion on directory names.
310
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.
317
318 ** MH-E changes.
319
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.
322
323 +++
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.
327
328 ** User option `server-mode' can be used to start a server process.
329
330 +++
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.
334
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.
337
338 +++
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
343 set-fringe-style.
344
345 +++
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
349 "~/".
350
351 +++
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
355 to alter the file.)
356
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.
359
360 ** The new command `recode-file-name' changes the encoding of the name
361 of a file.
362
363 ---
364 ** `ps-print' can now print characters from the mule-unicode charsets.
365
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.
369
370 ---
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.
374
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.
380
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.
384
385 Setting these variables directly does not take effect until next time
386 the Buffers menu is regenerated.
387
388 +++
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
392 faces.
393
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.)
399
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
404 supported.
405
406 ---
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,
412 tamil-inscript.
413
414 ---
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.
418
419 ---
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.
426
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.
438
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.
442
443 ** New command `ucs-insert' inserts a character specified by its
444 unicode.
445
446 +++
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.
454
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
458 possible.
459
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.
465
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.
470
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
474 command.
475
476 ---
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).
480
481 +++
482 ** The file selection dialog for Gtk+, W32 and Motif/Lesstif can be
483 disabled by customizing the variable `use-file-dialog'.
484
485 +++
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'
489 cursor does.
490
491 +++
492 ** On X, MS Windows, and Mac OS, the blinking cursor's "off" state is
493 now controlled by the variable `blink-cursor-alist'.
494
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.
498
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
501 in them.
502
503 ---
504 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
505 when Emacs visits them.
506
507 ---
508 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
509
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.
513
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.
518
519 +++
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.
524
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.
531
532 The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to
533 `auto-hscroll-mode'. The old name is still available as an alias.
534
535 ** TeX modes:
536 *** C-c C-c prompts for a command to run, and tries to offer a good default.
537 +++
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.
544
545 *** New major mode doctex-mode for *.dtx files.
546
547 +++
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.
554
555 +++
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.
561
562 +++
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.
568
569 +++
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.
575
576 +++
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.
582
583 +++
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
587 prompt string.
588
589 +++
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.
593
594 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
595 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
596
597 ---
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
604 mode-line.
605
606 ---
607 ** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
608
609 +++
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'.
613
614 +++
615 ** The default value for `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' is now nil.
616
617 ---
618 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
619
620 +++
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.
624
625 Turning off PC-Selection mode restores the global key bindings
626 that were replaced by turning on the mode.
627
628 +++
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').
634
635 ** Changes in support of colors on character terminals
636
637 +++
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.
647
648 ---
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
653 all of these colors.
654
655 ---
656 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
657
658 +++
659 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
660
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.)
665
666 ---
667 ** Info-index offers completion.
668
669 ---
670 ** Emacs now tries to set up buffer coding systems for HTML/XML files
671 automatically.
672
673 +++
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.
678
679 +++
680 ** Changes in C-h bindings:
681
682 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
683
684 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
685 that do not change:
686
687 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
688 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
689
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.
692
693 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
694
695 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
696 run by the key sequence.
697
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
700 that command.
701
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:
704
705 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
706 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
707
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>
710
711 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
712 new-kill-line is on C-k
713
714 +++
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'.
719
720 +++
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.
725
726 +++
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'.
731
732 +++
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.
739
740 ---
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.
748
749 +++
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.
754
755 ** The new customization type `float' specifies numbers with floating
756 point (no integers are allowed).
757
758 +++
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).
761
762 ---
763 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
764
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.
770
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
774 (gud-finish).
775
776 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
777 (Java 1.1 jdb).
778
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.
782
783 Added Customization Variables
784
785 *** gud-jdb-command-name. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
786
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).
790
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
793 is nil).
794
795 Minor Improvements
796
797 *** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
798
799 +++
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.
803
804 +++
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'.
811
812 +++
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.
816
817 +++
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.
822
823 ---
824 ** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
825
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.
830
831 +++
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
837 bind that to a key.
838
839 +++
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
845 command only.
846
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
850 mark or the region.
851
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
855 C-g.
856
857 +++
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.
861
862 +++
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
865 switching to it.
866
867 +++
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.
871
872 +++
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
876 paragraphs.
877
878 ** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
879 into the kill ring.
880
881 +++
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.
886
887 ---
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'.
890
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.
895
896 +++
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'.
905
906 +++
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'.
912
913 +++
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
916 appears in.
917
918 ** The variable `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' can now be set to any
919 of the recognized cursor types.
920
921 ---
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).
925
926 +++
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.
936
937 +++
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.
941
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'.
945
946 ** VC Changes
947
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:
953
954 (global-set-key "\C-x\C-q" 'vc-toggle-read-only)
955
956 The function `vc-toggle-read-only' will continue to exist.
957
958 +++
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
964 CVS.
965
966 *** New backends for Subversion and Meta-CVS.
967
968 ** EDiff changes.
969
970 +++
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.
975
976 +++
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
981 comparison.
982
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.
986
987 +++
988 ** Etags changes.
989
990 *** New regular expressions features
991
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.
1003
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,
1007 CR, TAB, VT,
1008
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.
1013
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.
1017
1018 *** New language parsing features
1019
1020 **** The `::' qualifier triggers C++ parsing in C file.
1021 Previously, only the `template' and `class' keywords had this effect.
1022
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
1026 package::sub.
1027
1028 **** New language PHP.
1029 Tags are functions, classes and defines.
1030 If the --members option is specified to etags, tags are vars also.
1031
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.
1035
1036 **** New default keywords for TeX.
1037 The new keywords are def, newcommand, renewcommand, newenvironment and
1038 renewenvironment.
1039
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.
1043
1044 **** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
1045
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.
1052
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
1057 the file FILE.
1058
1059 +++
1060 ** CC Mode changes.
1061
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.
1069
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.
1079
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.
1086
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.
1093
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.
1099
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.
1104
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
1109 parens.
1110
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.
1116
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.
1122
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.
1127 Here is a summary:
1128
1129 **** Indentation Engine
1130 The CC Mode indentation engine fully supports AWK mode.
1131
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.
1137
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.
1141
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).
1146
1147 **** Font Locking
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.
1152
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.
1156
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.
1161
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
1165 functions.
1166
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.
1171
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.
1177
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.
1182
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).
1189
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
1195
1196 ((inclass . 11) (topmost-intro . 13))
1197
1198 is now analysed as
1199
1200 ((inclass 11) (topmost-intro 13))
1201
1202 In some cases there are more than one position given for a syntactic
1203 symbol.
1204
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.
1209
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.
1216
1217 **** New language variable system.
1218 See the comment blurb near the top of cc-langs.el.
1219
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.
1224
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.
1229
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.
1235
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:
1239
1240 if (x)
1241 x_is_true:
1242 do_stuff();
1243
1244 *** Better handling of multiline macros.
1245
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
1251 inside #define's.
1252
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.
1260
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.
1264
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.
1269
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.
1274
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.
1281
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).
1288
1289 *** New function c-context-open-line.
1290 It's the open-line equivalent of c-context-line-break.
1291
1292 *** New lineup functions
1293
1294 **** c-lineup-string-cont
1295 This lineup function lines up a continued string under the one it
1296 continues. E.g:
1297
1298 result = prefix + "A message "
1299 "string."; <- c-lineup-string-cont
1300
1301 **** c-lineup-cascaded-calls
1302 Lines up series of calls separated by "->" or ".".
1303
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.
1307
1308 **** c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg
1309 Provides better indentation inside asm blocks. Contributed by Kevin
1310 Ryde.
1311
1312 **** c-lineup-argcont
1313 Lines up continued function arguments after the preceding comma.
1314 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
1315
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.
1322
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
1327 context.
1328
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.
1333
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.
1340
1341 *** Added toggle for syntactic indentation.
1342 The function c-toggle-syntactic-indentation can be used to toggle
1343 syntactic indentation.
1344
1345 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
1346 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
1347
1348 +++
1349 ** The command `list-text-properties-at' has been deleted because
1350 C-u C-x = gives the same information and more.
1351
1352 +++
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.
1356
1357 +++
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.
1361
1362 +++
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.
1366
1367 +++
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.
1374
1375 +++
1376 ** `xml-mode' is now an alias for `sgml-mode', which has XML support.
1377
1378 +++
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.
1382
1383 ---
1384 ** Lisp mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
1385
1386 ---
1387 ** Perl mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
1388
1389 +++
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.
1393
1394 ---
1395 ** F90 mode has new navigation commands `f90-end-of-block',
1396 `f90-beginning-of-block', `f90-next-block', `f90-previous-block'.
1397
1398 ---
1399 ** Prolog mode has a new variable `prolog-font-lock-keywords'
1400 to support use of font-lock.
1401
1402 +++
1403 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
1404 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
1405 `same-window'.
1406
1407 +++
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 `$$'.
1411
1412 +++
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.
1419
1420 +++
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.
1424
1425 +++
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.
1429
1430 ** Compilation mode enhancements:
1431
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.
1436
1437 *** `next-error' now temporarily highlights the corresponding source line.
1438
1439 ** Grep has been decoupled from compilation mode setup.
1440
1441 *** Grep commands now have their own submenu and customization group.
1442
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.
1446
1447 *** Source line is temporarily highlighted when going to next match.
1448
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
1455 file.
1456
1457 ---
1458 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
1459
1460 ---
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.
1464
1465 ---
1466 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
1467 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
1468
1469 ---
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
1476 against.
1477
1478 ---
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.
1484
1485 ---
1486 ** Different shaped mouse pointers are supported on MS Windows.
1487 The mouse pointer changes shape depending on what is under the pointer.
1488
1489 ---
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.
1494
1495 ---
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.
1504
1505 +++
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
1510 Meta and Alt:
1511 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
1512 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
1513 \f
1514 * New modes and packages in 21.4
1515
1516 +++
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.
1519
1520 ** GDB-Script-mode is used for files like .gdbinit.
1521
1522 ---
1523 ** Ido mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1524
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.
1529
1530 ---
1531 ** CUA mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1532
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.
1539
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).
1544
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.
1552
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.
1556
1557 The last text deleted (not killed) is automatically stored in
1558 register 0. This includes text deleted by typing text.
1559
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.
1564
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.
1569
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.
1574
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.
1580
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).
1587
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
1597 or local keymaps.
1598
1599 ** The new kmacro package provides a simpler user interface to
1600 emacs' keyboard macro facilities.
1601
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.
1606
1607 There is now a keyboard macro ring which stores the most recently
1608 defined macros.
1609
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
1615 for more commands.
1616
1617 The normal macro bindings C-x (, C-x ), and C-x e now interfaces to
1618 the keyboard macro ring.
1619
1620 The C-x e command now automatically terminates the current macro
1621 before calling it, if used while defining a macro.
1622
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.
1627
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.
1631
1632 ---
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.
1637
1638 ** The printing package is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1639
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.
1646
1647 +++
1648 ** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1649
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'.
1654
1655 +++
1656 ** Tramp is now part of the distribution.
1657
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).
1667
1668 Shell connections can be acquired via `rsh', `ssh', `telnet' and also
1669 `su' and `sudo'.
1670
1671 ---
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'.
1678
1679 ---
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'
1683 settings.
1684
1685 ---
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, ...
1690
1691 There is also Global Reveal mode which affects all buffers.
1692
1693 ---
1694 ** The new package ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
1695 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
1696
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.
1703
1704 +++
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.
1709
1710 ---
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.
1715
1716 ---
1717 ** cplus-md.el has been removed to avoid problems with Custom.
1718
1719 ** New package benchmark.el contains simple support for convenient
1720 timing measurements of code (including the garbage collection component).
1721
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.
1725
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.
1729
1730 ** The new Lisp library fringe.el controls the apperance of fringes.
1731
1732 ** `cfengine-mode' is a major mode for editing GNU Cfengine
1733 configuration files.
1734 \f
1735 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.4
1736
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.
1741
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.
1747
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'.
1753
1754 ** The mouse pointer shape over an image can now be controlled by the
1755 :pointer image property.
1756
1757 ** The mouse pointer shape over ordinary text or images may now be
1758 controlled/overriden via the `pointer' text property.
1759
1760 ** Images may now have an associated image map via the :map property.
1761
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.
1770
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.
1777
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'.
1781
1782 ** Mouse event enhancements:
1783
1784 *** Mouse clicks on fringes now generates left-fringe or right-fringes
1785 events, rather than a text area click event.
1786
1787 +++
1788 *** Mouse events now includes buffer position for all event types.
1789
1790 +++
1791 *** `posn-point' now returns buffer position for non-text area events.
1792
1793 *** Function `mouse-set-point' now works for events outside text area.
1794
1795 +++
1796 *** New function `posn-area' returns window area clicked on (nil means
1797 text area).
1798
1799 +++
1800 *** Mouse events include actual glyph column and row for all event types.
1801
1802 +++
1803 *** New function `posn-actual-col-row' returns actual glyph coordinates.
1804
1805 +++
1806 *** Mouse events may now include image object in addition to string object.
1807
1808 +++
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.
1811
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.
1815
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.
1821
1822 ** New function `redirect-debugging-output' can be used to redirect
1823 debugging output on the stderr file handle to a file.
1824
1825 +++
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.
1831
1832 +++
1833 ** `makehash' is now obsolete. Use `make-hash-table' instead.
1834
1835 +++
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
1839 documented.
1840
1841 ** Major modes can define `eldoc-print-current-symbol-info-function'
1842 locally to provide Eldoc functionality by some method appropriate to
1843 the language.
1844
1845 ---
1846 ** New coding system property `mime-text-unsuitable' indicates that
1847 the coding system's `mime-charset' is not suitable for MIME text
1848 parts, e.g. utf-16.
1849
1850 +++
1851 ** The argument to forward-word, backward-word, forward-to-indentation
1852 and backward-to-indentation is now optional, and defaults to 1.
1853
1854 +++
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.
1858
1859 Fontsets can specify a font on a per-character basis; when the fontset
1860 does that, this value may not be accurate.
1861
1862 +++
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
1866 the mode line.
1867
1868 +++
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.
1871
1872 +++
1873 ** The kill-buffer-hook is now permanent-local.
1874
1875 +++
1876 ** `select-window' takes an optional second argument `norecord', like
1877 `switch-to-buffer'.
1878
1879 +++
1880 ** The new macro `with-selected-window' temporarily switches the
1881 selected window without impacting the order of buffer-list.
1882
1883 +++
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.
1887
1888 +++
1889 ** (map-keymap FUNCTION KEYMAP) applies the function to each binding
1890 in the keymap.
1891
1892 ---
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.
1899
1900 +++
1901 ** The new macro dynamic-completion-table supports using functions
1902 as a dynamic completion table.
1903
1904 (dynamic-completion-table FUN)
1905
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.
1912
1913 +++
1914 ** The new macro lazy-completion-table initializes a variable
1915 as a lazy completion table.
1916
1917 (lazy-completion-table VAR FUN &rest ARGS)
1918
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.
1925
1926 +++
1927 ** `minor-mode-list' now holds a list of minor mode commands.
1928
1929 +++
1930 ** The new function `modify-all-frames-parameters' modifies parameters
1931 for all (existing and future) frames.
1932
1933 +++
1934 ** `sit-for' can now be called with args (SECONDS &optional NODISP).
1935
1936 +++
1937 ** New standard font-lock face `font-lock-preprocessor-face'.
1938
1939 +++
1940 ** The macro `with-syntax-table' does not copy the table any more.
1941
1942 +++
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.
1948
1949 +++
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).
1954
1955 +++
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.
1960
1961 ---
1962 ** `set-fontset-font', `fontset-info', `fontset-font' now operate on
1963 the default fontset if the argument NAME is nil..
1964
1965 +++
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.
1970
1971 +++
1972 ** New function `set-process-filter-multibyte' sets the multibyteness
1973 of a string given to a process's filter.
1974
1975 +++
1976 ** New function `process-filter-multibyte-p' returns t if
1977 a string given to a process's filter is multibyte.
1978
1979 +++
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'.
1984
1985 +++
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.
1991
1992 +++
1993 ** New function `string-to-multibyte' converts a unibyte string to a
1994 multibyte string with the same individual character codes.
1995
1996 +++
1997 ** New variables `gc-elapsed' and `gcs-done' provide extra information
1998 on garbage collection.
1999
2000 +++
2001 ** New function `decode-coding-inserted-region' decodes a region as if
2002 it is read from a file without decoding.
2003
2004 +++
2005 ** New function `locale-info' accesses locale information.
2006
2007 +++
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'.
2011
2012 ---
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.
2017
2018 ** Byte compiler changes:
2019
2020 ---
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
2026 you anything.
2027
2028 +++
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
2033 forms:
2034
2035 (if (fboundp 'foo) <then> <else>)
2036 (if (boundp 'foo) <then> <else)
2037
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.
2044
2045 +++
2046 *** The new macro `with-no-warnings' suppresses all compiler warnings
2047 inside its body. In terms of execution, it is equivalent to `progn'.
2048
2049 +++
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.
2053
2054 +++
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).
2058
2059 +++
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.
2066
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).
2072
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.
2079
2080 +++
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).
2084
2085 +++
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.
2090
2091 When you bind `print-continuous-numbering' to t, you should
2092 also bind `print-number-table' to nil.
2093
2094 +++
2095 ** When using non-toolkit scroll bars with the default width,
2096 the scroll-bar-width frame parameter value is nil.
2097
2098 +++
2099 ** The new function copy-abbrev-table returns a new abbrev table that
2100 is a copy of a given abbrev table.
2101
2102 +++
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:
2106
2107 #!/usr/bin/emacs --script
2108
2109 +++
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.*)\\'".
2112
2113 ---
2114 ** New CCL functions `lookup-character' and `lookup-integer' access
2115 hash tables defined by the Lisp function `define-translation-hash-table'.
2116
2117 +++
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
2120 the current buffer.
2121
2122 +++
2123 ** There is a new Warnings facility; see the functions `warn'
2124 and `display-warning'.
2125
2126 +++
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
2130 exported to Lisp.
2131
2132 ---
2133 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
2134 much pure storage it will approximately need.
2135
2136 +++
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.)
2141
2142 ---
2143 ** The new function `merge-coding-systems' fills in unspecified aspects
2144 of one coding system from another coding system.
2145
2146 ---
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
2151 needed.
2152
2153 ---
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.
2160
2161 If the form is not "ok to call", that means Emacs asks for
2162 confirmation as before.
2163
2164 +++
2165 ** Controlling the default left and right fringe widths.
2166
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.
2171
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).
2178
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.
2183
2184 +++
2185 ** Per-window fringes settings
2186
2187 Windows can now have their own individual fringe widths and position
2188 settings.
2189
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'.
2193
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'.
2198
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.
2204
2205 +++
2206 ** Per-window vertical scroll-bar settings
2207
2208 Windows can now have their own individual scroll-bar settings
2209 controlling the width and position of scroll-bars.
2210
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.
2218
2219 +++
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.
2223
2224 +++
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').
2231
2232 +++
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.
2236
2237 +++
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.
2243
2244 ---
2245 ** The new variable `read-file-name-function' can be used by lisp code
2246 to override the internal read-file-name function.
2247
2248 +++
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.
2252
2253 +++
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).
2257
2258 ---
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.
2262
2263 +++
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
2267
2268 (defmacro NAME LAMBDA-LIST [DOC-STRING] [DECLARATION ...] ...)
2269
2270 DECLARATION is a list `(declare DECLARATION-SPECIFIER ...)'. The
2271 declaration specifiers supported are:
2272
2273 (indent INDENT)
2274 Set NAME's `lisp-indent-function' property to INDENT.
2275
2276 (edebug DEBUG)
2277 Set NAME's `edebug-form-spec' property to DEBUG. (This is
2278 equivalent to writing a `def-edebug-spec' for the macro.
2279
2280 +++
2281 ** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
2282
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.
2286
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
2289 original command.
2290
2291 Example:
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
2296 kill-word.
2297
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:
2302
2303 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
2304 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
2305
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.
2308
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.
2312
2313 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
2314
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.
2319
2320 - The new function `command-remapping' returns the binding for a
2321 remapped command in the current keymaps, or nil if not remapped.
2322
2323 - key-binding now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
2324 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
2325
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).
2332
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.
2336
2337 +++
2338 ** New variable emulation-mode-map-alists.
2339
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
2342 alist to this list.
2343
2344 +++
2345 ** Atomic change groups.
2346
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:
2350
2351 (atomic-change-group
2352 (insert foo)
2353 (delete-region x y))
2354
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.
2359
2360 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
2361 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
2362
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.
2367
2368 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
2369 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
2370 do this.
2371
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.
2376
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
2383 twice.
2384
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:
2388
2389 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
2390 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
2391
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'.
2395
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
2400 finished.
2401
2402 +++
2403 ** New variable char-property-alias-alist.
2404
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.
2409
2410 +++
2411 ** New special text property `font-lock-face'.
2412
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'.
2417
2418 +++
2419 ** New function remove-list-of-text-properties.
2420
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.
2424
2425 +++
2426 ** New function insert-for-yank.
2427
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.
2433
2434 +++
2435 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-as-yank.
2436
2437 This function works like `insert-buffer-substring', but removes the
2438 text properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list.
2439
2440 +++
2441 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-no-properties.
2442
2443 This function is like insert-buffer-substring, but removes all
2444 text properties from the inserted substring.
2445
2446 +++
2447 ** New `yank-handler' text property may be used to control how
2448 previously killed text on the kill-ring is reinserted.
2449
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).
2453
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:
2458
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
2464 rectangle.
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.
2473
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
2476 the killed text.
2477
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.
2483
2484 +++
2485 ** New function display-supports-face-attributes-p may be used to test
2486 whether a given set of face attributes is actually displayable.
2487
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.
2491
2492 +++
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.
2496
2497 +++
2498 ** New functions face-attribute-relative-p and merge-face-attribute
2499 help with handling relative face attributes.
2500
2501 +++
2502 ** Enhancements to process support
2503
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.
2506
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.
2510
2511 *** Function signal-process now accepts a process object or process
2512 name in addition to a process id to identify the signalled process.
2513
2514 *** Processes now have an associated property list where programs can
2515 maintain process state and other per-process related information.
2516
2517 The new functions process-get and process-put are used to access, add,
2518 and modify elements on this property list.
2519
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.
2522
2523 +++
2524 ** Enhanced networking support.
2525
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.
2529
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.
2538
2539 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
2540 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
2541
2542 *** Original open-network-stream is now emulated using make-network-process.
2543
2544 *** New function open-network-stream-nowait.
2545
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".
2551
2552 *** New function open-network-stream-server.
2553
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.
2558
2559 *** New functions process-datagram-address and set-process-datagram-address.
2560
2561 These functions are used with datagram-based network processes to get
2562 and set the current address of the remote partner.
2563
2564 *** New function format-network-address.
2565
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.
2571
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.
2575
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.
2580
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.
2585
2586 *** New function network-interface-list.
2587
2588 This function returns a list of network interface names and their
2589 current network addresses.
2590
2591 *** New function network-interface-info.
2592
2593 This function returns the network address, hardware address, current
2594 status, and other information about a specific network interface.
2595
2596 +++
2597 ** New function copy-tree.
2598
2599 +++
2600 ** New function substring-no-properties.
2601
2602 +++
2603 ** New function minibuffer-selected-window.
2604
2605 +++
2606 ** New function `call-process-shell-command'.
2607
2608 ---
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.
2613
2614 This is relevant only if Lisp code looks for
2615 the bindings that were made with easymenu.
2616
2617 +++
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.
2622
2623 ---
2624 ** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
2625 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
2626
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
2630 commands.
2631
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
2634 SQL buffer.
2635
2636 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
2637 (function (lambda ()
2638 (master-mode t)
2639 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
2640 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
2641 (function (lambda ()
2642 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
2643
2644 +++
2645 ** File local variables.
2646
2647 A file local variables list cannot specify a string with text
2648 properties--any specified text properties are discarded.
2649
2650 +++
2651 ** New function window-body-height.
2652
2653 This is like window-height but does not count the mode line
2654 or the header line.
2655
2656 +++
2657 ** New function format-mode-line.
2658
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.
2661
2662 +++
2663 ** New functions `lax-plist-get' and `lax-plist-put'.
2664
2665 These functions are like `plist-get' and `plist-put' except that they
2666 compare the property name using `equal' rather than `eq'.
2667
2668 +++
2669 ** New function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu'
2670
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.
2675
2676 +++
2677 ** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
2678
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'.)
2682
2683 +++
2684 ** You can now make a window as short as one line.
2685
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.
2691
2692 +++
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.
2697
2698 +++
2699 ** The new mode-line construct `(:propertize ELT PROPS...)' can be
2700 used to add text properties to mode-line elements.
2701
2702 +++
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.
2706
2707 +++
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
2710 line.
2711
2712 ---
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.
2718
2719 ---
2720 ** Indentation of backquoted forms has been made customizable in the
2721 cl-indent package. See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
2722
2723 +++
2724 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
2725
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
2729 now:
2730
2731 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
2732
2733 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
2734 the time it takes to convert the format.
2735
2736 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
2737 wasteful.
2738
2739 +++
2740 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
2741 over minor mode keymaps.
2742
2743 +++
2744 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
2745 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
2746
2747 +++
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.
2751
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.
2757
2758 +++
2759 ** field-beginning and field-end now accept an additional optional
2760 argument, LIMIT.
2761
2762 +++
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
2767 flag.
2768
2769 ---
2770 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
2771
2772 ---
2773 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
2774
2775 ---
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.
2782
2783 ---
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.
2787
2788 ---
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:
2795
2796 s{
2797 foo
2798 }{
2799 bar
2800 }e
2801
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.
2806
2807 ---
2808 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
2809 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
2810
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.
2813
2814 +++
2815 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
2816 it receives a request from emacsclient.
2817
2818 ---
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.
2822
2823 ---
2824 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
2825 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
2826 it in that buffer.
2827
2828 ---
2829 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
2830 properties from surrounding text.
2831
2832 +++
2833 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
2834
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.
2838
2839 ---
2840 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
2841 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
2842 clone to the other.
2843
2844 +++
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.
2851
2852 ---
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.
2858
2859 +++
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.
2863
2864 +++
2865 ** define-minor-mode now accepts arbitrary additional keyword arguments
2866 and simply passes them to defcustom, if applicable.
2867
2868 +++
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.
2871
2872 +++
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.
2876
2877 +++
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.
2881
2882 +++
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.
2886
2887 ---
2888 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
2889
2890 +++
2891 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
2892
2893 +++
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.
2898
2899 +++
2900 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
2901
2902 ---
2903 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
2904
2905 +++
2906 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
2907 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
2908
2909 +++
2910 ** Variable aliases have been implemented:
2911
2912 *** defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR [DOCSTRING]
2913
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.
2918
2919 DOCSTRING, if present, is the documentation for ALIAS-VAR; else it has
2920 the same documentation as BASE-VAR.
2921
2922 *** indirect-variable VARIABLE
2923
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.
2927
2928 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
2929 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
2930
2931 +++
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.
2934
2935 +++
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.
2938
2939 +++
2940 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
2941 hold the largest and smallest possible integer values.
2942
2943 ---
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.
2947
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.
2951
2952 ** New function x-send-client-message sends a client message when
2953 running under X.
2954
2955 ** New packages:
2956
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.
2963
2964 Use M-x gdba to start GDB-UI.
2965
2966 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
2967 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
2968
2969 *** The new package bindat.el provides functions to unpack and pack
2970 binary data structures, such as network packets, to and from Lisp
2971 data structures.
2972
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.
2975
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.
2981
2982 \f
2983 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.3
2984
2985 ** Support for GNU/Linux on little-endian MIPS and on IBM S390 has
2986 been added.
2987
2988 \f
2989 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
2990
2991 ** The obsolete C mode (c-mode.el) has been removed to avoid problems
2992 with Custom.
2993
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)'.
2999
3000 ** There is a new language environment for UTF-8 (set up automatically
3001 in UTF-8 locales).
3002
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.
3013
3014 ** In Emacs running on the X window system, the default value of
3015 `selection-coding-system' is now `compound-text-with-extensions'.
3016
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.
3022
3023 \f
3024 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.2
3025
3026 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 has been added.
3027
3028 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
3029
3030 \f
3031 * Changes in Emacs 21.2
3032
3033 ** Emacs now supports compound-text extended segments in X selections.
3034
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.
3040
3041 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
3042 were changed.
3043
3044 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
3045 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
3046
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.
3050
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.
3058
3059 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
3060 NEWS.
3061
3062 \f
3063 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.2
3064
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.
3068
3069 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
3070 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
3071
3072 \f
3073 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
3074
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.
3078
3079 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
3080
3081 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
3082
3083 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
3084 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
3085 to list them.
3086
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.
3092
3093 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
3094 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
3095
3096 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
3097 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
3098
3099 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
3100 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
3101
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.
3107
3108 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
3109 new display features described below.
3110
3111 \f
3112 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
3113
3114 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
3115
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
3120 the text.
3121
3122 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
3123
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
3128 specify a font.
3129
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.
3133
3134 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
3135
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
3142 on terminals.
3143
3144 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
3145 supported on character terminals.
3146
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.
3151
3152 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
3153
3154 ** Sound support
3155
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
3160 sound support.
3161
3162 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
3163
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:
3168
3169 - User option: max-mini-window-height
3170
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.
3174
3175 Default is 0.25.
3176
3177 - User option: resize-mini-windows
3178
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
3182 again.
3183
3184 Default is `grow-only'.
3185
3186 ** LessTif support.
3187
3188 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
3189 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
3190
3191 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
3192
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
3195 non-nil.
3196
3197 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
3198
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.
3202
3203 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
3204
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
3210 Emacs.
3211
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.
3218
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.
3225
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.
3231
3232 ** Tool bar support.
3233
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
3239 icons will be used.
3240
3241 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
3242 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
3243
3244 ** Tooltips.
3245
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'.
3249
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'.
3254
3255 ** Automatic Hscrolling
3256
3257 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
3258 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
3259 customized.
3260
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.
3266
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.
3273
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'.
3278
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.)
3285
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.
3290
3291 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3292
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
3298 have enabled one.
3299
3300 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
3301
3302 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
3303
3304 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
3305
3306 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
3307 `*') toggles the status.
3308
3309 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
3310
3311 ** Hourglass pointer
3312
3313 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
3314 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
3315
3316 ** Blinking cursor
3317
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
3321 the group `cursor'.
3322
3323 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
3324
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
3328 details.
3329
3330 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
3331 have to do anything to activate it.
3332
3333 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
3334
3335 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
3336 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
3337
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.
3346
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.
3353
3354 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
3355 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
3356
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
3359 buffer by default.
3360
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.
3364
3365 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
3366 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
3367 signaled.
3368
3369 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
3370 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
3371
3372 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
3373 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
3374 this behavior.
3375
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
3378 Emacs dump core.
3379
3380 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
3381
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.
3385
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.
3389
3390 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
3391 using that menu.
3392
3393 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
3394
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
3400 whitespace.
3401
3402 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
3403 all frames except the selected one.
3404
3405 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
3406 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
3407
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'.
3413
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.
3417
3418 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
3419
3420 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
3421 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
3422 `fr-drdref.tex'.
3423
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.
3428
3429 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
3430
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.
3435
3436 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
3437 point in a pop-up window.
3438
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'.
3442
3443 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
3444 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
3445
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.
3450
3451 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
3452
3453 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
3454 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
3455
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'.
3459
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
3462 non-nil.
3463
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.
3467
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.
3470
3471 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
3472 and displays information about that.
3473
3474 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
3475 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
3476
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'.
3483
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'.
3486
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.
3494
3495 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
3496 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
3497
3498 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
3499 system for keyboard input.
3500
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.
3510
3511 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
3512 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
3513
3514 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
3515 displays all characters in that character set.
3516
3517 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
3518 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
3519
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.
3523
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)
3530 and Polish `slash'.
3531
3532 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
3533 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
3534 of the tutorial.
3535
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".
3539
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
3545
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
3549
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
3556
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
3560 package.
3561
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".
3567
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
3573 on.
3574
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'.
3579
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.
3584
3585 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
3586 on the display using several methods
3587
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.
3591
3592 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
3593 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
3594
3595 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
3596
3597 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
3598 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
3599
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.
3604
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.
3608
3609 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
3610 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
3611
3612 ** New X resources recognized
3613
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.
3617
3618 Example:
3619
3620 emacs.synchronous: true
3621
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
3627
3628 TrueColor
3629 PseudoColor
3630 DirectColor
3631 StaticColor
3632 GrayScale
3633 StaticGray
3634
3635 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
3636 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
3637 meaning.
3638
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
3642 visual.
3643
3644 Example:
3645
3646 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
3647
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'.
3652
3653 Example:
3654
3655 emacs.privateColormap: true
3656
3657 ** Faces and frame parameters.
3658
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'.
3666
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.
3671
3672 ** New face `menu'.
3673
3674 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
3675
3676 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
3677
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.
3682
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).
3686
3687 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
3688 `ScreenGamma'.
3689
3690 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
3691
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.
3696
3697 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
3698
3699 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
3700
3701 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
3702
3703 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
3704 LessTif/Motif one.
3705
3706 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
3707 LessTif and Motif.
3708
3709 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
3710
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.
3714
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).
3717
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'.
3721
3722 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
3723
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.
3728
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.
3733
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
3737 buffers.
3738
3739 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
3740
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'.
3744
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.
3751
3752 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
3753
3754 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
3755 notably at the end of lines.
3756
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.
3759
3760 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
3761
3762 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
3763 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
3764
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.
3768
3769 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
3770 you edit the replacement string.
3771
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.
3775
3776 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
3777
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.
3780
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.
3785
3786 --
3787 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
3788 read mail from the menu etc.
3789
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.
3794
3795 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
3796 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
3797
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
3803 of Emacs.
3804
3805 ** Customize changes
3806
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.
3812
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
3815 default).
3816
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
3821 file.
3822
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.
3827
3828 ** New features in evaluation commands
3829
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.
3835
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
3840 printed).
3841
3842 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
3843 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
3844
3845 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
3846 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
3847
3848 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
3849 code when called with a prefix argument.
3850
3851 ** CC mode changes.
3852
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
3859 release.
3860
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
3864 confusion.
3865
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.
3870
3871 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
3872 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
3873
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)".
3876
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()".
3881
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:
3886
3887 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
3888 if (a[i])
3889 res += a[i]->offset;
3890 else
3891
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
3896 the preceding "if".
3897
3898 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
3899 by default.
3900
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.
3905
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.
3913
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.
3918
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
3923 Pike mode only.
3924
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.
3933
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.
3937
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
3944 groundwork.
3945
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
3951 have to bother.
3952
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.
3959
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.
3968
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
3973 above.
3974
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.
3983
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.
3992
3993 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
3994
3995 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
3996 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
3997
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
4003 style system.
4004
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
4008 as far as possible.
4009
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.
4014
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.
4020
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.
4024
4025 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
4026 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
4027
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
4031 inside CC Mode.
4032
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/
4037 cc-mode/).
4038
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.
4044
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
4048 literals.
4049
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
4054 this function.
4055
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.
4061
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.
4065
4066 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
4067
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.
4072
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.
4076
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.
4083
4084 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
4085 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
4086 arguments.
4087
4088 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
4089
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
4094 Provan).
4095
4096 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
4097
4098 ** Dired changes
4099
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.
4103
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.
4107
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.
4111
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
4114 directory.
4115
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.
4121
4122 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
4123 from ls switches.
4124
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.
4129
4130 ** Gnus changes.
4131
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.
4135
4136 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
4137 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
4138
4139 If you used procmail like in
4140
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")
4145
4146 this now has changed to
4147
4148 (setq mail-sources
4149 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
4150 :suffix ".in")))
4151
4152 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
4153 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
4154
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.
4159
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.
4163
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.
4168
4169 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
4170 Gnus facilities.
4171
4172 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
4173 called to position point.
4174
4175 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
4176 summary buffers and NOV files.
4177
4178 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
4179 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
4180
4181 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
4182 subtly different manner.
4183
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.
4187
4188 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
4189
4190 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
4191
4192 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
4193
4194 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
4195 macros
4196
4197 Key binding Macro
4198 -------------------------
4199 C-c C-c C-s @strong
4200 C-c C-c C-e @emph
4201 C-c C-c u @uref
4202 C-c C-c q @quotation
4203 C-c C-c m @email
4204 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
4205 M-RET @item
4206
4207 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
4208
4209 ** Changes in Outline mode.
4210
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.
4214
4215 ** Changes to Emacs Server
4216
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.
4222
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
4225 this way.
4226
4227 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
4228 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
4229
4230 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
4231
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.
4235
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).
4238
4239 ** Changes to hideshow.el
4240
4241 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
4242
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'.
4247
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
4251 the open block.
4252
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.
4256
4257 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
4258
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'.
4263
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.
4266
4267 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
4268
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.
4272
4273 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
4274 current buffer.
4275
4276 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
4277 in a log file.
4278
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.
4285
4286 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
4287
4288 ** Changes to cmuscheme
4289
4290 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
4291 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
4292
4293 ** Changes in Font Lock
4294
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.
4297
4298 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
4299 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
4300
4301 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
4302 the face used for each string/comment.
4303
4304 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
4305 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
4306
4307 ** Changes to Shell mode
4308
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).
4313
4314 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4315
4316 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
4317 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
4318
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.
4325
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'.
4334
4335 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
4336 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
4337
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.
4341
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.
4345
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'.
4349
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.
4353
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
4356 compatibility.
4357
4358 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
4359 ring (history).
4360
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 "^#".
4364
4365 ** Changes to Rmail mode
4366
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
4372 as correspondent.
4373
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.
4377
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.
4383
4384 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
4385 like `j'.
4386
4387 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
4388 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
4389 digest message.
4390
4391 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
4392 in which folder to put messages automatically.
4393
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.
4397
4398 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
4399 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
4400
4401 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
4402 use the -f option when sending mail.
4403
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.
4410
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.
4414
4415 ** Changes to TeX mode
4416
4417 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
4418 `latex-mode'.
4419
4420 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
4421
4422 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
4423
4424 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
4425
4426 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4427
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.
4434
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).
4438
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.
4441
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
4445 been cited.
4446
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.
4451
4452 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
4453 has the following new features:
4454
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.
4459
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
4465 defaults to 1.
4466
4467 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
4468 file names.
4469
4470 ** Ispell changes
4471
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.
4475
4476 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
4477 added.
4478
4479 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
4480 correction is made and re-checked.
4481
4482 *** Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definitions have been added.
4483
4484 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
4485 cases.
4486
4487 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
4488 on syntax errors.
4489
4490 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
4491 end of the buffer.
4492
4493 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
4494
4495 ** Makefile mode changes
4496
4497 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
4498
4499 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
4500 Fontlock mode is active.
4501
4502 ** Isearch changes
4503
4504 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
4505 so that searches can be resumed.
4506
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.
4510
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.
4513
4514 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
4515
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'.
4522
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.
4528
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'.
4533
4534 ** VC Changes
4535
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.
4545
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.
4552
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.)
4558
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.
4562
4563 *** General Changes
4564
4565 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
4566 checks are always done now.
4567
4568 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
4569 operations.
4570
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'.
4574
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'').
4579
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
4582 downwards.
4583
4584 *** Multiple Backends
4585
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
4590 local RCS archives.
4591
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.)
4596
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.
4602
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.
4607
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.
4612
4613 *** Changes for CVS
4614
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.
4622
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
4634 name.)
4635
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.
4642
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.)
4647
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.
4652
4653 *** Lisp Changes in VC
4654
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'.
4664
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.
4669
4670 ** New modes and packages
4671
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.
4675
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 \.
4679
4680 Features are:
4681
4682 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
4683 drawn, like this: | \ /
4684 --+-- X
4685 | / \
4686
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
4692 you are drawing.
4693
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 >.
4696
4697 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
4698 flood-filling.
4699
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.
4704
4705 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
4706 also do without the mouse.
4707
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.
4713
4714 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
4715
4716 lines straight-lines
4717 rectangles squares
4718 poly-lines straight poly-lines
4719 ellipses circles
4720 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
4721 spray-can setting size for spraying
4722 vaporize line vaporize lines
4723 erase characters erase rectangles
4724
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
4728 drawing.
4729
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>.
4734
4735 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
4736 can be turned off).
4737
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.
4747
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.
4752
4753 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
4754 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
4755
4756 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
4757
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.
4766
4767 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
4768 Emacs is idle.
4769
4770 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
4771 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
4772
4773 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
4774 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
4775
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.
4781
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.
4785
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.
4791
4792 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
4793 without invoking external programs.
4794
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.
4800
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.
4803
4804 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
4805 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
4806
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
4812 single step.
4813
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.
4818
4819 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
4820 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
4821 actually modifying content of a buffer.
4822
4823 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
4824 PostScript.
4825
4826 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
4827
4828 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
4829
4830 ; comment (until end of line)
4831 A non-terminal
4832 "C" terminal
4833 ?C? special
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}*]
4852
4853 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
4854
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.
4860
4861 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
4862 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
4863
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'.
4867
4868 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
4869
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.
4876
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
4882 to be enabled.
4883
4884 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
4885 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
4886
4887 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
4888
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.
4892
4893 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
4894
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.
4901
4902 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
4903 Pascal) language.
4904
4905 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
4906 the text at point.
4907
4908 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
4909
4910 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
4911
4912 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
4913 whitespace in a file.
4914
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.
4922
4923 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
4924
4925 Here is an example of columns:
4926
4927 horse apple bus
4928 dog pineapple car EXTRA
4929 porcupine strawberry airplane
4930
4931 Doing the following settings:
4932
4933 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
4934 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
4935 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
4936 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
4937
4938
4939 Selecting the lines above and typing:
4940
4941 M-x delimit-columns-region
4942
4943 It results:
4944
4945 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
4946 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
4947 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
4948
4949 delim-col has the following options:
4950
4951 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
4952 before all columns.
4953
4954 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
4955 between each column.
4956
4957 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
4958 after all columns.
4959
4960 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
4961 each column.
4962
4963 delim-col has the following commands:
4964
4965 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
4966 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
4967
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:
4972
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
4976
4977 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
4978 dynamically change the menu appearance.
4979
4980 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
4981 text.
4982
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.
4986
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'.
4990
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.
4994
4995 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
4996 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
4997
4998 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
4999
5000 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
5001 minibuffer with completion.
5002
5003 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
5004 with the diary features.
5005
5006 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
5007 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
5008
5009 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
5010 Fill mode.
5011
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.
5016
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
5019 `.g'.
5020
5021 ** Changes in sort.el
5022
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
5026 numeric base.
5027
5028 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
5029
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.)
5033
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.
5036
5037 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
5038 output ^M at the end of lines.
5039
5040 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
5041 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
5042
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
5045 `(msb-mode 1)'.
5046
5047 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
5048 group.
5049
5050 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
5051 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
5052 are recognized:
5053
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.
5058
5059 Default value is `untabify'.
5060
5061 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
5062
5063 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
5064 symbol, not double-quoted.
5065
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.
5070
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.
5074
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.
5078
5079 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
5080 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
5081
5082 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
5083 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
5084
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.
5087
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.
5094
5095 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
5096 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
5097
5098 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
5099
5100 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
5101 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
5102
5103 ** Shell script mode changes.
5104
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.
5108
5109 ** Etags changes.
5110
5111 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
5112
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.
5118
5119 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
5120 declarations when given the --declarations option.
5121
5122 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
5123 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
5124
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.
5128
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.
5131
5132 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
5133 types.
5134
5135 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
5136
5137 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
5138
5139 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
5140 are now tagged.
5141
5142 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
5143
5144 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
5145 variables are tagged.
5146
5147 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
5148
5149 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
5150 for PSWrap.
5151
5152 ** Changes in etags.el
5153
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.
5157
5158 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
5159 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
5160
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.
5165
5166 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
5167
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.
5170
5171 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
5172
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))
5176
5177 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
5178 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
5179
5180 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
5181 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
5182
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.
5188
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.
5192
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.
5196
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.
5200
5201 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
5202
5203 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
5204
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.
5208
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.
5213
5214 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
5215
5216 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
5217 displays local abbrevs, only.
5218
5219 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
5220 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
5221
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.
5225
5226 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
5227 to be visited as images.
5228
5229 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
5230 were added to compile.el.
5231
5232 ** Withdrawn packages
5233
5234 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
5235 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
5236
5237 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
5238
5239 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
5240
5241 \f
5242 * Incompatible Lisp changes
5243
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.
5247
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.
5252
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.
5257
5258 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
5259 ranges may affect some code.
5260
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.
5264
5265 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
5266 operates on the minibuffer.
5267
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.
5280
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.
5284
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.
5288
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'.
5292
5293 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
5294 string.
5295
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.
5304
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.
5315
5316 \f
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.)
5319
5320 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
5321
5322 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
5323 allows the animated display of strings.
5324
5325 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
5326 interactive form of a function.
5327
5328 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
5329 between custom options. Example:
5330
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])."
5335 :group 'mule
5336 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
5337 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
5338
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.
5342
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).
5347
5348 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
5349 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
5350
5351 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
5352 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
5353
5354 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
5355 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
5356
5357 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
5358
5359 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
5360 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
5361 being deleted.
5362
5363 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
5364
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
5370 charset.
5371
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
5374 message.
5375
5376 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
5377 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
5378
5379 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
5380 with the more general `:mask' property.
5381
5382 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
5383
5384 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
5385 backslash.
5386
5387 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
5388 is running in batch mode. For example,
5389
5390 (message "%s" (read t))
5391
5392 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
5393 to standard output.
5394
5395 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
5396 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
5397
5398 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
5399 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
5400 frame or window.
5401
5402 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
5403 were added
5404
5405 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
5406
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'.
5409
5410 - Function: remq ELT LIST
5411
5412 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
5413 comparison is done with `eq'.
5414
5415 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
5416
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'.
5420
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.
5424
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.
5427
5428 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
5429 function was declared obsolete.
5430
5431 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
5432 retained as an alias).
5433
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.
5437
5438 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
5439
5440 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
5441
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.
5448
5449 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
5450
5451 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
5452
5453 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
5454
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
5459 returned.
5460
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.
5465
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.
5472
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.
5480
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.
5484
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.
5489
5490 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
5491 meaning no limit.
5492
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.
5496
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,
5500
5501 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
5502 list of a primitive.
5503
5504 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
5505
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.
5510
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'
5514 instead.
5515
5516 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
5517
5518 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
5519 as promised long ago.
5520
5521 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
5522
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.
5526
5527 \f
5528 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
5529
5530 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
5531 regular expressions.
5532
5533 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
5534
5535 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
5536
5537 - Macro: rx SEXP
5538
5539 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
5540
5541 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
5542 notation.
5543
5544 STRING
5545 matches string STRING literally.
5546
5547 CHAR
5548 matches character CHAR literally.
5549
5550 `not-newline'
5551 matches any character except a newline.
5552 .
5553 `anything'
5554 matches any character
5555
5556 `(any SET)'
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.
5559
5560 '(in SET)'
5561 like `any'.
5562
5563 `(not (any SET))'
5564 matches any character not in SET
5565
5566 `line-start'
5567 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
5568 in the text being matched
5569
5570 `line-end'
5571 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
5572
5573 `string-start'
5574 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
5575 string being matched against.
5576
5577 `string-end'
5578 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
5579 string being matched against.
5580
5581 `buffer-start'
5582 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
5583 buffer being matched against.
5584
5585 `buffer-end'
5586 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
5587 buffer being matched against.
5588
5589 `point'
5590 matches the empty string, but only at point.
5591
5592 `word-start'
5593 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
5594 word.
5595
5596 `word-end'
5597 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
5598
5599 `word-boundary'
5600 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
5601 word.
5602
5603 `(not word-boundary)'
5604 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
5605 word.
5606
5607 `digit'
5608 matches 0 through 9.
5609
5610 `control'
5611 matches ASCII control characters.
5612
5613 `hex-digit'
5614 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
5615
5616 `blank'
5617 matches space and tab only.
5618
5619 `graphic'
5620 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
5621 space, and DEL.
5622
5623 `printing'
5624 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
5625 and DEL.
5626
5627 `alphanumeric'
5628 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
5629 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
5630
5631 `letter'
5632 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
5633 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
5634
5635 `ascii'
5636 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
5637
5638 `nonascii'
5639 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
5640
5641 `lower'
5642 matches anything lower-case.
5643
5644 `upper'
5645 matches anything upper-case.
5646
5647 `punctuation'
5648 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
5649 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
5650
5651 `space'
5652 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
5653
5654 `word'
5655 matches anything that has word syntax.
5656
5657 `(syntax SYNTAX)'
5658 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
5659 of the following symbols.
5660
5661 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
5662 `punctuation' (\\s.)
5663 `word' (\\sw)
5664 `symbol' (\\s_)
5665 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
5666 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
5667 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
5668 `string-quote' (\\s\")
5669 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
5670 `escape' (\\s\\)
5671 `character-quote' (\\s/)
5672 `comment-start' (\\s<)
5673 `comment-end' (\\s>)
5674
5675 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
5676 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
5677
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.
5681
5682 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
5683 `base-vowel' (\\c1)
5684 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
5685 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
5686 `tone-mark' (\\c4)
5687 `symbol' (\\c5)
5688 `digit' (\\c6)
5689 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
5690 `vowel-sign' (\\c8)
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)
5702 `ascii' (\\ca)
5703 `arabic' (\\cb)
5704 `chinese' (\\cc)
5705 `ethiopic' (\\ce)
5706 `greek' (\\cg)
5707 `korean' (\\ch)
5708 `indian' (\\ci)
5709 `japanese' (\\cj)
5710 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
5711 `latin' (\\cl)
5712 `lao' (\\co)
5713 `tibetan' (\\cq)
5714 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
5715 `thai' (\\ct)
5716 `vietnamese' (\\cv)
5717 `hebrew' (\\cw)
5718 `cyrillic' (\\cy)
5719 `can-break' (\\c|)
5720
5721 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
5722 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
5723
5724 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
5725 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
5726
5727 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
5728 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
5729 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
5730
5731 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
5732 another name for `submatch'.
5733
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
5737 regular expression.
5738
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.
5744
5745 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
5746 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
5747
5748 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
5749 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
5750
5751 `(0+ SEXP)'
5752 like `zero-or-more'.
5753
5754 `(* SEXP)'
5755 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
5756
5757 `(*? SEXP)'
5758 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
5759
5760 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
5761 matches one or more occurrences of A.
5762
5763 `(1+ SEXP)'
5764 like `one-or-more'.
5765
5766 `(+ SEXP)'
5767 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
5768
5769 `(+? SEXP)'
5770 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
5771
5772 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
5773 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
5774
5775 `(optional SEXP)'
5776 like `zero-or-one'.
5777
5778 `(? SEXP)'
5779 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
5780
5781 `(?? SEXP)'
5782 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
5783
5784 `(repeat N SEXP)'
5785 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
5786
5787 `(repeat N M SEXP)'
5788 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
5789
5790 `(eval FORM)'
5791 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
5792 `regexp-quote' it.
5793
5794 `(regexp REGEXP)'
5795 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
5796
5797 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
5798
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.
5803
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.
5808
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.
5812
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
5820 eight-bit-graphic.
5821
5822 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
5823
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.
5827
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.
5831
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.
5836
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.
5839
5840 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
5841 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
5842 "fontset-default".
5843
5844 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
5845 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
5846
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.
5850
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
5858 also been deleted.
5859
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.
5863
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.
5868
5869 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
5870 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
5871
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.
5876
5877 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
5878 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
5879
5880 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
5881 obsolete.
5882
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.
5885
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.
5890
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.
5897
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.
5901
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.
5905
5906 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
5907 have been introduced.
5908
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.
5918
5919 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
5920 that offset in the file before writing.
5921
5922 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
5923 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
5924
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.
5928
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
5933 operate on.
5934
5935 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
5936 to `window-buffer-height'.
5937
5938 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
5939
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.
5943
5944 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
5945 respectively.
5946
5947 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
5948 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
5949
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.
5953
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.
5958
5959 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
5960 argument function's results.
5961
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
5966 sequence).
5967
5968 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
5969 header in the list of headers passed to it.
5970
5971 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
5972 ignores differences in case and text representation.
5973
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
5976 as follows:
5977
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.
5983
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.
5988
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'.
5993
5994 Example:
5995
5996 (string-to-syntax "()")
5997 => (4 . 41)
5998
5999 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
6000 other than 10.
6001
6002 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
6003 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
6004
6005 #b1111
6006 => 15
6007 #b-1111
6008 => -15
6009
6010 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
6011
6012 #o666
6013 => 438
6014
6015 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
6016
6017 #xbeef
6018 => 48815
6019
6020 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
6021
6022 #2R-111
6023 => -7
6024 #25rah
6025 => 267
6026
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
6029 and isn't a string.
6030
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.
6035
6036 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
6037
6038 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
6039 for a regexp in a string.
6040
6041 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
6042 `mouse-position-function'.
6043
6044 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
6045 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
6046
6047 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
6048 Keywords are now always considered constants.
6049
6050 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
6051 returns it.
6052
6053 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
6054 returned by function `recent-keys'.
6055
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
6060 mode.
6061
6062 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
6063 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
6064
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
6069 been performed."
6070
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.
6075
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.
6079
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
6082 specified table.
6083
6084 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
6085
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
6089 what BODY returns.
6090
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 `\').
6096
6097 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
6098 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
6099
6100 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
6101 instead of being optional.
6102
6103 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
6104 modify read-only text.
6105
6106 ** New functions and variables for locales.
6107
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.
6113
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.
6121
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
6125 start sequences.
6126
6127 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
6128 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
6129
6130 ** New function `propertize'
6131
6132 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
6133 strings with text properties.
6134
6135 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
6136
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:
6141
6142 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
6143
6144 ** push and pop macros.
6145
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.
6149
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).
6153
6154 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
6155
6156 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
6157 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
6158
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.
6163
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.
6168
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
6172 or a sign.
6173
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,
6179 space, and DEL.
6180 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
6181 and DEL.
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.
6197
6198 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
6199
6200 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
6201
6202 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
6203
6204 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
6205 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
6206
6207 :test TEST
6208
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'.
6212
6213 :size SIZE
6214
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.
6217
6218 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
6219
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.
6225
6226 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
6227
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.
6231
6232 :weakness WEAK
6233
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.
6239
6240 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
6241
6242 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
6243
6244 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
6245
6246 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
6247
6248 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
6249
6250 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
6251 values are shared.
6252
6253 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
6254
6255 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
6256
6257 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
6258
6259 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
6260
6261 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
6262
6263 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
6264
6265 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
6266
6267 Returns the size of TABLE.
6268
6269 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
6270
6271 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
6272
6273 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
6274
6275 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
6276
6277 - Function: clrhash TABLE
6278
6279 Clear TABLE.
6280
6281 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
6282
6283 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
6284 not found.
6285
6286 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
6287
6288 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
6289 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
6290
6291 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
6292
6293 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
6294
6295 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
6296
6297 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
6298 arguments KEY and VALUE.
6299
6300 - Function: sxhash OBJ
6301
6302 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
6303
6304 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
6305
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).
6311
6312 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
6313
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.
6317
6318 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
6319 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
6320
6321 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
6322 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
6323
6324 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
6325 (sxhash (upcase a)))
6326
6327 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
6328 'case-fold-string-hash))
6329
6330 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
6331
6332 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
6333
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.
6337
6338 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
6339
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.
6342
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.
6347
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.
6352
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.
6356
6357 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
6358 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
6359
6360 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
6361 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
6362
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.
6368
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.
6373
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.
6376
6377 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
6378
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.
6382
6383 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
6384
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.
6391
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'.
6396
6397 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
6398
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
6402 result string.
6403
6404 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
6405 string where arguments appear in the result string.
6406
6407 Example:
6408
6409 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
6410 (s2 "world"))
6411 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
6412 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
6413 (format s1 s2))
6414
6415 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
6416
6417 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
6418
6419 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
6420 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
6421 argument in it.
6422
6423 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
6424 (arg "world"))
6425 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
6426 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
6427 (message msg arg))
6428
6429 ** Sound support
6430
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).
6433
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.
6437
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.
6443
6444 The following sound properties are supported:
6445
6446 - `:file FILE'
6447
6448 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
6449 searched relative to `data-directory'.
6450
6451 - `:data DATA'
6452
6453 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
6454 may be present, but not both.
6455
6456 - `:volume VOLUME'
6457
6458 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
6459 0..1. This property is optional.
6460
6461 - `:device DEVICE'
6462
6463 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
6464 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
6465
6466 Other properties are ignored.
6467
6468 An alternative interface is called as
6469 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
6470
6471 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
6472
6473 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
6474 a keyword symbol.
6475
6476 ** Changes to garbage collection
6477
6478 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
6479 of live and free strings.
6480
6481 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
6482 strings that have been consed so far.
6483
6484 \f
6485 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
6486 Lisp Manual
6487
6488 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
6489 mini-windows.
6490
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.
6494
6495 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
6496
6497 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
6498
6499 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
6500 image.
6501
6502 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
6503
6504 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
6505
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.
6511
6512 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
6513 has a mask bitmap.
6514
6515 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
6516
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.
6520
6521 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
6522 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
6523
6524 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
6525 optional.
6526
6527 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
6528 below).
6529
6530 \f
6531 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
6532
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.
6535
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.
6542
6543 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
6544 a line like
6545
6546 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
6547
6548 in your `.emacs'.
6549
6550 ** New face implementation.
6551
6552 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
6553 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
6554
6555 *** New faces.
6556
6557 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
6558
6559 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
6560
6561 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
6562 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
6563
6564 3. Font height in 1/10pt
6565
6566 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
6567
6568 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
6569
6570 6. Foreground color.
6571
6572 7. Background color.
6573
6574 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
6575
6576 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
6577
6578 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
6579
6580 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
6581
6582 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
6583 color.
6584
6585 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
6586 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
6587
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.
6594
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
6597 created frames.
6598
6599 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
6600 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
6601 `fully-specified'.
6602
6603 *** Face merging.
6604
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.
6611
6612 *** Face realization.
6613
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.
6620
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.
6625
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.
6631
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
6637 Emacs.
6638
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.
6643
6644 **** Clearing face caches.
6645
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
6648 unused fonts.
6649
6650 *** Font selection.
6651
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.
6655
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.
6661
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.
6665
6666 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
6667
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.
6675
6676 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
6677 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
6678 doesn't exist.
6679
6680 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
6681 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
6682 registry.
6683
6684 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
6685 slightly different.
6686
6687 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
6688
6689
6690 **** Scalable fonts
6691
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
6694 servers.
6695
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
6701 that list. Example:
6702
6703 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
6704
6705 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
6706
6707 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
6708
6709 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
6710
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 `*'.
6714
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.
6725
6726 - Function: x-font-family-list
6727
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.
6732
6733 - Variable: font-list-limit
6734
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.
6738
6739 *** Setting face attributes.
6740
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
6744 `face-attribute'.
6745
6746 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
6747 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
6748
6749 The following attributes are recognized:
6750
6751 `:family'
6752
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.
6756
6757 `:width'
6758
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'.
6763
6764 `:height'
6765
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.
6770
6771 `:weight'
6772
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'.
6776
6777 `:slant'
6778
6779 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
6780 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
6781 `reverse-oblique'.
6782
6783 `:foreground', `:background'
6784
6785 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
6786
6787 `:underline'
6788
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
6792 don't underline.
6793
6794 `:overline'
6795
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
6799 overline.
6800
6801 `:strike-through'
6802
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.
6807
6808 `:box'
6809
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
6826 box.
6827
6828 `:inverse-video'
6829
6830 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
6831 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
6832
6833 `:stipple'
6834
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.
6841
6842 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
6843 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
6844
6845 `:font'
6846
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
6850 versions of Emacs.
6851
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."
6855
6856 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
6857 `defface'.
6858
6859 `:inherit'
6860
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.
6864
6865 *** Face attributes and X resources
6866
6867 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
6868 from X resources:
6869
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
6891
6892 *** Text property `face'.
6893
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
6897
6898 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
6899
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.
6904
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.
6908
6909 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
6910
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.
6917
6918 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
6919
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.
6930
6931 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
6932 any frame type.
6933
6934 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
6935
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'.
6945
6946 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
6947 display can display image files.
6948
6949 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
6950
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.
6955
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)'.
6959
6960 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
6961
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).
6965
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
6973 functions.
6974
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.
6978
6979 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
6980
6981 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
6982
6983 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
6984
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.
6988
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'.
6998
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.
7004
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.
7007
7008 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
7009
7010 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
7011
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.
7015
7016 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7017
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.
7023
7024 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7025
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.
7031
7032 - Function: field-string &optional POS
7033
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.
7037
7038 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
7039
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.
7043
7044 ** Image support.
7045
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.
7050
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
7055 area.
7056
7057 IMAGE is an image specification.
7058
7059 *** Image specifications
7060
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.
7066
7067 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
7068
7069 `:ascent ASCENT'
7070
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.
7074
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.
7077
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.
7082
7083 `:margin MARGIN'
7084
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.
7088
7089 `:relief RELIEF'
7090
7091 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
7092 around an image.
7093
7094 `:conversion ALGO'
7095
7096 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
7097
7098 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
7099 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
7100
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
7109 below.
7110
7111 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
7112 x-1/y x/y x+1/y
7113 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
7114
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.
7119
7120 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
7121
7122 (1 0 0
7123 0 0 0
7124 9 9 -1)
7125
7126 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
7127
7128 ( 2 -1 0
7129 -1 0 1
7130 0 1 -2)
7131
7132 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
7133 ``disabled''.
7134
7135 `:mask MASK'
7136
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
7144 image.
7145
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
7148 `:mask nil'.
7149
7150 `:file FILE'
7151
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.
7156
7157 `:data DATA'
7158
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.
7163
7164 *** Supported image types
7165
7166 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
7167
7168 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
7169 properties supported are:
7170
7171 `:foreground FG'
7172
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.
7175
7176 `:background BG'
7177
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.
7180
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.
7184
7185 `:width WIDTH'
7186
7187 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
7188
7189 `:height HEIGHT'
7190
7191 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
7192
7193 `:data DATA'
7194
7195 DATA must be either
7196
7197 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
7198 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
7199
7200 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
7201
7202 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
7203 bitmap.
7204
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
7207 in the file.
7208
7209 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
7210
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'.
7215
7216 Additional image properties supported are:
7217
7218 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
7219
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
7222 name.
7223
7224 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
7225 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
7226
7227 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
7228 to display compressed images.
7229
7230 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
7231
7232 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
7233 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
7234 mono images are:
7235
7236 `:foreground FG'
7237
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.
7240
7241 `:background FG'
7242
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.
7245
7246 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
7247
7248 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
7249 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7250 properties defined.
7251
7252 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
7253
7254 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
7255 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7256 properties defined.
7257
7258 **** GIF, image type `gif'
7259
7260 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
7261 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
7262
7263 Additional image properties supported are:
7264
7265 `:index INDEX'
7266
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
7269 as a hollow box.
7270
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
7274 every 0.1 seconds.
7275
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))
7279
7280 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
7281 (when (= idx max)
7282 (setq idx 0))
7283 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
7284 (save-excursion
7285 (set-buffer buffer)
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)))
7290
7291 **** PNG, image type `png'
7292
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
7295 properties defined.
7296
7297 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
7298
7299 Additional image properties supported are:
7300
7301 `:pt-width WIDTH'
7302
7303 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
7304 integer. This is a required property.
7305
7306 `:pt-height HEIGHT'
7307
7308 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
7309 must be a integer. This is an required property.
7310
7311 `:bounding-box BOX'
7312
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.
7316
7317 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
7318 lisp/gs.el.
7319
7320 *** Lisp interface.
7321
7322 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
7323 which are supported in the current configuration.
7324
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.
7330
7331 *** Simplified image API, image.el
7332
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
7338 buffer.
7339
7340 ** Display margins.
7341
7342 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
7343 and images.
7344
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.
7352
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
7357 in this file).
7358
7359 ** Help display
7360
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.
7365
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.
7369
7370 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
7371 `help-echo' text property was found.
7372
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.
7375
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
7378 mouse.
7379
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.
7382
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.
7388
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.
7392
7393 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
7394
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.
7397
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
7402 used.
7403
7404 (global-set-key [A-down]
7405 #'(lambda ()
7406 (interactive)
7407 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
7408 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
7409 (global-set-key [A-up]
7410 #'(lambda ()
7411 (interactive)
7412 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
7413 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
7414
7415 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
7416
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.
7421
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.
7427
7428 ** Tool bar support.
7429
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.
7436
7437 *** Tool bar item definitions
7438
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...)'.
7442
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).
7447
7448 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
7449 binding are currently ignored.
7450
7451 The following properties are recognized:
7452
7453 `:enable FORM'.
7454
7455 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
7456 or disabled.
7457
7458 `:visible FORM'
7459
7460 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
7461
7462 `:filter FUNCTION'
7463
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.
7467
7468 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
7469
7470 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
7471 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
7472
7473 `:image IMAGES'
7474
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:
7478
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
7485
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.
7488
7489 `:help HELP-STRING'.
7490
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.
7493
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
7497 menu bar.
7498
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.
7502
7503 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
7504
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.
7508
7509 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
7510 raised when the mouse moves over them.
7511
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.
7516
7517 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
7518 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
7519
7520 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
7521
7522 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
7523 a tool bar item. If
7524
7525 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
7526 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
7527 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
7528
7529 is the original tool bar item definition, then
7530
7531 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
7532
7533 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
7534 item.
7535
7536 ** Mode line changes.
7537
7538 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
7539
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.
7543
7544 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
7545 a `local-map' text property.
7546
7547 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
7548 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
7549
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.
7553
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
7556 example.
7557
7558 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
7559 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
7560
7561 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
7562 variable mode-line-format to nil.
7563
7564 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
7565
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
7570 line.
7571
7572 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
7573 `header-line'.
7574
7575 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
7576 position in the header-line.
7577
7578 ** Text property `display'
7579
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.
7585
7586 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
7587
7588 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
7589 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
7590
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.
7596
7597 *** Variable width and height spaces
7598
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.
7606
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.
7610
7611 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
7612 characters having the `display' property.
7613
7614 - :width WIDTH
7615
7616 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
7617 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
7618
7619 - :relative-width FACTOR
7620
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.
7625
7626 - :align-to HPOS
7627
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.
7630
7631 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
7632
7633 - :height HEIGHT
7634
7635 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
7636 normal line height.
7637
7638 - :relative-height FACTOR
7639
7640 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
7641 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
7642
7643 - :ascent ASCENT
7644
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
7648 equal to 100.
7649
7650 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
7651
7652 *** Images
7653
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.
7663
7664 *** Other display properties
7665
7666 - (space-width FACTOR)
7667
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
7670 integer or float.
7671
7672 - (height HEIGHT)
7673
7674 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
7675
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.
7681
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.
7684
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.
7687
7688 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
7689 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
7690
7691 - (raise FACTOR)
7692
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.
7698
7699 *** Conditional display properties
7700
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.
7709
7710 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
7711 `(when t . SPEC)'.
7712
7713 ** New menu separator types.
7714
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.
7719
7720 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
7721
7722 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
7723 separator occurs.
7724
7725 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
7726
7727 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
7728
7729 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
7730
7731 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
7732
7733 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
7734
7735 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
7736
7737 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
7738
7739 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
7740
7741 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
7742
7743 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
7744 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
7745
7746 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
7747
7748 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
7749
7750 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
7751
7752 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
7753
7754 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
7755
7756 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
7757
7758 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
7759
7760 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
7761
7762 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
7763
7764 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
7765
7766 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
7767
7768 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
7769
7770 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
7771
7772 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
7773
7774 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
7775 the corresponding single-line separators.
7776
7777 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
7778
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.
7786
7787 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
7788 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
7789 `ScrollBarBackground').
7790
7791 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
7792 settings for scroll bar colors.
7793
7794 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
7795 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
7796
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.
7802
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.
7806
7807 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
7808
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.
7813
7814 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
7815 fixed-width and fixed-height.
7816
7817 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
7818
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
7824
7825 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
7826 (enlarge-window 10))
7827
7828 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
7829 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
7830
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).
7837
7838
7839 \f
7840 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
7841
7842 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
7843 input.
7844
7845 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
7846
7847 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
7848
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.
7854
7855 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
7856 been added.
7857
7858 \f
7859 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
7860
7861 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
7862
7863
7864 \f
7865 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
7866
7867 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
7868 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
7869 \f
7870 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
7871
7872 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
7873
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.
7877
7878 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
7879 is the one that is used.
7880
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
7888 the buffer name.
7889
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.
7894
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.
7899
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.
7904
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.
7909
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.
7917
7918 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
7919 the same format that was used in the file before.
7920
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.
7923
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.
7927
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).
7935
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.
7940
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.
7945
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.
7949
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.
7953
7954 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
7955 not one per buffer.
7956
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)
7960
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.
7964
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.
7970
7971 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
7972 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
7973
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.
7977
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.
7982
7983 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
7984
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.
7990
7991 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
7992 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
7993
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.
7998
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
8001 Unix.
8002
8003 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
8004 current codepage when it starts.
8005
8006 ** Mail changes
8007
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
8014 latin-1:
8015
8016 MIME-version: 1.0
8017 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
8018 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
8019
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.
8025
8026 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
8027 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
8028 mail.
8029
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.
8034
8035 ** CC Mode changes
8036
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.
8041
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.
8047
8048 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
8049 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
8050
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.
8053
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
8058 anonymous classes.
8059
8060 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
8061 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
8062
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.
8067
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).
8073
8074 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
8075
8076 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
8077
8078 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
8079 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
8080
8081 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
8082
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).
8088
8089 ** Gnus changes.
8090
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.
8094
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.
8098
8099 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
8100 values.
8101
8102 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
8103
8104 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
8105 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
8106
8107 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
8108 `C-u C-c C-c'.
8109
8110 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
8111
8112 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
8113 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
8114
8115 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
8116
8117 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
8118 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
8119
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.
8122
8123 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
8124 control over simplification.
8125
8126 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
8127
8128 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
8129 limit.
8130
8131 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
8132
8133 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
8134
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.
8138
8139 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
8140 `a' forces normal posting method.
8141
8142 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
8143 -- `W d'.
8144
8145 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
8146 to a non-nil value.
8147
8148 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
8149 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
8150
8151 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
8152 has been added.
8153
8154 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
8155
8156 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
8157
8158 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
8159 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
8160
8161 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
8162 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
8163
8164 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
8165
8166 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
8167 been added.
8168
8169 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
8170 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
8171
8172 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
8173 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
8174
8175 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
8176
8177 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
8178
8179 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
8180
8181 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
8182
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 "".
8186
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.
8192
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.
8197
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
8201 mismatch.
8202
8203 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
8204
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.
8207
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.
8212
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'.
8215
8216 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
8217 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
8218
8219 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
8220 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
8221 expressions.
8222
8223 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
8224
8225 ** New/deleted modes and packages
8226
8227 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
8228 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
8229
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'.
8233
8234 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
8235 changes with a special face.
8236
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.
8240 \f
8241 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
8242
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.
8248
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.
8252
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.)
8262
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
8268 program.
8269
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.
8276
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.
8281
8282 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
8283 This includes Tetris and Snake.
8284 \f
8285 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
8286
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.
8291
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.
8295
8296 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
8297
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.
8300
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
8303 integers.
8304
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.
8309
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
8314 returns the result.
8315
8316 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
8317 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
8318
8319 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
8320
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
8324 optionally.
8325
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.
8328
8329 **
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.
8333
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.
8338
8339 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
8340 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
8341
8342 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
8343 :included is an alias for :visible.
8344
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.
8348
8349 ** Multibyte editing changes
8350
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.
8359
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))
8363
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:
8367
8368 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
8369
8370 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
8371 across the boundary.
8372
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.
8379
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
8384 way.
8385
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.
8390
8391 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
8392 compose Thai characters in a string.
8393
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.
8398
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.
8403
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.
8408
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
8412 echo area contents.
8413
8414 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
8415
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.
8419
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.
8423
8424 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
8425 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
8426
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.
8431
8432 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
8433 the gap of the current buffer.
8434
8435 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
8436 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
8437 current buffer.
8438
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.
8443 \f
8444 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
8445
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.
8451
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.
8457
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.
8461
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
8467 results.
8468
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.
8473 \f
8474 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
8475
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.
8480
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
8488 region.
8489
8490 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
8491 selective undo.
8492
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.
8498
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.
8503
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.
8508
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
8512 applications.
8513
8514 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
8515 pasting operations.
8516
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
8521 `ps-printer-name'.
8522
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
8528 hits a new word.
8529
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.
8533
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.
8538
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.
8544
8545 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
8546 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
8547
8548 ** Changes in input method usage.
8549
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
8552 respectively.
8553
8554 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
8555
8556 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
8557 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
8558
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'.
8561
8562 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
8563
8564 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
8565
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.
8568
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.
8573
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.
8578
8579 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
8580
8581 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
8582 keys:
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
8587 environment.
8588
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
8592 get
8593
8594 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
8595
8596 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
8597
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.
8600
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.
8604
8605 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
8606 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
8607
8608 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
8609 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
8610
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.
8615
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.
8620
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
8626 info.
8627
8628 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
8629
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
8632 contents only.
8633
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.
8638
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.
8642
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.
8647
8648 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
8649 failure if the command produces no output.
8650
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
8653 the mouse.
8654
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.
8658
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.
8662
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.
8668
8669 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
8670
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.
8674
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.
8679
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.
8682
8683 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
8684 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
8685
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
8688 command keys.
8689
8690 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
8691 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
8692
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.
8696
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.
8702
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
8705 of your input.
8706
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.
8713
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.
8717
8718 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
8719 Customize menu.
8720
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.
8723
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
8726 invoked.
8727
8728 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
8729 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
8730 The default is 1.
8731
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
8736 sensibly.
8737
8738 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
8739
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.
8743
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
8747 every night.
8748
8749 ** Desktop changes
8750
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.
8753
8754 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
8755 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
8756
8757 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
8758 read and post multi-lingual articles.
8759
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.
8766
8767 ** Mail reading and sending changes
8768
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
8772 toggle.
8773
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.
8779
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.
8783
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.
8787
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.
8794
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:
8798
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
8802
8803 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
8804 be prompted for confirmation
8805
8806 **** does smart filling of address headers
8807
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
8811
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)
8816
8817 ** Dired changes
8818
8819 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
8820 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
8821
8822 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
8823 run Dired on the directory name at point.
8824
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.
8828
8829 ** VC Changes
8830
8831 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
8832 conveniently.
8833
8834 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
8835 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
8836 Dired.
8837
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).
8842
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.
8848
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.
8854
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.
8859
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.
8863
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.
8867
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
8871 uses as well).
8872
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,
8879 using ediff.
8880
8881 ** Changes in Font Lock
8882
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.
8888
8889 ** Frame name display changes
8890
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.
8895
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
8898 menu.
8899
8900 ** Comint (subshell) changes
8901
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.
8905
8906 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
8907
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.
8911
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
8914 the following line.
8915
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.
8919
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.
8923
8924 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
8925 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
8926
8927 ** C mode changes
8928
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
8932 definition.
8933
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.
8938
8939 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
8940
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.
8944
8945 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
8946 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
8947
8948 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
8949 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
8950
8951 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
8952 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
8953
8954 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
8955 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
8956
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.
8961
8962 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
8963
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'.
8967
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.
8971
8972 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
8973 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
8974
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'.
8979
8980 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
8981
8982 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8983
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.
8989
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.
8996
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.
9001
9002 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
9003
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.
9010
9011 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
9012 Editing group once the package is loaded.
9013
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.
9017
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.
9020
9021 ** Ispell changes.
9022
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.
9026
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
9031 include:
9032
9033 o URLs are automatically skipped
9034 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
9035
9036 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
9037
9038 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
9039
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.
9044
9045 *** New recursive parser.
9046
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.
9050
9051 *** Parsing only part of a document.
9052
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.
9056
9057 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
9058
9059 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
9060
9061 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
9062
9063 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
9064
9065 *** Using multiple selection buffers
9066
9067 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
9068 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
9069
9070 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
9071
9072 *** References to external documents.
9073
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.
9081
9082 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
9083
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.
9086
9087 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
9088 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
9089
9090 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
9091
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'.
9094
9095 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
9096
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
9103 more.
9104
9105 *** Support for the varioref package
9106
9107 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
9108
9109 *** New hooks
9110
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'.
9115
9116 *** Citations outside LaTeX
9117
9118 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
9119 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
9120
9121 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
9122
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
9125 fontified, use
9126
9127 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
9128
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.
9133
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
9141 directory.
9142
9143 ** New modes and packages
9144
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.
9148
9149 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
9150 code.
9151
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
9154 around in a buffer.
9155
9156 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
9157
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.
9162
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.
9166
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
9172 the like.
9173
9174 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
9175 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
9176
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.
9181
9182 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
9183
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
9195
9196 Platform-specific modes:
9197
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
9207 \f
9208 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
9209
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.
9214
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.
9218
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.
9223
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
9227 environment.
9228
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.
9233
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).
9240 \f
9241 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
9242
9243 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
9244 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
9245
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.
9249
9250 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
9251 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
9252
9253 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
9254
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,
9258
9259 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
9260 :type 'integer
9261 :group 'foo
9262 :version "20.3")
9263
9264 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
9265 :version "20.3")
9266
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.
9271
9272 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
9273
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.
9276
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
9280 to themselves.
9281
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
9284 values whatever.
9285
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*.
9289
9290 ** Frame-local variables.
9291
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.
9295
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
9299 parameter name.
9300
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.
9305
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.
9310
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.
9316
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.
9321
9322 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
9323 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
9324
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.
9328
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.
9333
9334 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
9335 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
9336 empty input.
9337
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.
9343
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.
9348
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.
9354
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.
9359
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.
9363
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.
9367
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.
9373
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.
9378
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).
9382
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.
9386
9387 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
9388 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
9389
9390 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
9391 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
9392
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.
9396
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.
9401
9402 ** Menu changes
9403
9404 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
9405 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
9406 better supported.
9407
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.
9413
9414 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
9415
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'.
9420
9421 The format is:
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
9427
9428 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
9429 item is enabled.
9430 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
9431 item should appear in the menu.
9432 :filter FILTER-FN
9433 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
9434 which will be REAL-BINDING.
9435 It should return a binding to use instead.
9436 :keys DESCRIPTION
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
9442 keyboard binding.
9443 :key-sequence nil
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.
9451
9452 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
9453 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
9454
9455 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
9456
9457 ** New event types
9458
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:
9463
9464 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
9465
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.
9472
9473 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
9474
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:
9480
9481 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
9482
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.
9486
9487 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
9488
9489 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
9490
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.
9494
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.
9498
9499 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
9500 in Emacs 19 and before.
9501
9502 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
9503 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
9504
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.
9509
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.
9515
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.
9520
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.
9525
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.
9529
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.
9533
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.
9537
9538 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
9539 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
9540
9541 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
9542 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
9543
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.
9548
9549 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
9550 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
9551
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.
9555
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.
9563
9564 *** Structure of coding system changed.
9565
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.
9573
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
9581 `iso-8859-1'.
9582
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)
9587
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.
9592
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.
9596
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.
9603
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
9607 was done.
9608
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.
9612
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.
9617
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
9621 converted.
9622
9623 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
9624 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
9625
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.
9632
9633 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
9634 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
9635
9636 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
9637 in the current buffer at position POS.
9638
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.
9645
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.
9651
9652 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
9653 subsequent events of a key sequence.
9654
9655 *** You can customize any language environment by using
9656 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
9657
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.
9663 \f
9664 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
9665
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
9669 tree structure.
9670
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.
9673
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.)
9677
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.
9680
9681 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
9682 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
9683
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
9686 kills the region.
9687
9688 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
9689 delete the character before point, as usual.
9690
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.)
9694
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
9700 past.)
9701
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.
9707
9708 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
9709 and is an alias for it.
9710
9711 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
9712 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
9713
9714 ** Scrolling changes
9715
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.
9718
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
9721 where it started.
9722
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.
9727
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.
9732
9733 ** International character set support (MULE)
9734
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")
9741
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.
9747
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.
9752
9753 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
9754 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
9755
9756 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
9757 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
9758
9759 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
9760
9761 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
9762
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.
9768
9769 *** Input methods
9770
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.
9776
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
9779 work.
9780
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
9786 letter.
9787
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".
9793
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.
9798
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.
9803
9804 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
9805 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
9806
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.
9811
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.
9816
9817 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
9818
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
9822 what you want.
9823
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.
9828
9829 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
9830 character conversion as well.
9831
9832 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
9833
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.
9837
9838 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
9839 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
9840
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.
9845
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.
9849
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
9852 characters).
9853
9854 *** Defining fontsets.
9855
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.
9859
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.
9864
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'.
9870
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.
9882
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.
9886
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
9889 following resource,
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.)
9899
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.
9903
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
9908 fontsets.
9909
9910 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
9911 defaults for a particular choice of language.
9912
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.
9919
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.
9923
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").
9927
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.
9933
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*.
9939
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.
9942
9943 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
9944 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
9945
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.
9948
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
9953 of the file.
9954
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.
9959
9960 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
9961 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
9962
9963 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
9964
9965 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
9966 the coding system for keyboard input.
9967
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.
9971
9972 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
9973
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.
9979
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.
9986
9987 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
9988
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.
9992
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
9996 want to use.
9997
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.
10000
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.
10005
10006 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
10007 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
10008 related information.
10009
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
10012 scripts.
10013
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.
10017
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
10020 first dash.
10021
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:
10026
10027 A alternativnyj (Russian)
10028 B big5 (Chinese)
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)
10036 R koi8 (Russian)
10037 Q tibetan
10038 S shift_jis (Japanese)
10039 T lao
10040 T tis620 (Thai)
10041 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
10042 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
10043 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
10044 v viqr (Vietnamese)
10045 z hz (Chinese)
10046
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.
10051
10052 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
10053 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
10054
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.
10059
10060 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
10061 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
10062
10063 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
10064 for sending mail:
10065
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.
10071
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
10075 translations.
10076
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.
10081
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.
10086
10087 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
10088 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
10089
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.
10092
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.
10095
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.
10099
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
10102 you are using.
10103
10104 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
10105 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
10106
10107 ** File locking works with NFS now.
10108
10109 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
10110 in the same directory as FILENAME.
10111
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.
10115
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.
10122
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.
10127
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
10130 show-paren-mode.
10131
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.
10135
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.
10139
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.
10143
10144 ** Changes in View mode.
10145
10146 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
10147 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
10148
10149 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
10150 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
10151
10152 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
10153 previous state.
10154
10155 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
10156 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
10157
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.
10161
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.
10165
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.
10169
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.
10172
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.
10177
10178 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
10179 blocks if a match is inside the block.
10180
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.
10185
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.
10189
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.
10193
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.
10201
10202 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
10203
10204 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
10205 these commands do not change the major mode.
10206
10207 ** M-x occur changes.
10208
10209 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
10210 it performs a case-sensitive search.
10211
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.
10215
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.
10221
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.
10226
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.
10230
10231 ** Outline mode changes.
10232
10233 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
10234
10235 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
10236
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.
10241
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.
10245
10246 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
10247 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
10248
10249 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
10250
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.
10255
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.
10259
10260 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
10261 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
10262 values.
10263
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).
10268
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.
10272
10273 ** Changes in Mail mode.
10274
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
10280 behavior.
10281
10282 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
10283 compose-mail-other-frame.
10284
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.
10289
10290 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
10291 with separator lines around the contents.
10292
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.
10297
10298 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
10299
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.
10304
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
10307 /etc/passwd.
10308
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:
10311 /etc/passwd.
10312
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:'.
10317
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.
10321
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.
10325
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.)
10328
10329 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
10330 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
10331
10332 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
10333
10334 new key dired.el binding old key
10335 ------- ---------------- -------
10336 * c dired-change-marks c
10337 * m dired-mark m
10338 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
10339 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
10340 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
10341 * u dired-unmark u
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-{
10348
10349 ** Rmail changes.
10350
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.
10355
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.
10358
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.
10362
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.
10365
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
10370 for output.
10371
10372 ** Gnus changes.
10373
10374 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
10375
10376 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
10377 Gnus.
10378
10379 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
10380 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
10381
10382 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
10383 article mode line.
10384
10385 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
10386
10387 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
10388
10389 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
10390
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'.
10394
10395 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
10396
10397 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
10398
10399 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
10400 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
10401
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.
10405
10406 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
10407 another have been added.
10408
10409 `M-x gnus-change-server'
10410
10411 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
10412 generating lines in buffers.
10413
10414 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
10415 `C-M-_'.
10416
10417 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
10418
10419 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
10420
10421 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
10422
10423 *** Scores can be decayed.
10424
10425 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
10426
10427 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
10428 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
10429
10430 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
10431 the native server.
10432
10433 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
10434
10435 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
10436 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
10437
10438 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
10439
10440 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
10441 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
10442
10443 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
10444 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
10445
10446 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
10447 a group.
10448
10449 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
10450 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
10451
10452 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
10453
10454 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
10455
10456 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
10457
10458 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
10459
10460 Use the `Y c' command.
10461
10462 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
10463
10464 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
10465
10466 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
10467
10468 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
10469 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
10470
10471 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
10472
10473 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
10474
10475 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
10476 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
10477
10478 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
10479
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
10484 this issue.)
10485
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:
10489
10490 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
10491
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).
10497
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
10502 there.
10503
10504 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
10505 default. Here are some of these default settings:
10506
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))
10512
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.
10515
10516 ** CC mode changes.
10517
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
10523 loaded.
10524
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.
10531
10532 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
10533 of the current buffer.
10534
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.
10538
10539 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
10540 style that the Python developers like.
10541
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.
10545
10546 ** VC Changes [new]
10547
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).
10551
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
10554 developers.
10555
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.
10558
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.
10563
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.
10566
10567 ** Calendar changes.
10568
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.
10573
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.
10580
10581 ** ps-print changes
10582
10583 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
10584 layout.
10585
10586 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
10587
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.
10592
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).
10596
10597 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
10598 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
10599
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.
10603
10604 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
10605 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
10606
10607 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
10608 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
10609
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.
10617
10618 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
10619 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
10620
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").
10628
10629 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
10630 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
10631
10632 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
10633 The default is 0 ("black").
10634
10635 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
10636 The default is 0 ("black").
10637
10638 border-width Specify the border width.
10639 The default is 0.4.
10640
10641 Any other property is ignored.
10642
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
10645 documentation).
10646
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.
10653
10654 *** Color management (subgroup)
10655
10656 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
10657 color.
10658
10659 *** Face Management (subgroup)
10660
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:
10664
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.
10668
10669 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
10670
10671 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
10672 sheet of paper.
10673
10674 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
10675 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
10676
10677 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
10678 each page.
10679
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:
10683
10684 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
10685 5 6 7 8 5 6 7 8
10686 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4
10687
10688 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
10689 8 7 6 5 8 7 6 5
10690 12 11 10 9 4 3 2 1
10691
10692 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
10693 2 5 8 11 2 5 8 11
10694 3 6 9 12 1 4 7 10
10695
10696 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
10697 11 8 5 2 11 8 5 2
10698 12 9 6 3 10 7 4 1
10699
10700 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
10701
10702 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
10703
10704 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
10705 RGB color.
10706
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):
10710
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 +
10716 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 +
10717 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 +
10718 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 +
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 +
10722 10 + 10 +
10723 11 + 11 +
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 +
10735 21 + 21 XXXXXXXX +
10736 22 + 22 +
10737 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
10738
10739 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
10740
10741
10742 *** Printer management (subgroup)
10743
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
10748 to "-P".
10749
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.
10753
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
10756 do so.
10757
10758 *** Page settings (subgroup)
10759
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
10766 `setpagedevice'.
10767
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).
10771
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.
10778
10779 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
10780 pages. Valid values are:
10781
10782 nil print all pages.
10783
10784 `even-page' print only even pages.
10785
10786 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
10787
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.
10792
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.
10797
10798 Any other value is treated as nil.
10799
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:
10803
10804 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
10805
10806 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
10807 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
10808
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
10816
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
10824
10825 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
10826
10827 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
10828 messages should be sent.
10829
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'.
10833
10834 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
10835
10836 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
10837 points for line numbers.
10838
10839 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
10840 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
10841
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:
10845
10846 1 one line
10847 one line
10848 3 one line
10849 one line
10850 5 one line
10851 one line
10852 ...
10853
10854 Valid values are:
10855
10856 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
10857 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
10858 is used.
10859
10860 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
10861 zebra stripe is to be printed.
10862
10863 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
10864
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:
10869
10870 one line
10871 one line
10872 3 one line
10873 one line
10874 one line
10875 6 one line
10876 one line
10877 one line
10878 9 one line
10879 one line
10880 ...
10881
10882 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
10883 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
10884
10885 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
10886 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
10887 `ps-font-size').
10888
10889 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
10890 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
10891 `ps-font-size').
10892
10893 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
10894
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.
10897
10898 ** hideshow changes.
10899
10900 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
10901 C++, ; for lisp).
10902
10903 *** Support for java-mode added.
10904
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.
10907
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'.
10911
10912 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
10913 robust and a lot faster.
10914
10915 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
10916
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.
10920
10921 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
10922
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.
10928
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.
10933
10934 ** Font Lock mode
10935
10936 *** Custom support
10937
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.
10944
10945 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
10946
10947 *** Maximum decoration
10948
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.
10954
10955 *** New support
10956
10957 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
10958
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.
10961
10962 *** Configurable support
10963
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.
10971
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.
10975
10976 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
10977
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,
10980 for any mode.
10981
10982 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
10983
10984 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
10985
10986 in your ~/.emacs.
10987
10988 *** New faces
10989
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.
10994
10995 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
10996
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.
11000
11001 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
11002
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.
11010
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.
11017
11018 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
11019
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'.
11024
11025 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
11026 settings.
11027
11028 ** Ada mode changes.
11029
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
11034 stubs.
11035
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.
11039
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.
11043
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.
11047
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.
11052
11053 ** Scheme mode changes.
11054
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
11059 have any effect.
11060
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.
11065
11066 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
11067 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
11068
11069 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
11070
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.
11075
11076 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
11077 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
11078 buffer in Emacs.
11079
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.
11084
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).
11088
11089 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
11090 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
11091 the current defun.
11092
11093 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
11094 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
11095
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
11098 necessary).
11099
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.
11106
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.
11111
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.
11117
11118 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
11119 since it applies only to the current frame.
11120
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.)
11124
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.
11130
11131 ** RefTeX mode
11132
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:
11138
11139 C-c ( reftex-label
11140 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
11141 knows which kind of label is needed.
11142
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}.
11146
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.
11150
11151 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
11152 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
11153
11154 C-c = reftex-toc
11155 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
11156 can quickly jump to every section.
11157
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
11163
11164 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
11165
11166 *** Info documentation is now available.
11167
11168 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
11169 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
11170
11171 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
11172 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
11173
11174 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
11175 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
11176
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.
11180
11181 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
11182 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
11183
11184 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
11185 been cleaned.
11186
11187 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
11188 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
11189
11190 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
11191 shall be delimited.
11192
11193 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
11194 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
11195 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
11196
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'.
11200
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
11204 documentation).
11205
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.
11209
11210 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
11211 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
11212
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).
11216
11217 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
11218
11219 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
11220
11221 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
11222 from alien sources.
11223
11224 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
11225 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
11226 crossref entries.
11227
11228 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
11229 region.
11230
11231 *** Added support for imenu.
11232
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.
11237
11238 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
11239 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
11240
11241 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
11242
11243 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
11244
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
11248 as an argument.
11249
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).
11252
11253 ** browse-url changes
11254
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.
11260
11261 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
11262
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'.
11266
11267 ** Changes in Ediff
11268
11269 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
11270 pops up the Info file for this command.
11271
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
11275 directories).
11276
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.
11280
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.)
11284
11285 ** Changes in Viper
11286
11287 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
11288 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
11289 instead of vip-.
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.
11300
11301 ** Etags changes.
11302
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.
11308
11309 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
11310
11311 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
11312 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
11313
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.
11317
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.
11322
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
11326 paragraph name.
11327
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.
11331
11332 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
11333 in files has changed slightly.
11334
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.
11339
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
11343 reasons.
11344
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".
11351
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.
11355
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.
11360
11361 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
11362 details.
11363
11364 ** There are some additional major modes:
11365
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.
11369
11370 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
11371 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
11372 into Emacs.
11373
11374 ** New Lisp packages include:
11375
11376 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
11377
11378 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
11379 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
11380
11381 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
11382
11383 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
11384 in shell buffers.
11385
11386 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
11387 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
11388 and `elint-defun'.
11389
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.
11394
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
11399 at these points.
11400
11401 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
11402 can visit them by short forms of their names.
11403
11404 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
11405 Emacs Lisp function at point.
11406
11407 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
11408
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.
11411
11412 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
11413
11414 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
11415
11416 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
11417
11418 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
11419 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
11420
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.
11425
11426 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
11427 on the buffer.
11428
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.
11432
11433 Enable mouse-drag with:
11434 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
11435 -or-
11436 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
11437
11438 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
11439 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
11440
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.
11443
11444 *** ogonek
11445
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.
11453
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'.
11461
11462 *** Interface to ph.
11463
11464 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
11465
11466 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
11467 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
11468 these servers.
11469
11470 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
11471
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.
11475
11476 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
11477 for visiting your favorite web sites.
11478
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.
11481
11482 ** movemail change
11483
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.
11488
11489 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
11490 \f
11491 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
11492
11493 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
11494
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.
11500
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.
11507 \f
11508 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
11509
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.
11514
11515 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
11516 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
11517
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
11520 "win".
11521
11522 ** Basic Lisp changes
11523
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.
11526
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
11529 or by the user.
11530
11531 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
11532
11533 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
11534
11535 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
11536 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
11537
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
11540 its argument.
11541
11542 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
11543
11544 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
11545
11546 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
11547
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
11551 `format' function.
11552
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.
11556
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.
11560
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.
11564
11565 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
11566 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
11567
11568 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
11569
11570 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
11571 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
11572
11573 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
11574 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
11575
11576 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
11577
11578 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
11579 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
11580
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'.
11585
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
11588 of the last form.
11589
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)
11593 as the last form.
11594
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
11597 matches.
11598
11599 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
11600
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.
11604
11605 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
11606
11607 (with-output-to-string
11608 (princ "The buffer is ")
11609 (princ (buffer-name)))
11610
11611 returns "The buffer is foo".
11612
11613 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
11614 is non-nil.
11615
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.
11619
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).
11622
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))).
11629
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
11633 characters".
11634
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.
11640
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.
11645
11646 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
11647 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
11648
11649 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
11650
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,
11655 guaranteed.
11656
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
11659 character).
11660
11661 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
11662
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.
11668
11669 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
11670
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.
11674
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.
11681
11682 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
11683 and returns a string containing those characters.
11684
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.
11689
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).
11693
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).
11697
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.
11701
11702 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
11703 of a string. You call it as follows:
11704
11705 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
11706
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.
11712
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.
11715
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.
11718
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.)
11723
11724 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
11725
11726 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
11727
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.
11731
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.
11736
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.
11743
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.
11749
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.
11753
11754 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
11755
11756 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
11757
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.)
11760
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.
11764
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.
11768
11769 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
11770 of all the characters between BEG and END.
11771
11772 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
11773 of all the characters in a string.
11774
11775 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
11776 and specifying coding systems.
11777
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.)
11784
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.
11787
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.
11791
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.
11795
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.
11802
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.
11805
11806 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
11807 the coding system to use for network sockets.
11808
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
11812 service names.
11813
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.
11820
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.
11823
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.
11828
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.
11834
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
11837 subprocess.
11838
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.
11843
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.
11850
11851 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
11852 files, subprocesses or network connections.
11853
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.
11861
11862 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
11863 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
11864
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.
11868
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
11873 customization.
11874
11875 Thus, instead of writing
11876
11877 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
11878 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
11879
11880 you would now write this:
11881
11882 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
11883 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
11884 :type 'boolean
11885 :group foo)
11886
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.
11891
11892 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
11893 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
11894
11895 (defgroup ispell nil
11896 "Spell checking using Ispell."
11897 :group 'processes)
11898
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.
11904
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.
11910
11911 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
11912
11913 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
11914 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
11915
11916 ** easy-mmode
11917
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'.
11924
11925 ** Text property changes
11926
11927 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
11928 text property.
11929
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.
11935
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.
11940
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.
11944
11945 ** Changes in invisibility features
11946
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.
11953
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.
11960
11961 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
11962
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:
11969
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)
11974
11975 ...
11976 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
11977
11978 ...
11979 ;; When done with the overlays:
11980 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
11981 ;; Or respectively:
11982 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
11983
11984 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
11985
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.
11990
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.
11994
11995 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
11996 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
11997
11998 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
11999 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
12000
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).
12004
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.
12009
12010 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
12011 of the current buffer.
12012
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.
12016
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).
12022
12023 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
12024 text property.
12025
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.
12029
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.
12035
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'.
12039
12040 ** Changes in face features
12041
12042 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
12043 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
12044
12045 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
12046 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
12047
12048 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
12049 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
12050
12051 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
12052 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
12053
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
12058 overlay property).
12059
12060 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
12061 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
12062
12063 ** Changes in file-handling functions
12064
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.
12069
12070 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
12071 begins with ~.
12072
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.
12075
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.
12078
12079 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
12080 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
12081
12082 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
12083 character code conversion as well as other things.
12084
12085 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
12086 (formerly it did not).
12087
12088 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
12089 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
12090
12091 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
12092 instead of constant strings.
12093
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.
12097
12098 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
12099 in the same way as before.
12100
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.
12104
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.
12108
12109 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
12110 directory cannot be listed.
12111
12112 ** Changes in minibuffer input
12113
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
12118 ways:
12119
12120 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
12121 It is available through the history command M-n.
12122
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.
12128
12129 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
12130 argument in this way.
12131
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.
12135
12136 ** Echo area features
12137
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.
12142
12143 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
12144 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
12145
12146 ** Keyboard input features
12147
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.
12150
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.
12154
12155 ** Frame-related changes
12156
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.
12160
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.
12164
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.
12169
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.
12173
12174 ** X Windows features
12175
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.
12179
12180 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
12181 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
12182
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.
12186
12187 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
12188 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
12189
12190 ** Subprocess features
12191
12192 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
12193 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
12194 automatically.
12195
12196 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
12197 and returns the output from the command as a string.
12198
12199 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
12200 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
12201
12202 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
12203 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
12204
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.
12208
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
12212 are in use.
12213
12214 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
12215 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
12216
12217 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
12218 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
12219 form.
12220
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.
12224
12225 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
12226 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
12227
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.
12231
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
12235 warned.
12236
12237 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
12238 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
12239
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.
12243
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.
12246
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.
12250
12251 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
12252 if there is an error in compilation.
12253
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.
12258
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.
12262
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.
12267
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.
12271
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.
12276
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.
12280
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
12286 files at all.
12287
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.
12292
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.
12297
12298 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
12299
12300 ** imenu.el changes.
12301
12302 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
12303 item from menu created by imenu.
12304
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.
12308 \f
12309 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
12310
12311 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
12312 Copyright information:
12313
12314 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
12315
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.
12320
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.
12325 \f
12326 Local variables:
12327 mode: outline
12328 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
12329 end:
12330
12331 arch-tag: 1aca9dfa-2ac4-4d14-bebf-0007cee12793