1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
19 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
20 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
21 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
22 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
25 * Changes in Emacs 23.2
28 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
31 ** New connection methods in Tramp.
32 On systems which support GVFS-Fuse, Tramp offers the new connection
33 methods "dav", "davs" and "obex".
35 ** VC and related modes
37 *** When a file is not found, VC will not try to check it out of RCS anymore.
40 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
42 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
43 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
44 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
47 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
48 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
50 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
51 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
53 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
54 where Emacs is running).
56 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
58 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
61 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
63 ** Changes to image support
65 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
68 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
70 *** Emacs now supports multi-page TIFF images.
72 ** New NeXTSTEP-based port
73 This provides support for GNUstep (via the GNUstep libraries) and Mac
74 OS X (via the Cocoa libraries).
76 Specify --with-ns to configure for this. By default, a self-contained
77 app will be built (containing all lisp). To install/share lisp with
78 other emacsen (e.g. X11 build) use --disable-ns-self-contained. See
79 nextstep/README and nextstep/INSTALL in the Emacs source directory.
81 ** Mac OS X is no longer supported via Carbon.
82 Use the NeXTSTEP port, described above.
84 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
87 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
88 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
90 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
92 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
94 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
96 ** The following platforms will be removed in a future Emacs version:
97 If you are still using Emacs on one of these platforms, please email
98 emacs-devel@gnu.org to inform the Emacs developers.
100 *** Old GNU/Linux systems based on libc version 5.
102 *** Old FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems based on the COFF
105 *** Solaris versions 2.6 and below.
107 *** Solaris on IBM RS6000 machines.
109 *** UNIX System V (the original SysV, not later platforms based on it).
111 *** Unixware on non-x86 machines.
113 *** Platforms not supporting shared libraries (i.e., requiring the
114 NO_SHARED_LIBS compilation flag).
116 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
117 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
118 you need control over which C compiler is used.
120 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
122 ** The manuals are now licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License v1.3,
123 or any later version.
125 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
126 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
127 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
129 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
131 ** Improved X Window System support
133 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
134 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
135 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
136 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
137 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
138 There may be problems if a display exits unexpectedly and Emacs is compiled
139 with Gtk+, see etc/PROBLEMS.
141 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
142 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
144 *** Emacs starts in the background, as a daemon, when given the
145 --daemon command line argument. It disconnects from the terminal and
146 starts the server. Clients can connect and create graphical or
147 terminal frames using emacsclient.
149 **** emacsclient starts emacs in daemon mode and connects to it when
150 --alternate-editor="" is used (or when the evironment variable
151 ALTERNATE_EDITOR is set to "") and emacsclient cannot connect to an
154 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
155 remote display. There are some bugs for Gtk+. See etc/PROBLEMS.
157 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
158 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
159 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
160 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
161 for details about XEmbed.
163 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
164 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
165 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
166 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, on Mac
167 OS X, or on Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
169 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
170 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
171 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
172 active frame and INACTIVE is the opacity of non-active frames.
174 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
175 opacity; the default is 20.
177 ** Internationalization changes
179 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
180 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
182 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
183 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs' (`emacs-internal' is an alias
184 for this). This encoding is backward-compatible with Unicode's UTF-8
185 encoding. The internal encoding previously used by Emacs,
186 `emacs-mule', is still available for reading and writing files.
188 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
189 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
190 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
191 or 22 are loaded correctly as `emacs-mule' (whether or not they
192 contain multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it
193 may be worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be
194 shared with older Emacsen.
196 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
198 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
199 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
200 as tables of unicodes.
202 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
203 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
204 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
206 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
207 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
209 *** `ucs-insert' is bound to `C-x 8 RET' and in addition to hex numbers
210 accepts numbers in hash notation (e.g. #o21430 for octal, or #10r8984 for
211 decimal). It also accepts Unicode character names with completion.
213 *** The `cyrillic-translit' input method supports many new characters.
214 Common typographical characters available from Unicode were added to
215 `cyrillic-translit': punctuation marks, accented characters, fractions,
218 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
219 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
220 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
221 the mode-line mouse menu.
225 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
226 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
227 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
228 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
229 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
231 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
232 "Save Options" item is used.
234 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
235 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
236 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
238 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
239 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
240 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
241 the new word wrapping behavior (see Editing Changes, below).
243 *** Improvements to menus for major and minor modes
244 More major and minor modes now have a mode specific menu, and existing
245 mode menus have been improved to include more functionality.
249 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
250 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
252 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
253 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
255 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
256 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
258 *** The mode-line tooltips have been improved to provide more details.
260 *** The VC, line/colum number and minor mode indicators on the mode
261 line are now interactive: mouse-1 can be used on them to pop up a menu.
263 ** File deletion can make use of the Recycle Bin or system Trash folder.
264 Set `delete-by-moving-to-trash' non-nil to use this. Deleted files
265 and directories will then be sent to the Recycle Bin on Windows, and
266 to `trash-directory' on other systems.
268 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
269 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-locals.el for directory-local
270 variables. For more information, see `dir-locals-set-directory-class'
271 and `dir-locals-set-class-variables'.
273 ** Emacs can now use `auth-source' for authentication.
274 `smtpmail' and `url' (Tramp and Gnus also) use `auth-source' to obtain
275 login names and passwords. The match, if found, is reported
276 in *Messages* with the password blanked out.
278 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
281 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
283 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
284 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
285 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
286 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
287 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
289 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
290 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
293 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
294 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
295 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
298 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
300 ** Emacs now supports invocation by an X session manager.
301 It can save a session and restore it later. See the documentation of
302 the functions `emacs-session-save' and `emacs-session-restore'.
303 (Actually, this feature was introduced with Emacs 22, but it was not
306 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
308 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
309 on the regexp command prefix map.
311 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
312 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
315 ** In Isearch mode, a special case of typing `C-w' at the beginning of
316 the minibuffer that toggles word search (i.e. using key sequences
317 `C-s RET C-w' or `C-s M-e C-w') is obsolete. You can use the global key
318 `M-s w' to start word search, or type `M-s w' in Isearch mode to
319 toggle word search. To start nonincremental word search you can now use
320 `M-s w RET' and `M-s w C-r RET' instead of `C-s RET C-w' and `C-r RET C-w'.
322 ** In Info, `Info-search' is unbound from `M-s' to allow using `M-s w'
323 for word search as well as other search commands from the global prefix
324 key `M-s'. `Info-search' is still bound to `s', and also incremental
325 search commands `C-s', `C-M-s', `C-r', `C-M-r' are available for searching
326 through multiple Info nodes, together with their nonincremental versions
327 `C-s RET', `C-r RET', `C-M-s RET', `C-M-r RET', `M-s w RET'.
329 ** In Text mode, `center-line' and `center-paragraph' are rebound from
330 `M-s' and `M-S' to global keys `M-o M-s' and `M-o M-S' on the global
331 prefix map `M-o', which is intended for such formatting commands.
333 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
334 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
335 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
336 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
337 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
341 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
343 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
344 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
345 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
346 behavior (i.e., motion by logical lines based on buffer contents
349 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
350 invokes `suspend-frame'. These changes are for compatibility with the
351 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
355 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
357 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
359 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
362 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
363 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
365 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
366 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
369 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
372 *** The variable `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty
373 active region in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on
376 ** Temporarily active regions
378 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
379 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
380 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
381 region, similar to mouse-selection.
383 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
384 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
385 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
386 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
387 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
390 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
392 *** Emacs may ask for confirmation before opening a non-existent file
393 or buffer. By default, Emacs requests confirmation if you type RET
394 immediately after TAB, and the resulting input is not an existing file
395 or buffer; this usually happens when the minibuffer input did not
396 complete far enough and you entered RET by mistake. In that case,
397 Emacs puts the message "[Confirm]" in the minibuffer; type RET again
398 to create the file or buffer.
400 The new variable confirm-nonexistent-file-or-buffer determines whether
401 Emacs asks for confirmation. The default value is `after-completion'.
402 If you change it to t, Emacs always asks for confirmation; if you
403 change it to nil, Emacs never asks for confirmation.
405 *** The rules for performing completion have been changed.
406 When generating completion alternatives, Emacs now takes the
407 minibuffer text after point, if any, into account: this text is
408 treated as a substring of the remaining part of the completion
409 alternative (i.e., the part not matched by the minibuffer text before
410 point). If no completion alternatives are found this way, Emacs
411 attempts to perform partial-completion. If still no completion
412 alternatives are found, we fall back on the Emacs 22 rules for
413 performing completion.
415 The new variable `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your
416 favorite completion style.
418 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
419 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
420 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
421 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
422 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
423 searching minibuffer completion items.
425 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
427 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
428 name of the current buffer.
430 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
431 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
432 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
433 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
434 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
436 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
437 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
438 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last Isearch
439 regexp, the last Isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
441 *** When enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil, operations which use
442 switch-to-buffer (such as C-x b and C-x C-f) do not fail any more when
443 used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they fallback on
444 using pop-to-buffer, which will use some other window. This change
445 has no effect when enable-recursive-minibuffers is nil (the default).
447 *** Isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
448 Reverse Isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
449 history elements, and forward Isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
450 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
451 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
452 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
453 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
455 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
456 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
458 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
459 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
461 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
462 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
464 *** If `completion-auto-help' is `lazy', Emacs shows the completions
465 buffer only on the second attempt to complete. This was already
466 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
470 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
471 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
472 via face remapping (see Lisp changes, below).
474 *** New commands to change the default face size in the current buffer.
475 To increase it, type `C-x C-+' or `C-x C-='. To decrease it, type
476 `C-x C--'. To restore the default (global) face size, type `C-x C-0'.
477 These work via Text Scale mode, a new minor mode.
479 The final key in the above commands may be repeated without the
480 leading `C-x', e.g. `C-x C-= C-= C-=' increases the face height by
481 three steps. Each step scales the height of the default face by the
482 value of the variable `text-scale-mode-step'.
484 *** The commands buffer-face-mode and buffer-face-set can be used to
485 remap the default face in the current buffer. See "Buffer Face mode",
486 under New Modes and Packages.
488 ** Primary selection changes
490 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
491 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
492 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to
493 bind `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
495 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
496 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
498 ** Continuation lines can now be wrapped at word boundaries
499 (word-wrapping). This is controlled by the new per-buffer variable
500 `word-wrap'. Word wrapping does not take place if continuation lines
501 are not shown, e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil. The most convenient
502 way to enable word-wrapping is using the new minor mode Visual Line
503 mode; in addition to setting `word-wrap' to t, this rebinds some
504 editing commands to work on screen lines rather than text lines. See
505 New Modes and Packages, below.
507 ** Window management changes
509 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
510 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
511 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 50.
513 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
514 vertically and horizontally.
516 *** pop-to-buffer now always sets input focus when the popped-to window
517 is on a different frame.
519 ** Miscellaneous changes:
521 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
522 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
523 successive invocations.
525 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
527 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
528 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
529 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
531 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
532 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
533 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
535 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
536 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
537 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
538 run processes remotely.
540 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
543 *** The value of comment-style now defaults to `indent'.
544 Thefore, comment-start markers are inserted at the current indentation
545 of the region to comment, rather than the leftmost column.
547 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
548 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
550 *** The new command `set-file-modes' allows to set file's mode bits.
551 The mode bits can be specified in symbolic notation, like with GNU
552 Coreutils, in addition to an octal number. `chmod' is a new
553 convenience alias for this function.
555 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
556 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
557 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
559 *** When typing in a password in the echo area, C-y yanks the current
560 kill into the password.
562 *** Tooltip frame parameters `font' and `color' in `tooltip-frame-parameters'
563 are ignored. Customize the `tooltip' face instead.
565 *** `mkdir' is a new convenience alias for `make-directory'.
567 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
569 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
570 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
571 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
573 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
575 ** Buffer Face mode is a minor mode for remapping the default face in
576 the current buffer. The variable `buffer-face-mode-face' specifies
577 the face to remap to. The command `buffer-face-set' prompts for a
578 face name, sets `buffer-face-mode-face' to it, and enables
579 buffer-face-mode. See "Face changes", under Editing Changes, for a
580 description of face remapping.
582 ** butterfly flips the desired bit on the drive platter.
583 See http://xkcd.com/378/
585 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
587 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
588 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
589 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
591 ** DocView mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
592 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
593 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
595 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
597 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
600 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
601 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
602 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
603 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
605 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
606 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
608 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
611 ** mairix.el is an interface to mairix, a free tool for indexing and
612 searching locally stored mail. It allows you to query mairix and
613 display the search results with Rmail, Gnus and VM. Note that there
614 is an existing Gnus back end, nnmairix.el, which should be used with
617 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
620 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
621 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
622 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
624 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
625 any invalid parts of your document.
627 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
628 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
629 allowed by the schema in that context.
631 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on
632 processes. Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the
633 current processes. You can use the normal Emacs commands to move
634 around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the
635 processes listed. It is currently only functional on GNU/Linux,
636 MS-Windows and Solaris.
638 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
639 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
642 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing reStructuredText files.
644 ** Ruby mode is a major mode for Ruby files.
646 ** Visual Line mode provides support for editing by visual lines.
647 It turns on word-wrapping in the current buffer, and rebinds C-a, C-e,
648 and C-k to commands that operate by visual lines instead of logical
649 lines. This is a more reliable replacement for longlines-mode.
650 This can also be turned on using the menu bar, via
651 Options -> Line Wrapping in this Buffer -> Word Wrap
653 ** xesam.el is an implementation of Xesam, an interface to (desktop)
654 search engines like Beagle, Strigi, and Tracker. The Xesam API
655 requires D-Bus for communication.
657 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
658 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
659 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
660 which have installed this software.
662 ** There is a new `whitespace' package.
663 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to `old-whitespace'.)
664 Now, besides reporting bogus blanks, the whitespace package has a
665 minor mode and a global minor mode to visualize blanks (TAB, (HARD)
666 SPACE and NEWLINE). The visualization is made via faces and/or display
667 table. It can also indicate lines that extend beyond a given column,
668 trailing blanks, and empty lines at the start or end of a buffer.
669 See `whitespace-style' for more details. The `whitespace-action' option
670 specifies what to do when a buffer is visited, killed, or written.
673 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
675 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
677 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
678 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
680 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
682 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
683 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
685 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
687 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
689 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
690 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
692 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
693 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
694 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
698 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
700 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
702 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
703 Note, however, that the free version of the unrar command only handles
704 versions 1 and 2 of the Rar format.
708 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
710 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
711 `string', disabled by default.
713 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
714 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
716 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
718 ** Calendar and diary
720 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
721 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
722 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
723 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
725 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
726 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
727 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
728 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
729 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
732 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
734 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
735 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
737 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
738 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
740 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
741 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
743 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
744 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
748 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
749 associated with the current log entry.
751 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
752 source code associated with a log entry.
754 ** Compile and grep modes
756 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
757 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
758 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
760 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
761 the first error encountered during compilations.
763 *** compilation-scroll-output accepts a new value, `first-error', which
764 says to stop auto scrolling at the first error that occurs.
766 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
767 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
768 C++ sources and headers.
772 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
773 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
774 considered for update.
776 *** Copyrights can be at the end of the buffer.
777 This is controlled by `copyright-at-end-flag' (used by, e.g., change-log-mode).
781 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
782 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
786 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
787 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
788 diff-auto-refine-mode. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
790 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
791 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
792 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
794 *** Turning on `whitespace-mode' in a diff buffer will show trailing
795 whitespace problems in the modified lines.
799 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
800 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
803 *** `&' runs the command `dired-do-async-shell-command' that executes
804 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand
805 to the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
808 *** `M-s f C-s' and `M-s f M-C-s' run Isearch that matches only at file names.
809 When a new user option `dired-isearch-filenames' is t, then even ordinary
810 Isearch started with `C-s' and `C-M-s' matches only at file names in the
811 Dired buffer. When `dired-isearch-filenames' is `dwim' then activation of
812 file name Isearch depends on the position of point - if point is on a file
813 name initially, then Isearch matches only file names, otherwise it matches
814 everywhere in the Dired buffer. You can toggle file names matching on or
815 off by typing `M-s f' in Isearch mode.
817 *** `M-s a C-s' and `M-s a M-C-s' run multi-file Isearch on the marked files.
818 They visit the first marked file in the sequence and display the usual Isearch
819 prompt for a string or a regexp where all Isearch commands are available.
821 *** `Q' in Dired provides two new keys for multi-file replacement.
822 The upper case key `Y' replaces all remaining matches in all remaining files
823 with no more questions. The upper case key `N' stops doing replacements
824 in the current file and skips to the next file. These multi-file keys
825 are available for all commands that use `tags-query-replace'
826 including `dired-do-query-replace-regexp', `vc-dir-query-replace-regexp',
827 `reftex-query-replace-document'.
831 *** The line length of fixed-form Fortran is not fixed at 72 any more.
832 Customize the variable `fortran-line-length' to change it.
834 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
835 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
837 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
841 *** The Gnus package has been updated
842 There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
843 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
845 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
846 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
847 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
848 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
850 *** Passwords are consistently loaded through `auth-source'
851 Gnus can use `auth-source' for POP and IMAP passwords. Also see that
852 `smtpmail' and `url' support `auth-source' for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS/RSS
853 authentication respectively.
857 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
858 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
860 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
861 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
863 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits one to specify a new
864 position for point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
868 *** New command `isearch-forward-word' bound globally to `M-s w' starts
869 incremental word search. New command `isearch-toggle-word' bound to the
870 same key `M-s w' in Isearch mode toggles word searching on or off
871 while Isearch is active.
873 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r' in Isearch
874 mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer') with the current
875 search string as its regexp argument. The same key `M-s h r' and
876 other keys on the `M-s h' prefix are bound globally to the command
877 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands.
879 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in Isearch mode
880 runs `occur' with the current search string. The same key `M-s o'
881 is bound globally to the command `occur'.
883 *** Isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
884 When running Isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
885 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
886 if there is one (e.g. going from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
887 This is enabled if multi-isearch-search is non-nil.
889 *** Two new commands to start Isearch on a list of marked buffers
890 for buff-menu.el and ibuffer.el are bound to the keys `M-s a C-s' and
893 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
896 *** `C-h C-h' in Isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
897 `C-h b' displays all Isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
898 documentation of the given Isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
899 documentation of Isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit Isearch mode
900 and execute their global definitions.
902 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
903 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
907 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.2. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
910 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
911 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
913 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
914 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
915 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
916 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
920 *** The default value of `recentf-keep' prevents from checking of
921 remote files, if there is no established connection to the
922 corresponding remote host.
926 *** Rmail no longer converts the messages to Babyl format.
927 Instead, it uses UNIX mbox format, both on disk and in Rmail buffers,
928 and does conversion and decoding when a message is displayed.
930 The first time you visit an Rmail file in Babyl format, Rmail
931 automatically converts it to mbox format. This is a one-time
932 conversion, but it can take a few minutes, depending on how fast is
933 your machine and on the size of the file. You should find the rest of
934 Rmail usage unaltered.
936 However, M-x set-rmail-inbox-list now lasts only for one session
937 because there is no way to save the list of inbox files in an
940 Also, whereas with Babyl format M-x find-file would switch to Rmail
941 mode, with mbox format this is no longer the case (there being no way
942 to add an "-*- rmail-*-" cookie to an mbox file). Use C-u M-x rmail
945 If you have written any extensions to Rmail, they are likely to need
946 updating. Conceptually, the Rmail buffer that you see is no longer
947 just a narrowed portion of the whole. So you cannot access the whole
948 of a message (or message collection) by a simple save-restriction and
949 widen. Instead, there are two buffers: the rmail-buffer, and the
950 rmail-view-buffer. The former is the buffer that you see, the latter
951 is invisible. Most of the time, the invisible `view' buffer contains
952 the full contents of the Rmail file, and the Rmail buffer contains a
953 decoded copy of the current message (with only a subset of the
954 headers). In this state, Rmail is said to be `swapped'.
956 You may find the following functions useful:
958 `rmail-get-header' and `rmail-set-header' get or set the value of a
959 message header, whether or not it is currently visible.
961 `rmail-apply-in-message' is a general purpose function that calls a
962 function (with arguments) which you specify on the full text of a given
963 message. To further narrow to just the headers, search forward for "\n\n".
965 *** The new command `rmail-mime' displays MIME messages.
966 It is bound to `v' in Rmail buffers and summaries. It displays plain
967 text and multipart messages in a temporary buffer, and offers buttons
970 *** The command `rmail-redecode-body' no longer accepts the optional arg RAW.
971 Since Rmail now holds messages in their original undecoded form in a
972 separate buffer, `rmail-redecode-body' no longer encodes the original
973 message, and therefore there should be no need to avoid encoding it.
975 *** The o command is now `rmail-output'. It is an all-purpose command
976 for copying messages from Rmail and appending them to files. It
977 handles Babyl-format files as well as mbox-format files, and it
978 handles both kinds properly when they are visited in Emacs. It always
979 copies the full headers of the message.
981 *** The C-o command is now `rmail-output-as-seen'. It uses
982 the message as displayed, appending it to an mbox file.
984 *** The modified status of the Rmail buffer is reported in the mode-line.
985 Previously, this information was hidden.
989 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
990 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
995 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
996 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
997 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
998 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
1003 *** New connection methods.
1004 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
1005 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
1006 "tunnel" and "socks".
1009 IPv6 addresses are supported now as host names. They must be embedded
1010 in square brackets, like in "/ssh:[::1]:".
1012 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
1013 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead, multi hops
1014 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
1016 *** More default settings.
1017 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
1018 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
1020 *** Connection information is cached.
1021 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
1022 connections is kept persistently in a file. The name of this file is
1023 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
1025 *** Control of remote processes.
1026 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
1027 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
1029 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
1030 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
1031 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
1033 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
1034 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
1037 ** VC and related modes
1039 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
1040 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
1041 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
1042 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
1045 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
1046 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
1047 directory or a set of files/directories.
1049 *** VC switches are no longer appended, rather the first non-nil value is used.
1050 (This was for the most part true in Emacs 22, but was not advertised).
1051 This is because there is an increasing variety of VC systems, and they
1052 do not all accept the same "common" options. For example, a CVS diff
1053 command used to append the values of `vc-cvs-diff-switches',
1054 `vc-diff-switches', and `diff-switches'. Now the first non-nil value
1055 from that sequence is used. The special value `t' means "no switches".
1057 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
1059 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
1061 *** In VC Annotate mode, the key bindings have changed to use lower
1062 case keys instead of the upper case keys used in the past.
1064 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1065 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1066 by typing the D key. Using the "Show changeset diff of revision at
1067 line" menu entry does the same thing.
1069 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
1071 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
1074 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
1075 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
1078 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
1079 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
1080 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
1082 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1083 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1084 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
1086 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
1088 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
1090 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of a maintainer able
1091 to update it to the new VC.
1095 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
1096 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
1097 on the corresponding remote system.
1099 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
1100 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
1102 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
1103 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
1104 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
1106 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
1107 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
1109 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
1110 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
1112 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
1114 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
1115 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
1117 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
1118 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
1120 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
1122 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
1123 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
1125 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
1126 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
1128 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
1130 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
1132 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
1133 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see
1134 smerge-auto-refine-mode.
1136 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
1138 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
1139 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
1142 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
1143 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
1144 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
1145 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
1147 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
1148 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
1150 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
1151 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
1154 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
1156 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
1157 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
1158 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
1159 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
1160 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
1162 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
1163 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
1164 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
1165 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
1166 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
1168 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
1169 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
1170 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
1172 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
1173 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
1174 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
1175 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
1176 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
1178 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
1179 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
1180 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
1181 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
1182 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
1184 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
1185 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
1186 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
1187 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
1188 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
1189 for the list of extra keys that are available.
1191 ** BDF fonts no longer supported on MS-Windows.
1192 The font backend was completely rewritten for this release. The focus
1193 on Windows has been getting acceptable performance and full unicode
1194 support, including complex script shaping for native Windows fonts. A
1195 rewrite of the BDF font support has not happened due to lack of time
1196 and developers. If demand still exists for such a backend even with
1197 the improved language support for native Windows fonts, future
1198 development in this direction will most likely be based on the
1199 freetype library, giving access to a wider range of font formats.
1202 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1204 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1206 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1207 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1209 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
1210 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
1211 that range have the same value.
1215 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1217 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
1218 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
1219 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
1222 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
1223 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
1224 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
1225 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
1226 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
1227 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
1228 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
1230 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1231 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1233 ** The function x-font-family-list has been removed.
1234 Use the new function font-family-list (see Lisp Changes, below).
1236 ** Internationalization changes
1238 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1240 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1243 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
1244 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
1245 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
1247 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
1248 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
1249 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
1251 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1252 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1254 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1255 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1257 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1258 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1260 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1261 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1263 *** The meaning of NAME argument of `set-fontset-font' is changed.
1264 Previously nil is accepted as the default fontset. Now, nil is for
1265 the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the default fontset.
1267 *** The meaning of FONTSET argument of `print-fontset' is changed.
1268 Now, nil is for the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the
1271 ** If a function in write-region-annotate-functions returns with a
1272 different buffer current, Emacs no longer kills that buffer
1273 automatically. This behavior existed in previous versions of Emacs,
1274 but was undocumented. To kill a buffer after write-region, give the
1275 variable `write-region-post-annotation-function' a buffer-local value
1278 ** The variable temp-file-name-pattern has been removed.
1279 This variable was only used by call-process-region, which now uses
1280 temporary-file-directory instead.
1282 ** The COUNT and SYSTEM-FLAG arguments to define-abbrev have been
1283 removed. The function now takes extra arguments for specifying
1284 arbitrary abbrev properties.
1286 ** end-of-defun-function is now guaranteed to work only when called
1287 from the start of a defun. It must now leave point exactly at the end
1288 of defun, since `end-of-defun' now itself moves forward over
1289 whitespace after calling it.
1292 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1294 ** The new variable `generate-autoload-cookie' controls the magic comment
1295 string used by `update-file-autoloads' to find autoloaded forms. The
1296 variable `generated-autoload-file' similarly controls the name of the
1297 file where `update-file-autoloads' writes the calls to `autoload'.
1298 The default values are ";;;###autoload" and `loaddefs.el',
1301 ** New primitives `list-system-processes' and `process-attributes'
1302 let Lisp programs access the processes that are running on the local
1303 machine. See the doc strings of these functions for more details.
1304 Not all platforms support accessing this information; on those that
1305 don't, these primitives will return nil.
1307 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1308 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1310 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
1311 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
1312 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
1314 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1317 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
1318 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
1319 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
1320 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
1322 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1324 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
1325 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
1326 strings on the kill ring.
1328 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1329 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1334 ((debug error) nil))
1336 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1338 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count given to
1339 `beginning-of-defun'. (N.B. `end-of-defun-function' doesn't take any
1342 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1343 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1344 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1345 remote connection has been established already.
1347 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1348 undefined functions.
1350 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1352 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
1353 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
1354 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
1356 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
1357 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
1358 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
1360 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1361 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
1362 interactive forms to subroutines.
1366 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
1367 an active region that they should operate on.
1369 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
1370 enabled and the mark is active. Most commands that act specially on
1371 the active region in Transient Mark mode should use `use-region-p'
1372 instead of `region-active-p', because `use-region-p' obeys the new
1373 user option `use-empty-active-region' (see Editing Changes, above).
1375 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
1376 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
1377 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
1378 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
1379 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
1381 ** Emacs session information
1383 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
1384 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
1386 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
1388 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
1389 Emacs initialization.
1391 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
1393 *** display-buffer tries to be smarter when splitting windows.
1394 The new option split-window-preferred-function lets you specify your own
1395 function to pop up new windows. Its default value split-window-sensibly
1396 can split a window either vertically or horizontally, whichever seems
1397 more suitable in the current configuration. You can tune the behavior
1398 of split-window-sensibly by customizing split-height-threshold and the
1399 new option split-width-threshold. Both options now take the value nil
1400 to inhibit splitting in one direction. Setting split-width-threshold to
1401 nil inhibits horizontal splitting and gets you the behavior of Emacs 22
1402 in this respect. In any case, display-buffer may now split the largest
1403 window vertically even when it is not as wide as the containing frame.
1405 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
1406 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
1408 *** select-frame and set-frame-selected-window have a new optional
1409 argument NORECORD. If non-nil, this will avoid messing with the order
1410 of recently selected windows and the buffer list.
1412 ** Window parameters can now be defined.
1413 These are analogous to frame parameters, but are associated with
1416 *** The new functions window-parameters, window-parameter, and
1417 set-window-parameter are used to query and set window parameters.
1419 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1421 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
1422 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
1423 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
1424 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
1425 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
1427 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
1428 regexp defaults (string at point, last Isearch/replacement regexp/string)
1429 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
1431 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1432 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1434 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts the new
1435 values `confirm-only' and `confirm-after-completion'.
1437 ** Search and replacement changes
1439 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1441 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
1442 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
1444 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
1445 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string. The
1446 function it specifies is called by `perform-replace' when its 4th
1449 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
1450 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
1451 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
1452 `map-query-replace-regexp'. The function it specifies is called by
1453 `perform-replace' when its 4th argument is non-nil.
1455 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
1456 for search related commands.
1458 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
1459 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
1461 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
1462 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
1464 *** New functions `word-search-forward-lax' and `word-search-backward-lax'.
1465 These are like `word-search-forward and `word-search-backward', except
1466 that the end of the search string need not match a word boundary,
1467 unless it ends in whitespace.
1469 ** File handling changes
1471 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
1472 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
1474 *** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
1475 variables defined in the current buffer.
1479 *** Each face can be remapped to a different face definition using the
1480 variable `face-remapping-alist'. This is an alist that maps faces to
1481 replacement definitions (which can be face names, lists of face names,
1482 or attribute/value plists. If this variable is buffer-local, the
1483 remapping occurs only in that buffer.
1485 *** text-scale-mode remaps the default face to a larger or smaller
1486 size in the current buffer. This feature is used by the Buffer Face
1487 menu and the new `C-x C-+', `C-x C--', and `C-x C-0' commands (see
1488 Editing Changes, above).
1492 **** `face-remap-add-relative' adds a face remapping entry to the
1495 **** ``face-remap-remove-relative' removes a face remapping entry from
1498 **** `face-remap-reset-base' restores a face to its global definition.
1500 **** `face-remap-set-base' sets the base remapping of a face.
1504 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1505 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1506 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1507 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1508 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1510 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1511 returns its output as a list of lines.
1513 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
1515 *** In multibyte buffers and strings, characters are represented by
1516 UTF-8 byte sequences. The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF
1517 with no gap; code points 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the
1518 same code points, while code points 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit
1521 *** Generic characters no longer exist.
1523 *** The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may
1524 belong to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
1525 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
1527 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
1528 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
1530 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
1531 characters for display.
1533 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
1534 positional codes instead of just 2.
1536 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
1538 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
1539 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
1541 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
1542 priorities of charsets.
1544 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
1545 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
1546 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
1547 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
1548 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
1551 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
1552 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
1553 entries in that range of characters.
1555 *** Use of `translation-table-for-input' for character code unification
1556 is now obsolete, since Emacs 23.1 and later uses Unicode as basis for
1557 internal representation of characters.
1561 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
1562 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
1564 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
1566 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
1568 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
1570 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
1572 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
1574 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
1576 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
1577 a character code property.
1581 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
1582 search for a word boundary.
1584 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
1586 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
1588 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
1589 property on printing a string.
1591 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
1593 ** Code conversion changes
1595 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
1596 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
1598 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
1599 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
1600 conversion should go.
1602 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
1603 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
1606 *** The new variable `inhibit-null-byte-detection' controls whether to
1607 consider text with null bytes as binary data. By default, it is
1608 `nil', and Emacs uses `no-conversion' for any text containing null
1611 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
1615 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
1616 coding system priority order.
1618 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
1619 encodable by the specified coding systems.
1621 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
1623 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
1626 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
1627 ordered by their priorities.
1629 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
1631 **** `coding-system-from-name' returns a coding system matching with
1635 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
1636 It has three functionalities:
1637 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
1638 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
1639 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
1640 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
1642 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
1644 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
1646 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
1649 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
1650 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
1653 ** Changes related to the new font backend
1655 *** Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource
1656 "FontBackend". For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
1658 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
1660 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
1661 available on your graphic device.
1663 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
1664 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
1665 currently `x' and `xft'.
1667 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
1668 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
1673 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
1675 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
1677 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
1679 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
1681 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
1683 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
1685 **** `find-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
1687 **** `font-family-list' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
1689 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
1690 entity, or font object.
1692 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
1694 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
1696 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
1697 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
1699 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
1701 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
1702 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
1703 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
1704 takes a frame argument.
1706 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1707 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
1709 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
1710 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
1712 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
1715 *** A new `terminal' data type.
1716 The functions `get-device-terminal', `terminal-parameters',
1717 `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter' use this data type.
1719 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
1720 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
1721 which is not used directly any more.
1725 **** before-hack-local-variables-hook is called after setting new
1726 variable file-local-variables-alist, and before actually applying the
1727 file-local variables.
1729 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
1730 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
1731 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
1732 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
1734 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
1735 deleting a terminal.
1739 **** `delete-terminal'
1745 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1747 ** Redisplay changes
1749 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
1750 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
1752 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
1753 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
1754 This is convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer
1755 position (e.g. in before/after-strings).
1757 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
1759 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
1760 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
1761 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
1762 times the default column width.
1764 *** redisplay-end-trigger-functions, set-window-redisplay-end-trigger,
1765 and window-redisplay-end-trigger are obsolete. Use `jit-lock-register'
1768 *** The new variables `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' specify display
1769 specs which are appended at display-time to every continuation line
1770 and non-continuation line, respectively. In addition, Emacs
1771 recognizes the `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' text or overlay
1772 properties; these have the same effects as the variables of the same
1773 name, but take precedence.
1775 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
1777 ** Miscellaneous new functions
1779 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
1781 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
1782 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
1784 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' produces a single string from a list of strings
1785 sticking a separator string in between each pair, and quoting those
1786 strings that include the separator as their substring. Useful for
1787 consing shell command lines from the individual arguments.
1789 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
1790 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
1792 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
1793 attributes of a given face.
1795 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
1796 string of days, hours, etc.
1798 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
1801 *** `locate-user-emacs-file' helps packages to select the appropriate
1802 place to save user-specific files. It defaults to `user-emacs-directory'
1803 unless the file already exists at $HOME.
1805 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
1807 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
1808 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
1810 *** `split-string-and-unquote' splits a string into a list of substrings
1811 on the boundaries of a given delimiter, and unquotes the substrings that
1812 are quoted. Useful for taking apart shell commands.
1814 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
1815 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
1818 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
1819 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
1820 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
1822 ** Miscellaneous new variables
1824 *** `read-circle', if nil, disables the reading of recursive Lisp
1825 structures using the #N= and #N# syntax.
1827 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
1828 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
1830 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
1831 marker used for window-point.
1833 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
1834 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
1837 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
1838 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
1841 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
1843 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
1845 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
1846 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
1848 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
1850 ** The package misearch.el has been added. It allows Isearch to search
1851 through multiple buffers. A variable `multi-isearch-next-buffer-function'
1852 defines the function to call to get the next buffer to search in the series
1853 of multiple buffers. Top-level commands `multi-isearch-buffers',
1854 `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp', `multi-isearch-files' and
1855 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' accept a single argument that specifies
1856 a list of buffers/files to search for a string/regexp.
1858 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
1859 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
1862 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1863 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1865 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1866 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1867 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1868 (at your option) any later version.
1870 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1871 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1872 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1873 GNU General Public License for more details.
1875 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1876 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1881 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
1884 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2