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Replace completion-base-size by completion-base-position to fix bugs
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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
10
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
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.
16
17
18 Temporary note:
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.
23
24 \f
25 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.2
26
27 ** New configure options for Emacs developers
28 These are not new features; only the configure flags are new.
29
30 *** --enable-profiling builds Emacs with profiling enabled.
31 This might not work on all platforms.
32
33 *** --enable-checking[=OPTIONS] builds emacs with extra runtime checks.
34
35 ---
36 ** `make install' now consistently ignores umask, creating a
37 world-readable install.
38
39 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.2
40
41 ** Command-line option -Q (--quick) now also disables loading X resources.
42 Note however that this does not affect Lucid or Motif widgets, if you
43 are using those toolkits. On Windows, this option causes Emacs to
44 ignore Registry settings, though environment variables set on the
45 Registry are still honored.
46
47 *** The new variable `inhibit-x-resources' shows whether X resources
48 were loaded.
49
50 * Changes in Emacs 23.2
51
52 ** Function arguments in *Help* buffers are now in uppercase by default.
53 You can customize the new variable `help-downcase-arguments' to change it.
54
55 ** Unibyte sessions are now considered obsolete.
56 I.e. the use of the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE, or command line
57 arguments --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
58 is deprecated. Similarly for custom-izing enable-multibyte-characters, or
59 setting default-enable-multibyte-characters.
60
61 ** The default value of `trash-directory' has changed to nil, which
62 means that `move-file-to-trash' trashes files according to
63 freedesktop.org specifications, the same method used by the Gnome,
64 KDE, and XFCE desktops. (This change has no effect on Windows, which
65 uses `system-move-file-to-trash' for trashing.)
66
67 +++
68 ** Emacs frames can be maximized.
69 The command line arguments -mm/--maximized and the value maximized to the
70 frame parameter fullscreen makes the Emacs frame maximized.
71
72 +++
73 ** New frame parameter sticky makes Emacs frames sticky in virtual desktops.
74
75 ** The pointer now becomes invisible when typing.
76 Customize make-pointer-invisible to turn it off.
77
78 ** Killing a buffer with a running process now asks a confirmation.
79 You can remove this query in two ways: either removing
80 `process-kill-buffer-query-function' from `kill-buffer-query-functions' or
81 setting the appropriate process flag with `set-process-query-on-exit-flag'.
82
83 ** The variable `load-in-progress' won't get corrupted by binding it
84 with `let'. In certain situations, loading an Emacs Lisp file from
85 source while in the midst of loading another file (e.g., with
86 `require' or `autoload') could cause the value of `load-in-progress'
87 to be corrupted once the outer load completed. Most code doesn't care
88 about this, but some (like c-mode) may check it.
89
90 ** File-local variable changes
91
92 *** Specifying a minor mode as a local variables enables that mode,
93 unconditionally. The previous behavior, toggling the mode, was
94 neither reliable nor generally desirable.
95
96 *** New commands for adding and removing file-local variables:
97 `add-file-local-variable', `delete-file-local-variable',
98 `add-file-local-variable-prop-line', and
99 `delete-file-local-variable-prop-line'.
100
101 *** New commands for adding and removing directory-local variables,
102 and copying them to and from file-local variable lists:
103 `add-dir-local-variable', `delete-dir-local-variable',
104 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals',
105 `copy-dir-locals-to-file-locals-prop-line' and
106 `copy-file-locals-to-dir-locals'.
107
108 ** New coding system `utf-8-hfs' is available in
109 international/ucs-normalize.el. It is suitable for
110 default-file-name-coding-system on Mac OS X.
111
112 \f
113 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.2
114
115 ** Selection changes
116 +++
117 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, any active region automatically
118 becomes the primary selection (for interaction with other window
119 applications). If you enable this, you might want to bind
120 `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
121
122 *** When `save-interprogram-paste-before-kill' is non-nil, emacs will
123 not clobber the the interprogram paste when something is killed in it
124 by saving the former in the `kill-ring' before the latter.
125
126 ** When `kill-do-not-save-duplicates' is non-nil, identical subsequent
127 kills are not duplicated in the `kill-ring'.
128
129 +++
130 ** The default value for `blink-matching-paren-distance' has been increased.
131
132 ** The new completion-style `initials' is available.
133 For instance, this can complete M-x lch to list-command-history.
134
135 \f
136 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
137
138 ** .calc.el and .abbrev_defs obey user-emacs-directory.
139
140 ** Calc graphing commands (`g f' etc.) now work on MS-Windows,
141 if you have the native Windows port of Gnuplot version 3.8 or later
142 installed.
143
144 ** Calendar and diary
145
146 *** Fancy diary display is now the default.
147 If you prefer the simple display, customize `diary-display-function'.
148
149 *** The diary's fancy display now enables view-mode.
150
151 ---
152 *** The command `calendar-current-date' accepts an optional argument
153 giving an offset from today.
154
155 ** Desktop
156 ---
157 *** The default value for `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is nil.
158 This means Desktop will try restoring all buffers, when you restart
159 your Emacs session. Also, `desktop-buffers-not-to-save' is only
160 effective for buffers that have no associated file. If you want to
161 exempt buffers that do correspond to files, customize the value of
162 `desktop-files-not-to-save' instead.
163
164 ** FIXME mail-user-agent change
165 This probably affects a lot of documentation.
166
167 ** FIXME gdb-mi
168
169 ** Info
170
171 *** The new command `Info-virtual-index' bound to "I" displays a menu of
172 matched topics found in the index.
173
174 *** The new command `info-finder' replaces finder.el with a virtual Info
175 manual that generates an Info file which gives the same information
176 through a menu structure.
177
178 +++
179 ** New connection methods in Tramp.
180 The new connection methods "rsyncc", "imap" and "imaps" have been
181 introduced. On systems which support GVFS-Fuse, Tramp offers also the
182 new connection methods "dav", "davs", "obex" and "synce".
183
184 ** nXML mode is now the default for editing XML files.
185
186 ** VC and related modes
187
188 *** When using C-x v v or C-x v i on a unregistered file that is in a
189 directory not controlled by any VCS, ask the user what VC backend to
190 use to create a repository, create a new repository and register the
191 file.
192
193 *** FIXME: add info about the new VC functions: vc-root-diff and
194 vc-root-print-log once they stabilize.
195
196 *** When a file is not found, VC will not try to check it out of RCS anymore.
197
198 *** vc-git changes
199
200 **** The new variable vc-git-add-signoff can be used to add a
201 Signed-off-by line when committing.
202
203 **** Support for operating with stashes has been added to vc-dir: the stash list is
204 displayed in the *vc-dir* header, stashes can be created, removed and
205 their content displayed.
206
207 **** vc-dir displays the stash status
208
209 *** log-edit-strip-single-file-name controls whether or not single filenames
210 are stripped when copying text from the ChangeLog to the *VC-Log* buffer.
211
212 ** Elint
213
214 ---
215 *** Elint now uses compilation-mode.
216
217 ---
218 *** Elint can now scan individual files and whole directories,
219 and can be run in batch mode.
220
221 ---
222 *** Elint does a more thorough initialization, and recognizes more built-in
223 functions and variables. Customize `elint-scan-preloaded' if you want
224 to sacrifice some accuracy for a faster startup.
225
226 ---
227 *** Elint attempts some basic understanding of featurep and (f)boundp tests.
228
229 ---
230 *** Customize `elint-ignored-warnings' to suppress some warnings.
231
232 ** Miscellaneous
233
234 *** The new command `async-shell-command' bound globally to `M-&' executes
235 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand to
236 the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
237 Command*'.
238
239 +++
240 *** Autorevert Tail mode now works now for remote files.
241
242 \f
243 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.2
244
245 ** FIXME CEDET
246
247 ** js.el is a new major mode for JavaScript files.
248
249 ** imap-hash.el is a new library to address IMAP mailboxes as hashtables.
250
251 \f
252 * Lisp changes in Emacs 23.2
253
254 ** completion-base-size is obsoleted by completion-base-position.
255 This change causes a few backward incompatibilities, mostly with
256 choose-completion-string-functions where the `mini-p' argument has
257 been replaced by a `base-position' argument, and where the `base-size'
258 argument is now always nil.
259
260 ** called-interactively-p now takes one argument and replaces interactive-p
261 which is now marked obsolete.
262 ** New function set-advertised-calling-convention makes it possible
263 to obsolete arguments as well as make some arguments mandatory.
264 ** eval-next-after-load is obsolete.
265 ** New hook `after-load-functions' run after loading an Elisp file.
266
267 ** You can control which binding is preferentially shown in menus and
268 docstrings by adding a `:advertised-binding' property to the corresponding
269 command's symbol. That property can hold a single binding or a list
270 of bindings.
271
272 ** New macro with-silent-modifications to tweak text properties without
273 affecting the buffer's modification state.
274 ** All the default-FOO variables that hold the default value of the FOO
275 variable, are now declared obsolete.
276
277 ** read-key is a function halfway between read-event and read-key-sequence.
278 It reads a single key, but obeys input and escape sequence decoding.
279
280 ** start-process-shell-command and start-file-process-shell-command
281 now only take a single `command' argument.
282
283 ** The variable `process-file-side-effects' shall be bound to nil, if
284 a `process-file' call does not change a remote file. By this, file
285 name handlers like Tramp can apply optimizations.
286
287 ** Hash tables have a new printed representation that is readable.
288 The feature `hashtable-print-readable' identifies this new
289 functionality.
290
291 ** Functions performing Unicode normalization are added. They are:
292 ucs-normalize-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-NFD-string,
293 ucs-normalize-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-NFC-string,
294 ucs-normalize-NFKD-region, ucs-normalize-NFKD-string,
295 ucs-normalize-NFKC-region, ucs-normalize-NFKC-string,
296 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFD-string,
297 ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-region, ucs-normalize-HFS-NFC-string.
298
299 ** completion-annotate-function specifies how to compute annotations
300 for completions displayed in *Completions*.
301
302 +++
303 ** Face aliases can now be marked as obsolete, using the macro
304 `define-obsolete-face-alias'.
305
306 ---
307 ** Changing the file-names generated by byte-compilation by redefining
308 the function `byte-compile-dest-file' before loading bytecomp.el is obsolete.
309 Instead, customize byte-compile-dest-file-function.
310
311 ** Several obsolete functions removed.
312 The functions have been obsolete since Emacs 19, and are unlikely to
313 be in use:
314
315 time-stamp-month-dd-yyyy, time-stamp-dd/mm/yyyy, time-stamp-mon-dd-yyyy
316 time-stamp-dd-mon-yy, time-stamp-yy/mm/dd, time-stamp-yyyy/mm/dd,
317 time-stamp-yyyy-mm-dd, time-stamp-yymmdd, time-stamp-hh:mm:ss,
318 time-stamp-hhmm, baud-rate
319
320 ** `delete-directory' has an optional parameter RECURSIVE.
321
322 ** New function `copy-directory', which copies a directory recursively.
323
324 +++
325 ** New function `window-full-height-p', analogous to the full-width version.
326
327 \f
328 * Changes in Emacs 23.2 on non-free operating systems
329
330 ---
331 ** On MS-Windows, `display-time' now displays the system load average
332 as well as the time, as it does on GNU and Unix.
333
334 \f
335 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
336
337 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
338 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
339 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
340
341 ** New font code.
342 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
343 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
344
345 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
346 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
347
348 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
349 where Emacs is running).
350
351 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
352
353 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
354 OpenType fonts.
355
356 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
357
358 ** Changes to image support
359
360 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
361 a GIF library.
362
363 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
364
365 *** Emacs now supports multi-page TIFF images.
366
367 ** New NeXTSTEP-based port
368 This provides support for GNUstep (via the GNUstep libraries) and Mac
369 OS X (via the Cocoa libraries).
370
371 Specify --with-ns to configure for this. By default, a self-contained
372 app will be built (containing all lisp). To install/share lisp with
373 other emacsen (e.g. X11 build) use --disable-ns-self-contained. See
374 nextstep/README and nextstep/INSTALL in the Emacs source directory.
375
376 ** Mac OS X is no longer supported via Carbon.
377 Use the NeXTSTEP port, described above.
378
379 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
380 bindings for Emacs.
381
382 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
383 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
384
385 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
386
387 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
388
389 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
390
391 ** The following platforms will be removed in a future Emacs version:
392 If you are still using Emacs on one of these platforms, please email
393 emacs-devel@gnu.org to inform the Emacs developers.
394
395 *** Old GNU/Linux systems based on libc version 5.
396
397 *** Old FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems based on the COFF
398 executable format.
399
400 *** Solaris versions 2.6 and below.
401
402 *** Solaris on IBM RS6000 machines.
403
404 *** UNIX System V (the original SysV, not later platforms based on it).
405
406 *** Unixware on non-x86 machines.
407
408 *** Platforms not supporting shared libraries (i.e., requiring the
409 NO_SHARED_LIBS compilation flag).
410
411 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
412 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
413 you need control over which C compiler is used.
414
415 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
416
417 ** The manuals are now licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License v1.3,
418 or any later version.
419
420 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
421 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
422 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
423 \f
424 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
425
426 ** Improved X Window System support
427
428 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
429 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
430 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
431 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
432 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
433 There may be problems if a display exits unexpectedly and Emacs is compiled
434 with Gtk+, see etc/PROBLEMS.
435
436 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
437 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
438
439 *** Emacs starts in the background, as a daemon, when given the
440 --daemon command line argument. It disconnects from the terminal and
441 starts the server. Clients can connect and create graphical or
442 terminal frames using emacsclient.
443
444 **** emacsclient starts emacs in daemon mode and connects to it when
445 --alternate-editor="" is used (or when the evironment variable
446 ALTERNATE_EDITOR is set to "") and emacsclient cannot connect to an
447 emacs server.
448
449 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
450 remote display. There are some bugs for Gtk+. See etc/PROBLEMS.
451
452 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
453 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
454 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
455 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
456 for details about XEmbed.
457
458 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
459 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
460 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
461 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, on Mac
462 OS X, or on Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
463
464 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
465 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
466 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
467 active frame and INACTIVE is the opacity of non-active frames.
468
469 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
470 opacity; the default is 20.
471
472 ** Internationalization changes
473
474 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
475 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
476
477 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
478 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs' (`emacs-internal' is an alias
479 for this). This encoding is backward-compatible with Unicode's UTF-8
480 encoding. The internal encoding previously used by Emacs,
481 `emacs-mule', is still available for reading and writing files.
482
483 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
484 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
485 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
486 or 22 are loaded correctly as `emacs-mule' (whether or not they
487 contain multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it
488 may be worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be
489 shared with older Emacsen.
490
491 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
492
493 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
494 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
495 as tables of unicodes.
496
497 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
498 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
499 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
500
501 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
502 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
503
504 *** `ucs-insert' is bound to `C-x 8 RET' and in addition to hex numbers
505 accepts numbers in hash notation (e.g. #o21430 for octal, or #10r8984 for
506 decimal). It also accepts Unicode character names with completion.
507
508 *** The `cyrillic-translit' input method supports many new characters.
509 Common typographical characters available from Unicode were added to
510 `cyrillic-translit': punctuation marks, accented characters, fractions,
511 and others.
512
513 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
514 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
515 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
516 the mode-line mouse menu.
517
518 ** Menu Bar changes
519
520 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
521 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
522 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
523 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
524 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
525
526 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
527 "Save Options" item is used.
528
529 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
530 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
531 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
532
533 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
534 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
535 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
536 the new word wrapping behavior (see Editing Changes, below).
537
538 *** Improvements to menus for major and minor modes
539 More major and minor modes now have a mode specific menu, and existing
540 mode menus have been improved to include more functionality.
541
542 ** Mode-line changes
543
544 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
545 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
546
547 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
548 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
549
550 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
551 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
552
553 *** The mode-line tooltips have been improved to provide more details.
554
555 *** The VC, line/colum number and minor mode indicators on the mode
556 line are now interactive: mouse-1 can be used on them to pop up a menu.
557
558 ** File deletion can make use of the Recycle Bin or system Trash folder.
559 Set `delete-by-moving-to-trash' non-nil to use this. Deleted files
560 and directories will then be sent to the Recycle Bin on Windows, and
561 to `trash-directory' on other systems.
562
563 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
564 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-locals.el for directory-local
565 variables. For more information, see `dir-locals-set-directory-class'
566 and `dir-locals-set-class-variables'.
567
568 ** Emacs can now use `auth-source' for authentication.
569 `smtpmail' and `url' (Tramp and Gnus also) use `auth-source' to obtain
570 login names and passwords. The match, if found, is reported
571 in *Messages* with the password blanked out.
572
573 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
574
575 \f
576 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
577
578 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
579 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
580 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
581 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
582 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
583
584 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
585 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
586 file or directory.
587
588 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
589 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
590 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
591 following arguments.
592
593 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
594
595 ** Emacs now supports invocation by an X session manager.
596 It can save a session and restore it later. See the documentation of
597 the functions `emacs-session-save' and `emacs-session-restore'.
598 (Actually, this feature was introduced with Emacs 22, but it was not
599 documented.)
600 \f
601 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
602
603 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
604 on the regexp command prefix map.
605
606 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
607 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
608 the history list.
609
610 ** In Isearch mode, a special case of typing `C-w' at the beginning of
611 the minibuffer that toggles word search (i.e. using key sequences
612 `C-s RET C-w' or `C-s M-e C-w') is obsolete. You can use the global key
613 `M-s w' to start word search, or type `M-s w' in Isearch mode to
614 toggle word search. To start nonincremental word search you can now use
615 `M-s w RET' and `M-s w C-r RET' instead of `C-s RET C-w' and `C-r RET C-w'.
616
617 ** In Info, `Info-search' is unbound from `M-s' to allow using `M-s w'
618 for word search as well as other search commands from the global prefix
619 key `M-s'. `Info-search' is still bound to `s', and also incremental
620 search commands `C-s', `C-M-s', `C-r', `C-M-r' are available for searching
621 through multiple Info nodes, together with their nonincremental versions
622 `C-s RET', `C-r RET', `C-M-s RET', `C-M-r RET', `M-s w RET'.
623
624 ** In Text mode, `center-line' and `center-paragraph' are rebound from
625 `M-s' and `M-S' to global keys `M-o M-s' and `M-o M-S' on the global
626 prefix map `M-o', which is intended for such formatting commands.
627
628 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
629 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
630 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
631 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
632 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
633 identical.
634
635 \f
636 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
637
638 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
639 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
640 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
641 behavior (i.e., motion by logical lines based on buffer contents
642 alone).
643
644 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
645 invokes `suspend-frame'. These changes are for compatibility with the
646 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
647
648 ** Mark changes
649
650 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
651
652 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
653
654 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
655 activating it.
656
657 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
658 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
659
660 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
661 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
662 word at point.
663
664 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
665 region is active.
666
667 *** The variable `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty
668 active region in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on
669 that empty region.
670
671 ** Temporarily active regions
672
673 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
674 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
675 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
676 region, similar to mouse-selection.
677
678 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
679 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
680 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
681 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
682 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
683 buffer).
684
685 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
686
687 *** Emacs may ask for confirmation before opening a non-existent file
688 or buffer. By default, Emacs requests confirmation if you type RET
689 immediately after TAB, and the resulting input is not an existing file
690 or buffer; this usually happens when the minibuffer input did not
691 complete far enough and you entered RET by mistake. In that case,
692 Emacs puts the message "[Confirm]" in the minibuffer; type RET again
693 to create the file or buffer.
694
695 The new variable confirm-nonexistent-file-or-buffer determines whether
696 Emacs asks for confirmation. The default value is `after-completion'.
697 If you change it to t, Emacs always asks for confirmation; if you
698 change it to nil, Emacs never asks for confirmation.
699
700 *** The rules for performing completion have been changed.
701 When generating completion alternatives, Emacs now takes the
702 minibuffer text after point, if any, into account: this text is
703 treated as a substring of the remaining part of the completion
704 alternative (i.e., the part not matched by the minibuffer text before
705 point). If no completion alternatives are found this way, Emacs
706 attempts to perform partial-completion. If still no completion
707 alternatives are found, we fall back on the Emacs 22 rules for
708 performing completion.
709
710 The new variable `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your
711 favorite completion style.
712
713 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
714 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
715 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
716 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
717 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
718 searching minibuffer completion items.
719
720 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
721
722 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
723 name of the current buffer.
724
725 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
726 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
727 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
728 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
729 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
730
731 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
732 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
733 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last Isearch
734 regexp, the last Isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
735
736 *** When enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil, operations which use
737 switch-to-buffer (such as C-x b and C-x C-f) do not fail any more when
738 used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they fallback on
739 using pop-to-buffer, which will use some other window. This change
740 has no effect when enable-recursive-minibuffers is nil (the default).
741
742 *** Isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
743 Reverse Isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
744 history elements, and forward Isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
745 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
746 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
747 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
748 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
749
750 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
751 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
752
753 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
754 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
755
756 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
757 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
758
759 *** If `completion-auto-help' is `lazy', Emacs shows the completions
760 buffer only on the second attempt to complete. This was already
761 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
762
763 ** Face changes
764
765 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
766 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
767 via face remapping (see Lisp changes, below).
768
769 *** New commands to change the default face size in the current buffer.
770 To increase it, type `C-x C-+' or `C-x C-='. To decrease it, type
771 `C-x C--'. To restore the default (global) face size, type `C-x C-0'.
772 These work via Text Scale mode, a new minor mode.
773
774 The final key in the above commands may be repeated without the
775 leading `C-x', e.g. `C-x C-= C-= C-=' increases the face height by
776 three steps. Each step scales the height of the default face by the
777 value of the variable `text-scale-mode-step'.
778
779 *** The commands buffer-face-mode and buffer-face-set can be used to
780 remap the default face in the current buffer. See "Buffer Face mode",
781 under New Modes and Packages.
782
783 ** Primary selection changes
784
785 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
786 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
787
788 ** Continuation lines can now be wrapped at word boundaries
789 (word-wrapping). This is controlled by the new per-buffer variable
790 `word-wrap'. Word wrapping does not take place if continuation lines
791 are not shown, e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil. The most convenient
792 way to enable word-wrapping is using the new minor mode Visual Line
793 mode; in addition to setting `word-wrap' to t, this rebinds some
794 editing commands to work on screen lines rather than text lines. See
795 New Modes and Packages, below.
796
797 ** Window management changes
798
799 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
800 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
801 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 50.
802
803 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
804 vertically and horizontally.
805
806 *** pop-to-buffer now always sets input focus when the popped-to window
807 is on a different frame.
808
809 ** Miscellaneous changes:
810
811 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
812 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
813 successive invocations.
814
815 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
816
817 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
818 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
819 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
820
821 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
822 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
823 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
824
825 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
826 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
827 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
828 run processes remotely.
829
830 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
831 matches a regexp.
832
833 *** The value of comment-style now defaults to `indent'.
834 Thefore, comment-start markers are inserted at the current indentation
835 of the region to comment, rather than the leftmost column.
836
837 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
838 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
839
840 *** The new command `set-file-modes' allows to set file's mode bits.
841 The mode bits can be specified in symbolic notation, like with GNU
842 Coreutils, in addition to an octal number. `chmod' is a new
843 convenience alias for this function.
844
845 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
846 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
847 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
848
849 *** When typing in a password in the echo area, C-y yanks the current
850 kill into the password.
851
852 *** Tooltip frame parameters `font' and `color' in `tooltip-frame-parameters'
853 are ignored. Customize the `tooltip' face instead.
854
855 *** `mkdir' is a new convenience alias for `make-directory'.
856 \f
857 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
858
859 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
860 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
861 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
862
863 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
864
865 ** Buffer Face mode is a minor mode for remapping the default face in
866 the current buffer. The variable `buffer-face-mode-face' specifies
867 the face to remap to. The command `buffer-face-set' prompts for a
868 face name, sets `buffer-face-mode-face' to it, and enables
869 buffer-face-mode. See "Face changes", under Editing Changes, for a
870 description of face remapping.
871
872 ** butterfly flips the desired bit on the drive platter.
873 See http://xkcd.com/378/
874
875 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
876
877 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
878 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
879 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
880
881 ** DocView mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
882 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
883 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
884
885 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
886
887 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
888 the postscript file.
889
890 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
891 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
892 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
893 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
894
895 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
896 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
897
898 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
899 current buffer.
900
901 ** mairix.el is an interface to mairix, a free tool for indexing and
902 searching locally stored mail. It allows you to query mairix and
903 display the search results with Rmail, Gnus and VM. Note that there
904 is an existing Gnus back end, nnmairix.el, which should be used with
905 Maildir/MH setups.
906
907 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
908
909 ** nXML Mode
910 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
911 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
912 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
913
914 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
915 any invalid parts of your document.
916
917 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
918 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
919 allowed by the schema in that context.
920
921 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on
922 processes. Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the
923 current processes. You can use the normal Emacs commands to move
924 around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on the
925 processes listed. It is currently only functional on GNU/Linux,
926 MS-Windows and Solaris.
927
928 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
929 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
930 Manual.
931
932 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing reStructuredText files.
933
934 ** Ruby mode is a major mode for Ruby files.
935
936 ** Visual Line mode provides support for editing by visual lines.
937 It turns on word-wrapping in the current buffer, and rebinds C-a, C-e,
938 and C-k to commands that operate by visual lines instead of logical
939 lines. This is a more reliable replacement for longlines-mode.
940 This can also be turned on using the menu bar, via
941 Options -> Line Wrapping in this Buffer -> Word Wrap
942
943 ** xesam.el is an implementation of Xesam, an interface to (desktop)
944 search engines like Beagle, Strigi, and Tracker. The Xesam API
945 requires D-Bus for communication.
946
947 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
948 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
949 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
950 which have installed this software.
951
952 ** There is a new `whitespace' package.
953 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to `old-whitespace'.)
954 Now, besides reporting bogus blanks, the whitespace package has a
955 minor mode and a global minor mode to visualize blanks (TAB, (HARD)
956 SPACE and NEWLINE). The visualization is made via faces and/or display
957 table. It can also indicate lines that extend beyond a given column,
958 trailing blanks, and empty lines at the start or end of a buffer.
959 See `whitespace-style' for more details. The `whitespace-action' option
960 specifies what to do when a buffer is visited, killed, or written.
961
962 \f
963 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
964
965 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
966
967 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
968 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
969
970 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
971
972 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
973 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
974
975 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
976
977 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
978
979 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
980 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
981
982 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
983 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
984 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
985
986 ** Apropos
987
988 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
989
990 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
991
992 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
993 Note, however, that the free version of the unrar command only handles
994 versions 1 and 2 of the Rar format.
995
996 ** BibTeX mode
997
998 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
999
1000 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
1001 `string', disabled by default.
1002
1003 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
1004 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
1005
1006 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
1007
1008 ** Bookmarks
1009
1010 *** bookmark.el saves bookmarks in a pre-Emacs-23-incompatible file format
1011 bookmark.el can read a .emacs.bmk file saved by an older Emacs, but an
1012 older Emacs cannot read one saved by Emacs 23.
1013
1014 ** Calendar and diary
1015
1016 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
1017 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
1018 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
1019 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
1020
1021 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
1022 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
1023 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
1024 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
1025 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
1026 using the new names.
1027
1028 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
1029 See the variables:
1030 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
1031 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
1032
1033 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
1034 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
1035
1036 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
1037 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
1038
1039 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
1040 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
1041
1042 ** Change Log mode
1043
1044 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
1045 associated with the current log entry.
1046
1047 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
1048 source code associated with a log entry.
1049
1050 ** Compile and grep modes
1051
1052 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
1053 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
1054 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
1055
1056 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
1057 the first error encountered during compilations.
1058
1059 *** compilation-scroll-output accepts a new value, `first-error', which
1060 says to stop auto scrolling at the first error that occurs.
1061
1062 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
1063 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
1064 C++ sources and headers.
1065
1066 ** Copyright
1067
1068 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
1069 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
1070 considered for update.
1071
1072 *** Copyrights can be at the end of the buffer.
1073 This is controlled by `copyright-at-end-flag' (used by, e.g., change-log-mode).
1074
1075 ** Custom
1076
1077 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
1078 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
1079
1080 ** Diff mode
1081
1082 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
1083 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
1084 diff-auto-refine-mode. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
1085
1086 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
1087 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
1088 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
1089
1090 *** Turning on `whitespace-mode' in a diff buffer will show trailing
1091 whitespace problems in the modified lines.
1092
1093 ** Dired
1094
1095 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
1096 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
1097 saving changes.
1098
1099 *** `&' runs the command `dired-do-async-shell-command' that executes
1100 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand
1101 to the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
1102 Command*'.
1103
1104 *** `M-s f C-s' and `M-s f M-C-s' run Isearch that matches only at file names.
1105 When a new user option `dired-isearch-filenames' is t, then even ordinary
1106 Isearch started with `C-s' and `C-M-s' matches only at file names in the
1107 Dired buffer. When `dired-isearch-filenames' is `dwim' then activation of
1108 file name Isearch depends on the position of point - if point is on a file
1109 name initially, then Isearch matches only file names, otherwise it matches
1110 everywhere in the Dired buffer. You can toggle file names matching on or
1111 off by typing `M-s f' in Isearch mode.
1112
1113 *** `M-s a C-s' and `M-s a M-C-s' run multi-file Isearch on the marked files.
1114 They visit the first marked file in the sequence and display the usual Isearch
1115 prompt for a string or a regexp where all Isearch commands are available.
1116
1117 *** `Q' in Dired provides two new keys for multi-file replacement.
1118 The upper case key `Y' replaces all remaining matches in all remaining files
1119 with no more questions. The upper case key `N' stops doing replacements
1120 in the current file and skips to the next file. These multi-file keys
1121 are available for all commands that use `tags-query-replace'
1122 including `dired-do-query-replace-regexp', `vc-dir-query-replace-regexp',
1123 `reftex-query-replace-document'.
1124
1125 ** Fortran
1126
1127 *** The line length of fixed-form Fortran is not fixed at 72 any more.
1128 Customize the variable `fortran-line-length' to change it.
1129
1130 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
1131 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
1132
1133 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
1134
1135 ** Gnus
1136
1137 *** The Gnus package has been updated
1138 There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
1139 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
1140
1141 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
1142 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
1143 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
1144 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
1145
1146 *** Passwords are consistently loaded through `auth-source'
1147 Gnus can use `auth-source' for POP and IMAP passwords. Also see that
1148 `smtpmail' and `url' support `auth-source' for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS/RSS
1149 authentication respectively.
1150
1151 ** Help mode
1152
1153 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
1154 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
1155
1156 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
1157 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
1158
1159 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits one to specify a new
1160 position for point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
1161
1162 ** Isearch
1163
1164 *** New command `isearch-forward-word' bound globally to `M-s w' starts
1165 incremental word search. New command `isearch-toggle-word' bound to the
1166 same key `M-s w' in Isearch mode toggles word searching on or off
1167 while Isearch is active.
1168
1169 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r' in Isearch
1170 mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer') with the current
1171 search string as its regexp argument. The same key `M-s h r' and
1172 other keys on the `M-s h' prefix are bound globally to the command
1173 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands.
1174
1175 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in Isearch mode
1176 runs `occur' with the current search string. The same key `M-s o'
1177 is bound globally to the command `occur'.
1178
1179 *** Isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
1180 When running Isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
1181 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
1182 if there is one (e.g. going from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
1183 This is enabled if multi-isearch-search is non-nil.
1184
1185 *** Two new commands to start Isearch on a list of marked buffers
1186 for buff-menu.el and ibuffer.el are bound to the keys `M-s a C-s' and
1187 `M-s a M-C-s'.
1188
1189 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
1190 `isearch-fail' face.
1191
1192 *** `C-h C-h' in Isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
1193 `C-h b' displays all Isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
1194 documentation of the given Isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
1195 documentation of Isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit Isearch mode
1196 and execute their global definitions.
1197
1198 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
1199 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
1200
1201 ** MH-E
1202
1203 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.2. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1204
1205 ** Python
1206 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
1207 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
1208
1209 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
1210 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
1211 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
1212 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
1213
1214 ** Recentf
1215
1216 *** The default value of `recentf-keep' prevents from checking of
1217 remote files, if there is no established connection to the
1218 corresponding remote host.
1219
1220 ** Rmail
1221
1222 *** Rmail no longer converts the messages to Babyl format.
1223 Instead, it uses UNIX mbox format, both on disk and in Rmail buffers,
1224 and does conversion and decoding when a message is displayed.
1225
1226 The first time you visit an Rmail file in Babyl format, Rmail
1227 automatically converts it to mbox format. This is a one-time
1228 conversion, but it can take a few minutes, depending on how fast is
1229 your machine and on the size of the file. You should find the rest of
1230 Rmail usage unaltered.
1231
1232 However, M-x set-rmail-inbox-list now lasts only for one session
1233 because there is no way to save the list of inbox files in an
1234 mbox-format file.
1235
1236 Also, whereas with Babyl format M-x find-file would switch to Rmail
1237 mode, with mbox format this is no longer the case (there being no way
1238 to add an "-*- rmail-*-" cookie to an mbox file). Use C-u M-x rmail
1239 instead.
1240
1241 If you have written any extensions to Rmail, they are likely to need
1242 updating. Conceptually, the Rmail buffer that you see is no longer
1243 just a narrowed portion of the whole. So you cannot access the whole
1244 of a message (or message collection) by a simple save-restriction and
1245 widen. Instead, there are two buffers: the rmail-buffer, and the
1246 rmail-view-buffer. The former is the buffer that you see, the latter
1247 is invisible. Most of the time, the invisible `view' buffer contains
1248 the full contents of the Rmail file, and the Rmail buffer contains a
1249 decoded copy of the current message (with only a subset of the
1250 headers). In this state, Rmail is said to be `swapped'.
1251
1252 You may find the following functions useful:
1253
1254 `rmail-get-header' and `rmail-set-header' get or set the value of a
1255 message header, whether or not it is currently visible.
1256
1257 `rmail-apply-in-message' is a general purpose function that calls a
1258 function (with arguments) which you specify on the full text of a given
1259 message. To further narrow to just the headers, search forward for "\n\n".
1260
1261 *** The new command `rmail-mime' displays MIME messages.
1262 It is bound to `v' in Rmail buffers and summaries. It displays plain
1263 text and multipart messages in a temporary buffer, and offers buttons
1264 to save attachments.
1265
1266 *** The command `rmail-redecode-body' no longer accepts the optional arg RAW.
1267 Since Rmail now holds messages in their original undecoded form in a
1268 separate buffer, `rmail-redecode-body' no longer encodes the original
1269 message, and therefore there should be no need to avoid encoding it.
1270
1271 *** The o command is now `rmail-output'. It is an all-purpose command
1272 for copying messages from Rmail and appending them to files. It
1273 handles Babyl-format files as well as mbox-format files, and it
1274 handles both kinds properly when they are visited in Emacs. It always
1275 copies the full headers of the message.
1276
1277 *** The C-o command is now `rmail-output-as-seen'. It uses
1278 the message as displayed, appending it to an mbox file.
1279
1280 *** The modified status of the Rmail buffer is reported in the mode-line.
1281 Previously, this information was hidden.
1282
1283 ** TeX modes
1284
1285 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
1286 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
1287 by escaped parens.
1288
1289 ** T-mouse Mode
1290
1291 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
1292 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
1293 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
1294 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
1295 minibuffer.
1296
1297 ** Tramp
1298
1299 *** New connection methods.
1300 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
1301 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
1302 "tunnel" and "socks".
1303
1304 *** IPv6 addresses.
1305 IPv6 addresses are supported now as host names. They must be embedded
1306 in square brackets, like in "/ssh:[::1]:".
1307
1308 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
1309 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead, multi hops
1310 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
1311
1312 *** More default settings.
1313 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
1314 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
1315
1316 *** Connection information is cached.
1317 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
1318 connections is kept persistently in a file. The name of this file is
1319 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
1320
1321 *** Control of remote processes.
1322 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
1323 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
1324
1325 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
1326 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
1327 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
1328
1329 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
1330 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
1331 necessary.
1332
1333 ** VC and related modes
1334
1335 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
1336 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
1337 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
1338 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
1339 a single changeset.
1340
1341 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
1342 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
1343 directory or a set of files/directories.
1344
1345 *** VC switches are no longer appended, rather the first non-nil value is used.
1346 (This was for the most part true in Emacs 22, but was not advertised).
1347 This is because there is an increasing variety of VC systems, and they
1348 do not all accept the same "common" options. For example, a CVS diff
1349 command used to append the values of `vc-cvs-diff-switches',
1350 `vc-diff-switches', and `diff-switches'. Now the first non-nil value
1351 from that sequence is used. The special value `t' means "no switches".
1352
1353 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
1354
1355 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
1356
1357 *** In VC Annotate mode, the key bindings have changed to use lower
1358 case keys instead of the upper case keys used in the past.
1359
1360 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1361 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1362 by typing the D key. Using the "Show changeset diff of revision at
1363 line" menu entry does the same thing.
1364
1365 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
1366
1367 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
1368 the current line.
1369
1370 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
1371 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
1372 active.
1373
1374 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
1375 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
1376 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
1377
1378 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
1379 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
1380 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
1381
1382 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
1383
1384 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
1385
1386 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of a maintainer able
1387 to update it to the new VC.
1388
1389 ** Miscellaneous
1390
1391 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
1392 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
1393 on the corresponding remote system.
1394
1395 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
1396 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
1397
1398 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
1399 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
1400 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
1401
1402 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
1403 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
1404
1405 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
1406 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
1407
1408 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
1409
1410 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
1411 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
1412
1413 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
1414 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
1415
1416 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
1417
1418 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
1419 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
1420
1421 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
1422 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
1423
1424 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
1425
1426 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
1427
1428 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
1429 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see
1430 smerge-auto-refine-mode.
1431
1432 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
1433
1434 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
1435 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
1436 several time zones.
1437
1438 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
1439 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
1440 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
1441 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
1442
1443 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
1444 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
1445
1446 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
1447 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
1448
1449 \f
1450 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
1451
1452 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
1453 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
1454 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
1455 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
1456 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
1457
1458 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
1459 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
1460 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
1461 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
1462 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
1463
1464 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
1465 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
1466 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
1467
1468 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
1469 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
1470 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
1471 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
1472 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
1473
1474 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
1475 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
1476 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
1477 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
1478 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
1479
1480 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
1481 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
1482 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
1483 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
1484 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
1485 for the list of extra keys that are available.
1486
1487 ** BDF fonts no longer supported on MS-Windows.
1488 The font backend was completely rewritten for this release. The focus
1489 on Windows has been getting acceptable performance and full unicode
1490 support, including complex script shaping for native Windows fonts. A
1491 rewrite of the BDF font support has not happened due to lack of time
1492 and developers. If demand still exists for such a backend even with
1493 the improved language support for native Windows fonts, future
1494 development in this direction will most likely be based on the
1495 freetype library, giving access to a wider range of font formats.
1496
1497 \f
1498 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1499
1500 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1501
1502 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1503 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1504
1505 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
1506 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
1507 that range have the same value.
1508
1509 ** Process changes
1510
1511 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1512
1513 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
1514 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
1515 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
1516 obsolete.
1517
1518 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
1519 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
1520 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
1521 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
1522 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
1523 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
1524 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
1525
1526 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1527 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1528
1529 ** The function x-font-family-list has been removed.
1530 Use the new function font-family-list (see Lisp Changes, below).
1531
1532 ** Internationalization changes
1533
1534 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1535
1536 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1537 have been removed.
1538
1539 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
1540 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
1541 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
1542
1543 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
1544 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
1545 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
1546
1547 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1548 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1549
1550 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1551 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1552
1553 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1554 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1555
1556 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1557 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1558
1559 *** The meaning of NAME argument of `set-fontset-font' is changed.
1560 Previously nil is accepted as the default fontset. Now, nil is for
1561 the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the default fontset.
1562
1563 *** The meaning of FONTSET argument of `print-fontset' is changed.
1564 Now, nil is for the fontset of the selected frame and t is for the
1565 default fontset.
1566
1567 ** If a function in write-region-annotate-functions returns with a
1568 different buffer current, Emacs no longer kills that buffer
1569 automatically. This behavior existed in previous versions of Emacs,
1570 but was undocumented. To kill a buffer after write-region, give the
1571 variable `write-region-post-annotation-function' a buffer-local value
1572 of `kill-buffer'.
1573
1574 ** The variable temp-file-name-pattern has been removed.
1575 This variable was only used by call-process-region, which now uses
1576 temporary-file-directory instead.
1577
1578 ** The COUNT and SYSTEM-FLAG arguments to define-abbrev have been
1579 removed. The function now takes extra arguments for specifying
1580 arbitrary abbrev properties.
1581
1582 ** end-of-defun-function is now guaranteed to work only when called
1583 from the start of a defun. It must now leave point exactly at the end
1584 of defun, since `end-of-defun' now itself moves forward over
1585 whitespace after calling it.
1586
1587 \f
1588 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1589
1590 ** The new variable `generate-autoload-cookie' controls the magic comment
1591 string used by `update-file-autoloads' to find autoloaded forms. The
1592 variable `generated-autoload-file' similarly controls the name of the
1593 file where `update-file-autoloads' writes the calls to `autoload'.
1594 The default values are ";;;###autoload" and `loaddefs.el',
1595 respectively.
1596
1597 ** New primitives `list-system-processes' and `process-attributes'
1598 let Lisp programs access the processes that are running on the local
1599 machine. See the doc strings of these functions for more details.
1600 Not all platforms support accessing this information; on those that
1601 don't, these primitives will return nil.
1602
1603 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1604 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1605
1606 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
1607 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
1608 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
1609
1610 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1611 the selected frame.
1612
1613 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
1614 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
1615 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
1616 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
1617
1618 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1619
1620 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
1621 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
1622 strings on the kill ring.
1623
1624 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1625 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1626 like this:
1627
1628 (condition-case nil
1629 (foo bar)
1630 ((debug error) nil))
1631
1632 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1633
1634 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count given to
1635 `beginning-of-defun'. (N.B. `end-of-defun-function' doesn't take any
1636 arguments.)
1637
1638 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1639 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1640 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1641 remote connection has been established already.
1642
1643 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1644 undefined functions.
1645
1646 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1647
1648 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
1649 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
1650 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
1651
1652 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
1653 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
1654 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
1655
1656 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1657 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
1658 interactive forms to subroutines.
1659
1660 ** Region changes
1661
1662 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
1663 an active region that they should operate on.
1664
1665 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
1666 enabled and the mark is active. Most commands that act specially on
1667 the active region in Transient Mark mode should use `use-region-p'
1668 instead of `region-active-p', because `use-region-p' obeys the new
1669 user option `use-empty-active-region' (see Editing Changes, above).
1670
1671 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
1672 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
1673 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
1674 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
1675 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
1676
1677 ** Emacs session information
1678
1679 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
1680 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
1681
1682 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
1683
1684 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
1685 Emacs initialization.
1686
1687 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
1688
1689 *** display-buffer tries to be smarter when splitting windows.
1690 The new option split-window-preferred-function lets you specify your own
1691 function to pop up new windows. Its default value split-window-sensibly
1692 can split a window either vertically or horizontally, whichever seems
1693 more suitable in the current configuration. You can tune the behavior
1694 of split-window-sensibly by customizing split-height-threshold and the
1695 new option split-width-threshold. Both options now take the value nil
1696 to inhibit splitting in one direction. Setting split-width-threshold to
1697 nil inhibits horizontal splitting and gets you the behavior of Emacs 22
1698 in this respect. In any case, display-buffer may now split the largest
1699 window vertically even when it is not as wide as the containing frame.
1700
1701 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
1702 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
1703
1704 *** select-frame and set-frame-selected-window have a new optional
1705 argument NORECORD. If non-nil, this will avoid messing with the order
1706 of recently selected windows and the buffer list.
1707
1708 ** Window parameters can now be defined.
1709 These are analogous to frame parameters, but are associated with
1710 individual windows.
1711
1712 *** The new functions window-parameters, window-parameter, and
1713 set-window-parameter are used to query and set window parameters.
1714
1715 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1716
1717 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
1718 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
1719 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
1720 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
1721 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
1722
1723 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
1724 regexp defaults (string at point, last Isearch/replacement regexp/string)
1725 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
1726
1727 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1728 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1729
1730 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts the new
1731 values `confirm-only' and `confirm-after-completion'.
1732
1733 ** Search and replacement changes
1734
1735 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1736
1737 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
1738 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
1739
1740 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
1741 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string. The
1742 function it specifies is called by `perform-replace' when its 4th
1743 argument is nil.
1744
1745 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
1746 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
1747 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
1748 `map-query-replace-regexp'. The function it specifies is called by
1749 `perform-replace' when its 4th argument is non-nil.
1750
1751 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
1752 for search related commands.
1753
1754 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
1755 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
1756
1757 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
1758 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
1759
1760 *** New functions `word-search-forward-lax' and `word-search-backward-lax'.
1761 These are like `word-search-forward and `word-search-backward', except
1762 that the end of the search string need not match a word boundary,
1763 unless it ends in whitespace.
1764
1765 ** File handling changes
1766
1767 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
1768 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
1769
1770 *** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
1771 variables defined in the current buffer.
1772
1773 ** Face-remapping
1774
1775 *** Each face can be remapped to a different face definition using the
1776 variable `face-remapping-alist'. This is an alist that maps faces to
1777 replacement definitions (which can be face names, lists of face names,
1778 or attribute/value plists. If this variable is buffer-local, the
1779 remapping occurs only in that buffer.
1780
1781 *** text-scale-mode remaps the default face to a larger or smaller
1782 size in the current buffer. This feature is used by the Buffer Face
1783 menu and the new `C-x C-+', `C-x C--', and `C-x C-0' commands (see
1784 Editing Changes, above).
1785
1786 *** New functions:
1787
1788 **** `face-remap-add-relative' adds a face remapping entry to the
1789 current buffer.
1790
1791 **** ``face-remap-remove-relative' removes a face remapping entry from
1792 the current buffer.
1793
1794 **** `face-remap-reset-base' restores a face to its global definition.
1795
1796 **** `face-remap-set-base' sets the base remapping of a face.
1797
1798 ** Process changes
1799
1800 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1801 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1802 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1803 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1804 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1805
1806 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1807 returns its output as a list of lines.
1808
1809 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
1810
1811 *** In multibyte buffers and strings, characters are represented by
1812 UTF-8 byte sequences. The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF
1813 with no gap; code points 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the
1814 same code points, while code points 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit
1815 bytes.
1816
1817 *** Generic characters no longer exist.
1818
1819 *** The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may
1820 belong to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
1821 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
1822
1823 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
1824 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
1825
1826 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
1827 characters for display.
1828
1829 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
1830 positional codes instead of just 2.
1831
1832 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
1833
1834 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
1835 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
1836
1837 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
1838 priorities of charsets.
1839
1840 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
1841 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
1842 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
1843 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
1844 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
1845 `titlecase'.
1846
1847 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
1848 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
1849 entries in that range of characters.
1850
1851 *** Use of `translation-table-for-input' for character code unification
1852 is now obsolete, since Emacs 23.1 and later uses Unicode as basis for
1853 internal representation of characters.
1854
1855 *** New functions:
1856
1857 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
1858 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
1859
1860 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
1861
1862 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
1863
1864 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
1865
1866 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
1867
1868 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
1869
1870 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
1871
1872 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
1873 a character code property.
1874
1875 *** New variables:
1876
1877 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
1878 search for a word boundary.
1879
1880 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
1881
1882 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
1883
1884 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
1885 property on printing a string.
1886
1887 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
1888
1889 ** Code conversion changes
1890
1891 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
1892 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
1893
1894 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
1895 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
1896 conversion should go.
1897
1898 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
1899 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
1900 of conversion.
1901
1902 *** The new variable `inhibit-null-byte-detection' controls whether to
1903 consider text with null bytes as binary data. By default, it is
1904 `nil', and Emacs uses `no-conversion' for any text containing null
1905 bytes.
1906
1907 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
1908
1909 *** New functions:
1910
1911 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
1912 coding system priority order.
1913
1914 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
1915 encodable by the specified coding systems.
1916
1917 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
1918
1919 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
1920 by a coding system.
1921
1922 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
1923 ordered by their priorities.
1924
1925 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
1926
1927 **** `coding-system-from-name' returns a coding system matching with
1928 the argument name.
1929
1930
1931 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
1932 It has three functionalities:
1933 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
1934 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
1935 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
1936 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
1937
1938 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
1939
1940 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
1941
1942 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
1943 as an input method.
1944
1945 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
1946 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
1947 character.
1948
1949 ** Changes related to the new font backend
1950
1951 *** Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource
1952 "FontBackend". For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
1953
1954 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
1955
1956 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
1957 available on your graphic device.
1958
1959 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
1960 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
1961 currently `x' and `xft'.
1962
1963 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
1964 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
1965 set the font.
1966
1967 *** New functions:
1968
1969 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
1970
1971 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
1972
1973 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
1974
1975 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
1976
1977 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
1978
1979 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
1980
1981 **** `find-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
1982
1983 **** `font-family-list' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
1984
1985 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
1986 entity, or font object.
1987
1988 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
1989
1990 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
1991
1992 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
1993 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
1994
1995 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
1996
1997 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
1998 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
1999 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
2000 takes a frame argument.
2001
2002 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
2003 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
2004
2005 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
2006 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
2007
2008 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
2009 session.
2010
2011 *** A new `terminal' data type.
2012 The functions `get-device-terminal', `terminal-parameters',
2013 `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter' use this data type.
2014
2015 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
2016 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
2017 which is not used directly any more.
2018
2019 *** New hooks:
2020
2021 **** before-hack-local-variables-hook is called after setting new
2022 variable file-local-variables-alist, and before actually applying the
2023 file-local variables.
2024
2025 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
2026 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
2027 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
2028 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
2029
2030 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
2031 deleting a terminal.
2032
2033 *** New functions:
2034
2035 **** `delete-terminal'
2036
2037 **** `suspend-tty'
2038
2039 **** `resume-tty'.
2040
2041 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
2042
2043 ** Redisplay changes
2044
2045 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
2046 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
2047
2048 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
2049 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
2050 This is convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer
2051 position (e.g. in before/after-strings).
2052
2053 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
2054
2055 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
2056 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
2057 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
2058 times the default column width.
2059
2060 *** redisplay-end-trigger-functions, set-window-redisplay-end-trigger,
2061 and window-redisplay-end-trigger are obsolete. Use `jit-lock-register'
2062 instead.
2063
2064 *** The new variables `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' specify display
2065 specs which are appended at display-time to every continuation line
2066 and non-continuation line, respectively. In addition, Emacs
2067 recognizes the `wrap-prefix' and `line-prefix' text or overlay
2068 properties; these have the same effects as the variables of the same
2069 name, but take precedence.
2070
2071 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
2072
2073 ** Miscellaneous new functions
2074
2075 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
2076
2077 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
2078 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
2079
2080 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' produces a single string from a list of strings
2081 sticking a separator string in between each pair, and quoting those
2082 strings that include the separator as their substring. Useful for
2083 consing shell command lines from the individual arguments.
2084
2085 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
2086 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
2087
2088 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
2089 attributes of a given face.
2090
2091 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
2092 string of days, hours, etc.
2093
2094 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
2095 specification.
2096
2097 *** `locate-user-emacs-file' helps packages to select the appropriate
2098 place to save user-specific files. It defaults to `user-emacs-directory'
2099 unless the file already exists at $HOME.
2100
2101 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
2102
2103 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
2104 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
2105
2106 *** `split-string-and-unquote' splits a string into a list of substrings
2107 on the boundaries of a given delimiter, and unquotes the substrings that
2108 are quoted. Useful for taking apart shell commands.
2109
2110 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
2111 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
2112 the match data.
2113
2114 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
2115 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
2116 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
2117
2118 ** Miscellaneous new variables
2119
2120 *** `auto-save-include-big-deletions', if non-nil, means auto-save is
2121 not turned off automatically after a big deletion.
2122
2123 *** `read-circle', if nil, disables the reading of recursive Lisp
2124 structures using the #N= and #N# syntax.
2125
2126 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
2127 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
2128
2129 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
2130 marker used for window-point.
2131
2132 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
2133 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
2134 relevant data.
2135
2136 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
2137 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
2138
2139 \f
2140 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
2141
2142 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
2143
2144 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
2145 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
2146
2147 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
2148
2149 ** The package misearch.el has been added. It allows Isearch to search
2150 through multiple buffers. A variable `multi-isearch-next-buffer-function'
2151 defines the function to call to get the next buffer to search in the series
2152 of multiple buffers. Top-level functions `multi-isearch-buffers',
2153 `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp', `multi-isearch-files' and
2154 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' accept a single argument that specifies
2155 a list of buffers/files to search for a string/regexp.
2156
2157 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
2158 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
2159
2160 \f
2161 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2162 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2163
2164 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2165 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2166 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2167 (at your option) any later version.
2168
2169 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2170 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2171 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2172 GNU General Public License for more details.
2173
2174 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2175 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2176
2177 \f
2178 Local variables:
2179 mode: outline
2180 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
2181 end:
2182
2183 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2