1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2003-05-21
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
3 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end for copying conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 For older news, see the file ONEWS
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9 `view-emacs-news' with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
12 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
13 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
14 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
15 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
18 * Installation Changes in Emacs 22.1
21 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
22 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
26 ** Emacs can now be built without sound support.
29 ** You can build Emacs with Gtk+ widgets by specifying `--with-x-toolkit=gtk'
30 when you run configure. This requires Gtk+ 2.0 or newer. This port
31 provides a way to display multilingual text in menus (with some caveats).
34 ** The `emacsserver' program has been removed, replaced with Lisp code.
37 ** By default, Emacs now uses a setgid helper program to update game
38 scores. The directory ${localstatedir}/games/emacs is the normal
39 place for game scores to be stored. You can control this with the
40 configure option `--with-game-dir'. The specific user that Emacs uses
41 to own the game scores is controlled by `--with-game-user'. If access
42 to a game user is not available, then scores will be stored separately
43 in each user's home directory.
46 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
47 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
51 ** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
53 The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual in Info format is built as part of the
54 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
55 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
56 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
59 ** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
62 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
63 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
64 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
65 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
68 ** New translations of the Emacs Tutorial are available in the
69 following languages: Brasilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Chinese (both
70 with simplified and traditional characters), French, and Italian.
71 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose one of them in case your language setup
72 doesn't automatically select the right one.
75 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
78 ** Emacs now includes support for loading image libraries on demand.
79 (Currently this feature is only used on MS Windows.) You can configure
80 the supported image types and their associated dynamic libraries by
81 setting the variable `image-library-alist'.
84 ** Support for Cygwin was added.
87 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
90 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on S390 machines was added.
93 ** Support for MacOS X was added.
94 See the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
97 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on X86-64 machines was added.
100 ** Mac OS 9 port now uses the Carbon API by default. You can also
101 create non-Carbon build by specifying `NonCarbon' as a target. See
102 the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
105 ** Building with -DENABLE_CHECKING does not automatically build with union
106 types any more. Add -DUSE_LISP_UNION_TYPE if you want union types.
109 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
110 much pure storage it will approximately need.
112 ** The script etc/emacs-buffer.gdb can be used with gdb to retrieve the
113 contents of buffers from a core dump and save them to files easily, should
117 ** The Emacs terminal emulation in term.el uses a different terminfo name.
118 The Emacs terminal emulation in term.el now uses "eterm-color" as its
119 terminfo name, since term.el now supports color.
122 ** Emacs Lisp source files are compressed by default if `gzip' is available.
125 * Startup Changes in Emacs 22.1
128 ** New command line option -Q or --quick.
129 This is like using -q --no-site-file, but in addition it also disables
130 the fancy startup screen.
133 ** New command line option -D or --basic-display.
134 Disables the menu-bar, the tool-bar, the scroll-bars, tool tips, and
138 ** New command line option -nbc or --no-blinking-cursor disables
139 the blinking cursor on graphical terminals.
142 ** The option --script FILE runs Emacs in batch mode and loads FILE.
143 It is useful for writing Emacs Lisp shell script files, because they
144 can start with this line:
146 #!/usr/bin/emacs --script
149 ** The option --directory DIR now modifies `load-path' immediately.
150 Directories are added to the front of `load-path' in the order they
151 appear on the command line. For example, with this command line:
153 emacs -batch -L .. -L /tmp --eval "(require 'foo)"
155 Emacs looks for library `foo' in the parent directory, then in /tmp, then
156 in the other directories in `load-path'. (-L is short for --directory.)
159 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
160 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
163 ** The -f option, used from the command line to call a function,
164 now reads arguments for the function interactively if it is
165 an interactively callable function.
168 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
169 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
170 affects the initial frame.
173 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
174 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
175 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
176 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
177 screen size. (For now, this does not work with some window managers.)
180 ** Emacs now displays a splash screen by default even if command-line
181 arguments were given. The new command-line option --no-splash
182 disables the splash screen; see also the variable
183 `inhibit-startup-message' (which is also aliased as
184 `inhibit-splash-screen').
187 ** The default is now to use an bitmap as the icon, so the command-line options
188 --icon-type, -i has been replaced with options --no-bitmap-icon, -nbi to turn
192 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
193 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
194 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
198 If the init file ~/.emacs does not exist, Emacs will try
199 ~/.emacs.d/init.el or ~/.emacs.d/init.elc. You can also put the shell
200 init file .emacs_SHELL under ~/.emacs.d.
203 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
204 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
205 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
206 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
207 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
209 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 22.1
212 ** M-g is now a prefix key.
213 M-g g and M-g M-g run goto-line.
214 M-g n and M-g M-n run next-error (like C-x `).
215 M-g p and M-g M-p run previous-error.
218 ** C-u M-g M-g switches to the most recent previous buffer,
219 and goes to the specified line in that buffer.
221 When goto-line starts to execute, if there's a number in the buffer at
222 point then it acts as the default argument for the minibuffer.
225 ** The old bindings C-M-delete and C-M-backspace have been deleted,
226 since there are situations where one or the other will shut down
227 the operating system or your X server.
230 ** line-move-ignore-invisible now defaults to t.
233 ** When the undo information of the current command gets really large
234 (beyond the value of `undo-outer-limit'), Emacs discards it and warns
238 ** `apply-macro-to-region-lines' now operates on all lines that begin
239 in the region, rather than on all complete lines in the region.
242 ** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
243 previous mark if you set `set-mark-command-repeat-pop' to t. I.e. C-u
244 C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... cycles through the mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC
245 to set the mark immediately after a jump.
248 ** The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
249 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
252 ** In incremental search, C-w is changed. M-%, C-M-w and C-M-y are special.
254 See below under "incremental search changes".
257 ** C-x C-f RET, typing nothing in the minibuffer, is no longer a special case.
259 Since the default input is the current directory, this has the effect
260 of specifying the current directory. Normally that means to visit the
261 directory with Dired.
264 ** The completion commands TAB, SPC and ? in the minibuffer apply only
265 to the text before point. If there is text in the buffer after point,
266 it remains unchanged.
269 ** M-o now is the prefix key for setting text properties;
270 M-o M-o requests refontification.
273 ** You can now follow links by clicking Mouse-1 on the link.
275 See below for more details.
278 ** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
279 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
280 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
281 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
282 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
283 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
285 * Editing Changes in Emacs 22.1
288 ** !MEM FULL! at the start of the mode line indicates that Emacs
289 cannot get any more memory for Lisp data. This often means it could
290 crash soon if you do things that use more memory. On most systems,
291 killing buffers will get out of this state. If killing buffers does
292 not make !MEM FULL! disappear, you should save your work and start
296 ** The max size of buffers and integers has been doubled.
297 On 32bit machines, it is now 256M (i.e. 268435455).
300 ** M-g is now a prefix key.
301 M-g g and M-g M-g run goto-line.
302 M-g n and M-g M-n run next-error (like C-x `).
303 M-g p and M-g M-p run previous-error.
306 ** C-u M-g M-g switches to the most recent previous buffer,
307 and goes to the specified line in that buffer.
309 When goto-line starts to execute, if there's a number in the buffer at
310 point then it acts as the default argument for the minibuffer.
313 ** The old bindings C-M-delete and C-M-backspace have been deleted,
314 since there are situations where one or the other will shut down
315 the operating system or your X server.
318 ** line-move-ignore-invisible now defaults to t.
321 ** When the undo information of the current command gets really large
322 (beyond the value of `undo-outer-limit'), Emacs discards it and warns
326 ** `apply-macro-to-region-lines' now operates on all lines that begin
327 in the region, rather than on all complete lines in the region.
330 ** You can now switch buffers in a cyclic order with C-x C-left and
331 (prev-buffer) and C-x C-right (next-buffer). C-x left and C-x right
335 ** `undo-only' does an undo which does not redo any previous undo.
338 ** M-SPC (just-one-space) when given a numeric argument N
339 converts whitespace around point to N spaces.
342 ** New commands to operate on pairs of open and close characters:
343 `insert-pair', `delete-pair', `raise-sexp'.
346 ** New command `kill-whole-line' kills an entire line at once.
347 By default, it is bound to C-S-<backspace>.
350 ** Yanking text now discards certain text properties that can
351 be inconvenient when you did not expect them. The variable
352 `yank-excluded-properties' specifies which ones. Insertion
353 of register contents and rectangles also discards these properties.
356 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
357 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
358 in Indented-Text mode.
361 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variable references.
363 Substrings of the form `$foo' and `${foo}' in the specified new value
364 now refer to the value of environment variable foo. To include a `$'
365 in the value, use `$$'.
368 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
369 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
373 ** The default for the paper size (variable ps-paper-type) is taken
376 ** The command `list-faces-display' now accepts a prefix arg.
377 When passed, the function prompts for a regular expression and lists
378 only faces matching this regexp.
380 ** Mark command changes:
383 *** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
384 previous mark, i.e. C-u C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... cycles through the
385 mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC to set the mark immediately after a jump.
388 *** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times.
390 If you type C-M-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h
391 (mark-paragraph), or C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region
392 extends each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC
393 M-C-SPC, for example. This feature also works for
394 mark-end-of-sentence, if you bind that to a key. It also extends the
395 region when the mark is active in Transient Mark mode, regardless of
396 the last command. To start a new region with one of marking commands
397 in Transient Mark mode, you can deactivate the active region with C-g,
398 or set the new mark with C-SPC.
401 *** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
403 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
404 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
408 *** Some commands do something special in Transient Mark mode when the
409 mark is active--for instance, they limit their operation to the
410 region. Even if you don't normally use Transient Mark mode, you might
411 want to get this behavior from a particular command. There are two
412 ways you can enable Transient Mark mode and activate the mark, for one
415 One method is to type C-SPC C-SPC; this enables Transient Mark mode
416 and sets the mark at point. The other method is to type C-u C-x C-x.
417 This enables Transient Mark mode temporarily but does not alter the
420 After these commands, Transient Mark mode remains enabled until you
421 deactivate the mark. That typically happens when you type a command
422 that alters the buffer, but you can also deactivate the mark by typing
426 *** Movement commands `beginning-of-buffer', `end-of-buffer',
427 `beginning-of-defun', `end-of-defun' do not set the mark if the mark
428 is already active in Transient Mark mode.
430 ** Help command changes:
433 *** Changes in C-h bindings:
435 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
437 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
440 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
441 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
443 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
444 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
446 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
448 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
449 run by the key sequence.
451 - C-h w and C-h f on a command which has been remapped now report the
452 command it is remapped to, and the keys which can be used to run
455 For example, if C-k is bound to kill-line, and kill-line is remapped
456 to new-kill-line, these commands now report:
458 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
459 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
461 - C-h w and C-h f kill-line reports:
462 kill-line is remapped to new-kill-line which is on C-k, <deleteline>
464 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
465 new-kill-line is on C-k
468 *** Help commands `describe-function' and `describe-key' now show function
469 arguments in lowercase italics on displays that support it. To change the
470 default, customize face `help-argument-name' or redefine the function
471 `help-default-arg-highlight'.
474 *** C-h v and C-h f commands now include a hyperlink to the C source for
475 variables and functions defined in C (if the C source is available).
478 *** Help mode now only makes hyperlinks for faces when the face name is
479 preceded or followed by the word `face'. It no longer makes
480 hyperlinks for variables without variable documentation, unless
481 preceded by one of the words `variable' or `option'. It now makes
482 hyperlinks to Info anchors (or nodes) if the anchor (or node) name is
483 enclosed in single quotes and preceded by `info anchor' or `Info
484 anchor' (in addition to earlier `info node' and `Info node'). In
485 addition, it now makes hyperlinks to URLs as well if the URL is
486 enclosed in single quotes and preceded by `URL'.
489 *** The new command `describe-char' (C-u C-x =) pops up a buffer with
490 description various information about a character, including its
491 encodings and syntax, its text properties, how to input, overlays, and
492 widgets at point. You can get more information about some of them, by
493 clicking on mouse-sensitive areas or moving there and pressing RET.
496 *** The command `list-text-properties-at' has been deleted because
497 C-u C-x = gives the same information and more.
500 *** New command `display-local-help' displays any local help at point
501 in the echo area. It is bound to `C-h .'. It normally displays the
502 same string that would be displayed on mouse-over using the
503 `help-echo' property, but, in certain cases, it can display a more
504 keyboard oriented alternative.
507 *** New user option `help-at-pt-display-when-idle' allows to
508 automatically show the help provided by `display-local-help' on
509 point-over, after suitable idle time. The amount of idle time is
510 determined by the user option `help-at-pt-timer-delay' and defaults
511 to one second. This feature is turned off by default.
514 *** The apropos commands now accept a list of words to match.
515 When more than one word is specified, at least two of those words must
516 be present for an item to match. Regular expression matching is still
520 *** The new option `apropos-sort-by-scores' causes the matching items
521 to be sorted according to their score. The score for an item is a
522 number calculated to indicate how well the item matches the words or
523 regular expression that you entered to the apropos command. The best
524 match is listed first, and the calculated score is shown for each
527 ** Incremental Search changes:
530 *** Vertical scrolling is now possible within incremental search.
531 To enable this feature, customize the new user option
532 `isearch-allow-scroll'. User written commands which satisfy stringent
533 constraints can be marked as "scrolling commands". See the Emacs manual
537 *** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
538 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
539 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
540 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
543 *** C-y in incremental search now grabs the next line if point is already
544 at the end of a line.
547 *** C-M-w deletes and C-M-y grabs a character in isearch mode.
548 Another method to grab a character is to enter the minibuffer by `M-e'
549 and to type `C-f' at the end of the search string in the minibuffer.
552 *** M-% typed in isearch mode invokes `query-replace' or
553 `query-replace-regexp' (depending on search mode) with the current
554 search string used as the string to replace.
557 *** Isearch no longer adds `isearch-resume' commands to the command
558 history by default. To enable this feature, customize the new
559 user option `isearch-resume-in-command-history'.
561 ** Replace command changes:
564 *** New user option `query-replace-skip-read-only': when non-nil,
565 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
566 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
569 *** When used interactively, the commands `query-replace-regexp' and
570 `replace-regexp' allow \,expr to be used in a replacement string,
571 where expr is an arbitrary Lisp expression evaluated at replacement
572 time. In many cases, this will be more convenient than using
573 `query-replace-regexp-eval'. `\#' in a replacement string now refers
574 to the count of replacements already made by the replacement command.
575 All regular expression replacement commands now allow `\?' in the
576 replacement string to specify a position where the replacement string
577 can be edited for each replacement.
580 *** query-replace uses isearch lazy highlighting when the new user option
581 `query-replace-lazy-highlight' is non-nil.
584 *** The current match in query-replace is highlighted in new face
585 `query-replace' which by default inherits from isearch face.
587 ** File operation changes:
590 *** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
591 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
592 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
593 is only rarely needed.
596 *** In processing a local variables list, Emacs strips the prefix and
597 suffix are from every line before processing all the lines.
600 *** find-file-read-only visits multiple files in read-only mode,
601 when the file name contains wildcard characters.
604 *** find-alternate-file replaces the current file with multiple files,
605 when the file name contains wildcard characters.
608 *** Auto Compression mode is now enabled by default.
611 *** C-x C-f RET, typing nothing in the minibuffer, is no longer a special case.
613 Since the default input is the current directory, this has the effect
614 of specifying the current directory. Normally that means to visit the
615 directory with Dired.
618 *** When you are root, and you visit a file whose modes specify
619 read-only, the Emacs buffer is now read-only too. Type C-x C-q if you
620 want to make the buffer writable. (As root, you can in fact alter the
624 *** C-x s (save-some-buffers) now offers an option `d' to diff a buffer
625 against its file, so you can see what changes you would be saving.
628 *** The commands copy-file, rename-file, make-symbolic-link and
629 add-name-to-file, when given a directory as the "new name" argument,
630 convert it to a file name by merging in the within-directory part of
631 the existing file's name. (This is the same convention that shell
632 commands cp, mv, and ln follow.) Thus, M-x copy-file RET ~/foo RET
633 /tmp RET copies ~/foo to /tmp/foo.
636 *** When used interactively, `format-write-file' now asks for confirmation
637 before overwriting an existing file, unless a prefix argument is
638 supplied. This behavior is analogous to `write-file'.
641 *** The variable `auto-save-file-name-transforms' now has a third element that
642 controls whether or not the function `make-auto-save-file-name' will
643 attempt to construct a unique auto-save name (e.g. for remote files).
646 *** The new option `write-region-inhibit-fsync' disables calls to fsync
647 in `write-region'. This can be useful on laptops to avoid spinning up
648 the hard drive upon each file save. Enabling this variable may result
649 in data loss, use with care.
652 *** If the user visits a file larger than `large-file-warning-threshold',
653 Emacs asks for confirmation.
656 *** require-final-newline now has two new possible values:
658 `visit' means add a newline (as an undoable change) if it's needed
659 when visiting the file.
661 `visit-save' means add a newline (as an undoable change) if it's
662 needed when visiting the file, and also add a newline if it's needed
663 when saving the file.
666 *** The new option mode-require-final-newline controls how certain
667 major modes enable require-final-newline. Any major mode that's
668 designed for a kind of file that should normally end in a newline
669 sets require-final-newline based on mode-require-final-newline.
670 So you can customize mode-require-final-newline to control what these
673 ** Minibuffer changes:
676 *** There's a new face `minibuffer-prompt'.
677 Emacs adds this face to the list of text properties stored in the
678 variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', which is used to display the
682 *** Enhanced visual feedback in `*Completions*' buffer.
684 Completions lists use faces to highlight what all completions
685 have in common and where they begin to differ.
687 The common prefix shared by all possible completions uses the face
688 `completions-common-part', while the first character that isn't the
689 same uses the face `completions-first-difference'. By default,
690 `completions-common-part' inherits from `default', and
691 `completions-first-difference' inherits from `bold'. The idea of
692 `completions-common-part' is that you can use it to make the common
693 parts less visible than normal, so that the rest of the differing
694 parts is, by contrast, slightly highlighted.
696 Above fontification is always done when listing completions is
697 triggered at minibuffer. If you want to fontify completions whose
698 listing is triggered at the other normal buffer, you have to pass
699 the common prefix of completions to `display-completion-list' as
703 *** File-name completion can now ignore specified directories.
704 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
705 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
706 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
707 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
708 candidate is a directory.
711 *** The completion commands TAB, SPC and ? in the minibuffer apply only
712 to the text before point. If there is text in the buffer after point,
713 it remains unchanged.
716 *** New user option `history-delete-duplicates'.
717 If set to t when adding a new history element, all previous identical
718 elements are deleted.
720 ** Redisplay changes:
723 *** The mode line position information now comes before the major mode.
724 When the file is maintained under version control, that information
725 appears between the position information and the major mode.
728 *** New face `escape-glyph' highlights control characters and escape glyphs.
731 *** Non-breaking space and hyphens are now displayed with a special
732 face, either nobreak-space or escape-glyph. You can turn this off or
733 specify a different mode by setting the variable `nobreak-char-display'.
736 *** The parameters of automatic hscrolling can now be customized.
737 The variable `hscroll-margin' determines how many columns away from
738 the window edge point is allowed to get before automatic hscrolling
739 will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
741 The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
742 hscrolling scrolls the window when point gets too close to the
743 window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
744 window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
745 many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
746 gives the fraction of the window's width to scroll the window.
748 The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to
749 `auto-hscroll-mode'. The old name is still available as an alias.
752 *** Moving or scrolling through images (and other lines) taller that
753 the window now works sensibly, by automatically adjusting the window's
757 *** The new face `mode-line-inactive' is used to display the mode line
758 of non-selected windows. The `mode-line' face is now used to display
759 the mode line of the currently selected window.
761 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
762 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
765 *** You can now customize the use of window fringes. To control this
766 for all frames, use M-x fringe-mode or the Show/Hide submenu of the
767 top-level Options menu, or customize the `fringe-mode' variable. To
768 control this for a specific frame, use the command M-x
772 *** Angle icons in the fringes can indicate the buffer boundaries. In
773 addition, up and down arrow bitmaps in the fringe indicate which ways
774 the window can be scrolled.
776 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
777 `indicate-buffer-boundaries' to a non-nil value. The default value of
778 this variable is found in `default-indicate-buffer-boundaries'.
780 If value is `left' or `right', both angle and arrow bitmaps are
781 displayed in the left or right fringe, resp.
783 The value can also be an alist which specifies the presence and
784 position of each bitmap individually.
786 For example, ((top . left) (t . right)) places the top angle bitmap
787 in left fringe, the bottom angle bitmap in right fringe, and both
788 arrow bitmaps in right fringe. To show just the angle bitmaps in the
789 left fringe, but no arrow bitmaps, use ((top . left) (bottom . left)).
792 *** On window systems, lines which are exactly as wide as the window
793 (not counting the final newline character) are no longer broken into
794 two lines on the display (with just the newline on the second line).
795 Instead, the newline now "overflows" into the right fringe, and the
796 cursor will be displayed in the fringe when positioned on that newline.
798 The new user option 'overflow-newline-into-fringe' can be set to nil to
799 revert to the old behavior of continuing such lines.
802 *** When a window has display margin areas, the fringes are now
803 displayed between the margins and the buffer's text area, rather than
804 outside those margins.
807 *** A window can now have individual fringe and scroll-bar settings,
808 in addition to the individual display margin settings.
810 Such individual settings are now preserved when windows are split
811 horizontally or vertically, a saved window configuration is restored,
812 or when the frame is resized.
814 ** Cursor display changes:
817 *** On X, MS Windows, and Mac OS, the blinking cursor's "off" state is
818 now controlled by the variable `blink-cursor-alist'.
821 *** The X resource cursorBlink can be used to turn off cursor blinking.
824 *** Emacs can produce an underscore-like (horizontal bar) cursor.
825 The underscore cursor is set by putting `(cursor-type . hbar)' in
826 default-frame-alist. It supports variable heights, like the `bar'
830 *** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
831 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
835 *** The variable `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' can now be set to any
836 of the recognized cursor types.
841 *** `mode-line-highlight' is the standard face indicating mouse sensitive
842 elements on mode-line (and header-line) like `highlight' face on text
846 *** `shadow' face defines the appearance of the "shadowed" text, i.e.
847 the text which should be less noticeable than the surrounding text.
848 This can be achieved by using shades of grey in contrast with either
849 black or white default foreground color. This generic shadow face
850 allows customization of the appearance of shadowed text in one place,
851 so package-specific faces can inherit from it.
854 *** `vertical-border' face is used for the vertical divider between windows.
856 ** Font-Lock changes:
859 *** M-o now is the prefix key for setting text properties;
860 M-o M-o requests refontification.
863 *** All modes now support using M-x font-lock-mode to toggle
864 fontification, even those such as Occur, Info, and comint-derived
865 modes that do their own fontification in a special way.
867 The variable `Info-fontify' is no longer applicable; to disable
868 fontification in Info, remove `turn-on-font-lock' from
872 *** font-lock-lines-before specifies a number of lines before the
873 current line that should be refontified when you change the buffer.
874 The default value is 1.
877 *** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
878 an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
879 font-lock now highlights any such open-paren-in-column-zero in bold-red
880 if it is inside a string or a comment, to indicate that it can cause
881 trouble with fontification and/or indentation.
884 *** New standard font-lock face `font-lock-preprocessor-face'.
887 *** New standard font-lock face `font-lock-comment-delimiter-face'.
890 *** Easy to overlook single character negation can now be font-locked.
891 You can use the new variable `font-lock-negation-char-face' and the face of
892 the same name to customize this. Currently the cc-modes, sh-script-mode,
893 cperl-mode and make-mode support this.
896 *** The default settings for JIT stealth lock parameters are changed.
897 The default value for the user option jit-lock-stealth-time is now 16
898 instead of 3, and the default value of jit-lock-stealth-nice is now
899 0.5 instead of 0.125. The new defaults should lower the CPU usage
900 when Emacs is fontifying in the background.
903 *** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
905 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
906 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
907 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
908 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
911 *** contextual refontification is now separate from stealth fontification.
913 jit-lock-defer-contextually is renamed jit-lock-contextually and
914 jit-lock-context-time determines the delay after which contextual
915 refontification takes place.
920 *** A menu item "Show/Hide" was added to the top-level menu "Options".
921 This menu allows you to turn various display features on and off (such
922 as the fringes, the tool bar, the speedbar, and the menu bar itself).
923 You can also move the vertical scroll bar to either side here or turn
924 it off completely. There is also a menu-item to toggle displaying of
925 current date and time, current line and column number in the mode-line.
928 *** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
931 *** You can exit dialog windows and menus by typing C-g.
934 *** The menu item "Open File..." has been split into two items, "New File..."
935 and "Open File...". "Open File..." now opens only existing files. This is
936 to support existing GUI file selection dialogs better.
939 *** The file selection dialog for Gtk+, Mac, W32 and Motif/Lesstif can be
940 disabled by customizing the variable `use-file-dialog'.
943 *** The pop up menus for Lucid now stay up if you do a fast click and can
944 be navigated with the arrow keys (like Gtk+, Mac and W32).
947 *** The Lucid menus can display multilingual text in your locale. You have
948 to explicitly specify a fontSet resource for this to work, for example
949 `-xrm "Emacs*fontSet: -*-helvetica-medium-r-*--*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*,*"'.
952 *** Dialogs for Lucid/Athena and Lesstif/Motif now pops down when pressing
953 ESC, like they do for Gtk+, Mac and W32.
956 *** For Gtk+ version 2.4, you can make Emacs use the old file dialog
957 by setting the variable `x-use-old-gtk-file-dialog' to t. Default is to use
963 *** If you set the new variable `mouse-autoselect-window' to a non-nil
964 value, windows are automatically selected as you move the mouse from
965 one Emacs window to another, even within a frame. A minibuffer window
966 can be selected only when it is active.
969 *** On X, when the window manager requires that you click on a frame to
970 select it (give it focus), the selected window and cursor position
971 normally changes according to the mouse click position. If you set
972 the variable x-mouse-click-focus-ignore-position to t, the selected
973 window and cursor position do not change when you click on a frame
977 *** You can now follow links by clicking Mouse-1 on the link.
979 Traditionally, Emacs uses a Mouse-1 click to set point and a Mouse-2
980 click to follow a link, whereas most other applications use a Mouse-1
981 click for both purposes, depending on whether you click outside or
982 inside a link. Now the behavior of a Mouse-1 click has been changed
983 to match this context-sentitive dual behavior. (If you prefer the old
984 behavior, set the user option `mouse-1-click-follows-link' to nil.)
986 Depending on the current mode, a Mouse-2 click in Emacs can do much
987 more than just follow a link, so the new Mouse-1 behavior is only
988 activated for modes which explicitly mark a clickable text as a "link"
989 (see the new function `mouse-on-link-p' for details). The Lisp
990 packages that are included in release 22.1 have been adapted to do
991 this, but external packages may not yet support this. However, there
992 is no risk in using such packages, as the worst thing that could
993 happen is that you get the original Mouse-1 behavior when you click
994 on a link, which typically means that you set point where you click.
996 If you want to get the original Mouse-1 action also inside a link, you
997 just need to press the Mouse-1 button a little longer than a normal
998 click (i.e. press and hold the Mouse-1 button for half a second before
1001 Dragging the Mouse-1 inside a link still performs the original
1002 drag-mouse-1 action, typically copy the text.
1004 You can customize the new Mouse-1 behavior via the new user options
1005 `mouse-1-click-follows-link' and `mouse-1-click-in-non-selected-windows'.
1008 *** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
1009 is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
1010 can optionally enable mouse highlighting only after you move the
1011 mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
1012 also disable mouse highlighting.
1015 *** You can now customize if selecting a region by dragging the mouse
1016 shall not copy the selected text to the kill-ring by setting the new
1017 variable mouse-drag-copy-region to nil.
1020 *** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
1021 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
1024 *** Emacs ignores mouse-2 clicks while the mouse wheel is being moved.
1026 People tend to push the mouse wheel (which counts as a mouse-2 click)
1027 unintentionally while turning the wheel, so these clicks are now
1028 ignored. You can customize this with the mouse-wheel-click-event and
1029 mouse-wheel-inhibit-click-time variables.
1032 *** Under X, mouse-wheel-mode is turned on by default.
1034 ** Multilingual Environment (Mule) changes:
1037 *** Language environment and various default coding systems are setup
1038 more correctly according to the current locale name. If the locale
1039 name doesn't specify a charset, the default is what glibc defines.
1040 This change can result in using the different coding systems as
1041 default in some locale (e.g. vi_VN).
1044 *** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on your
1045 current locale settings if you are not using a window system. This
1046 can mean that the META key doesn't work but generates non-ASCII
1047 characters instead, depending on how the terminal (or terminal
1048 emulator) works. Use `set-keyboard-coding-system' (or customize
1049 keyboard-coding-system) if you prefer META to work (the old default)
1050 or if the locale doesn't describe the character set actually generated
1051 by the keyboard. See Info node `Single-Byte Character Support'.
1054 *** The new command `revert-buffer-with-coding-system' (C-x RET r)
1055 revisits the current file using a coding system that you specify.
1058 *** New command `recode-region' decodes the region again by a specified
1062 *** The new command `recode-file-name' changes the encoding of the name
1066 *** New command `ucs-insert' inserts a character specified by its
1070 *** The new command `set-file-name-coding-system' (C-x RET F) sets
1071 coding system for encoding and decoding file names. A new menu item
1072 (Options->Mule->Set Coding Systems->For File Name) invokes this
1076 *** New command quail-show-key shows what key (or key sequence) to type
1077 in the current input method to input a character at point.
1080 *** Limited support for character `unification' has been added.
1081 Emacs now knows how to translate between different representations of
1082 the same characters in various Emacs charsets according to standard
1083 Unicode mappings. This applies mainly to characters in the ISO 8859
1084 sets plus some other 8-bit sets, but can be extended. For instance,
1085 translation works amongst the Emacs ...-iso8859-... charsets and the
1086 mule-unicode-... ones.
1088 By default this translation happens automatically on encoding.
1089 Self-inserting characters are translated to make the input conformant
1090 with the encoding of the buffer in which it's being used, where
1093 You can force a more complete unification with the user option
1094 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode. That maps all the Latin-N character sets
1095 into Unicode characters (from the latin-iso8859-1 and
1096 mule-unicode-0100-24ff charsets) on decoding. Note that this mode
1097 will often effectively clobber data with an iso-2022 encoding.
1100 *** There is support for decoding Greek and Cyrillic characters into
1101 either Unicode (the mule-unicode charsets) or the iso-8859 charsets,
1102 when possible. The latter are more space-efficient. This is
1103 controlled by user option utf-fragment-on-decoding.
1106 *** New language environments: French, Ukrainian, Tajik,
1107 Bulgarian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, UTF-8, Windows-1255, Welsh, Latin-6,
1108 Latin-7, Lithuanian, Latvian, Swedish, Slovenian, Croatian, Georgian,
1109 Italian, Russian, Malayalam, Tamil, Russian, Chinese-EUC-TW. (Set up
1110 automatically according to the locale.)
1113 *** New input methods: latin-alt-postfix, latin-postfix, latin-prefix,
1114 ukrainian-computer, belarusian, bulgarian-bds, russian-computer,
1115 vietnamese-telex, lithuanian-numeric, lithuanian-keyboard,
1116 latvian-keyboard, welsh, georgian, rfc1345, ucs, sgml,
1117 bulgarian-phonetic, dutch, slovenian, croatian, malayalam-inscript,
1121 *** New input method chinese-sisheng for inputting Chinese Pinyin
1125 *** Improved Thai support. A new minor mode `thai-word-mode' (which is
1126 automatically activated if you select Thai as a language
1127 environment) changes key bindings of most word-oriented commands to
1128 versions which recognize Thai words. Affected commands are
1132 M-DEL (backward-kill-word)
1133 M-t (transpose-words)
1134 M-q (fill-paragraph)
1137 *** Indian support has been updated.
1138 The in-is13194 coding system is now Unicode-based. CDAC fonts are
1139 assumed. There is a framework for supporting various
1140 Indian scripts, but currently only Devanagari, Malayalam and Tamil are
1144 *** A UTF-7 coding system is available in the library `utf-7'.
1147 *** The utf-8/16 coding systems have been enhanced.
1148 By default, untranslatable utf-8 sequences are simply composed into
1149 single quasi-characters. User option `utf-translate-cjk-mode' (it is
1150 turned on by default) arranges to translate many utf-8 CJK character
1151 sequences into real Emacs characters in a similar way to the Mule-UCS
1152 system. As this loads a fairly big data on demand, people who are not
1153 interested in CJK characters may want to customize it to nil.
1154 You can augment/amend the CJK translation via hash tables
1155 `ucs-mule-cjk-to-unicode' and `ucs-unicode-to-mule-cjk'. The utf-8
1156 coding system now also encodes characters from most of Emacs's
1157 one-dimensional internal charsets, specifically the ISO-8859 ones.
1158 The utf-16 coding system is affected similarly.
1161 *** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
1162 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
1163 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
1166 *** Many new coding systems are available in the `code-pages' library.
1167 These include complete versions of most of those in codepage.el, based
1168 on Unicode mappings. `codepage-setup' is now obsolete and is used
1169 only in the MS-DOS port of Emacs. All coding systems defined in
1170 `code-pages' are auto-loaded.
1173 *** New variable `utf-translate-cjk-unicode-range' controls which
1174 Unicode characters to translate in `utf-translate-cjk-mode'.
1177 *** iso-10646-1 (`Unicode') fonts can be used to display any range of
1178 characters encodable by the utf-8 coding system. Just specify the
1179 fontset appropriately.
1181 ** Customize changes:
1184 *** Custom themes are collections of customize options. Create a
1185 custom theme with M-x customize-create-theme. Use M-x load-theme to
1186 load and enable a theme, and M-x disable-theme to disable it. Use M-x
1187 enable-theme to renable a disabled theme.
1190 *** The commands M-x customize-face and M-x customize-face-other-window
1191 now look at the character after point. If a face or faces are
1192 specified for that character, the commands by default customize those
1196 *** The face-customization widget has been reworked to be less confusing.
1197 In particular, when you enable a face attribute using the corresponding
1198 check-box, there's no longer a redundant `*' option in value selection
1199 for that attribute; the values you can choose are only those which make
1200 sense for the attribute. When an attribute is de-selected by unchecking
1201 its check-box, then the (now ignored, but still present temporarily in
1202 case you re-select the attribute) value is hidden.
1205 *** When you set or reset a variable's value in a Customize buffer,
1206 the previous value becomes the "backup value" of the variable.
1207 You can go back to that backup value by selecting "Use Backup Value"
1208 under the "[State]" button.
1210 ** Buffer Menu changes:
1213 *** New command `Buffer-menu-toggle-files-only' toggles display of file
1214 buffers only in the Buffer Menu. It is bound to `T' in Buffer Menu
1218 *** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
1219 with a space, when those buffers are visiting files. Normally buffers
1220 whose names begin with space are omitted.
1223 *** The new options `buffers-menu-show-directories' and
1224 `buffers-menu-show-status' let you control how buffers are displayed
1225 in the menu dropped down when you click "Buffers" from the menu bar.
1227 `buffers-menu-show-directories' controls whether the menu displays
1228 leading directories as part of the file name visited by the buffer.
1229 If its value is `unless-uniquify', the default, directories are
1230 shown unless uniquify-buffer-name-style' is non-nil. The value of nil
1231 and t turn the display of directories off and on, respectively.
1233 `buffers-menu-show-status' controls whether the Buffers menu includes
1234 the modified and read-only status of the buffers. By default it is
1235 t, and the status is shown.
1237 Setting these variables directly does not take effect until next time
1238 the Buffers menu is regenerated.
1243 *** New faces dired-header, dired-mark, dired-marked, dired-flagged,
1244 dired-ignored, dired-directory, dired-symlink, dired-warning
1245 introduced for Dired mode instead of font-lock faces.
1248 *** New Dired command `dired-compare-directories' marks files
1249 with different file attributes in two dired buffers.
1252 *** New Dired command `dired-do-touch' (bound to T) changes timestamps
1253 of marked files with the value entered in the minibuffer.
1256 *** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
1257 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
1258 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
1259 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
1260 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
1261 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
1264 *** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
1265 into the kill ring. With a zero prefix arg, copies absolute file names.
1268 *** In Dired-x, Omitting files is now a minor mode, dired-omit-mode.
1270 The mode toggling command is bound to M-o. A new command
1271 dired-mark-omitted, bound to * O, marks omitted files. The variable
1272 dired-omit-files-p is obsoleted, use the mode toggling function
1276 *** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
1277 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
1278 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
1279 directory listing into a buffer.
1284 *** The comint prompt can now be made read-only, using the new user
1285 option `comint-prompt-read-only'. This is not enabled by default,
1286 except in IELM buffers. The read-only status of IELM prompts can be
1287 controlled with the new user option `ielm-prompt-read-only', which
1288 overrides `comint-prompt-read-only'.
1290 The new commands `comint-kill-whole-line' and `comint-kill-region'
1291 support editing comint buffers with read-only prompts.
1293 `comint-kill-whole-line' is like `kill-whole-line', but ignores both
1294 read-only and field properties. Hence, it always kill entire
1295 lines, including any prompts.
1297 `comint-kill-region' is like `kill-region', except that it ignores
1298 read-only properties, if it is safe to do so. This means that if any
1299 part of a prompt is deleted, then the entire prompt must be deleted
1300 and that all prompts must stay at the beginning of a line. If this is
1301 not the case, then `comint-kill-region' behaves just like
1302 `kill-region' if read-only properties are involved: it copies the text
1303 to the kill-ring, but does not delete it.
1306 *** The new command `comint-insert-previous-argument' in comint-derived
1307 modes (shell-mode etc) inserts arguments from previous command lines,
1308 like bash's `ESC .' binding. It is bound by default to `C-c .', but
1309 otherwise behaves quite similarly to the bash version.
1312 *** `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields' has been renamed
1313 `comint-use-prompt-regexp'. The old name has been kept as an alias,
1314 but declared obsolete.
1316 ** M-x Compile changes:
1319 *** M-x compile has become more robust and reliable
1321 Quite a few more kinds of messages are recognized. Messages that are
1322 recognized as warnings or informational come in orange or green, instead of
1323 red. Informational messages are by default skipped with `next-error'
1324 (controlled by `compilation-skip-threshold').
1326 Location data is collected on the fly as the *compilation* buffer changes.
1327 This means you could modify messages to make them point to different files.
1328 This also means you can not go to locations of messages you may have deleted.
1330 The variable `compilation-error-regexp-alist' has now become customizable. If
1331 you had added your own regexps to this, you'll probably need to include a
1332 leading `^', otherwise they'll match anywhere on a line. There is now also a
1333 `compilation-mode-font-lock-keywords' and it nicely handles all the checks
1334 that configure outputs and -o options so you see at a glance where you are.
1336 The new file etc/compilation.txt gives examples of each type of message.
1339 *** New user option `compilation-environment'.
1340 This option allows you to specify environment variables for inferior
1341 compilation processes without affecting the environment that all
1342 subprocesses inherit.
1345 *** New user option `compilation-disable-input'.
1346 If this is non-nil, send end-of-file as compilation process input.
1349 *** New options `next-error-highlight' and `next-error-highlight-no-select'
1350 specify the method of highlighting of the corresponding source line
1351 in new face `next-error'.
1354 *** A new minor mode `next-error-follow-minor-mode' can be used in
1355 compilation-mode, grep-mode, occur-mode, and diff-mode (i.e. all the
1356 modes that can use `next-error'). In this mode, cursor motion in the
1357 buffer causes automatic display in another window of the corresponding
1358 matches, compilation errors, etc. This minor mode can be toggled with
1362 *** When the left fringe is displayed, an arrow points to current message in
1363 the compilation buffer.
1366 *** The new variable `compilation-context-lines' controls lines of leading
1367 context before the current message. If nil and the left fringe is displayed,
1368 it doesn't scroll the compilation output window. If there is no left fringe,
1369 no arrow is displayed and a value of nil means display the message at the top
1372 ** Occur mode changes:
1375 *** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
1376 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
1380 *** You can now use next-error (C-x `) and previous-error to advance to
1381 the next/previous matching line found by M-x occur.
1384 *** The new command `multi-occur' is just like `occur', except it can
1385 search multiple buffers. There is also a new command
1386 `multi-occur-by-filename-regexp' which allows you to specify the
1387 buffers to search by their filename. Internally, Occur mode has been
1388 rewritten, and now uses font-lock, among other changes.
1393 *** Grep has been decoupled from compilation mode setup.
1395 There's a new separate package grep.el, with its own submenu and
1396 customization group.
1399 *** M-x grep provides highlighting support.
1401 Hits are fontified in green, and hits in binary files in orange. Grep buffers
1402 can be saved and automatically revisited.
1405 *** `grep-find' is now also available under the name `find-grep' where
1406 people knowing `find-grep-dired' would probably expect it.
1409 *** The new variables `grep-window-height', `grep-auto-highlight', and
1410 `grep-scroll-output' override the corresponding compilation mode
1411 settings, for grep commands only.
1414 *** New option `grep-highlight-matches' highlightes matches in *grep*
1415 buffer. It uses a special feature of some grep programs which accept
1416 --color option to output markers around matches. When going to the next
1417 match with `next-error' the exact match is highlighted in the source
1418 buffer. Otherwise, if `grep-highlight-matches' is nil, the whole
1419 source line is highlighted.
1422 *** New key bindings in grep output window:
1423 SPC and DEL scrolls window up and down. C-n and C-p moves to next and
1424 previous match in the grep window. RET jumps to the source line of
1425 the current match. `n' and `p' shows next and previous match in
1426 other window, but does not switch buffer. `{' and `}' jumps to the
1427 previous or next file in the grep output. TAB also jumps to the next
1431 *** M-x grep now tries to avoid appending `/dev/null' to the command line
1432 by using GNU grep `-H' option instead. M-x grep automatically
1433 detects whether this is possible or not the first time it is invoked.
1434 When `-H' is used, the grep command line supplied by the user is passed
1435 unchanged to the system to execute, which allows more complicated
1436 command lines to be used than was possible before.
1438 ** X Windows Support:
1441 *** Emacs now supports drag and drop for X. Dropping a file on a window
1442 opens it, dropping text inserts the text. Dropping a file on a dired
1443 buffer copies or moves the file to that directory.
1446 *** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
1447 The new variables `x-alt-keysym', `x-hyper-keysym', `x-meta-keysym',
1448 and `x-super-keysym' can be used to choose which keysyms Emacs should
1449 use for the modifiers. For example, the following two lines swap
1451 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
1452 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
1455 *** The X resource useXIM can be used to turn off use of XIM, which can
1456 speed up Emacs with slow networking to the X server.
1458 If the configure option `--without-xim' was used to turn off use of
1459 XIM by default, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn it on.
1462 *** The new variable `x-select-request-type' controls how Emacs
1463 requests X selection. The default value is nil, which means that
1464 Emacs requests X selection with types COMPOUND_TEXT and UTF8_STRING,
1465 and use the more appropriately result.
1468 *** The scrollbar under LessTif or Motif has a smoother drag-scrolling.
1469 On the other hand, the size of the thumb does not represent the actual
1470 amount of text shown any more (only a crude approximation of it).
1475 *** Emacs now responds to mouse-clicks on the mode-line, header-line and
1476 display margin, when run in an xterm.
1479 *** Improved key bindings support when running in an xterm.
1480 When emacs is running in an xterm more key bindings are available. The
1481 following should work:
1482 {C,S,C-S,A}-{right,left,up,down,prior,next,delete,insert,F1-12}.
1483 These key bindings work on xterm from X.org 6.8, they might not work on
1484 some older versions of xterm, or on some proprietary versions.
1486 ** Character terminal color support changes:
1489 *** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
1490 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
1491 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
1492 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
1493 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
1494 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
1495 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
1496 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
1497 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
1500 *** Emacs now supports several character terminals which provide more
1501 than 8 colors. For example, for `xterm', 16-color, 88-color, and
1502 256-color modes are supported. Emacs automatically notes at startup
1503 the extended number of colors, and defines the appropriate entries for
1504 all of these colors.
1507 *** Emacs now uses the full range of available colors for the default
1508 faces when running on a color terminal, including 16-, 88-, and
1509 256-color xterms. This means that when you run "emacs -nw" on an
1510 88-color or 256-color xterm, you will see essentially the same face
1514 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
1516 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 22.1
1518 ** Rcirc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1520 Rcirc is an Internet relay chat (IRC) client. It supports
1521 simultaneous connections to multiple IRC servers. Each discussion
1522 takes place in its own buffer. For each connection you can join
1523 several channels (many-to-many) and participate in private
1524 (one-to-one) chats. Both channel and private chats are contained in
1527 To start an IRC session, type M-x irc, and follow the prompts for
1528 server, port, nick and initial channels.
1531 ** Newsticker is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1533 Newsticker asynchronously retrieves headlines (RSS) from a list of news
1534 sites, prepares these headlines for reading, and allows for loading the
1535 corresponding articles in a web browser. Its documentation is in a
1539 ** savehist saves minibuffer histories between sessions.
1540 To use this feature, turn on savehist-mode in your `.emacs' file.
1543 ** Filesets are collections of files. You can define a fileset in
1544 various ways, such as based on a directory tree or based on
1545 program files that include other program files.
1547 Once you have defined a fileset, you can perform various operations on
1548 all the files in it, such as visiting them or searching and replacing
1552 ** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1554 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
1555 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
1556 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
1557 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
1560 ** The new package ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
1561 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
1564 ** Ido mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1566 The ido (interactively do) package is an extension of the iswitchb
1567 package to do interactive opening of files and directories in addition
1568 to interactive buffer switching. Ido is a superset of iswitchb (with
1569 a few exceptions), so don't enable both packages.
1572 ** Image files are normally visited in Image mode, which lets you toggle
1573 between viewing the image and viewing the text using C-c C-c.
1576 ** CUA mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1578 The new cua package provides CUA-like keybindings using C-x for
1579 cut (kill), C-c for copy, C-v for paste (yank), and C-z for undo.
1580 With cua, the region can be set and extended using shifted movement
1581 keys (like pc-selection-mode) and typed text replaces the active
1582 region (like delete-selection-mode). Do not enable these modes with
1583 cua-mode. Customize the variable `cua-mode' to enable cua.
1585 In addition, cua provides unified rectangle support with visible
1586 rectangle highlighting: Use C-return to start a rectangle, extend it
1587 using the movement commands (or mouse-3), and cut or copy it using C-x
1588 or C-c (using C-w and M-w also works).
1590 Use M-o and M-c to `open' or `close' the rectangle, use M-b or M-f, to
1591 fill it with blanks or another character, use M-u or M-l to upcase or
1592 downcase the rectangle, use M-i to increment the numbers in the
1593 rectangle, use M-n to fill the rectangle with a numeric sequence (such
1594 as 10 20 30...), use M-r to replace a regexp in the rectangle, and use
1595 M-' or M-/ to restrict command on the rectangle to a subset of the
1596 rows. See the commentary in cua-base.el for more rectangle commands.
1598 Cua also provides unified support for registers: Use a numeric
1599 prefix argument between 0 and 9, i.e. M-0 .. M-9, for C-x, C-c, and
1600 C-v to cut or copy into register 0-9, or paste from register 0-9.
1602 The last text deleted (not killed) is automatically stored in
1603 register 0. This includes text deleted by typing text.
1605 Finally, cua provides a global mark which is set using S-C-space.
1606 When the global mark is active, any text which is cut or copied is
1607 automatically inserted at the global mark position. See the
1608 commentary in cua-base.el for more global mark related commands.
1610 The features of cua also works with the standard emacs bindings for
1611 kill, copy, yank, and undo. If you want to use cua mode, but don't
1612 want the C-x, C-c, C-v, and C-z bindings, you can customize the
1613 `cua-enable-cua-keys' variable.
1615 Note: This version of cua mode is not backwards compatible with older
1616 versions of cua.el and cua-mode.el. To ensure proper operation, you
1617 must remove older versions of cua.el or cua-mode.el as well as the
1618 loading and customization of those packages from the .emacs file.
1621 ** Org mode is now part of the Emacs distribution
1623 Org mode is a mode for keeping notes, maintaining ToDo lists, and
1624 doing project planning with a fast and effective plain-text system.
1625 It also contains a plain-text table editor with spreadsheet-like
1628 The Org mode table editor can be integrated into any major mode by
1629 activating the minor Orgtbl-mode.
1631 The documentation for org-mode is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
1632 type "C-h i m org RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
1633 available in `etc/orgcard.tex' and `etc/orgcard.ps'.
1636 ** The new package dns-mode.el add syntax highlight of DNS master files.
1637 The key binding C-c C-s (`dns-mode-soa-increment-serial') can be used
1638 to increment the SOA serial.
1641 ** The new global minor mode `file-name-shadow-mode' modifies the way
1642 filenames being entered by the user in the minibuffer are displayed, so
1643 that it's clear when part of the entered filename will be ignored due to
1644 emacs' filename parsing rules. The ignored portion can be made dim,
1645 invisible, or otherwise less visually noticable. The display method can
1646 be displayed by customizing the variable `file-name-shadow-properties'.
1649 ** The new package flymake.el does on-the-fly syntax checking of program
1650 source files. See the Flymake's Info manual for more details.
1653 ** The new keypad setup package provides several common bindings for
1654 the numeric keypad which is available on most keyboards. The numeric
1655 keypad typically has the digits 0 to 9, a decimal point, keys marked
1656 +, -, /, and *, an Enter key, and a NumLock toggle key. The keypad
1657 package only controls the use of the digit and decimal keys.
1659 By customizing the variables `keypad-setup', `keypad-shifted-setup',
1660 `keypad-numlock-setup', and `keypad-numlock-shifted-setup', or by
1661 using the function `keypad-setup', you can rebind all digit keys and
1662 the decimal key of the keypad in one step for each of the four
1663 possible combinations of the Shift key state (not pressed/pressed) and
1664 the NumLock toggle state (off/on).
1666 The choices for the keypad keys in each of the above states are:
1667 `Plain numeric keypad' where the keys generates plain digits,
1668 `Numeric keypad with decimal key' where the character produced by the
1669 decimal key can be customized individually (for internationalization),
1670 `Numeric Prefix Arg' where the keypad keys produce numeric prefix args
1671 for emacs editing commands, `Cursor keys' and `Shifted Cursor keys'
1672 where the keys work like (shifted) arrow keys, home/end, etc., and
1673 `Unspecified/User-defined' where the keypad keys (kp-0, kp-1, etc.)
1674 are left unspecified and can be bound individually through the global
1678 ** The new kmacro package provides a simpler user interface to
1679 emacs' keyboard macro facilities.
1681 Basically, it uses two function keys (default F3 and F4) like this:
1682 F3 starts a macro, F4 ends the macro, and pressing F4 again executes
1683 the last macro. While defining the macro, F3 inserts a counter value
1684 which automatically increments every time the macro is executed.
1686 There is now a keyboard macro ring which stores the most recently
1689 The C-x C-k sequence is now a prefix for the kmacro keymap which
1690 defines bindings for moving through the keyboard macro ring,
1691 C-x C-k C-p and C-x C-k C-n, editing the last macro C-x C-k C-e,
1692 manipulating the macro counter and format via C-x C-k C-c,
1693 C-x C-k C-a, and C-x C-k C-f. See the commentary in kmacro.el
1696 The normal macro bindings C-x (, C-x ), and C-x e now interfaces to
1697 the keyboard macro ring.
1699 The C-x e command now automatically terminates the current macro
1700 before calling it, if used while defining a macro.
1702 In addition, when ending or calling a macro with C-x e, the macro can
1703 be repeated immediately by typing just the `e'. You can customize
1704 this behavior via the variables kmacro-call-repeat-key and
1705 kmacro-call-repeat-with-arg.
1707 Keyboard macros can now be debugged and edited interactively.
1708 C-x C-k SPC steps through the last keyboard macro one key sequence
1709 at a time, prompting for the actions to take.
1712 ** New minor mode, Visible mode, toggles invisibility in the current buffer.
1713 When enabled, it makes all invisible text visible. When disabled, it
1714 restores the previous value of `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
1717 ** The wdired.el package allows you to use normal editing commands on Dired
1718 buffers to change filenames, permissions, etc...
1721 ** The new package longlines.el provides a minor mode for editing text
1722 files composed of long lines, based on the `use-hard-newlines'
1723 mechanism. The long lines are broken up by inserting soft newlines,
1724 which are automatically removed when saving the file to disk or
1725 copying into the kill ring, clipboard, etc. By default, Longlines
1726 mode inserts soft newlines automatically during editing, a behavior
1727 referred to as "soft word wrap" in other text editors. This is
1728 similar to Refill mode, but more reliable. To turn the word wrap
1729 feature off, set `longlines-auto-wrap' to nil.
1732 ** The printing package is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1734 If you enable the printing package by including (require 'printing) in
1735 the .emacs file, the normal Print item on the File menu is replaced
1736 with a Print sub-menu which allows you to preview output through
1737 ghostview, use ghostscript to print (if you don't have a PostScript
1738 printer) or send directly to printer a PostScript code generated by
1739 `ps-print' package. Use M-x pr-help for more information.
1742 ** The minor mode Reveal mode makes text visible on the fly as you
1743 move your cursor into hidden regions of the buffer.
1744 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
1745 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
1747 There is also Global Reveal mode which affects all buffers.
1750 ** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
1751 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
1752 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
1756 ** SES mode (ses-mode) is a new major mode for creating and editing
1757 spreadsheet files. Besides the usual Emacs features (intuitive command
1758 letters, undo, cell formulas in Lisp, plaintext files, etc.) it also offers
1759 viral immunity and import/export of tab-separated values.
1762 ** The new global minor mode `size-indication-mode' (off by default)
1763 shows the size of accessible part of the buffer on the mode line.
1766 ** The new package table.el implements editable, WYSIWYG, embedded
1767 `text tables' in Emacs buffers. It simulates the effect of putting
1768 these tables in a special major mode. The package emulates WYSIWYG
1769 table editing available in modern word processors. The package also
1770 can generate a table source in typesetting and markup languages such
1771 as latex and html from the visually laid out text table.
1774 ** The thumbs.el package allows you to preview image files as thumbnails
1775 and can be invoked from a Dired buffer.
1778 ** Tramp is now part of the distribution.
1780 This package is similar to Ange-FTP: it allows you to edit remote
1781 files. But whereas Ange-FTP uses FTP to access the remote host,
1782 Tramp uses a shell connection. The shell connection is always used
1783 for filename completion and directory listings and suchlike, but for
1784 the actual file transfer, you can choose between the so-called
1785 `inline' methods (which transfer the files through the shell
1786 connection using base64 or uu encoding) and the `out-of-band' methods
1787 (which invoke an external copying program such as `rcp' or `scp' or
1788 `rsync' to do the copying).
1790 Shell connections can be acquired via `rsh', `ssh', `telnet' and also
1791 `su' and `sudo'. Ange-FTP is still supported via the `ftp' method.
1793 If you want to disable Tramp you should set
1795 (setq tramp-default-method "ftp")
1798 ** The URL package (which had been part of W3) is now part of Emacs.
1801 ** `cfengine-mode' is a major mode for editing GNU Cfengine
1802 configuration files.
1805 ** The new package conf-mode.el handles thousands of configuration files, with
1806 varying syntaxes for comments (;, #, //, /* */ or !), assignment (var = value,
1807 var : value, var value or keyword var value) and sections ([section] or
1808 section { }). Many files under /etc/, or with suffixes like .cf through
1809 .config, .properties (Java), .desktop (KDE/Gnome), .ini and many others are
1813 ** GDB-Script-mode is used for files like .gdbinit.
1816 ** The new python.el package is used to edit Python and Jython programs.
1819 ** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
1820 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
1822 ** The new package scroll-lock.el provides the Scroll Lock minor mode
1823 for pager-like scrolling. Keys which normally move point by line or
1824 paragraph will scroll the buffer by the respective amount of lines
1825 instead and point will be kept vertically fixed relative to window
1826 boundaries during scrolling.
1828 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 22.1:
1830 ** Changes in Allout
1832 *** Topic cryptography added, enabling easy gpg topic encryption and
1833 decryption. Per-topic basis enables interspersing encrypted-text and
1834 clear-text within a single file to your hearts content, using symmetric
1835 and/or public key modes. Time-limited key caching, user-provided
1836 symmetric key hinting and consistency verification, auto-encryption of
1837 pending topics on save, and more, make it easy to use encryption in
1840 *** many substantial fixes and refinements, including:
1842 - repaired inhibition of inadvertent edits to concealed text
1843 - repaired retention of topic body hanging indent upon topic depth shifts
1844 - prevent "containment discontinuities" where a topic is shifted deeper
1845 than the offspring-depth of its container
1846 - easy to adopt the distinctive bullet of a topic in a topic created
1847 relative to it, or select a new one, or use the common topic bullet
1848 - plain bullets, by default, now alternate between only two characters
1849 ('.' and ','), yielding less cluttered outlines
1850 - many internal fixes
1851 - version number incremented to 2.1
1853 ** The variable `woman-topic-at-point' was renamed
1854 to `woman-use-topic-at-point' and behaves differently: if this
1855 variable is non-nil, the `woman' command uses the word at point
1856 automatically, without asking for a confirmation. Otherwise, the word
1857 at point is suggested as default, but not inserted at the prompt.
1860 ** Changes to cmuscheme
1862 *** Emacs now offers to start Scheme if the user tries to
1863 evaluate a Scheme expression but no Scheme subprocess is running.
1865 *** If a file `.emacs_NAME' (where NAME is the name of the Scheme interpreter)
1866 exists in the user's home directory or in ~/.emacs.d, its
1867 contents are sent to the Scheme subprocess upon startup.
1869 *** There are new commands to instruct the Scheme interpreter to trace
1870 procedure calls (`scheme-trace-procedure') and to expand syntactic forms
1871 (`scheme-expand-current-form'). The commands actually sent to the Scheme
1872 subprocess are controlled by the user options `scheme-trace-command',
1873 `scheme-untrace-command' and `scheme-expand-current-form'.
1876 ** Makefile mode has submodes for automake, gmake, makepp and BSD make.
1878 The former two couldn't be differentiated before, and the latter two
1879 are new. Font-locking is robust now and offers new customizable
1883 ** In Outline mode, `hide-body' no longer hides lines at the top
1884 of the file that precede the first header line.
1887 ** Telnet now prompts you for a port number with C-u M-x telnet.
1890 ** The terminal emulation code in term.el has been improved; it can
1891 run most curses applications now.
1894 ** M-x diff uses Diff mode instead of Compilation mode.
1897 ** You can now customize `fill-nobreak-predicate' to control where
1898 filling can break lines. The value is now normally a list of
1899 functions, but it can also be a single function, for compatibility.
1901 Emacs provide two predicates, `fill-single-word-nobreak-p' and
1902 `fill-french-nobreak-p', for use as the value of
1903 `fill-nobreak-predicate'.
1906 ** M-x view-file and commands that use it now avoid interfering
1907 with special modes such as Tar mode.
1910 ** Commands `winner-redo' and `winner-undo', from winner.el, are now
1911 bound to C-c <left> and C-c <right>, respectively. This is an
1912 incompatible change.
1915 ** `global-whitespace-mode' is a new alias for `whitespace-global-mode'.
1918 ** M-x compare-windows now can automatically skip non-matching text to
1919 resync points in both windows.
1922 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
1924 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry always
1925 starts a new record regardless of when the last record is.
1928 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
1929 when Emacs visits them.
1931 ** Info mode changes:
1934 *** A numeric prefix argument of `info' selects an Info buffer
1935 with the number appended to the `*info*' buffer name (e.g. "*info*<2>").
1938 *** isearch in Info uses Info-search and searches through multiple nodes.
1940 Before leaving the initial Info node isearch fails once with the error
1941 message [initial node], and with subsequent C-s/C-r continues through
1942 other nodes. When isearch fails for the rest of the manual, it wraps
1943 aroung the whole manual to the top/final node. The user option
1944 `Info-isearch-search' controls whether to use Info-search for isearch,
1945 or the default isearch search function that wraps around the current
1949 *** New search commands: `Info-search-case-sensitively' (bound to S),
1950 `Info-search-backward', and `Info-search-next' which repeats the last
1951 search without prompting for a new search string.
1954 *** New command `Info-history-forward' (bound to r and new toolbar icon)
1955 moves forward in history to the node you returned from after using
1956 `Info-history-back' (renamed from `Info-last').
1959 *** New command `Info-history' (bound to L) displays a menu of visited nodes.
1962 *** New command `Info-toc' (bound to T) creates a node with table of contents
1963 from the tree structure of menus of the current Info file.
1966 *** New command `info-apropos' searches the indices of the known
1967 Info files on your system for a string, and builds a menu of the
1971 *** New command `Info-copy-current-node-name' (bound to w) copies
1972 the current Info node name into the kill ring. With a zero prefix
1973 arg, puts the node name inside the `info' function call.
1976 *** New face `info-xref-visited' distinguishes visited nodes from unvisited
1977 and a new option `Info-fontify-visited-nodes' to control this.
1980 *** http and ftp links in Info are now operational: they look like cross
1981 references and following them calls `browse-url'.
1984 *** Info now hides node names in menus and cross references by default.
1986 If you prefer the old behavior, you can set the new user option
1987 `Info-hide-note-references' to nil.
1990 *** Images in Info pages are supported.
1992 Info pages show embedded images, in Emacs frames with image support.
1993 Info documentation that includes images, processed with makeinfo
1994 version 4.7 or newer, compiles to Info pages with embedded images.
1997 *** The default value for `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' is now nil.
2000 *** `Info-index' offers completion.
2002 ** Lisp mode changes:
2005 *** Lisp mode now uses `font-lock-doc-face' for doc strings.
2008 *** C-u C-M-q in Emacs Lisp mode pretty-prints the list after point.
2010 *** New features in evaluation commands
2013 **** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) called on defface reinitializes
2014 the face to the value specified in the defface expression.
2017 **** Typing C-x C-e twice prints the value of the integer result
2018 in additional formats (octal, hexadecimal, character) specified
2019 by the new function `eval-expression-print-format'. The same
2020 function also defines the result format for `eval-expression' (M-:),
2021 `eval-print-last-sexp' (C-j) and some edebug evaluation functions.
2026 *** Font lock support.
2027 CC Mode now provides font lock support for all its languages. This
2028 supersedes the font lock patterns that have been in the core font lock
2029 package for C, C++, Java and Objective-C. Like indentation, font
2030 locking is done in a uniform way across all languages (except the new
2031 AWK mode - see below). That means that the new font locking will be
2032 different from the old patterns in various details for most languages.
2034 The main goal of the font locking in CC Mode is accuracy, to provide a
2035 dependable aid in recognizing the various constructs. Some, like
2036 strings and comments, are easy to recognize while others like
2037 declarations and types can be very tricky. CC Mode can go to great
2038 lengths to recognize declarations and casts correctly, especially when
2039 the types aren't recognized by standard patterns. This is a fairly
2040 demanding analysis which can be slow on older hardware, and it can
2041 therefore be disabled by choosing a lower decoration level with the
2042 variable font-lock-maximum-decoration.
2044 Note that the most demanding font lock level has been tuned with lazy
2045 fontification in mind, i.e. there should be a support mode that waits
2046 with the fontification until the text is actually shown
2047 (e.g. Just-in-time Lock mode, which is the default, or Lazy Lock
2048 mode). Fontifying a file with several thousand lines in one go can
2049 take the better part of a minute.
2051 **** The (c|c++|objc|java|idl|pike)-font-lock-extra-types variables
2052 are now used by CC Mode to recognize identifiers that are certain to
2053 be types. (They are also used in cases that aren't related to font
2054 locking.) At the maximum decoration level, types are often recognized
2055 properly anyway, so these variables should be fairly restrictive and
2056 not contain patterns for uncertain types.
2058 **** Support for documentation comments.
2059 There is a "plugin" system to fontify documentation comments like
2060 Javadoc and the markup within them. It's independent of the host
2061 language, so it's possible to e.g. turn on Javadoc font locking in C
2062 buffers. See the variable c-doc-comment-style for details.
2064 Currently two kinds of doc comment styles are recognized: Suns Javadoc
2065 and Autodoc which is used in Pike. This is by no means a complete
2066 list of the most common tools; if your doc comment extractor of choice
2067 is missing then please drop a note to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
2069 **** Better handling of C++ templates.
2070 As a side effect of the more accurate font locking, C++ templates are
2071 now handled much better. The angle brackets that delimit them are
2072 given parenthesis syntax so that they can be navigated like other
2075 This also improves indentation of templates, although there still is
2076 work to be done in that area. E.g. it's required that multiline
2077 template clauses are written in full and then refontified to be
2078 recognized, and the indentation of nested templates is a bit odd and
2079 not as configurable as it ought to be.
2081 **** Improved handling of Objective-C and CORBA IDL.
2082 Especially the support for Objective-C and IDL has gotten an overhaul.
2083 The special "@" declarations in Objective-C are handled correctly.
2084 All the keywords used in CORBA IDL, PSDL, and CIDL are recognized and
2085 handled correctly, also wrt indentation.
2087 *** Support for the AWK language.
2088 Support for the AWK language has been introduced. The implementation is
2089 based around GNU AWK version 3.1, but it should work pretty well with
2090 any AWK. As yet, not all features of CC Mode have been adapted for AWK.
2093 **** Indentation Engine
2094 The CC Mode indentation engine fully supports AWK mode.
2096 AWK mode handles code formatted in the conventional AWK fashion: `{'s
2097 which start actions, user-defined functions, or compound statements are
2098 placed on the same line as the associated construct; the matching `}'s
2099 are normally placed under the start of the respective pattern, function
2100 definition, or structured statement.
2102 The predefined indentation functions haven't yet been adapted for AWK
2103 mode, though some of them may work serendipitously. There shouldn't be
2104 any problems writing custom indentation functions for AWK mode.
2106 The command C-c C-q (c-indent-defun) hasn't yet been adapted for AWK,
2107 though in practice it works properly nearly all the time. Should it
2108 fail, explicitly set the region around the function (using C-u C-SPC:
2109 C-M-h probably won't work either) then do C-M-\ (indent-region).
2112 There is a single level of font locking in AWK mode, rather than the
2113 three distinct levels the other modes have. There are several
2114 idiosyncrasies in AWK mode's font-locking due to the peculiarities of
2115 the AWK language itself.
2117 **** Comment Commands
2118 M-; (indent-for-comment) works fine. None of the other CC Mode
2119 comment formatting commands have yet been adapted for AWK mode.
2121 **** Movement Commands
2122 Most of the movement commands work in AWK mode. The most important
2123 exceptions are M-a (c-beginning-of-statement) and M-e
2124 (c-end-of-statement) which haven't yet been adapted.
2126 The notion of "defun" has been augmented to include AWK pattern-action
2127 pairs. C-M-a (c-awk-beginning-of-defun) and C-M-e (c-awk-end-of-defun)
2128 recognize these pattern-action pairs, as well as user defined
2131 **** Auto-newline Insertion and Clean-ups
2132 Auto-newline insertion hasn't yet been adapted for AWK. Some of
2133 the clean-ups can actually convert good AWK code into syntactically
2134 invalid code. These features are best disabled in AWK buffers.
2136 *** New syntactic symbols in IDL mode.
2137 The top level constructs "module" and "composition" (from CIDL) are
2138 now handled like "namespace" in C++: They are given syntactic symbols
2139 module-open, module-close, inmodule, composition-open,
2140 composition-close, and incomposition.
2142 *** New functions to do hungry delete without enabling hungry delete mode.
2143 The functions `c-hungry-backspace' and `c-hungry-delete-forward' can be
2144 bound to keys to get this feature without toggling a mode.
2146 *** Better control over `require-final-newline'.
2148 The variable `c-require-final-newline' specifies which of the modes
2149 implemented by CC mode should insert final newlines. Its value is a
2150 list of modes, and only those modes should do it. By default the list
2151 includes C, C++ and Objective-C modes.
2153 Whichever modes are in this list will set `require-final-newline'
2154 based on `mode-require-final-newline'.
2156 *** Format change for syntactic context elements.
2158 The elements in the syntactic context returned by `c-guess-basic-syntax'
2159 and stored in `c-syntactic-context' has been changed somewhat to allow
2160 attaching more information. They are now lists instead of single cons
2161 cells. E.g. a line that previously had the syntactic analysis
2163 ((inclass . 11) (topmost-intro . 13))
2167 ((inclass 11) (topmost-intro 13))
2169 In some cases there are more than one position given for a syntactic
2172 This change might affect code that call `c-guess-basic-syntax' directly,
2173 and custom lineup functions if they use `c-syntactic-context'. However,
2174 the argument given to lineup functions is still a single cons cell
2175 with nil or an integer in the cdr.
2177 *** API changes for derived modes.
2179 There have been extensive changes "under the hood" which can affect
2180 derived mode writers. Some of these changes are likely to cause
2181 incompatibilities with existing derived modes, but on the other hand
2182 care has now been taken to make it possible to extend and modify CC
2183 Mode with less risk of such problems in the future.
2185 **** New language variable system.
2186 See the comment blurb near the top of cc-langs.el.
2188 **** New initialization functions.
2189 The initialization procedure has been split up into more functions to
2190 give better control: `c-basic-common-init', `c-font-lock-init', and
2191 `c-init-language-vars'.
2193 *** Changes in analysis of nested syntactic constructs.
2194 The syntactic analysis engine has better handling of cases where
2195 several syntactic constructs appear nested on the same line. They are
2196 now handled as if each construct started on a line of its own.
2198 This means that CC Mode now indents some cases differently, and
2199 although it's more consistent there might be cases where the old way
2200 gave results that's more to one's liking. So if you find a situation
2201 where you think that the indentation has become worse, please report
2202 it to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
2204 **** New syntactic symbol substatement-label.
2205 This symbol is used when a label is inserted between a statement and
2206 its substatement. E.g:
2212 *** Better handling of multiline macros.
2214 **** Syntactic indentation inside macros.
2215 The contents of multiline #define's are now analyzed and indented
2216 syntactically just like other code. This can be disabled by the new
2217 variable `c-syntactic-indentation-in-macros'. A new syntactic symbol
2218 `cpp-define-intro' has been added to control the initial indentation
2221 **** New lineup function `c-lineup-cpp-define'.
2223 Now used by default to line up macro continuation lines. The behavior
2224 of this function closely mimics the indentation one gets if the macro
2225 is indented while the line continuation backslashes are temporarily
2226 removed. If syntactic indentation in macros is turned off, it works
2227 much line `c-lineup-dont-change', which was used earlier, but handles
2228 empty lines within the macro better.
2230 **** Automatically inserted newlines continues the macro if used within one.
2231 This applies to the newlines inserted by the auto-newline mode, and to
2232 `c-context-line-break' and `c-context-open-line'.
2234 **** Better alignment of line continuation backslashes.
2235 `c-backslash-region' tries to adapt to surrounding backslashes. New
2236 variable `c-backslash-max-column' which put a limit on how far out
2237 backslashes can be moved.
2239 **** Automatic alignment of line continuation backslashes.
2240 This is controlled by the new variable `c-auto-align-backslashes'. It
2241 affects `c-context-line-break', `c-context-open-line' and newlines
2242 inserted in Auto-Newline mode.
2243 **** Line indentation works better inside macros.
2245 Regardless whether syntactic indentation and syntactic indentation
2246 inside macros are enabled or not, line indentation now ignores the
2247 line continuation backslashes. This is most noticeable when syntactic
2248 indentation is turned off and there are empty lines (save for the
2249 backslash) in the macro.
2251 *** indent-for-comment is more customizable.
2252 The behavior of M-; (indent-for-comment) is now configurable through
2253 the variable `c-indent-comment-alist'. The indentation behavior based
2254 on the preceding code on the line, e.g. to get two spaces after #else
2255 and #endif but indentation to `comment-column' in most other cases
2256 (something which was hardcoded earlier).
2258 *** New function `c-context-open-line'.
2259 It's the open-line equivalent of `c-context-line-break'.
2261 *** New lineup functions
2263 **** `c-lineup-string-cont'
2264 This lineup function lines up a continued string under the one it
2267 result = prefix + "A message "
2268 "string."; <- c-lineup-string-cont
2270 **** `c-lineup-cascaded-calls'
2271 Lines up series of calls separated by "->" or ".".
2273 **** `c-lineup-knr-region-comment'
2274 Gives (what most people think is) better indentation of comments in
2275 the "K&R region" between the function header and its body.
2277 **** `c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg'
2278 Provides better indentation inside asm blocks.
2280 **** `c-lineup-argcont'
2281 Lines up continued function arguments after the preceding comma.
2283 *** Better caching of the syntactic context.
2284 CC Mode caches the positions of the opening parentheses (of any kind)
2285 of the lists surrounding the point. Those positions are used in many
2286 places as anchor points for various searches. The cache is now
2287 improved so that it can be reused to a large extent when the point is
2288 moved. The less it moves, the less needs to be recalculated.
2290 The effect is that CC Mode should be fast most of the time even when
2291 opening parens are hung (i.e. aren't in column zero). It's typically
2292 only the first time after the point is moved far down in a complex
2293 file that it'll take noticeable time to find out the syntactic
2296 *** Statements are recognized in a more robust way.
2297 Statements are recognized most of the time even when they occur in an
2298 "invalid" context, e.g. in a function argument. In practice that can
2299 happen when macros are involved.
2301 *** Improved the way `c-indent-exp' chooses the block to indent.
2302 It now indents the block for the closest sexp following the point
2303 whose closing paren ends on a different line. This means that the
2304 point doesn't have to be immediately before the block to indent.
2305 Also, only the block and the closing line is indented; the current
2306 line is left untouched.
2308 *** Added toggle for syntactic indentation.
2309 The function `c-toggle-syntactic-indentation' can be used to toggle
2310 syntactic indentation.
2312 ** In sh-script, a continuation line is only indented if the backslash was
2313 preceded by a SPC or a TAB.
2316 ** Perl mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
2319 ** The old Octave mode bindings C-c f and C-c i have been changed
2320 to C-c C-f and C-c C-i. The C-c C-i subcommands now have duplicate
2321 bindings on control characters--thus, C-c C-i C-b is the same as
2322 C-c C-i b, and so on.
2324 ** Fortran mode changes:
2327 *** Fortran mode does more font-locking by default. Use level 3
2328 highlighting for the old default.
2331 *** Fortran mode has a new variable `fortran-directive-re'.
2332 Adapt this to match the format of any compiler directives you use.
2333 Lines that match are never indented, and are given distinctive font-locking.
2336 *** F90 mode and Fortran mode have new navigation commands
2337 `f90-end-of-block', `f90-beginning-of-block', `f90-next-block',
2338 `f90-previous-block', `fortran-end-of-block',
2339 `fortran-beginning-of-block'.
2342 *** F90 mode and Fortran mode have support for `hs-minor-mode' (hideshow).
2343 It cannot deal with every code format, but ought to handle a sizeable
2347 *** The new function `f90-backslash-not-special' can be used to change
2348 the syntax of backslashes in F90 buffers.
2351 ** Reftex mode changes
2353 *** Changes to RefTeX's table of contents
2355 The new command keys "<" and ">" in the TOC buffer promote/demote the
2356 section at point or all sections in the current region, with full
2357 support for multifile documents.
2359 The new command `reftex-toc-recenter' (`C-c -') shows the current
2360 section in the TOC buffer without selecting the TOC window.
2361 Recentering can happen automatically in idle time when the option
2362 `reftex-auto-recenter-toc' is turned on. The highlight in the TOC
2363 buffer stays when the focus moves to a different window. A dedicated
2364 frame can show the TOC with the current section always automatically
2365 highlighted. The frame is created and deleted from the toc buffer
2368 The toc window can be split off horizontally instead of vertically.
2369 See new option `reftex-toc-split-windows-horizontally'.
2371 Labels can be renamed globally from the table of contents using the
2374 The new command `reftex-goto-label' jumps directly to a label
2378 *** Changes related to citations and BibTeX database files
2380 Commands that insert a citation now prompt for optional arguments when
2381 called with a prefix argument. Related new options are
2382 `reftex-cite-prompt-optional-args' and `reftex-cite-cleanup-optional-args'.
2384 The new command `reftex-create-bibtex-file' creates a BibTeX database
2385 with all entries referenced in the current document. The keys "e" and
2386 "E" allow to produce a BibTeX database file from entries marked in a
2387 citation selection buffer.
2389 The command `reftex-citation' uses the word in the buffer before the
2390 cursor as a default search string.
2392 The support for chapterbib has been improved. Different chapters can
2393 now use BibTeX or an explicit `thebibliography' environment.
2395 The macros which specify the bibliography file (like \bibliography)
2396 can be configured with the new option `reftex-bibliography-commands'.
2398 Support for jurabib has been added.
2401 *** Global index matched may be verified with a user function
2403 During global indexing, a user function can verify an index match.
2404 See new option `reftex-index-verify-function'.
2407 *** Parsing documents with many labels can be sped up.
2409 Operating in a document with thousands of labels can be sped up
2410 considerably by allowing RefTeX to derive the type of a label directly
2411 from the label prefix like `eq:' or `fig:'. The option
2412 `reftex-trust-label-prefix' needs to be configured in order to enable
2413 this feature. While the speed-up is significant, this may reduce the
2414 quality of the context offered by RefTeX to describe a label.
2417 *** Miscellaneous changes
2419 The macros which input a file in LaTeX (like \input, \include) can be
2420 configured in the new option `reftex-include-file-commands'.
2422 RefTeX supports global incremental search.
2425 ** Prolog mode has a new variable `prolog-font-lock-keywords'
2426 to support use of font-lock.
2428 ** HTML/SGML changes:
2431 *** Emacs now tries to set up buffer coding systems for HTML/XML files
2435 *** SGML mode has indentation and supports XML syntax.
2436 The new variable `sgml-xml-mode' tells SGML mode to use XML syntax.
2437 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
2438 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
2439 By default, its setting is inferred on a buffer-by-buffer basis
2440 from the file name or buffer contents.
2443 *** `xml-mode' is now an alias for `sgml-mode', which has XML support.
2448 *** C-c C-c prompts for a command to run, and tries to offer a good default.
2451 *** The user option `tex-start-options-string' has been replaced
2452 by two new user options: `tex-start-options', which should hold
2453 command-line options to feed to TeX, and `tex-start-commands' which should hold
2454 TeX commands to use at startup.
2457 *** verbatim environments are now highlighted in courier by font-lock
2458 and super/sub-scripts are made into super/sub-scripts.
2461 *** New major mode Doctex mode, for *.dtx files.
2465 *** The new command `bibtex-url' browses a URL for the BibTeX entry at
2466 point (bound to C-c C-l and mouse-2, RET on clickable fields).
2468 *** The new command `bibtex-entry-update' (bound to C-c C-u) updates
2469 an existing BibTeX entry.
2471 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `required-fields', enabled by default.
2473 *** `bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries' can take values `plain',
2474 `crossref', and `entry-class' which control the sorting scheme used
2475 for BibTeX entries. `bibtex-sort-entry-class' controls the sorting
2476 scheme `entry-class'. TAB completion for reference keys and
2477 automatic detection of duplicates does not require anymore that
2478 `bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries' is non-nil.
2480 *** If the new variable `bibtex-parse-keys-fast' is non-nil,
2481 use fast but simplified algorithm for parsing BibTeX keys.
2483 *** If the new variable `bibtex-autoadd-commas' is non-nil,
2484 automatically add missing commas at end of BibTeX fields.
2486 *** The new variable `bibtex-autofill-types' contains a list of entry
2487 types for which fields are filled automatically (if possible).
2489 *** The new command `bibtex-complete' completes word fragment before
2490 point according to context (bound to M-tab).
2492 *** The new commands `bibtex-find-entry' and `bibtex-find-crossref'
2493 locate entries and crossref'd entries (bound to C-c C-s and C-c C-x).
2494 Crossref fields are clickable (bound to mouse-2, RET).
2496 *** In BibTeX mode the command `fill-paragraph' (M-q) fills
2497 individual fields of a BibTeX entry.
2499 *** The new variables `bibtex-files' and `bibtex-file-path' define a set
2500 of BibTeX files that are searched for entry keys.
2502 *** The new command `bibtex-validate-globally' checks for duplicate keys
2503 in multiple BibTeX files.
2505 *** The new command `bibtex-copy-summary-as-kill' pushes summary
2506 of BibTeX entry to kill ring (bound to C-c C-t).
2509 ** In Enriched mode, `set-left-margin' and `set-right-margin' are now
2510 by default bound to `C-c [' and `C-c ]' instead of the former `C-c C-l'
2516 *** In GUD mode, when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
2517 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
2520 *** GUD mode has its own tool bar for controlling execution of the inferior
2521 and other common debugger commands.
2524 *** The new package gdb-ui.el provides an enhanced graphical interface to
2525 GDB. You can interact with GDB through the GUD buffer in the usual way, but
2526 there are also further buffers which control the execution and describe the
2527 state of your program. It can separate the input/output of your program from
2528 that of GDB and watches expressions in the speedbar. It also uses features of
2529 Emacs 21/22 such as the toolbar, and bitmaps in the fringe to indicate
2532 Use M-x gdb to start GDB-UI.
2534 *** The variable tooltip-gud-tips-p has been removed. GUD tooltips can now be
2535 toggled independently of normal tooltips with the minor mode
2539 *** In graphical mode, with a C program, GUD Tooltips have been extended to
2540 display the #define directive associated with an identifier when program is
2544 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
2546 *** Search for source files using jdb classpath and class
2547 information. Fast startup since there is no need to scan all
2548 source files up front. There is also no need to create and maintain
2549 lists of source directories to scan. Look at `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
2550 and `gud-jdb-classpath' customization variables documentation.
2552 *** Supports the standard breakpoint (gud-break, gud-clear)
2553 set/clear operations from java source files under the classpath, stack
2554 traversal (gud-up, gud-down), and run until current stack finish
2557 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
2560 *** The previous method of searching for source files has been
2561 preserved in case someone still wants/needs to use it.
2562 Set `gud-jdb-use-classpath' to nil.
2564 Added Customization Variables
2566 *** `gud-jdb-command-name'. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
2568 *** `gud-jdb-use-classpath'. Allows selection of java source file searching
2569 method: set to t for new method, nil to scan `gud-jdb-directories' for
2570 java sources (previous method).
2572 *** `gud-jdb-directories'. List of directories to scan and search for java
2573 classes using the original gud-jdb method (if `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
2578 *** The STARTTLS wrapper (starttls.el) can now use GNUTLS
2579 instead of the OpenSSL based `starttls' tool. For backwards
2580 compatibility, it prefers `starttls', but you can toggle
2581 `starttls-use-gnutls' to switch to GNUTLS (or simply remove the
2584 *** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
2586 ** Auto-Revert changes:
2589 *** You can now use Auto Revert mode to `tail' a file.
2591 If point is at the end of a file buffer before reverting, Auto Revert
2592 mode keeps it at the end after reverting. Similarly if point is
2593 displayed at the end of a file buffer in any window, it stays at
2594 the end of the buffer in that window. This allows to tail a file:
2595 just put point at the end of the buffer and it stays there. This
2596 rule applies to file buffers. For non-file buffers, the behavior can
2599 If you are sure that the file will only change by growing at the end,
2600 then you can tail the file more efficiently by using the new minor
2601 mode Auto Revert Tail mode. The function `auto-revert-tail-mode'
2605 *** Auto Revert mode is now more careful to avoid excessive reverts and
2606 other potential problems when deciding which non-file buffers to
2607 revert. This matters especially if Global Auto Revert mode is enabled
2608 and `global-auto-revert-non-file-buffers' is non-nil. Auto Revert
2609 mode only reverts a non-file buffer if the buffer has a non-nil
2610 `revert-buffer-function' and a non-nil `buffer-stale-function', which
2611 decides whether the buffer should be reverted. Currently, this means
2612 that auto reverting works for Dired buffers (although this may not
2613 work properly on all operating systems) and for the Buffer Menu.
2616 *** If the new user option `auto-revert-check-vc-info' is non-nil, Auto
2617 Revert mode reliably updates version control info (such as the version
2618 control number in the mode line), in all version controlled buffers in
2619 which it is active. If the option is nil, the default, then this info
2620 only gets updated whenever the buffer gets reverted.
2625 The recent file list is now automatically cleanup when recentf mode is
2626 enabled. The new option `recentf-auto-cleanup' controls when to do
2629 The ten most recent files can be quickly opened by using the shortcut
2630 keys 1 to 9, and 0, when the recent list is displayed in a buffer via
2631 the `recentf-open-files', or `recentf-open-more-files' commands.
2633 The `recentf-keep' option replaces `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-p'
2634 and provides a more general mechanism to customize which file names to
2635 keep in the recent list.
2637 With the more advanced option `recentf-filename-handlers', you can
2638 specify functions that successively transform recent file names. For
2639 example, if set to `file-truename' plus `abbreviate-file-name', the
2640 same file will not be in the recent list with different symbolic
2641 links, and the file name will be abbreviated.
2643 To follow naming convention, `recentf-menu-append-commands-flag'
2644 replaces the misnamed option `recentf-menu-append-commands-p'. The
2645 old name remains available as alias, but has been marked obsolete.
2651 *** Desktop saving is now a minor mode, `desktop-save-mode'.
2654 *** The variable `desktop-enable' is obsolete.
2656 Customize `desktop-save-mode' to enable desktop saving.
2659 *** Buffers are saved in the desktop file in the same order as that in the
2663 *** The desktop package can be customized to restore only some buffers
2664 immediately, remaining buffers are restored lazily (when Emacs is
2669 - desktop-revert reverts to the last loaded desktop.
2670 - desktop-change-dir kills current desktop and loads a new.
2671 - desktop-save-in-desktop-dir saves desktop in the directory from which
2673 - desktop-lazy-complete runs the desktop load to completion.
2674 - desktop-lazy-abort aborts lazy loading of the desktop.
2677 *** New customizable variables:
2678 - desktop-save. Determins whether the desktop should be saved when it is
2680 - desktop-file-name-format. Format in which desktop file names should be saved.
2681 - desktop-path. List of directories in which to lookup the desktop file.
2682 - desktop-locals-to-save. List of local variables to save.
2683 - desktop-globals-to-clear. List of global variables that `desktop-clear' will clear.
2684 - desktop-clear-preserve-buffers-regexp. Regexp identifying buffers that `desktop-clear'
2686 - desktop-restore-eager. Number of buffers to restore immediately. Remaining buffers are
2687 restored lazily (when Emacs is idle).
2688 - desktop-lazy-verbose. Verbose reporting of lazily created buffers.
2689 - desktop-lazy-idle-delay. Idle delay before starting to create buffers.
2692 *** New command line option --no-desktop
2696 - desktop-after-read-hook run after a desktop is loaded.
2697 - desktop-no-desktop-file-hook run when no desktop file is found.
2700 ** The saveplace.el package now filters out unreadable files.
2702 When you exit Emacs, the saved positions in visited files no longer
2703 include files that aren't readable, e.g. files that don't exist.
2704 Customize the new option `save-place-forget-unreadable-files' to nil
2705 to get the old behavior. The new options `save-place-save-skipped'
2706 and `save-place-skip-check-regexp' allow further fine-tuning of this
2712 *** When comparing directories.
2713 Typing D brings up a buffer that lists the differences between the contents of
2714 directories. Now it is possible to use this buffer to copy the missing files
2715 from one directory to another.
2718 *** When comparing files or buffers.
2719 Typing the = key now offers to perform the word-by-word comparison of the
2720 currently highlighted regions in an inferior Ediff session. If you answer 'n'
2721 then it reverts to the old behavior and asks the user to select regions for
2725 *** The new command `ediff-backup' compares a file with its most recent
2726 backup using `ediff'. If you specify the name of a backup file,
2727 `ediff-backup' compares it with the file of which it is a backup.
2732 *** New regular expressions features
2734 **** New syntax for regular expressions, multi-line regular expressions.
2736 The syntax --ignore-case-regexp=/regex/ is now undocumented and retained
2737 only for backward compatibility. The new equivalent syntax is
2738 --regex=/regex/i. More generally, it is --regex=/TAGREGEX/TAGNAME/MODS,
2739 where `/TAGNAME' is optional, as usual, and MODS is a string of 0 or
2740 more characters among `i' (ignore case), `m' (multi-line) and `s'
2741 (single-line). The `m' and `s' modifiers behave as in Perl regular
2742 expressions: `m' allows regexps to match more than one line, while `s'
2743 (which implies `m') means that `.' matches newlines. The ability to
2744 span newlines allows writing of much more powerful regular expressions
2745 and rapid prototyping for tagging new languages.
2747 **** Regular expressions can use char escape sequences as in GCC.
2749 The escaped character sequence \a, \b, \d, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v,
2750 respectively, stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
2753 **** Regular expressions can be bound to a given language.
2755 The syntax --regex={LANGUAGE}REGEX means that REGEX is used to make tags
2756 only for files of language LANGUAGE, and ignored otherwise. This is
2757 particularly useful when storing regexps in a file.
2759 **** Regular expressions can be read from a file.
2761 The --regex=@regexfile option means read the regexps from a file, one
2762 per line. Lines beginning with space or tab are ignored.
2764 *** New language parsing features
2766 **** The `::' qualifier triggers C++ parsing in C file.
2768 Previously, only the `template' and `class' keywords had this effect.
2770 **** The GCC __attribute__ keyword is now recognized and ignored.
2772 **** New language HTML.
2774 Tags are generated for `title' as well as `h1', `h2', and `h3'. Also,
2775 when `name=' is used inside an anchor and whenever `id=' is used.
2777 **** In Makefiles, constants are tagged.
2779 If you want the old behavior instead, thus avoiding to increase the
2780 size of the tags file, use the --no-globals option.
2782 **** New language Lua.
2784 All functions are tagged.
2786 **** In Perl, packages are tags.
2788 Subroutine tags are named from their package. You can jump to sub tags
2789 as you did before, by the sub name, or additionally by looking for
2792 **** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
2794 **** New language PHP.
2796 Functions, classes and defines are tags. If the --members option is
2797 specified to etags, variables are tags also.
2799 **** New default keywords for TeX.
2801 The new keywords are def, newcommand, renewcommand, newenvironment and
2804 *** Honour #line directives.
2806 When Etags parses an input file that contains C preprocessor's #line
2807 directives, it creates tags using the file name and line number
2808 specified in those directives. This is useful when dealing with code
2809 created from Cweb source files. When Etags tags the generated file, it
2810 writes tags pointing to the source file.
2812 *** New option --parse-stdin=FILE.
2814 This option is mostly useful when calling etags from programs. It can
2815 be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line. Etags
2816 reads from standard input and marks the produced tags as belonging to
2822 *** The key C-x C-q only changes the read-only state of the buffer
2823 (toggle-read-only). It no longer checks files in or out.
2825 We made this change because we held a poll and found that many users
2826 were unhappy with the previous behavior. If you do prefer this
2827 behavior, you can bind `vc-toggle-read-only' to C-x C-q in your
2830 (global-set-key "\C-x\C-q" 'vc-toggle-read-only)
2832 The function `vc-toggle-read-only' will continue to exist.
2835 *** The new variable `vc-cvs-global-switches' specifies switches that
2836 are passed to any CVS command invoked by VC.
2838 These switches are used as "global options" for CVS, which means they
2839 are inserted before the command name. For example, this allows you to
2840 specify a compression level using the `-z#' option for CVS.
2843 *** New backends for Subversion and Meta-CVS.
2846 *** VC-Annotate mode enhancements
2848 In VC-Annotate mode, you can now use the following key bindings for
2849 enhanced functionality to browse the annotations of past revisions, or
2850 to view diffs or log entries directly from vc-annotate-mode:
2852 P: annotates the previous revision
2853 N: annotates the next revision
2854 J: annotates the revision at line
2855 A: annotates the revision previous to line
2856 D: shows the diff of the revision at line with its previous revision
2857 L: shows the log of the revision at line
2858 W: annotates the workfile (most up to date) version
2863 *** In pcl-cvs mode, there is a new `d y' command to view the diffs
2864 between the local version of the file and yesterday's head revision
2868 *** In pcl-cvs mode, there is a new `d r' command to view the changes
2869 anyone has committed to the repository since you last executed
2870 `checkout', `update' or `commit'. That means using cvs diff options
2874 ** The new variable `mail-default-directory' specifies
2875 `default-directory' for mail buffers. This directory is used for
2876 auto-save files of mail buffers. It defaults to "~/".
2879 ** The mode line can indicate new mail in a directory or file.
2881 See the documentation of the user option
2882 `display-time-mail-directory'.
2887 *** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
2889 *** The new commands rmail-end-of-message and rmail-summary end-of-message,
2890 by default bound to `/', go to the end of the current mail message in
2891 Rmail and Rmail summary buffers.
2894 *** Support for `movemail' from GNU mailutils was added to Rmail.
2896 This version of `movemail' allows to read mail from a wide range of
2897 mailbox formats, including remote POP3 and IMAP4 mailboxes with or
2898 without TLS encryption. If GNU mailutils is installed on the system
2899 and its version of `movemail' can be found in exec-path, it will be
2900 used instead of the native one.
2905 *** Gnus now includes Sieve and PGG
2907 Sieve is a library for managing Sieve scripts. PGG is a library to handle
2911 *** There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements.
2913 See the file GNUS-NEWS or the node "Oort Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
2918 Upgraded to MH-E version 7.85. There have been major changes since
2919 version 5.0.2; see MH-E-NEWS for details.
2921 ** Calendar changes:
2924 *** You can now use < and >, instead of C-x < and C-x >, to scroll
2925 the calendar left or right. (The old key bindings still work too.)
2928 *** There is a new calendar package, icalendar.el, that can be used to
2929 convert Emacs diary entries to/from the iCalendar format.
2932 *** Diary sexp entries can have custom marking in the calendar.
2933 Diary sexp functions which only apply to certain days (such as
2934 `diary-block' or `diary-cyclic') now take an optional parameter MARK,
2935 which is the name of a face or a single-character string indicating
2936 how to highlight the day in the calendar display. Specifying a
2937 single-character string as @var{mark} places the character next to the
2938 day in the calendar. Specifying a face highlights the day with that
2939 face. This lets you have different colors or markings for vacations,
2940 appointments, paydays or anything else using a sexp.
2943 *** The new function `calendar-goto-day-of-year' (g D) prompts for a
2944 year and day number, and moves to that date. Negative day numbers
2945 count backward from the end of the year.
2948 *** The new Calendar function `calendar-goto-iso-week' (g w)
2949 prompts for a year and a week number, and moves to the first
2950 day of that ISO week.
2953 *** The new variable `calendar-minimum-window-height' affects the
2954 window generated by the function `generate-calendar-window'.
2957 *** The functions `holiday-easter-etc' and `holiday-advent' now take
2958 optional arguments, in order to only report on the specified holiday
2959 rather than all. This makes customization of variables such as
2960 `christian-holidays' simpler.
2963 *** The function `simple-diary-display' now by default sets a header line.
2964 This can be controlled through the variables `diary-header-line-flag'
2965 and `diary-header-line-format'.
2968 *** The procedure for activating appointment reminders has changed:
2969 use the new function `appt-activate'. The new variable
2970 `appt-display-format' controls how reminders are displayed, replacing
2971 `appt-issue-message', `appt-visible', and `appt-msg-window'.
2974 *** The new functions `diary-from-outlook', `diary-from-outlook-gnus',
2975 and `diary-from-outlook-rmail' can be used to import diary entries
2976 from Outlook-format appointments in mail messages. The variable
2977 `diary-outlook-formats' can be customized to recognize additional
2981 ** Speedbar changes:
2983 *** Speedbar items can now be selected by clicking mouse-1, based on
2984 the `mouse-1-click-follows-link' mechanism.
2986 *** SPC and DEL are no longer bound to scroll up/down in the speedbar
2989 *** The new command `speedbar-toggle-line-expansion', bound to SPC,
2990 contracts or expands the line under the cursor.
2992 *** New command `speedbar-create-directory', bound to `M'.
2994 *** The new commands `speedbar-expand-line-descendants' and
2995 `speedbar-contract-line-descendants', bound to `[' and `]'
2996 respectively, expand and contract the line under cursor with all of
2999 *** The new user option `speedbar-query-confirmation-method' controls
3000 how querying is performed for file operations. A value of 'always
3001 means to always query before file operations; 'none-but-delete means
3002 to not query before any file operations, except before a file
3005 *** The new user option `speedbar-select-frame-method' specifies how
3006 to select a frame for displaying a file opened with the speedbar. A
3007 value of 'attached means to use the attached frame (the frame that
3008 speedbar was started from.) A number such as 1 or -1 means to pass
3009 that number to `other-frame'.
3011 *** The new user option `speedbar-use-tool-tips-flag', if non-nil,
3012 means to display tool-tips for speedbar items.
3014 *** The frame management code in speedbar.el has been split into a new
3015 `dframe' library. Emacs Lisp code that makes use of the speedbar
3016 should use `dframe-attached-frame' instead of
3017 `speedbar-attached-frame', `dframe-timer' instead of `speedbar-timer',
3018 `dframe-close-frame' instead of `speedbar-close-frame', and
3019 `dframe-activity-change-focus-flag' instead of
3020 `speedbar-activity-change-focus-flag'. The variables
3021 `speedbar-update-speed' and `speedbar-navigating-speed' are also
3022 obsolete; use `dframe-update-speed' instead.
3027 *** The variable `sql-product' controls the highlightng of different
3028 SQL dialects. This variable can be set globally via Customize, on a
3029 buffer-specific basis via local variable settings, or for the current
3030 session using the new SQL->Product submenu. (This menu replaces the
3031 SQL->Highlighting submenu.)
3033 The following values are supported:
3035 ansi ANSI Standard (default)
3049 The current product name will be shown on the mode line following the
3052 The technique of setting `sql-mode-font-lock-defaults' directly in
3053 your `.emacs' will no longer establish the default highlighting -- Use
3054 `sql-product' to accomplish this.
3056 ANSI keywords are always highlighted.
3058 *** The function `sql-add-product-keywords' can be used to add
3059 font-lock rules to the product specific rules. For example, to have
3060 all identifiers ending in `_t' under MS SQLServer treated as a type,
3061 you would use the following line in your .emacs file:
3063 (sql-add-product-keywords 'ms
3064 '(("\\<\\w+_t\\>" . font-lock-type-face)))
3066 *** Oracle support includes keyword highlighting for Oracle 9i.
3068 Most SQL and PL/SQL keywords are implemented. SQL*Plus commands are
3069 highlighted in `font-lock-doc-face'.
3071 *** Microsoft SQLServer support has been significantly improved.
3073 Keyword highlighting for SqlServer 2000 is implemented.
3074 sql-interactive-mode defaults to use osql, rather than isql, because
3075 osql flushes its error stream more frequently. Thus error messages
3076 are displayed when they occur rather than when the session is
3079 If the username and password are not provided to `sql-ms', osql is
3080 called with the `-E' command line argument to use the operating system
3081 credentials to authenticate the user.
3083 *** Postgres support is enhanced.
3084 Keyword highlighting of Postgres 7.3 is implemented. Prompting for
3085 the username and the pgsql `-U' option is added.
3087 *** MySQL support is enhanced.
3088 Keyword higlighting of MySql 4.0 is implemented.
3090 *** Imenu support has been enhanced to locate tables, views, indexes,
3091 packages, procedures, functions, triggers, sequences, rules, and
3094 *** Added SQL->Start SQLi Session menu entry which calls the
3095 appropriate `sql-interactive-mode' wrapper for the current setting of
3099 *** sql.el supports the SQLite interpreter--call 'sql-sqlite'.
3104 *** New ffap commands and keybindings:
3106 C-x C-r (`ffap-read-only'),
3107 C-x C-v (`ffap-alternate-file'), C-x C-d (`ffap-list-directory'),
3108 C-x 4 r (`ffap-read-only-other-window'), C-x 4 d (`ffap-dired-other-window'),
3109 C-x 5 r (`ffap-read-only-other-frame'), C-x 5 d (`ffap-dired-other-frame').
3112 *** FFAP accepts wildcards in a file name by default.
3114 C-x C-f passes the file name to `find-file' with non-nil WILDCARDS
3115 argument, which visits multiple files, and C-x d passes it to `dired'.
3118 ** In skeleton.el, `-' marks the `skeleton-point' without interregion interaction.
3120 `@' has reverted to only setting `skeleton-positions' and no longer
3121 sets `skeleton-point'. Skeletons which used @ to mark
3122 `skeleton-point' independent of `_' should now use `-' instead. The
3123 updated `skeleton-insert' docstring explains these new features along
3124 with other details of skeleton construction.
3127 ** Hideshow mode changes
3129 *** New variable `hs-set-up-overlay' allows customization of the overlay
3130 used to effect hiding for hideshow minor mode. Integration with isearch
3131 handles the overlay property `display' specially, preserving it during
3132 temporary overlay showing in the course of an isearch operation.
3134 *** New variable `hs-allow-nesting' non-nil means that hiding a block does
3135 not discard the hidden state of any "internal" blocks; when the parent
3136 block is later shown, the internal blocks remain hidden. Default is nil.
3139 ** `hide-ifdef-mode' now uses overlays rather than selective-display
3140 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
3141 changes the behavior of motion commands like C-e and C-p.
3144 ** `partial-completion-mode' now handles partial completion on directory names.
3147 ** The type-break package now allows `type-break-file-name' to be nil
3148 and if so, doesn't store any data across sessions. This is handy if
3149 you don't want the `.type-break' file in your home directory or are
3150 annoyed by the need for interaction when you kill Emacs.
3153 ** `ps-print' can now print characters from the mule-unicode charsets.
3155 Printing text with characters from the mule-unicode-* sets works with
3156 `ps-print', provided that you have installed the appropriate BDF
3157 fonts. See the file INSTALL for URLs where you can find these fonts.
3160 ** New command `strokes-global-set-stroke-string'.
3161 This is like `strokes-global-set-stroke', but it allows you to bind
3162 the stroke directly to a string to insert. This is convenient for
3163 using strokes as an input method.
3165 ** Emacs server changes:
3168 *** You can have several Emacs servers on the same machine.
3170 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "foo")' -f server-start &
3171 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "bar")' -f server-start &
3172 % emacsclient -s foo file1
3173 % emacsclient -s bar file2
3176 *** The `emacsclient' command understands the options `--eval' and
3177 `--display' which tell Emacs respectively to evaluate the given Lisp
3178 expression and to use the given display when visiting files.
3181 *** User option `server-mode' can be used to start a server process.
3184 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
3187 ** You can now disable pc-selection-mode after enabling it.
3189 M-x pc-selection-mode behaves like a proper minor mode, and with no
3190 argument it toggles the mode. Turning off PC-Selection mode restores
3191 the global key bindings that were replaced by turning on the mode.
3194 ** `uniquify-strip-common-suffix' tells uniquify to prefer
3195 `file|dir1' and `file|dir2' to `file|dir1/subdir' and `file|dir2/subdir'.
3198 ** Support for `magic cookie' standout modes has been removed.
3200 Emacs still works on terminals that require magic cookies in order to
3201 use standout mode, but they can no longer display mode-lines in
3205 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
3207 `mpuz' now allows the 2nd factor not to have two identical digits. By
3208 default, all trivial operations involving whole lines are performed
3209 automatically. The game uses faces for better visual feedback.
3211 ** battery.el changes:
3214 *** display-battery-mode replaces display-battery.
3217 *** battery.el now works on recent versions of OS X.
3220 ** calculator.el now has radix grouping mode.
3222 To enable this, set `calculator-output-radix' non-nil. In this mode a
3223 separator character is used every few digits, making it easier to see
3224 byte boundries etc. For more info, see the documentation of the
3225 variable `calculator-radix-grouping-mode'.
3228 ** fast-lock.el and lazy-lock.el are obsolete. Use jit-lock.el instead.
3231 ** iso-acc.el is now obsolete. Use one of the latin input methods instead.
3234 ** cplus-md.el has been deleted.
3236 * Changes in Emacs 22.1 on non-free operating systems
3239 ** The HOME directory defaults to Application Data under the user profile.
3241 If you used a previous version of Emacs without setting the HOME
3242 environment variable and a `.emacs' was saved, then Emacs will continue
3243 using C:/ as the default HOME. But if you are installing Emacs afresh,
3244 the default location will be the "Application Data" (or similar
3245 localized name) subdirectory of your user profile. A typical location
3246 of this directory is "C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data",
3247 where USERNAME is your user name.
3249 This change means that users can now have their own `.emacs' files on
3250 shared computers, and the default HOME directory is less likely to be
3251 read-only on computers that are administered by someone else.
3254 ** Passing resources on the command line now works on MS Windows.
3256 You can use --xrm to pass resource settings to Emacs, overriding any
3257 existing values. For example:
3259 emacs --xrm "Emacs.Background:red" --xrm "Emacs.Geometry:100x20"
3261 will start up Emacs on an initial frame of 100x20 with red background,
3262 irrespective of geometry or background setting on the Windows registry.
3265 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
3267 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
3268 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
3271 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
3273 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
3276 ** Images are now supported on MS Windows.
3278 PBM and XBM images are supported out of the box. Other image formats
3279 depend on external libraries. All of these libraries have been ported
3280 to Windows, and can be found in both source and binary form at
3281 http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/. Note that libpng also depends on
3282 zlib, and tiff depends on the version of jpeg that it was compiled
3283 against. For additional information, see nt/INSTALL.
3286 ** Sound is now supported on MS Windows.
3288 WAV format is supported on all versions of Windows, other formats such
3289 as AU, AIFF and MP3 may be supported in the more recent versions of
3290 Windows, or when other software provides hooks into the system level
3291 sound support for those formats.
3294 ** Different shaped mouse pointers are supported on MS Windows.
3296 The mouse pointer changes shape depending on what is under the pointer.
3299 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
3301 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
3302 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
3303 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
3306 ** Emacs takes note of colors defined in Control Panel on MS-Windows.
3308 The Control Panel defines some default colors for applications in much
3309 the same way as wildcard X Resources do on X. Emacs now adds these
3310 colors to the colormap prefixed by System (eg SystemMenu for the
3311 default Menu background, SystemMenuText for the foreground), and uses
3312 some of them to initialize some of the default faces.
3313 `list-colors-display' shows the list of System color names, in case
3314 you wish to use them in other faces.
3317 ** On MS Windows NT/W2K/XP, Emacs uses Unicode for clipboard operations.
3319 Those systems use Unicode internally, so this allows Emacs to share
3320 multilingual text with other applications. On other versions of
3321 MS Windows, Emacs now uses the appropriate locale coding-system, so
3322 the clipboard should work correctly for your local language without
3326 ** Running in a console window in Windows now uses the console size.
3328 Previous versions of Emacs erred on the side of having a usable Emacs
3329 through telnet, even though that was inconvenient if you use Emacs in
3330 a local console window with a scrollback buffer. The default value of
3331 w32-use-full-screen-buffer is now nil, which favours local console
3332 windows. Recent versions of Windows telnet also work well with this
3333 setting. If you are using an older telnet server then Emacs detects
3334 that the console window dimensions that are reported are not sane, and
3335 defaults to 80x25. If you use such a telnet server regularly at a size
3336 other than 80x25, you can still manually set
3337 w32-use-full-screen-buffer to t.
3340 ** On Mac OS, `keyboard-coding-system' changes based on the keyboard script.
3343 ** The variable `mac-keyboard-text-encoding' and the constants
3344 `kTextEncodingMacRoman', `kTextEncodingISOLatin1', and
3345 `kTextEncodingISOLatin2' are obsolete.
3347 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 22.1
3350 ** The variables post-command-idle-hook and post-command-idle-delay have
3351 been removed. Use run-with-idle-timer instead.
3354 ** `suppress-keymap' now works by remapping `self-insert-command' to
3355 the command `undefined'. (In earlier Emacs versions, it used
3356 `substitute-key-definition' to rebind self inserting characters to
3360 ** Mode line display ignores text properties as well as the
3361 :propertize and :eval forms in the value of a variable whose
3362 `risky-local-variable' property is nil.
3365 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
3368 ** The variable `memory-full' now remains t until
3369 there is no longer a shortage of memory.
3371 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 22.1
3373 ** General Lisp changes:
3375 *** The function `expt' handles negative exponents differently.
3376 The value for `(expt A B)', if both A and B are integers and B is
3377 negative, is now a float. For example: (expt 2 -2) => 0.25.
3380 *** The function `eql' is now available without requiring the CL package.
3383 *** `makehash' is now obsolete. Use `make-hash-table' instead.
3386 *** `add-to-list' takes an optional third argument, APPEND.
3388 If APPEND is non-nil, the new element gets added at the end of the
3389 list instead of at the beginning. This change actually occurred in
3390 Emacs 21.1, but was not documented then.
3393 *** New function `add-to-ordered-list' is like `add-to-list' but
3394 associates a numeric ordering of each element added to the list.
3397 *** New function `copy-tree' makes a copy of a tree.
3399 It recursively copyies through both CARs and CDRs.
3402 *** New function `delete-dups' deletes `equal' duplicate elements from a list.
3404 It modifies the list destructively, like `delete'. Of several `equal'
3405 occurrences of an element in the list, the one that's kept is the
3409 *** New function `rassq-delete-all'.
3411 (rassq-delete-all VALUE ALIST) deletes, from ALIST, each element whose
3412 CDR is `eq' to the specified value.
3415 *** The function `number-sequence' makes a list of equally-separated numbers.
3417 For instance, (number-sequence 4 9) returns (4 5 6 7 8 9). By
3418 default, the separation is 1, but you can specify a different
3419 separation as the third argument. (number-sequence 1.5 6 2) returns
3423 *** New variables `most-positive-fixnum' and `most-negative-fixnum'.
3425 They hold the largest and smallest possible integer values.
3428 *** Minor change in the function `format'.
3430 Some flags that were accepted but not implemented (such as "*") are no
3434 *** Functions `get' and `plist-get' no longer give errors for bad plists.
3436 They return nil for a malformed property list or if the list is
3440 *** New functions `lax-plist-get' and `lax-plist-put'.
3442 They are like `plist-get' and `plist-put', except that they compare
3443 the property name using `equal' rather than `eq'.
3446 *** New variable `print-continuous-numbering'.
3448 When this is non-nil, successive calls to print functions use a single
3449 numbering scheme for circular structure references. This is only
3450 relevant when `print-circle' is non-nil.
3452 When you bind `print-continuous-numbering' to t, you should
3453 also bind `print-number-table' to nil.
3456 *** New function `macroexpand-all' expands all macros in a form.
3458 It is similar to the Common-Lisp function of the same name.
3459 One difference is that it guarantees to return the original argument
3460 if no expansion is done, which can be tested using `eq'.
3463 *** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
3465 When called with 2 arguments, as in `(atan Y X)', `atan' returns the
3466 angle in radians between the vector [X, Y] and the X axis. (This is
3467 equivalent to the standard C library function `atan2'.)
3470 *** A function or macro's doc string can now specify the calling pattern.
3472 You put this info in the doc string's last line. It should be
3473 formatted so as to match the regexp "\n\n(fn .*)\\'". If you don't
3474 specify this explicitly, Emacs determines it from the actual argument
3475 names. Usually that default is right, but not always.
3478 *** New macro `with-local-quit' temporarily allows quitting.
3480 A quit inside the body of `with-local-quit' is caught by the
3481 `with-local-quit' form itself, but another quit will happen later once
3482 the code that has inhibitted quitting exits.
3484 This is for use around potentially blocking or long-running code
3485 inside timer functions and `post-command-hook' functions.
3488 *** New macro `define-obsolete-function-alias'.
3490 This combines `defalias' and `make-obsolete'.
3493 *** New function `unsafep' determines whether a Lisp form is safe.
3495 It returns nil if the given Lisp form can't possibly do anything
3496 dangerous; otherwise it returns a reason why the form might be unsafe
3497 (calls unknown function, alters global variable, etc).
3500 *** New macro `eval-at-startup' specifies expressions to
3501 evaluate when Emacs starts up. If this is done after startup,
3502 it evaluates those expressions immediately.
3504 This is useful in packages that can be preloaded.
3506 *** `list-faces-display' takes an optional argument, REGEXP.
3508 If it is non-nil, the function lists only faces matching this regexp.
3510 ** Lisp code indentation features:
3513 *** The `defmacro' form can contain indentation and edebug declarations.
3515 These declarations specify how to indent the macro calls in Lisp mode
3516 and how to debug them with Edebug. You write them like this:
3518 (defmacro NAME LAMBDA-LIST [DOC-STRING] [DECLARATION ...] ...)
3520 DECLARATION is a list `(declare DECLARATION-SPECIFIER ...)'. The
3521 possible declaration specifiers are:
3524 Set NAME's `lisp-indent-function' property to INDENT.
3527 Set NAME's `edebug-form-spec' property to DEBUG. (This is
3528 equivalent to writing a `def-edebug-spec' for the macro,
3529 but this is cleaner.)
3532 *** cl-indent now allows customization of Indentation of backquoted forms.
3534 See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
3537 *** cl-indent now handles indentation of simple and extended `loop' forms.
3539 The new user options `lisp-loop-keyword-indentation',
3540 `lisp-loop-forms-indentation', and `lisp-simple-loop-indentation' can
3541 be used to customize the indentation of keywords and forms in loop
3545 ** Variable aliases:
3547 *** New function: defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR [DOCSTRING]
3549 This function defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for
3550 symbol BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR
3551 returns the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR
3552 changes the value of BASE-VAR.
3554 DOCSTRING, if present, is the documentation for ALIAS-VAR; else it has
3555 the same documentation as BASE-VAR.
3557 *** New function: indirect-variable VARIABLE
3559 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
3560 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
3561 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
3563 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
3564 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
3567 *** The macro `define-obsolete-variable-alias' combines `defvaralias' and
3568 `make-obsolete-variable'.
3570 ** defcustom changes:
3573 *** The new customization type `float' requires a floating point number.
3578 *** The escape sequence \s is now interpreted as a SPACE character.
3580 Exception: In a character constant, if it is followed by a `-' in a
3581 character constant (e.g. ?\s-A), it is still interpreted as the super
3582 modifier. In strings, \s is always interpreted as a space.
3585 *** A hex escape in a string constant forces the string to be multibyte.
3588 *** An octal escape in a string constant forces the string to be unibyte.
3591 *** `split-string' now includes null substrings in the returned list if
3592 the optional argument SEPARATORS is non-nil and there are matches for
3593 SEPARATORS at the beginning or end of the string. If SEPARATORS is
3594 nil, or if the new optional third argument OMIT-NULLS is non-nil, all
3595 empty matches are omitted from the returned list.
3598 *** New function `string-to-multibyte' converts a unibyte string to a
3599 multibyte string with the same individual character codes.
3602 *** New function `substring-no-properties' returns a substring without
3606 *** The new function `assoc-string' replaces `assoc-ignore-case' and
3607 `assoc-ignore-representation', which are still available, but have
3608 been declared obsolete.
3611 ** Displaying warnings to the user.
3613 See the functions `warn' and `display-warning', or the Lisp Manual.
3614 If you want to be sure the warning will not be overlooked, this
3615 facility is much better than using `message', since it displays
3616 warnings in a separate window.
3619 ** Progress reporters.
3621 These provide a simple and uniform way for commands to present
3622 progress messages for the user.
3624 See the new functions `make-progress-reporter',
3625 `progress-reporter-update', `progress-reporter-force-update',
3626 `progress-reporter-done', and `dotimes-with-progress-reporter'.
3628 ** Buffer positions:
3631 *** Function `compute-motion' now calculates the usable window
3632 width if the WIDTH argument is nil. If the TOPOS argument is nil,
3633 the usable window height and width is used.
3636 *** The `line-move', `scroll-up', and `scroll-down' functions will now
3637 modify the window vscroll to scroll through display rows that are
3638 taller that the height of the window, for example in the presence of
3639 large images. To disable this feature, bind the new variable
3640 `auto-window-vscroll' to nil.
3643 *** The argument to `forward-word', `backward-word' is optional.
3648 *** Argument to `forward-to-indentation' and `backward-to-indentation' is optional.
3653 *** New function `mouse-on-link-p' test if a position is in a clickable link.
3655 This is the function used by the new `mouse-1-click-follows-link'
3659 *** New function `line-number-at-pos' returns the line number of a position.
3661 It an optional buffer position argument that defaults to point.
3664 *** `field-beginning' and `field-end' take new optional argument, LIMIT.
3666 This argument tells them not to search beyond LIMIT. Instead they
3667 give up and return LIMIT.
3670 *** Function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now returns the pixel coordinates
3671 and partial visiblity state of the corresponding row, if the PARTIALLY
3675 *** New functions `posn-at-point' and `posn-at-x-y' return
3676 click-event-style position information for a given visible buffer
3677 position or for a given window pixel coordinate.
3679 ** Text modification:
3682 *** The new function `insert-for-yank' normally works like `insert', but
3683 removes the text properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list
3684 and handles the `yank-handler' text property.
3687 *** The new function `insert-buffer-substring-as-yank' is like
3688 `insert-for-yank' except that it gets the text from another buffer as
3689 in `insert-buffer-substring'.
3692 *** The new function `insert-buffer-substring-no-properties' is like
3693 `insert-buffer-substring', but removes all text properties from the
3697 *** The new function `filter-buffer-substring' extracts a buffer
3698 substring, passes it through a set of filter functions, and returns
3699 the filtered substring. Use it instead of `buffer-substring' or
3700 `delete-and-extract-region' when copying text into a user-accessible
3701 data structure, such as the kill-ring, X clipboard, or a register.
3703 The list of filter function is specified by the new variable
3704 `buffer-substring-filters'. For example, Longlines mode adds to
3705 `buffer-substring-filters' to remove soft newlines from the copied
3709 *** Function `translate-region' accepts also a char-table as TABLE
3713 *** The new translation table `translation-table-for-input'
3714 is used for customizing self-insertion. The character to
3715 be inserted is translated through it.
3720 The new function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
3721 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
3725 *** The function `insert-string' is now obsolete.
3730 *** In determining an adaptive fill prefix, Emacs now tries the function in
3731 `adaptive-fill-function' _before_ matching the buffer line against
3732 `adaptive-fill-regexp' rather than _after_ it.
3735 ** Atomic change groups.
3737 To perform some changes in the current buffer "atomically" so that
3738 they either all succeed or are all undone, use `atomic-change-group'
3739 around the code that makes changes. For instance:
3741 (atomic-change-group
3743 (delete-region x y))
3745 If an error (or other nonlocal exit) occurs inside the body of
3746 `atomic-change-group', it unmakes all the changes in that buffer that
3747 were during the execution of the body. The change group has no effect
3748 on any other buffers--any such changes remain.
3750 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
3751 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
3753 To set up a change group for one buffer, call `prepare-change-group'.
3754 Specify the buffer as argument; it defaults to the current buffer.
3755 This function returns a "handle" for the change group. You must save
3756 the handle to activate the change group and then finish it.
3758 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
3759 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
3762 After you make the changes, you must finish the change group. You can
3763 either accept the changes or cancel them all. Call
3764 `accept-change-group' to accept the changes in the group as final;
3765 call `cancel-change-group' to undo them all.
3767 You should use `unwind-protect' to make sure the group is always
3768 finished. The call to `activate-change-group' should be inside the
3769 `unwind-protect', in case the user types C-g just after it runs.
3770 (This is one reason why `prepare-change-group' and
3771 `activate-change-group' are separate functions.) Once you finish the
3772 group, don't use the handle again--don't try to finish the same group
3775 To make a multibuffer change group, call `prepare-change-group' once
3776 for each buffer you want to cover, then use `nconc' to combine the
3777 returned values, like this:
3779 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
3780 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
3782 You can then activate the multibuffer change group with a single call
3783 to `activate-change-group', and finish it with a single call to
3784 `accept-change-group' or `cancel-change-group'.
3786 Nested use of several change groups for the same buffer works as you
3787 would expect. Non-nested use of change groups for the same buffer
3788 will lead to undesirable results, so don't let it happen; the first
3789 change group you start for any given buffer should be the last one
3792 ** Buffer-related changes:
3795 *** `list-buffers-noselect' now takes an additional argument, BUFFER-LIST.
3797 If it is non-nil, it specifies which buffers to list.
3800 *** `kill-buffer-hook' is now a permanent local.
3803 *** The new function `buffer-local-value' returns the buffer-local
3804 binding of VARIABLE (a symbol) in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not
3805 have a buffer-local binding in buffer BUFFER, it returns the default
3806 value of VARIABLE instead.
3808 *** The function `frame-or-buffer-changed-p' now lets you maintain
3809 various status records in parallel.
3811 It take a variable (a symbol) as argument. If the variable is non-nil,
3812 then its value should be a vector installed previously by
3813 `frame-or-buffer-changed-p'. If the frame names, buffer names, buffer
3814 order, or their read-only or modified flags have changed, since the
3815 time the vector's contents were recorded by a previous call to
3816 `frame-or-buffer-changed-p', then the function returns t. Otherwise
3819 On the first call to `frame-or-buffer-changed-p', the variable's
3820 value should be nil. `frame-or-buffer-changed-p' stores a suitable
3821 vector into the variable and returns t.
3823 If the variable is itself nil, then `frame-or-buffer-changed-p' uses,
3824 for compatibility, an internal variable which exists only for this
3828 *** The function `read-buffer' follows the convention for reading from
3829 the minibuffer with a default value: if DEF is non-nil, the minibuffer
3830 prompt provided in PROMPT is edited to show the default value provided
3831 in DEF before the terminal colon and space.
3833 ** Local variables lists:
3836 *** Text properties in local variables.
3838 A file local variables list cannot specify a string with text
3839 properties--any specified text properties are discarded.
3842 *** The variable `safe-local-eval-forms' specifies a list of forms that
3843 are ok to evaluate when they appear in an `eval' local variables
3844 specification. Normally Emacs asks for confirmation before evaluating
3845 such a form, but if the form appears in this list, no confirmation is
3849 *** If a function has a non-nil `safe-local-eval-function' property,
3850 that means it is ok to evaluate some calls to that function when it
3851 appears in an `eval' local variables specification. If the property
3852 is t, then any form calling that function with constant arguments is
3853 ok. If the property is a function or list of functions, they are called
3854 with the form as argument, and if any returns t, the form is ok to call.
3856 If the form is not "ok to call", that means Emacs asks for
3857 confirmation as before.
3859 ** Searching and matching changes:
3862 *** New function `looking-back' checks whether a regular expression matches
3863 the text before point. Specifying the LIMIT argument bounds how far
3864 back the match can start; this is a way to keep it from taking too long.
3867 *** The new variable `search-spaces-regexp' controls how to search
3868 for spaces in a regular expression. If it is non-nil, it should be a
3869 regular expression, and any series of spaces stands for that regular
3870 expression. If it is nil, spaces stand for themselves.
3872 Spaces inside of constructs such as `[..]' and inside loops such as
3873 `*', `+', and `?' are never replaced with `search-spaces-regexp'.
3876 *** New regular expression operators, `\_<' and `\_>'.
3878 These match the beginning and end of a symbol. A symbol is a
3879 non-empty sequence of either word or symbol constituent characters, as
3880 specified by the syntax table.
3883 *** rx.el has new corresponding `symbol-end' and `symbol-start' elements.
3886 *** `skip-chars-forward' and `skip-chars-backward' now handle
3887 character classes such as `[:alpha:]', along with individual
3888 characters and ranges.
3891 *** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
3892 properties from surrounding text.
3895 *** The list returned by `(match-data t)' now has the buffer as a final
3896 element, if the last match was on a buffer. `set-match-data'
3897 accepts such a list for restoring the match state.
3900 *** Functions `match-data' and `set-match-data' now have an optional
3901 argument `reseat'. When non-nil, all markers in the match data list
3902 passed to these function will be reseated to point to nowhere.
3905 *** The default value of `sentence-end' is now defined using the new
3906 variable `sentence-end-without-space', which contains such characters
3907 that end a sentence without following spaces.
3909 The function `sentence-end' should be used to obtain the value of the
3910 variable `sentence-end'. If the variable `sentence-end' is nil, then
3911 this function returns the regexp constructed from the variables
3912 `sentence-end-without-period', `sentence-end-double-space' and
3913 `sentence-end-without-space'.
3918 *** `buffer-undo-list' can allows programmable elements.
3920 These elements have the form (apply FUNNAME . ARGS), where FUNNAME is
3921 a symbol other than t or nil. That stands for a high-level change
3922 that should be undone by evaluating (apply FUNNAME ARGS).
3924 These entries can also have the form (apply DELTA BEG END FUNNAME . ARGS)
3925 which indicates that the change which took place was limited to the
3926 range BEG...END and increased the buffer size by DELTA.
3929 *** If the buffer's undo list for the current command gets longer than
3930 `undo-outer-limit', garbage collection empties it. This is to prevent
3931 it from using up the available memory and choking Emacs.
3934 ** New `yank-handler' text property can be used to control how
3935 previously killed text on the kill ring is reinserted.
3937 The value of the `yank-handler' property must be a list with one to four
3938 elements with the following format:
3939 (FUNCTION PARAM NOEXCLUDE UNDO).
3941 The `insert-for-yank' function looks for a yank-handler property on
3942 the first character on its string argument (typically the first
3943 element on the kill-ring). If a `yank-handler' property is found,
3944 the normal behavior of `insert-for-yank' is modified in various ways:
3946 When FUNCTION is present and non-nil, it is called instead of `insert'
3947 to insert the string. FUNCTION takes one argument--the object to insert.
3948 If PARAM is present and non-nil, it replaces STRING as the object
3949 passed to FUNCTION (or `insert'); for example, if FUNCTION is
3950 `yank-rectangle', PARAM should be a list of strings to insert as a
3952 If NOEXCLUDE is present and non-nil, the normal removal of the
3953 `yank-excluded-properties' is not performed; instead FUNCTION is
3954 responsible for removing those properties. This may be necessary
3955 if FUNCTION adjusts point before or after inserting the object.
3956 If UNDO is present and non-nil, it is a function that will be called
3957 by `yank-pop' to undo the insertion of the current object. It is
3958 called with two arguments, the start and end of the current region.
3959 FUNCTION can set `yank-undo-function' to override the UNDO value.
3961 *** The functions `kill-new', `kill-append', and `kill-region' now have an
3962 optional argument to specify the `yank-handler' text property to put on
3965 *** The function `yank-pop' will now use a non-nil value of the variable
3966 `yank-undo-function' (instead of `delete-region') to undo the previous
3967 `yank' or `yank-pop' command (or a call to `insert-for-yank'). The function
3968 `insert-for-yank' automatically sets that variable according to the UNDO
3969 element of the string argument's `yank-handler' text property if present.
3971 *** The function `insert-for-yank' now supports strings where the
3972 `yank-handler' property does not span the first character of the
3973 string. The old behavior is available if you call
3974 `insert-for-yank-1' instead.
3976 ** Syntax table changes:
3979 *** The macro `with-syntax-table' no longer copies the syntax table.
3982 *** The new function `syntax-after' returns the syntax code
3983 of the character after a specified buffer position, taking account
3984 of text properties as well as the character code.
3987 *** `syntax-class' extracts the class of a syntax code (as returned
3991 *** The new function `syntax-ppss' rovides an efficient way to find the
3992 current syntactic context at point.
3994 ** File operation changes:
3997 *** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
3998 searching for an executable or an Emacs Lisp file.
4001 *** The new primitive `set-file-times' sets a file's access and
4002 modification times. Magic file name handlers can handle this
4006 *** The new function `file-remote-p' tests a file name and returns
4007 non-nil if it specifies a remote file (one that Emacs accesses using
4008 its own special methods and not directly through the file system).
4009 The value in that case is an identifier for the remote file system.
4012 *** `buffer-auto-save-file-format' is the new name for what was
4013 formerly called `auto-save-file-format'. It is now a permanent local.
4016 *** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
4017 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
4018 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
4021 *** `copy-file' now takes an additional option arg MUSTBENEW.
4023 This argument works like the MUSTBENEW argument of write-file.
4026 *** `visited-file-modtime' and `calendar-time-from-absolute' now return
4027 a list of two integers, instead of a cons.
4030 *** `file-chase-links' now takes an optional second argument LIMIT which
4031 specifies the maximum number of links to chase through. If after that
4032 many iterations the file name obtained is still a symbolic link,
4033 `file-chase-links' returns it anyway.
4036 *** The new hook `before-save-hook' is invoked by `basic-save-buffer'
4037 before saving buffers. This allows packages to perform various final
4038 tasks, for example; it can be used by the copyright package to make
4039 sure saved files have the current year in any copyright headers.
4042 *** If `buffer-save-without-query' is non-nil in some buffer,
4043 `save-some-buffers' will always save that buffer without asking (if
4047 *** New function `locate-file' searches for a file in a list of directories.
4048 `locate-file' accepts a name of a file to search (a string), and two
4049 lists: a list of directories to search in and a list of suffixes to
4050 try; typical usage might use `exec-path' and `load-path' for the list
4051 of directories, and `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' for the list
4052 of suffixes. The function also accepts a predicate argument to
4053 further filter candidate files.
4055 One advantage of using this function is that the list of suffixes in
4056 `exec-suffixes' is OS-dependant, so this function will find
4057 executables without polluting Lisp code with OS dependancies.
4060 *** The precedence of file name handlers has been changed.
4062 Instead of choosing the first handler that matches,
4063 `find-file-name-handler' now gives precedence to a file name handler
4064 that matches nearest the end of the file name. More precisely, the
4065 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen. In case
4066 of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
4069 *** A file name handler can declare which operations it handles.
4071 You do this by putting an `operation' property on the handler name
4072 symbol. The property value should be a list of the operations that
4073 the handler really handles. It won't be called for any other
4076 This is useful for autoloaded handlers, to prevent them from being
4077 autoloaded when not really necessary.
4080 *** The function `make-auto-save-file-name' is now handled by file
4081 name handlers. This will be exploited for remote files mainly.
4086 *** An interactive specification can now use the code letter 'U' to get
4087 the up-event that was discarded in case the last key sequence read for a
4088 previous `k' or `K' argument was a down-event; otherwise nil is used.
4091 *** The new interactive-specification `G' reads a file name
4092 much like `F', but if the input is a directory name (even defaulted),
4093 it returns just the directory name.
4096 *** Functions `y-or-n-p', `read-char', `read-key-sequence' and the like, that
4097 display a prompt but don't use the minibuffer, now display the prompt
4098 using the text properties (esp. the face) of the prompt string.
4101 *** (while-no-input BODY...) runs BODY, but only so long as no input
4102 arrives. If the user types or clicks anything, BODY stops as if a
4103 quit had occurred. `while-no-input' returns the value of BODY, if BODY
4104 finishes. It returns nil if BODY was aborted by a quit, and t if
4105 BODY was aborted by arrival of input.
4107 ** Minibuffer changes:
4110 *** The new function `minibufferp' returns non-nil if its optional
4111 buffer argument is a minibuffer. If the argument is omitted, it
4112 defaults to the current buffer.
4115 *** New function `minibuffer-selected-window' returns the window which
4116 was selected when entering the minibuffer.
4119 *** `read-from-minibuffer' now accepts an additional argument KEEP-ALL
4120 saying to put all inputs in the history list, even empty ones.
4123 *** The `read-file-name' function now takes an additional argument which
4124 specifies a predicate which the file name read must satify. The
4125 new variable `read-file-name-predicate' contains the predicate argument
4126 while reading the file name from the minibuffer; the predicate in this
4127 variable is used by read-file-name-internal to filter the completion list.
4130 *** The new variable `read-file-name-function' can be used by Lisp code
4131 to override the built-in `read-file-name' function.
4134 *** The new variable `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' specifies
4135 whether completion ignores case when reading a file name with the
4136 `read-file-name' function.
4139 *** The new function `read-directory-name' for reading a directory name.
4141 It is like `read-file-name' except that the defaulting works better
4142 for directories, and completion inside it shows only directories.
4144 ** Completion changes:
4147 *** The functions `all-completions' and `try-completion' now accept lists
4148 of strings as well as hash-tables additionally to alists, obarrays
4149 and functions. Furthermore, the function `test-completion' is now
4150 exported to Lisp. The keys in alists and hash tables can be either
4151 strings or symbols, which are automatically converted with to strings.
4154 *** The new macro `dynamic-completion-table' supports using functions
4155 as a dynamic completion table.
4157 (dynamic-completion-table FUN)
4159 FUN is called with one argument, the string for which completion is required,
4160 and it should return an alist containing all the intended possible
4161 completions. This alist can be a full list of possible completions so that FUN
4162 can ignore the value of its argument. If completion is performed in the
4163 minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer from which the minibuffer was
4164 entered. `dynamic-completion-table' then computes the completion.
4167 *** The new macro `lazy-completion-table' initializes a variable
4168 as a lazy completion table.
4170 (lazy-completion-table VAR FUN &rest ARGS)
4172 If the completion table VAR is used for the first time (e.g., by passing VAR
4173 as an argument to `try-completion'), the function FUN is called with arguments
4174 ARGS. FUN must return the completion table that will be stored in VAR. If
4175 completion is requested in the minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer
4176 from which the minibuffer was entered. The return value of
4177 `lazy-completion-table' must be used to initialize the value of VAR.
4180 ** Enhancements to keymaps.
4182 *** Cleaner way to enter key sequences.
4184 You can enter a constant key sequence in a more natural format, the
4185 same one used for saving keyboard macros, using the macro `kbd'. For
4188 (kbd "C-x C-f") => "\^x\^f"
4190 *** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
4192 This is an alternative to using `defadvice' or `substitute-key-definition'
4193 to modify the behavior of a key binding using the normal keymap
4194 binding and lookup functionality.
4196 When a key sequence is bound to a command, and that command is
4197 remapped to another command, that command is run instead of the
4201 Suppose that minor mode `my-mode' has defined the commands
4202 `my-kill-line' and `my-kill-word', and it wants C-k (and any other key
4203 bound to `kill-line') to run the command `my-kill-line' instead of
4204 `kill-line', and likewise it wants to run `my-kill-word' instead of
4207 Instead of rebinding C-k and the other keys in the minor mode map,
4208 command remapping allows you to directly map `kill-line' into
4209 `my-kill-line' and `kill-word' into `my-kill-word' using `define-key':
4211 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
4212 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
4214 When `my-mode' is enabled, its minor mode keymap is enabled too. So
4215 when the user types C-k, that runs the command `my-kill-line'.
4217 Only one level of remapping is supported. In the above example, this
4218 means that if `my-kill-line' is remapped to `other-kill', then C-k still
4219 runs `my-kill-line'.
4221 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
4223 - Command remappings are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
4224 `remap', i.e. `(define-key MAP [remap CMD] DEF)' remaps command CMD
4225 to definition DEF in keymap MAP. The definition is not limited to
4226 another command; it can be anything accepted for a normal binding.
4228 - The new function `command-remapping' returns the binding for a
4229 remapped command in the current keymaps, or nil if not remapped.
4231 - `key-binding' now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
4232 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
4234 - `where-is-internal' now returns nil for a remapped command (e.g.
4235 `kill-line', when `my-mode' is enabled), and the actual key binding for
4236 the command it is remapped to (e.g. C-k for my-kill-line).
4237 It also has a new optional fifth argument, NO-REMAP, which inhibits
4238 remapping if non-nil (e.g. it returns "C-k" for `kill-line', and
4239 "<kill-line>" for `my-kill-line').
4241 - The new variable `this-original-command' contains the original
4242 command before remapping. It is equal to `this-command' when the
4243 command was not remapped.
4245 *** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
4246 over minor mode keymaps.
4248 *** The `keymap' property now also works at the ends of overlays and
4249 text properties, according to their stickiness. This also means that it
4250 works with empty overlays. The same hold for the `local-map' property.
4252 *** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
4254 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
4255 bindings of the parent keymap.
4257 *** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
4259 *** New function `current-active-maps' returns a list of currently
4262 *** New function `describe-buffer-bindings' inserts the list of all
4263 defined keys and their definitions.
4265 *** New function `keymap-prompt' returns the prompt string of a keymap.
4267 *** (map-keymap FUNCTION KEYMAP) applies the function to each binding
4270 *** New variable `emulation-mode-map-alists'.
4272 Lisp packages using many minor mode keymaps can now maintain their own
4273 keymap alist separate from `minor-mode-map-alist' by adding their
4274 keymap alist to this list.
4279 *** The new function `copy-abbrev-table' copies an abbrev table.
4281 It returns a new abbrev table that is a copy of a given abbrev table.
4284 *** `define-abbrev' now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG.
4286 If non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means
4287 that it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the
4288 abbrevs. Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always
4292 ** Enhancements to process support
4294 *** Function `list-processes' now has an optional argument; if non-nil,
4295 it lists only the processes whose query-on-exit flag is set.
4297 *** New fns `set-process-query-on-exit-flag' and `process-query-on-exit-flag'.
4299 These replace the old function `process-kill-without-query'. That
4300 function is still supported, but new code should use the new
4303 *** Function `signal-process' now accepts a process object or process
4304 name in addition to a process id to identify the signaled process.
4306 *** Processes now have an associated property list where programs can
4307 maintain process state and other per-process related information.
4309 Use the new functions `process-get' and `process-put' to access, add,
4310 and modify elements on this property list. Use the new functions
4311 `process-plist' and `set-process-plist' to access and replace the
4312 entire property list of a process.
4314 *** Function `accept-process-output' has a new optional fourth arg
4315 JUST-THIS-ONE. If non-nil, only output from the specified process
4316 is handled, suspending output from other processes. If value is an
4317 integer, also inhibit running timers. This feature is generally not
4318 recommended, but may be necessary for specific applications, such as
4321 *** Adaptive read buffering of subprocess output.
4323 On some systems, when emacs reads the output from a subprocess, the
4324 output data is read in very small blocks, potentially resulting in
4325 very poor performance. This behavior can be remedied to some extent
4326 by setting the new variable `process-adaptive-read-buffering' to a
4327 non-nil value (the default), as it will automatically delay reading
4328 from such processes, to allowing them to produce more output before
4329 emacs tries to read it.
4331 *** The new function `call-process-shell-command'.
4333 This executes a shell command synchronously in a separate process.
4335 *** The new function `process-file' is similar to `call-process', but
4336 obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
4337 `default-directory'.
4339 *** A process filter function gets the output as multibyte string
4340 if the process specifies t for its filter's multibyteness.
4342 That multibyteness is decided by the value of
4343 `default-enable-multibyte-characters' when the process is created, and
4344 you can change it later with `set-process-filter-multibyte'.
4346 *** The new function `set-process-filter-multibyte' sets the
4347 multibyteness of the strings passed to the process's filter.
4349 *** The new function `process-filter-multibyte-p' returns the
4350 multibyteness of the strings passed to the process's filter.
4352 *** If a process's coding system is `raw-text' or `no-conversion' and its
4353 buffer is multibyte, the output of the process is at first converted
4354 to multibyte by `string-to-multibyte' then inserted in the buffer.
4355 Previously, it was converted to multibyte by `string-as-multibyte',
4356 which was not compatible with the behavior of file reading.
4359 ** Enhanced networking support.
4361 *** The new `make-network-process' function makes network connections.
4362 It allows opening of stream and datagram connections to a server, as well as
4363 create a stream or datagram server inside emacs.
4365 - A server is started using :server t arg.
4366 - Datagram connection is selected using :type 'datagram arg.
4367 - A server can open on a random port using :service t arg.
4368 - Local sockets are supported using :family 'local arg.
4369 - Non-blocking connect is supported using :nowait t arg.
4370 - The process' property list can be initialized using :plist PLIST arg;
4371 a copy of the server process' property list is automatically inherited
4372 by new client processes created to handle incoming connections.
4374 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
4375 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
4377 *** The old `open-network-stream' now uses `make-network-process'.
4379 *** New functions `process-datagram-address', `set-process-datagram-address'.
4381 These functions are used with datagram-based network processes to get
4382 and set the current address of the remote partner.
4384 *** New function `format-network-address'.
4386 This function reformats the Lisp representation of a network address
4387 to a printable string. For example, an IP address A.B.C.D and port
4388 number P is represented as a five element vector [A B C D P], and the
4389 printable string returned for this vector is "A.B.C.D:P". See the doc
4390 string for other formatting options.
4392 *** `process-contact' has an optional KEY argument.
4394 Depending on this argument, you can get the complete list of network
4395 process properties or a specific property. Using :local or :remote as
4396 the KEY, you get the address of the local or remote end-point.
4398 An Inet address is represented as a 5 element vector, where the first
4399 4 elements contain the IP address and the fifth is the port number.
4401 *** New functions `stop-process' and `continue-process'.
4403 These functions stop and restart communication through a network
4404 connection. For a server process, no connections are accepted in the
4405 stopped state. For a client process, no input is received in the
4408 *** New function `network-interface-list'.
4410 This function returns a list of network interface names and their
4411 current network addresses.
4413 *** New function `network-interface-info'.
4415 This function returns the network address, hardware address, current
4416 status, and other information about a specific network interface.
4418 *** Deleting a network process with `delete-process' calls the sentinel.
4420 The status message passed to the sentinel for a deleted network
4421 process is "deleted". The message passed to the sentinel when the
4422 connection is closed by the remote peer has been changed to
4423 "connection broken by remote peer".
4425 ** Using window objects:
4428 *** New function `window-body-height'.
4430 This is like `window-height' but does not count the mode line or the
4434 *** New function `window-body-height'.
4436 This is like `window-height' but does not count the mode line
4440 *** You can now make a window as short as one line.
4442 A window that is just one line tall does not display either a mode
4443 line or a header line, even if the variables `mode-line-format' and
4444 `header-line-format' call for them. A window that is two lines tall
4445 cannot display both a mode line and a header line at once; if the
4446 variables call for both, only the mode line actually appears.
4449 *** The new function `window-inside-edges' returns the edges of the
4450 actual text portion of the window, not including the scroll bar or
4451 divider line, the fringes, the display margins, the header line and
4455 *** The new functions `window-pixel-edges' and `window-inside-pixel-edges'
4456 return window edges in units of pixels, rather than columns and lines.
4459 *** The new macro `with-selected-window' temporarily switches the
4460 selected window without impacting the order of `buffer-list'.
4461 It saves and restores the current buffer, too.
4464 *** `select-window' takes an optional second argument NORECORD.
4466 This is like `switch-to-buffer'.
4469 *** `save-selected-window' now saves and restores the selected window
4470 of every frame. This way, it restores everything that can be changed
4471 by calling `select-window'. It also saves and restores the current
4475 *** `set-window-buffer' has an optional argument KEEP-MARGINS.
4477 If non-nil, that says to preserve the window's current margin, fringe,
4478 and scroll-bar settings.
4481 *** The new function `window-tree' returns a frame's window tree.
4484 ** Customizable fringe bitmaps
4486 *** New function `define-fringe-bitmap' can now be used to create new
4487 fringe bitmaps, as well as change the built-in fringe bitmaps.
4489 To change a built-in bitmap, do (require 'fringe) and use the symbol
4490 identifing the bitmap such as `left-truncation or `continued-line'.
4492 *** New function `destroy-fringe-bitmap' deletes a fringe bitmap
4493 or restores a built-in one to its default value.
4495 *** New function `set-fringe-bitmap-face' specifies the face to be
4496 used for a specific fringe bitmap. The face is automatically merged
4497 with the `fringe' face, so normally, the face should only specify the
4498 foreground color of the bitmap.
4500 *** There are new display properties, `left-fringe' and `right-fringe',
4501 that can be used to show a specific bitmap in the left or right fringe
4502 bitmap of the display line.
4504 Format is `display (left-fringe BITMAP [FACE])', where BITMAP is a
4505 symbol identifying a fringe bitmap, either built-in or defined with
4506 `define-fringe-bitmap', and FACE is an optional face name to be used
4507 for displaying the bitmap instead of the default `fringe' face.
4508 When specified, FACE is automatically merged with the `fringe' face.
4510 *** New function `fringe-bitmaps-at-pos' returns the current fringe
4511 bitmaps in the display line at a given buffer position.
4513 ** Other window fringe features:
4516 *** Controlling the default left and right fringe widths.
4518 The default left and right fringe widths for all windows of a frame
4519 can now be controlled by setting the `left-fringe' and `right-fringe'
4520 frame parameters to an integer value specifying the width in pixels.
4521 Setting the width to 0 effectively removes the corresponding fringe.
4523 The actual default fringe widths for the frame may deviate from the
4524 specified widths, since the combined fringe widths must match an
4525 integral number of columns. The extra width is distributed evenly
4526 between the left and right fringe. For force a specific fringe width,
4527 specify the width as a negative integer (if both widths are negative,
4528 only the left fringe gets the specified width).
4530 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
4531 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
4532 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
4533 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
4536 *** Per-window fringe and scrollbar settings
4538 **** Windows can now have their own individual fringe widths and
4541 To control the fringe widths of a window, either set the buffer-local
4542 variables `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', or call
4543 `set-window-fringes'.
4545 To control the fringe position in a window, that is, whether fringes
4546 are positioned between the display margins and the window's text area,
4547 or at the edges of the window, either set the buffer-local variable
4548 `fringes-outside-margins' or call `set-window-fringes'.
4550 The function `window-fringes' can be used to obtain the current
4551 settings. To make `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', and
4552 `fringes-outside-margins' take effect, you must set them before
4553 displaying the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force
4554 an update of the display margins.
4556 **** Windows can now have their own individual scroll-bar settings
4557 controlling the width and position of scroll-bars.
4559 To control the scroll-bar of a window, either set the buffer-local
4560 variables `scroll-bar-mode' and `scroll-bar-width', or call
4561 `set-window-scroll-bars'. The function `window-scroll-bars' can be
4562 used to obtain the current settings. To make `scroll-bar-mode' and
4563 `scroll-bar-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
4564 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
4565 of the display margins.
4567 ** Redisplay features:
4570 *** `sit-for' can now be called with args (SECONDS &optional NODISP).
4573 *** New function `force-window-update' can initiate a full redisplay of
4574 one or all windows. Normally, this is not needed as changes in window
4575 contents are detected automatically. However, certain implicit
4576 changes to mode lines, header lines, or display properties may require
4577 forcing an explicit window update.
4580 *** (char-displayable-p CHAR) returns non-nil if Emacs ought to be able
4581 to display CHAR. More precisely, if the selected frame's fontset has
4582 a font to display the character set that CHAR belongs to.
4584 Fontsets can specify a font on a per-character basis; when the fontset
4585 does that, this value cannot be accurate.
4588 *** You can define multiple overlay arrows via the new
4589 variable `overlay-arrow-variable-list'.
4591 It contains a list of varibles which contain overlay arrow position
4592 markers, including the original `overlay-arrow-position' variable.
4594 Each variable on this list can have individual `overlay-arrow-string'
4595 and `overlay-arrow-bitmap' properties that specify an overlay arrow
4596 string (for non-window terminals) or fringe bitmap (for window
4597 systems) to display at the corresponding overlay arrow position.
4598 If either property is not set, the default `overlay-arrow-string' or
4599 'overlay-arrow-fringe-bitmap' will be used.
4602 *** New `line-height' and `line-spacing' properties for newline characters
4604 A newline can now have `line-height' and `line-spacing' text or overlay
4605 properties that control the height of the corresponding display row.
4607 If the `line-height' property value is t, the newline does not
4608 contribute to the height of the display row; instead the height of the
4609 newline glyph is reduced. Also, a `line-spacing' property on this
4610 newline is ignored. This can be used to tile small images or image
4611 slices without adding blank areas between the images.
4613 If the `line-height' property value is a positive integer, the value
4614 specifies the minimum line height in pixels. If necessary, the line
4615 height it increased by increasing the line's ascent.
4617 If the `line-height' property value is a float, the minimum line
4618 height is calculated by multiplying the default frame line height by
4621 If the `line-height' property value is a cons (FACE . RATIO), the
4622 minimum line height is calculated as RATIO * height of named FACE.
4623 RATIO is int or float. If FACE is t, it specifies the current face.
4625 If the `line-height' property value is a cons (nil . RATIO), the line
4626 height is calculated as RATIO * actual height of the line's contents.
4628 If the `line-height' value is a cons (HEIGHT . TOTAL), HEIGHT specifies
4629 the line height as described above, while TOTAL is any of the forms
4630 described above and specifies the total height of the line, causing a
4631 varying number of pixels to be inserted after the line to make it line
4632 exactly that many pixels high.
4634 If the `line-spacing' property value is an positive integer, the value
4635 is used as additional pixels to insert after the display line; this
4636 overrides the default frame `line-spacing' and any buffer local value of
4637 the `line-spacing' variable.
4639 If the `line-spacing' property is a float or cons, the line spacing
4640 is calculated as specified above for the `line-height' property.
4643 *** The buffer local `line-spacing' variable can now have a float value,
4644 which is used as a height relative to the default frame line height.
4647 *** Enhancements to stretch display properties
4649 The display property stretch specification form `(space PROPS)', where
4650 PROPS is a property list now allows pixel based width and height
4651 specifications, as well as enhanced horizontal text alignment.
4653 The value of these properties can now be a (primitive) expression
4654 which is evaluated during redisplay. The following expressions
4657 EXPR ::= NUM | (NUM) | UNIT | ELEM | POS | IMAGE | FORM
4658 NUM ::= INTEGER | FLOAT | SYMBOL
4659 UNIT ::= in | mm | cm | width | height
4660 ELEM ::= left-fringe | right-fringe | left-margin | right-margin
4662 POS ::= left | center | right
4663 FORM ::= (NUM . EXPR) | (OP EXPR ...)
4666 The form `NUM' specifies a fractional width or height of the default
4667 frame font size. The form `(NUM)' specifies an absolute number of
4668 pixels. If a symbol is specified, its buffer-local variable binding
4669 is used. The `in', `mm', and `cm' units specifies the number of
4670 pixels per inch, milli-meter, and centi-meter, resp. The `width' and
4671 `height' units correspond to the width and height of the current face
4672 font. An image specification corresponds to the width or height of
4675 The `left-fringe', `right-fringe', `left-margin', `right-margin',
4676 `scroll-bar', and `text' elements specify to the width of the
4677 corresponding area of the window.
4679 The `left', `center', and `right' positions can be used with :align-to
4680 to specify a position relative to the left edge, center, or right edge
4681 of the text area. One of the above window elements (except `text')
4682 can also be used with :align-to to specify that the position is
4683 relative to the left edge of the given area. Once the base offset for
4684 a relative position has been set (by the first occurrence of one of
4685 these symbols), further occurences of these symbols are interpreted as
4686 the width of the area.
4688 For example, to align to the center of the left-margin, use
4689 :align-to (+ left-margin (0.5 . left-margin))
4691 If no specific base offset is set for alignment, it is always relative
4692 to the left edge of the text area. For example, :align-to 0 in a
4693 header line aligns with the first text column in the text area.
4695 The value of the form `(NUM . EXPR)' is the value of NUM multiplied by
4696 the value of the expression EXPR. For example, (2 . in) specifies a
4697 width of 2 inches, while (0.5 . IMAGE) specifies half the width (or
4698 height) of the specified image.
4700 The form `(+ EXPR ...)' adds up the value of the expressions.
4701 The form `(- EXPR ...)' negates or subtracts the value of the expressions.
4704 *** Normally, the cursor is displayed at the end of any overlay and
4705 text property string that may be present at the current window
4706 position. The cursor can now be placed on any character of such
4707 strings by giving that character a non-nil `cursor' text property.
4710 *** The display space :width and :align-to text properties are now
4711 supported on text terminals.
4714 *** Support for displaying image slices
4716 **** New display property (slice X Y WIDTH HEIGHT) can be used with
4717 an image property to display only a specific slice of the image.
4719 **** Function `insert-image' has new optional fourth arg to
4720 specify image slice (X Y WIDTH HEIGHT).
4722 **** New function `insert-sliced-image' inserts a given image as a
4723 specified number of evenly sized slices (rows x columns).
4726 *** Images can now have an associated image map via the :map property.
4728 An image map is an alist where each element has the format (AREA ID PLIST).
4729 An AREA is specified as either a rectangle, a circle, or a polygon:
4730 A rectangle is a cons (rect . ((X0 . Y0) . (X1 . Y1))) specifying the
4731 pixel coordinates of the upper left and bottom right corners.
4732 A circle is a cons (circle . ((X0 . Y0) . R)) specifying the center
4733 and the radius of the circle; R can be a float or integer.
4734 A polygon is a cons (poly . [X0 Y0 X1 Y1 ...]) where each pair in the
4735 vector describes one corner in the polygon.
4737 When the mouse pointer is above a hot-spot area of an image, the
4738 PLIST of that hot-spot is consulted; if it contains a `help-echo'
4739 property it defines a tool-tip for the hot-spot, and if it contains
4740 a `pointer' property, it defines the shape of the mouse cursor when
4741 it is over the hot-spot. See the variable `void-area-text-pointer'
4742 for possible pointer shapes.
4744 When you click the mouse when the mouse pointer is over a hot-spot,
4745 an event is composed by combining the ID of the hot-spot with the
4746 mouse event, e.g. [area4 mouse-1] if the hot-spot's ID is `area4'.
4749 *** The function `find-image' now searches in etc/images/ and etc/.
4750 The new variable `image-load-path' is a list of locations in which to
4751 search for image files. The default is to search in etc/images, then
4752 in etc/, and finally in the directories specified by `load-path'.
4753 Subdirectories of etc/ and etc/images are not recursively searched; if
4754 you put an image file in a subdirectory, you have to specify it
4755 explicitly; for example, if an image is put in etc/images/foo/bar.xpm:
4757 (defimage foo-image '((:type xpm :file "foo/bar.xpm")))
4760 *** The new variable `max-image-size' defines the maximum size of
4761 images that Emacs will load and display.
4763 ** Mouse pointer features:
4767 *** The mouse pointer shape in void text areas (i.e. after the end of a
4768 line or below the last line in the buffer) of the text window is now
4769 controlled by the new variable `void-text-area-pointer'. The default
4770 is to use the `arrow' (non-text) pointer. Other choices are `text'
4771 (or nil), `hand', `vdrag', `hdrag', `modeline', and `hourglass'.
4774 *** The mouse pointer shape over an image can now be controlled by the
4775 :pointer image property.
4778 *** The mouse pointer shape over ordinary text or images can now be
4779 controlled/overriden via the `pointer' text property.
4781 ** Mouse event enhancements:
4784 *** Mouse events for clicks on window fringes now specify `left-fringe'
4785 or `right-fringe' as the area.
4788 *** All mouse events now include a buffer position regardless of where
4789 you clicked. For mouse clicks in window margins and fringes, this is
4790 a sensible buffer position corresponding to the surrounding text.
4793 *** `posn-point' now returns buffer position for non-text area events.
4796 *** Function `mouse-set-point' now works for events outside text area.
4799 *** New function `posn-area' returns window area clicked on (nil means
4803 *** Mouse events include actual glyph column and row for all event types
4807 *** New function `posn-actual-col-row' returns the actual glyph coordinates
4808 of the mouse event position.
4811 *** Mouse events can now indicate an image object clicked on.
4814 *** Mouse events include relative X and Y pixel coordinates relative to
4815 the top left corner of the object (image or character) clicked on.
4818 *** Mouse events include the pixel width and height of the object
4819 (image or character) clicked on.
4822 *** New functions 'posn-object', 'posn-object-x-y', 'posn-object-width-height'.
4824 These return the image or string object of a mouse click, the X and Y
4825 pixel coordinates relative to the top left corner of that object, and
4826 the total width and height of that object.
4828 ** Text property and overlay changes:
4831 *** Arguments for `remove-overlays' are now optional, so that you can
4832 remove all overlays in the buffer with just (remove-overlays).
4835 *** New variable `char-property-alias-alist'.
4837 This variable allows you to create alternative names for text
4838 properties. It works at the same level as `default-text-properties',
4839 although it applies to overlays as well. This variable was introduced
4840 to implement the `font-lock-face' property.
4843 *** New function `get-char-property-and-overlay' accepts the same
4844 arguments as `get-char-property' and returns a cons whose car is the
4845 return value of `get-char-property' called with those arguments and
4846 whose cdr is the overlay in which the property was found, or nil if
4847 it was found as a text property or not found at all.
4850 *** The new function `remove-list-of-text-properties'.
4852 It is like `remove-text-properties' except that it takes a list of
4853 property names as argument rather than a property list.
4858 *** The new face attribute condition `min-colors' can be used to tailor
4859 the face color to the number of colors supported by a display, and
4860 define the foreground and background colors accordingly so that they
4861 look best on a terminal that supports at least this many colors. This
4862 is now the preferred method for defining default faces in a way that
4863 makes a good use of the capabilities of the display.
4866 *** New function `display-supports-face-attributes-p' can be used to test
4867 whether a given set of face attributes is actually displayable.
4869 A new predicate `supports' has also been added to the `defface' face
4870 specification language, which can be used to do this test for faces
4871 defined with `defface'.
4874 *** The special treatment of faces whose names are of the form `fg:COLOR'
4875 or `bg:COLOR' has been removed. Lisp programs should use the
4876 `defface' facility for defining faces with specific colors, or use
4877 the feature of specifying the face attributes :foreground and :background
4878 directly in the `face' property instead of using a named face.
4881 *** The first face specification element in a defface can specify
4882 `default' instead of frame classification. Then its attributes act as
4883 defaults that apply to all the subsequent cases (and can be overridden
4887 *** The variable `face-font-rescale-alist' specifies how much larger
4888 (or smaller) font we should use. For instance, if the value is
4889 '((SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN . 1.3)) and a face requests a font of 10
4890 point, we actually use a font of 13 point if the font matches
4891 SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN.
4894 *** The function `face-differs-from-default-p' now truly checks
4895 whether the given face displays differently from the default face or
4896 not (previously it did only a very cursory check).
4899 *** `face-attribute', `face-foreground', `face-background', `face-stipple'.
4901 These now accept a new optional argument, INHERIT, which controls how
4902 face inheritance is used when determining the value of a face
4906 *** New functions `face-attribute-relative-p' and `merge-face-attribute'
4907 help with handling relative face attributes.
4910 *** The priority of faces in an :inherit attribute face list is reversed.
4912 If a face contains an :inherit attribute with a list of faces, earlier
4913 faces in the list override later faces in the list; in previous
4914 releases of Emacs, the order was the opposite. This change was made
4915 so that :inherit face lists operate identically to face lists in text
4919 *** On terminals, faces with the :inverse-video attribute are displayed
4920 with swapped foreground and background colors even when one of them is
4921 not specified. In previous releases of Emacs, if either foreground
4922 or background color was unspecified, colors were not swapped. This
4923 was inconsistent with the face behavior under X.
4926 *** `set-fontset-font', `fontset-info', `fontset-font' now operate on
4927 the default fontset if the argument NAME is nil..
4929 ** Font-Lock changes:
4932 *** New special text property `font-lock-face'.
4934 This property acts like the `face' property, but it is controlled by
4935 M-x font-lock-mode. It is not, strictly speaking, a builtin text
4936 property. Instead, it is implemented inside font-core.el, using the
4937 new variable `char-property-alias-alist'.
4940 *** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
4942 **** the FACENAME returned in `font-lock-keywords' can be a list of the
4943 form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP2 VAL2 ...) so you can set other
4944 properties than `face'.
4946 **** `font-lock-extra-managed-props' can be set to make sure those
4947 extra properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
4950 *** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
4952 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
4953 (see `jit-lock-defer-contextually'), then all of that text will
4954 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
4955 depends on text several lines further down (and when `font-lock-multiline'
4956 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
4964 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
4965 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a `jit-lock-defer-multiline'
4966 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
4967 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
4969 ** Major mode mechanism changes:
4972 *** `set-auto-mode' now gives the interpreter magic line (if present)
4973 precedence over the file name. Likewise an `<?xml' or `<!DOCTYPE'
4974 declaration will give the buffer XML or SGML mode, based on the new
4975 var `magic-mode-alist'.
4978 *** Use the new function `run-mode-hooks' to run the major mode's mode hook.
4981 *** All major mode functions should now run the new normal hook
4982 `after-change-major-mode-hook', at their very end, after the mode
4983 hooks. `run-mode-hooks' does this automatically.
4986 *** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
4987 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
4991 *** Major modes can define `eldoc-documentation-function'
4992 locally to provide Eldoc functionality by some method appropriate to
4996 *** `define-derived-mode' by default creates a new empty abbrev table.
4997 It does not copy abbrevs from the parent mode's abbrev table.
5000 *** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
5001 are used by `define-derived-mode' to make sure the mode hook for the
5002 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
5004 ** Minor mode changes:
5007 *** `define-minor-mode' now accepts arbitrary additional keyword arguments
5008 and simply passes them to `defcustom', if applicable.
5011 *** `minor-mode-list' now holds a list of minor mode commands.
5014 *** `define-global-minor-mode'.
5016 This is a new name for what was formerly called
5017 `easy-mmode-define-global-mode'. The old name remains as an alias.
5019 ** Command loop changes:
5022 *** The new function `called-interactively-p' does what many people
5023 have mistakenly believed `interactive-p' to do: it returns t if the
5024 calling function was called through `call-interactively'.
5026 Only use this when you cannot solve the problem by adding a new
5027 INTERACTIVE argument to the command.
5030 *** The function `commandp' takes an additional optional argument.
5032 If it is non-nil, then `commandp' checks for a function that could be
5033 called with `call-interactively', and does not return t for keyboard
5037 *** When a command returns, the command loop moves point out from
5038 within invisible text, in the same way it moves out from within text
5039 covered by an image or composition property.
5041 This makes it generally unnecessary to mark invisible text as intangible.
5042 This is particularly good because the intangible property often has
5043 unexpected side-effects since the property applies to everything
5044 (including `goto-char', ...) whereas this new code is only run after
5045 `post-command-hook' and thus does not care about intermediate states.
5048 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to `only', that
5049 enables Transient Mark mode for the following command only.
5050 During that following command, the value of `transient-mark-mode'
5051 is `identity'. If it is still `identity' at the end of the command,
5052 the next return to the command loop changes to nil.
5055 *** Both the variable and the function `disabled-command-hook' have
5056 been renamed to `disabled-command-function'. The variable
5057 `disabled-command-hook' has been kept as an obsolete alias.
5060 *** `emacsserver' now runs `pre-command-hook' and `post-command-hook'
5061 when it receives a request from emacsclient.
5063 ** Lisp file loading changes:
5066 *** `load-history' can now have elements of the form (t . FUNNAME),
5067 which means FUNNAME was previously defined as an autoload (before the
5068 current file redefined it).
5071 *** `load-history' now records (defun . FUNNAME) when a function is
5072 defined. For a variable, it records just the variable name.
5075 *** The function `symbol-file' can now search specifically for function,
5076 variable or face definitions.
5079 *** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
5080 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
5081 and runs any code associated with the provided feature.
5084 *** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
5085 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
5086 than 3 levels of nesting.
5089 ** Byte compiler changes:
5091 *** The byte compiler now displays the actual line and character
5092 position of errors, where possible. Additionally, the form of its
5093 warning and error messages have been brought into line with GNU standards
5094 for these. As a result, you can use next-error and friends on the
5095 compilation output buffer.
5097 *** The new macro `with-no-warnings' suppresses all compiler warnings
5098 inside its body. In terms of execution, it is equivalent to `progn'.
5100 *** You can avoid warnings for possibly-undefined symbols with a
5101 simple convention that the compiler understands. (This is mostly
5102 useful in code meant to be portable to different Emacs versions.)
5103 Write forms like the following, or code that macroexpands into such
5106 (if (fboundp 'foo) <then> <else>)
5107 (if (boundp 'foo) <then> <else)
5109 In the first case, using `foo' as a function inside the <then> form
5110 won't produce a warning if it's not defined as a function, and in the
5111 second case, using `foo' as a variable won't produce a warning if it's
5112 unbound. The test must be in exactly one of the above forms (after
5113 macro expansion), but such tests can be nested. Note that `when' and
5114 `unless' expand to `if', but `cond' doesn't.
5116 *** `(featurep 'xemacs)' is treated by the compiler as nil. This
5117 helps to avoid noisy compiler warnings in code meant to run under both
5118 Emacs and XEmacs and can sometimes make the result significantly more
5119 efficient. Since byte code from recent versions of XEmacs won't
5120 generally run in Emacs and vice versa, this optimization doesn't lose
5123 *** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in Lisp files is now obeyed.
5126 *** When a Lisp file uses CL functions at run-time, compiling the file
5127 now issues warnings about these calls, unless the file performs
5128 (require 'cl) when loaded.
5130 ** Frame operations:
5133 *** New functions `frame-current-scroll-bars' and `window-current-scroll-bars'.
5135 These functions return the current locations of the vertical and
5136 horizontal scroll bars in a frame or window.
5139 *** The new function `modify-all-frames-parameters' modifies parameters
5140 for all (existing and future) frames.
5143 *** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
5144 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
5145 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
5146 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
5149 *** When using non-toolkit scroll bars with the default width,
5150 the `scroll-bar-width' frame parameter value is nil.
5155 *** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
5157 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
5158 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
5159 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
5162 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
5164 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
5165 the time it takes to convert the format.
5167 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
5171 *** `set-buffer-file-coding-system' now takes an additional argument,
5172 NOMODIFY. If it is non-nil, it means don't mark the buffer modified.
5175 *** The new variable `auto-coding-functions' lets you specify functions
5176 to examine a file being visited and deduce the proper coding system
5177 for it. (If the coding system is detected incorrectly for a specific
5178 file, you can put a `coding:' tags to override it.)
5181 *** The new function `merge-coding-systems' fills in unspecified aspects
5182 of one coding system from another coding system.
5185 *** New coding system property `mime-text-unsuitable' indicates that
5186 the coding system's `mime-charset' is not suitable for MIME text
5190 *** New function `decode-coding-inserted-region' decodes a region as if
5191 it is read from a file without decoding.
5194 *** New CCL functions `lookup-character' and `lookup-integer' access
5195 hash tables defined by the Lisp function `define-translation-hash-table'.
5198 *** New function `quail-find-key' returns a list of keys to type in the
5199 current input method to input a character.
5201 ** Mode line changes:
5204 *** New function `format-mode-line'.
5206 This returns the mode line or header line of the selected (or a
5207 specified) window as a string with or without text properties.
5210 *** The new mode-line construct `(:propertize ELT PROPS...)' can be
5211 used to add text properties to mode-line elements.
5214 *** The new `%i' and `%I' constructs for `mode-line-format' can be used
5215 to display the size of the accessible part of the buffer on the mode
5219 *** Mouse-face on mode-line (and header-line) is now supported.
5221 ** Menu manipulation changes:
5224 *** To manipulate the File menu using easy-menu, you must specify the
5225 proper name "file". In previous Emacs versions, you had to specify
5226 "files", even though the menu item itself was changed to say "File"
5227 several versions ago.
5230 *** The dummy function keys made by easy-menu are now always lower case.
5231 If you specify the menu item name "Ada", for instance, it uses `ada'
5232 as the "key" bound by that key binding.
5234 This is relevant only if Lisp code looks for the bindings that were
5235 made with easy-menu.
5238 *** `easy-menu-define' now allows you to use nil for the symbol name
5239 if you don't need to give the menu a name. If you install the menu
5240 into other keymaps right away (MAPS is non-nil), it usually doesn't
5241 need to have a name.
5243 ** Operating system access:
5246 *** The new primitive `get-internal-run-time' returns the processor
5247 run time used by Emacs since start-up.
5250 *** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
5251 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
5252 accepts a float as UID parameter.
5255 *** New function `locale-info' accesses locale information.
5258 *** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
5259 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
5260 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
5263 *** New function `redirect-debugging-output' can be used to redirect
5264 debugging output on the stderr file handle to a file.
5269 *** A number of hooks have been renamed to better follow the conventions:
5271 `find-file-hooks' to `find-file-hook',
5272 `find-file-not-found-hooks' to `find-file-not-found-functions',
5273 `write-file-hooks' to `write-file-functions',
5274 `write-contents-hooks' to `write-contents-functions',
5275 `x-lost-selection-hooks' to `x-lost-selection-functions',
5276 `x-sent-selection-hooks' to `x-sent-selection-functions',
5277 `delete-frame-hook' to `delete-frame-functions'.
5279 In each case the old name remains as an alias for the moment.
5282 *** local-write-file-hooks is marked obsolete
5284 Use the LOCAL arg of `add-hook'.
5287 *** New function `x-send-client-message' sends a client message when
5293 *** New variable `gc-cons-percentage' automatically grows the GC cons threshold
5294 as the heap size increases.
5297 *** New variables `gc-elapsed' and `gcs-done' provide extra information
5298 on garbage collection.
5301 *** The normal hook `post-gc-hook' is run at the end of garbage collection.
5303 The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
5305 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 22.1
5308 ** The new library button.el implements simple and fast `clickable
5309 buttons' in emacs buffers. Buttons are much lighter-weight than the
5310 `widgets' implemented by widget.el, and can be used by lisp code that
5311 doesn't require the full power of widgets. Emacs uses buttons for
5312 such things as help and apropos buffers.
5315 ** The new library tree-widget.el provides a widget to display a set
5316 of hierarchical data as an outline. For example, the tree-widget is
5317 well suited to display a hierarchy of directories and files.
5320 ** The new library bindat.el provides functions to unpack and pack
5321 binary data structures, such as network packets, to and from Lisp
5325 ** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
5326 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
5328 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
5329 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
5330 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
5333 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
5334 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
5337 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
5338 (function (lambda ()
5340 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
5341 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
5342 (function (lambda ()
5343 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
5346 ** The new library benchmark.el does timing measurements on Lisp code.
5348 This includes measuring garbage collection time.
5351 ** The new library testcover.el does test coverage checking.
5353 This is so you can tell whether you've tested all paths in your Lisp
5354 code. It works with edebug.
5356 The function `testcover-start' instruments all functions in a given
5357 file. Then test your code. The function `testcover-mark-all' adds
5358 overlay "splotches" to the Lisp file's buffer to show where coverage
5359 is lacking. The command `testcover-next-mark' (bind it to a key!)
5360 will move point forward to the next spot that has a splotch.
5362 Normally, a red splotch indicates the form was never completely
5363 evaluated; a brown splotch means it always evaluated to the same
5364 value. The red splotches are skipped for forms that can't possibly
5365 complete their evaluation, such as `error'. The brown splotches are
5366 skipped for forms that are expected to always evaluate to the same
5367 value, such as (setq x 14).
5369 For difficult cases, you can add do-nothing macros to your code to
5370 help out the test coverage tool. The macro `noreturn' suppresses a
5371 red splotch. It is an error if the argument to `noreturn' does
5372 return. The macro `1value' suppresses a brown splotch for its argument.
5373 This macro is a no-op except during test-coverage -- then it signals
5374 an error if the argument actually returns differing values.
5376 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.3
5378 ** Support for GNU/Linux on little-endian MIPS and on IBM S390 has
5382 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
5384 ** The obsolete C mode (c-mode.el) has been removed to avoid problems
5387 ** UTF-16 coding systems are available, encoding the same characters
5390 ** There is a new language environment for UTF-8 (set up automatically
5393 ** Translation tables are available between equivalent characters in
5394 different Emacs charsets -- for instance `e with acute' coming from the
5395 Latin-1 and Latin-2 charsets. User options `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode'
5396 and `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' respectively turn on translation
5397 between ISO 8859 character sets (`unification') on encoding
5398 (e.g. writing a file) and decoding (e.g. reading a file). Note that
5399 `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is useful and safe, but
5400 `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' can cause text to change when you read
5401 it and write it out again without edits, so it is not generally advisable.
5402 By default `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is turned on.
5404 ** In Emacs running on the X window system, the default value of
5405 `selection-coding-system' is now `compound-text-with-extensions'.
5407 If you want the old behavior, set selection-coding-system to
5408 compound-text, which may be significantly more efficient. Using
5409 compound-text-with-extensions seems to be necessary only for decoding
5410 text from applications under XFree86 4.2, whose behavior is actually
5411 contrary to the compound text specification.
5414 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.2
5416 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 has been added.
5418 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
5421 * Changes in Emacs 21.2
5423 ** Emacs now supports compound-text extended segments in X selections.
5425 X applications can use `extended segments' to encode characters in
5426 compound text that belong to character sets which are not part of the
5427 list of approved standard encodings for X, e.g. Big5. To paste
5428 selections with such characters into Emacs, use the new coding system
5429 compound-text-with-extensions as the value of selection-coding-system.
5431 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
5434 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
5435 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
5437 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
5438 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
5439 instead of using default-major-mode.
5441 ** The new option `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' causes Info to behave
5442 like the stand-alone Info reader (from the GNU Texinfo package) as far
5443 as motion between nodes and their subnodes is concerned. If it is t
5444 (the default), Emacs behaves as before when you type SPC in a menu: it
5445 visits the subnode pointed to by the first menu entry. If this option
5446 is nil, SPC scrolls to the end of the current node, and only then goes
5447 to the first menu item, like the stand-alone reader does.
5449 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
5453 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.2
5455 ** The meanings of scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively
5456 have been interchanged, so that the former now controls scrolling up,
5457 and the latter now controls scrolling down.
5459 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
5460 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
5463 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
5465 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
5466 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
5467 charsets in this release.
5469 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
5471 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
5473 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
5474 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
5477 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
5478 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
5479 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
5480 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
5481 necessary changes to unexec.
5483 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
5484 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
5486 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
5487 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
5489 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
5490 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
5492 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
5493 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
5494 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
5495 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
5496 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
5498 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
5499 new display features described below.
5502 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
5504 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
5506 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
5507 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
5508 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
5509 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
5512 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
5514 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
5515 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
5516 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
5517 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
5520 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
5521 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
5522 under Lisp changes, below.
5524 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
5526 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
5527 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
5528 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
5529 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
5530 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
5531 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
5534 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
5535 supported on character terminals.
5537 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
5538 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
5539 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
5540 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
5542 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
5546 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
5547 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
5548 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
5549 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
5552 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
5554 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
5555 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
5556 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
5557 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
5559 - User option: max-mini-window-height
5561 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
5562 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
5563 specifies a number of lines.
5567 - User option: resize-mini-windows
5569 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
5570 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
5571 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
5574 Default is `grow-only'.
5578 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
5579 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
5581 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
5583 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
5584 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
5587 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
5589 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
5590 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
5591 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
5593 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
5595 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
5596 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
5597 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
5598 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
5599 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
5602 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
5603 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
5604 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
5605 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
5606 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
5607 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
5609 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
5610 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
5611 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
5612 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
5613 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
5614 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
5616 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
5617 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
5618 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
5619 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
5620 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
5622 ** Tool bar support.
5624 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
5625 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
5626 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
5627 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
5628 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
5631 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
5632 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
5636 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
5637 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
5638 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
5640 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
5641 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
5642 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
5643 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
5645 ** Automatic Hscrolling
5647 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
5648 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
5651 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
5652 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
5653 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
5654 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
5655 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
5657 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
5658 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
5659 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
5660 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
5661 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
5662 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
5664 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
5665 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
5666 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
5667 customizing face `fringe'.
5669 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
5670 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
5671 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
5672 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
5673 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
5674 the window to be partially obscured.)
5676 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
5677 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
5678 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
5679 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
5681 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
5683 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
5684 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
5685 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
5686 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
5687 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
5690 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
5692 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
5694 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
5696 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
5697 `*') toggles the status.
5699 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
5701 ** Hourglass pointer
5703 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
5704 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
5708 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
5709 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
5710 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
5713 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
5715 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
5716 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
5717 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
5720 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
5721 have to do anything to activate it.
5723 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
5725 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
5726 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
5728 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
5729 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
5730 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
5731 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
5732 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
5733 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
5734 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
5735 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
5737 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
5738 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
5739 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
5740 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
5741 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
5742 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
5744 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
5745 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
5747 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
5748 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
5751 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
5752 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
5753 beginning and end of the buffer.
5755 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
5756 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
5759 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
5760 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
5762 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
5763 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
5766 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
5767 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
5770 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
5772 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
5773 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
5774 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
5776 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
5777 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
5778 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
5780 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
5783 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
5785 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
5786 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
5787 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
5788 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
5789 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
5792 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
5793 all frames except the selected one.
5795 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
5796 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
5798 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
5799 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
5800 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
5801 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
5802 `Info-use-header-line'.
5804 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
5805 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
5806 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
5808 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
5810 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
5811 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
5814 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
5815 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
5816 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
5817 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
5819 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
5821 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
5822 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
5823 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
5824 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
5826 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
5827 point in a pop-up window.
5829 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
5830 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
5831 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
5833 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
5834 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
5836 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
5837 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
5838 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
5839 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
5841 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
5843 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
5844 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
5846 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
5847 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
5848 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
5850 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
5851 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
5854 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
5855 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
5856 file that is already visited under a different name.
5858 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
5859 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
5861 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
5862 and displays information about that.
5864 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
5865 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
5867 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
5868 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
5869 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
5870 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
5871 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
5872 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
5874 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
5875 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
5877 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
5878 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
5879 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
5880 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
5881 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
5882 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
5883 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
5885 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
5886 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
5888 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
5889 system for keyboard input.
5891 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
5892 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
5893 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
5894 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
5895 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
5896 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
5897 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
5898 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
5899 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
5901 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
5902 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
5904 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
5905 displays all characters in that character set.
5907 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
5908 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
5910 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
5911 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
5912 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
5914 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
5915 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
5916 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
5917 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
5918 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
5919 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
5922 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
5923 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
5926 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
5927 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
5928 Lisp Coding Convention".
5930 new command old-binding
5931 --- ------- -----------
5932 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
5933 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
5934 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
5936 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
5937 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
5938 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
5940 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
5941 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
5942 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
5943 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
5944 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
5945 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
5947 ** There are new Leim input methods.
5948 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
5949 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
5952 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
5953 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
5954 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
5955 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
5956 "`", you must type "=q".
5958 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
5959 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
5960 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
5961 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
5962 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
5965 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
5966 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
5967 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
5968 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
5970 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
5971 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
5972 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
5973 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
5975 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
5976 on the display using several methods
5978 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
5979 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
5980 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
5982 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
5983 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
5985 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
5987 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
5988 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
5990 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
5991 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
5992 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
5993 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
5995 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
5996 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
5997 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
5999 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
6000 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
6002 ** New X resources recognized
6004 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
6005 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
6006 is useful for debugging X problems.
6010 emacs.synchronous: true
6012 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
6013 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
6014 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
6015 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
6016 visual class names are
6025 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
6026 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
6029 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
6030 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
6031 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
6036 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
6038 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
6039 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
6040 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
6041 resource values are `true' or `on'.
6045 emacs.privateColormap: true
6047 ** Faces and frame parameters.
6049 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
6050 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
6051 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
6052 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
6053 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
6054 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
6055 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
6057 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
6058 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
6059 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
6060 `default' face and vice versa.
6064 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
6066 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
6068 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
6069 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
6070 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
6071 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
6073 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
6074 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
6075 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
6077 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
6080 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
6082 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
6083 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
6084 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
6085 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
6087 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
6089 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
6091 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
6093 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
6096 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
6099 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
6101 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
6102 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
6103 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
6105 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
6106 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
6108 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
6109 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
6110 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
6112 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
6114 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
6115 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
6116 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
6117 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
6119 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
6120 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
6121 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
6122 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
6124 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
6125 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
6126 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
6129 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
6131 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
6132 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
6133 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
6135 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
6136 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
6137 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
6138 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
6139 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
6140 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
6142 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
6144 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
6145 notably at the end of lines.
6147 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
6148 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
6150 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
6152 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
6153 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
6155 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
6156 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
6157 after each match to get the replacement text.
6159 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
6160 you edit the replacement string.
6162 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
6163 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
6164 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
6166 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
6168 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
6169 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
6171 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
6172 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
6173 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
6174 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
6177 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
6178 read mail from the menu etc.
6180 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
6181 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
6182 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
6183 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
6185 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
6186 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
6188 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
6189 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
6190 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
6191 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
6192 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
6195 ** Customize changes
6197 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
6198 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
6199 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
6200 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
6201 earlier versions of Emacs.
6203 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
6204 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
6207 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
6208 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
6209 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
6210 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
6213 ** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
6214 does not save disabled and enabled commands for future sessions, to
6215 avoid overwriting existing customizations of this kind that are
6216 already in your init file.
6218 ** New features in evaluation commands
6220 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
6221 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
6222 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
6223 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
6224 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
6226 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
6227 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
6228 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
6229 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
6232 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
6233 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
6235 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
6236 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
6238 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
6239 code when called with a prefix argument.
6243 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
6244 current user setups (although it's believed that these
6245 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
6246 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
6247 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
6248 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
6251 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
6252 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
6253 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
6256 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
6257 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
6258 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
6259 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
6261 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
6262 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
6264 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
6265 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
6267 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
6268 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
6269 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
6270 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
6272 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
6273 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
6274 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
6275 earlier statement. An example:
6277 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
6279 res += a[i]->offset;
6282 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
6283 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
6284 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
6285 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
6288 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
6291 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
6292 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
6293 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
6294 documentation or other natural language text.
6296 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
6297 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
6298 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
6299 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
6300 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
6301 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
6302 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
6304 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
6305 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
6306 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
6307 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
6309 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
6310 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
6311 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
6312 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
6315 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
6316 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
6317 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
6318 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
6319 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
6320 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
6321 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
6322 is reported afterwards.
6324 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
6325 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
6326 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
6328 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
6329 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
6330 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
6331 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
6332 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
6333 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
6336 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
6337 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
6338 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
6339 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
6340 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
6343 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
6344 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
6345 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
6346 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
6347 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
6348 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
6350 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
6351 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
6352 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
6353 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
6354 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
6355 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
6356 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
6357 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
6359 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
6360 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
6361 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
6362 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
6365 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
6366 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
6367 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
6368 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
6369 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
6370 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
6371 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
6372 function documentation for more info.
6374 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
6375 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
6376 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
6377 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
6378 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
6379 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
6380 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
6381 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
6383 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
6385 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
6386 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
6388 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
6389 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
6390 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
6391 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
6392 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
6395 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
6396 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
6397 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
6400 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
6401 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
6402 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
6403 chapter about this in the manual.
6405 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
6406 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
6407 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
6408 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
6409 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
6411 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
6412 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
6413 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
6415 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
6416 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
6418 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
6419 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
6420 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
6423 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
6424 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
6425 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
6426 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
6429 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
6430 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
6431 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
6432 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
6433 they were before the filling.
6435 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
6436 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
6437 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
6440 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
6441 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
6442 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
6443 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
6446 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
6447 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
6448 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
6449 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
6450 Thanks to Eric Eide.
6452 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
6453 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
6454 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
6456 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
6458 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
6459 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
6460 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
6461 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
6463 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
6464 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
6465 the column specified by comment-column.
6467 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
6468 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
6469 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
6470 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
6471 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
6472 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
6474 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
6475 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
6478 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
6480 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
6481 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
6482 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
6483 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
6486 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
6490 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
6491 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
6492 is, delete only empty directories.
6494 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
6495 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
6496 copy directories recursively.
6498 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
6499 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
6500 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
6502 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
6503 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
6506 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
6507 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
6508 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
6509 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
6510 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
6512 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
6515 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
6516 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
6517 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
6518 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
6522 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
6523 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
6524 internationalization and mail-fetching.
6526 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
6527 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
6529 If you used procmail like in
6531 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
6532 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
6533 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
6534 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
6536 this now has changed to
6539 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
6542 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
6543 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
6545 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
6546 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
6547 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
6548 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
6550 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
6551 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
6552 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
6554 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
6555 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
6556 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
6557 now just a compatibility layer.
6559 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
6562 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
6563 called to position point.
6565 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
6566 summary buffers and NOV files.
6568 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
6569 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
6571 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
6572 subtly different manner.
6574 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
6575 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
6576 ever-changing layouts.
6578 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
6580 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
6582 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
6584 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
6588 -------------------------
6592 C-c C-c q @quotation
6594 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
6597 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
6599 ** Changes in Outline mode.
6601 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
6602 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
6603 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
6605 ** Changes to Emacs Server
6607 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
6608 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
6609 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
6610 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
6611 buffers to kill, as before.
6613 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
6614 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
6617 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
6618 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
6620 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
6622 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
6623 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
6624 use. Default is 1000.
6626 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
6627 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
6629 ** Changes to hideshow.el
6631 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
6633 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
6634 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
6635 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
6636 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
6638 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
6639 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
6640 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
6643 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
6644 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
6645 the normal block-hiding function.
6647 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
6649 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
6650 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
6651 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
6652 for `hs-minor-mode'.
6654 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
6655 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
6657 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
6659 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
6660 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
6661 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
6663 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
6666 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
6669 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
6670 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
6671 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
6672 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
6673 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
6674 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
6676 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
6678 ** Changes to cmuscheme
6680 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
6681 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
6683 ** Changes in Font Lock
6685 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
6686 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
6688 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
6689 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
6691 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
6692 the face used for each string/comment.
6694 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
6695 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
6697 ** Changes to Shell mode
6699 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
6700 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
6701 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
6702 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
6704 ** Comint (subshell) changes
6706 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
6707 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
6709 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
6710 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
6711 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
6712 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
6713 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
6714 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
6716 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
6717 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
6718 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
6719 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
6720 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
6721 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
6722 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
6723 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
6725 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
6726 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
6728 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
6729 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
6730 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
6732 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
6733 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
6734 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
6736 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
6737 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
6738 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
6740 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
6741 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
6742 argument, it appends to the file.
6744 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
6745 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
6748 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
6751 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
6752 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
6753 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
6755 ** Changes to Rmail mode
6757 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
6758 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
6759 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
6760 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
6761 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
6764 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
6765 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
6766 regexp matching your mail addresses.
6768 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
6769 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
6770 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
6771 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
6772 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
6774 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
6777 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
6778 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
6781 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
6782 in which folder to put messages automatically.
6784 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
6785 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
6786 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
6788 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
6789 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
6791 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
6792 use the -f option when sending mail.
6794 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
6795 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
6796 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
6797 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
6798 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
6799 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
6801 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
6802 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
6803 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
6805 ** Changes to TeX mode
6807 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
6810 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
6812 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
6814 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
6816 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
6818 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
6819 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
6820 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
6821 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
6822 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
6823 can be edited from that buffer.
6825 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
6826 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
6827 `A' to use all marked entries).
6829 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
6830 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
6832 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
6833 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
6834 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
6837 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
6838 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
6839 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
6840 in column 1 are always made leaves.
6842 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
6843 has the following new features:
6845 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
6846 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
6847 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
6848 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
6850 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
6851 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
6852 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
6853 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
6854 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
6857 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
6862 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
6863 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
6864 spell-checks the current buffer.
6866 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
6869 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
6870 correction is made and re-checked.
6872 *** Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definitions have been added.
6874 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
6877 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
6880 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
6883 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
6885 ** Makefile mode changes
6887 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
6889 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
6890 Fontlock mode is active.
6894 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
6895 so that searches can be resumed.
6897 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
6898 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
6899 that started the search.
6901 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
6902 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
6904 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
6906 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
6907 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
6908 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
6909 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
6910 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
6911 `secondary-selection'.
6913 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
6914 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
6915 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
6916 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
6917 usual snappy response.
6919 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
6920 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
6921 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
6922 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
6926 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
6927 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
6928 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
6929 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
6930 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
6931 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
6932 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
6933 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
6934 file is registered in that backend.
6936 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
6937 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
6938 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
6939 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
6940 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
6941 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
6943 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
6944 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
6945 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
6946 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
6947 where it doesn't make sense.)
6949 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
6950 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
6951 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
6955 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
6956 checks are always done now.
6958 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
6961 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
6962 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
6963 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
6965 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
6966 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
6967 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
6968 the working file (``merge news'').
6970 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
6971 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
6974 *** Multiple Backends
6976 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
6977 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
6978 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
6979 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
6982 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
6983 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
6984 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
6985 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
6987 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
6988 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
6989 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
6990 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
6991 current revision number from the more remote backend.
6993 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
6994 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
6995 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
6996 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
6998 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
6999 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
7000 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
7001 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
7005 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
7006 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
7007 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
7008 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
7009 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
7010 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
7011 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
7013 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
7014 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
7015 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
7016 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
7017 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
7018 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
7019 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
7020 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
7021 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
7022 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
7023 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
7026 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
7027 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
7028 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
7029 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
7030 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
7031 entire directory tree.
7033 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
7034 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
7035 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
7036 "watched" by other developers.)
7038 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
7039 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
7040 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
7041 starting at the given directory.
7043 *** Lisp Changes in VC
7045 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
7046 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
7047 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
7048 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
7049 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
7050 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
7051 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
7052 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
7053 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
7055 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
7056 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
7057 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
7058 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
7060 ** New modes and packages
7062 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
7063 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
7064 the default is not applicable.
7066 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
7067 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
7068 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
7072 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
7073 drawn, like this: | \ /
7077 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
7078 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
7079 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
7080 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
7081 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
7084 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
7085 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
7087 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
7090 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
7091 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
7092 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
7093 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
7095 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
7096 also do without the mouse.
7098 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
7099 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
7100 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
7101 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
7102 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
7104 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
7106 lines straight-lines
7108 poly-lines straight poly-lines
7110 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
7111 spray-can setting size for spraying
7112 vaporize line vaporize lines
7113 erase characters erase rectangles
7115 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
7116 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
7117 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
7120 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
7121 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
7122 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
7123 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
7125 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
7128 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
7129 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
7130 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
7131 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
7132 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
7133 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
7134 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
7135 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
7136 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
7138 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
7139 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
7140 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
7141 on certain projects.
7143 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
7144 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
7146 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
7148 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
7149 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
7150 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
7151 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
7152 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
7153 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
7154 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
7155 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
7157 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
7160 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
7161 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
7163 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
7164 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
7166 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
7167 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
7168 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
7169 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
7170 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
7172 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
7173 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
7174 separate Texinfo file.
7176 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
7177 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
7178 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
7179 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
7180 enter check-in log messages.
7182 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
7183 without invoking external programs.
7185 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
7186 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
7187 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
7188 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
7189 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
7191 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
7192 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
7194 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
7195 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
7197 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
7198 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
7199 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
7200 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
7201 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
7204 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
7205 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
7206 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
7207 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
7209 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
7210 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
7211 actually modifying content of a buffer.
7213 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
7216 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
7218 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
7220 ; comment (until end of line)
7224 $A default non-terminal
7225 $"C" default terminal
7226 $?C? default special
7227 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
7228 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
7229 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
7230 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
7231 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
7232 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
7233 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
7234 C+ one or more occurrences of C
7235 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
7236 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
7237 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
7238 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
7239 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
7240 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
7241 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
7243 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
7245 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
7246 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
7247 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
7248 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
7249 equal signs of assignments.
7251 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
7252 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
7254 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
7255 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
7256 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
7258 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
7260 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
7261 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
7262 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
7263 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
7264 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
7265 which answers different needs.
7267 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
7268 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
7269 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
7270 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
7271 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
7274 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
7275 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
7277 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
7279 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
7280 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
7281 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behavior in all buffers.
7283 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
7285 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
7286 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
7287 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
7288 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
7289 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
7290 and background colors.
7292 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
7295 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
7298 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
7300 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
7302 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
7303 whitespace in a file.
7305 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
7306 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
7307 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
7308 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
7309 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
7310 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
7311 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
7313 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
7315 Here is an example of columns:
7318 dog pineapple car EXTRA
7319 porcupine strawberry airplane
7321 Doing the following settings:
7323 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
7324 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
7325 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
7326 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
7329 Selecting the lines above and typing:
7331 M-x delimit-columns-region
7335 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
7336 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
7337 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
7339 delim-col has the following options:
7341 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
7344 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
7345 between each column.
7347 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
7350 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
7353 delim-col has the following commands:
7355 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
7356 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
7358 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
7359 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
7360 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
7361 recent file list can be displayed:
7363 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
7364 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
7365 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
7367 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
7368 dynamically change the menu appearance.
7370 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
7373 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
7374 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
7375 specific to Message mode.
7377 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
7378 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
7379 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
7381 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
7382 interface to access directory servers using different directory
7383 protocols. It has a separate manual.
7385 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
7386 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
7388 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
7390 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
7391 minibuffer with completion.
7393 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
7394 with the diary features.
7396 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
7397 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
7399 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
7402 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
7403 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
7404 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
7405 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
7407 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
7408 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
7411 ** Changes in sort.el
7413 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
7414 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
7415 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
7418 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
7420 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
7421 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
7422 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
7424 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
7425 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
7427 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
7428 output ^M at the end of lines.
7430 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
7431 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
7433 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
7434 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
7437 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
7440 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
7441 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
7444 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
7445 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
7446 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
7447 nil -- just delete one character.
7449 Default value is `untabify'.
7451 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
7453 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
7454 symbol, not double-quoted.
7456 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
7457 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
7458 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
7459 moved to lisp/obsolete.
7461 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
7462 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
7463 `auto-compression-mode' command.
7465 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
7466 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
7467 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
7469 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
7470 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
7472 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
7473 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
7475 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
7476 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
7478 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
7479 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
7480 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
7481 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
7482 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
7483 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
7485 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
7486 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
7488 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
7490 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
7491 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
7493 ** Shell script mode changes.
7495 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
7496 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
7497 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
7501 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
7503 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
7504 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
7505 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
7506 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
7507 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
7509 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
7510 declarations when given the --declarations option.
7512 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
7513 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
7515 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
7516 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
7517 `template' keywords.
7519 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
7520 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
7522 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
7525 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
7527 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
7529 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
7532 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
7534 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
7535 variables are tagged.
7537 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
7539 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
7542 ** Changes in etags.el
7544 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
7545 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
7546 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
7548 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
7549 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
7551 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
7552 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
7553 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
7554 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
7556 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
7558 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
7559 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
7561 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
7563 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
7564 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
7565 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
7567 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
7568 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
7570 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
7571 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
7573 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
7574 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
7575 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
7576 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
7577 point will go to the beginning of the file.
7579 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
7580 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
7581 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
7583 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
7584 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
7585 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
7587 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
7588 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
7589 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
7591 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
7593 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
7595 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
7596 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
7597 expression from that list, are not checked.
7599 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
7600 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
7601 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
7602 the buffer, just like for the local files.
7604 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
7606 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
7607 displays local abbrevs, only.
7609 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
7610 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
7612 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
7613 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
7614 is measured in pixels.
7616 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
7617 to be visited as images.
7619 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
7620 were added to compile.el.
7622 ** Withdrawn packages
7624 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
7625 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
7627 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
7629 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
7632 * Incompatible Lisp changes
7634 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
7635 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
7636 See the sections below for details.
7638 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
7639 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
7640 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
7641 to remove the properties of the copy.
7643 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
7644 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
7645 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
7646 these properties are active.
7648 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
7649 ranges may affect some code.
7651 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
7652 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
7653 make a difference to some code.
7655 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
7656 operates on the minibuffer.
7658 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
7659 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
7660 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
7661 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
7662 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
7663 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
7664 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
7665 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
7666 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
7667 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
7668 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
7669 the buffer as multibyte characters.
7671 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
7672 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
7673 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
7675 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
7676 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
7677 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
7679 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
7680 long promised. So does any code that uses derivatives of `concat',
7681 such as `mapconcat'.
7683 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
7686 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
7687 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
7688 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
7689 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
7690 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
7691 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
7692 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
7693 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
7695 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
7696 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
7697 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
7698 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
7699 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
7700 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
7701 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
7702 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
7703 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
7704 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
7707 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
7708 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
7710 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
7712 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
7713 allows the animated display of strings.
7715 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
7716 interactive form of a function.
7718 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
7719 between custom options. Example:
7721 (defcustom default-input-method nil
7722 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
7723 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
7724 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
7726 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
7727 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
7729 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
7730 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
7731 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
7733 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
7734 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
7735 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
7736 (signal or normal termination).
7738 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
7739 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
7741 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
7742 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
7744 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
7745 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
7747 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
7749 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
7750 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
7753 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
7755 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
7756 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
7757 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
7758 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
7759 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
7762 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
7763 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
7766 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
7767 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
7769 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
7770 with the more general `:mask' property.
7772 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
7774 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
7777 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
7778 is running in batch mode. For example,
7780 (message "%s" (read t))
7782 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
7785 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
7786 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
7788 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
7789 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
7792 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
7795 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
7797 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
7798 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
7800 - Function: remq ELT LIST
7802 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
7803 comparison is done with `eq'.
7805 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
7807 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
7808 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
7809 `key-and-value', in addition to `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
7811 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
7812 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
7813 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
7815 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
7816 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
7818 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
7819 function was declared obsolete.
7821 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
7822 retained as an alias).
7824 ** Easy-menu's :filter now takes the unconverted form of the menu and
7825 the result is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
7827 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
7829 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
7831 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
7832 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
7833 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
7834 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
7835 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
7836 means never include the minibuffer window.
7838 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
7840 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
7842 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
7844 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
7845 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
7846 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
7847 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
7850 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
7851 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
7852 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
7853 minibuffer even if it is active.
7855 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
7856 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
7857 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
7858 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
7859 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
7860 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
7862 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
7863 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
7864 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
7865 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
7866 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
7867 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
7868 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
7870 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
7871 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
7872 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
7874 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
7875 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
7876 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
7877 Default value is nil.
7879 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
7882 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
7883 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
7884 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
7886 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
7887 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
7888 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
7890 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
7891 list of a primitive.
7893 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
7895 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
7896 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
7897 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
7898 than replacing the local map.
7900 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
7901 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
7902 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
7905 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
7907 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
7908 as promised long ago.
7910 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
7912 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
7913 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
7914 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
7917 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
7919 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
7920 regular expressions.
7922 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
7924 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
7928 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
7930 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
7934 matches string STRING literally.
7937 matches character CHAR literally.
7940 matches any character except a newline.
7943 matches any character
7946 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
7947 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
7953 matches any character not in SET
7956 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
7957 in the text being matched
7960 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
7963 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
7964 string being matched against.
7967 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
7968 string being matched against.
7971 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
7972 buffer being matched against.
7975 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
7976 buffer being matched against.
7979 matches the empty string, but only at point.
7982 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
7986 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
7989 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
7992 `(not word-boundary)'
7993 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
7997 matches 0 through 9.
8000 matches ASCII control characters.
8003 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
8006 matches space and tab only.
8009 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
8013 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
8017 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
8018 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
8021 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
8022 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
8025 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
8028 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
8031 matches anything lower-case.
8034 matches anything upper-case.
8037 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
8038 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
8041 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
8044 matches anything that has word syntax.
8047 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
8048 of the following symbols.
8050 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
8051 `punctuation' (\\s.)
8054 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
8055 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
8056 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
8057 `string-quote' (\\s\")
8058 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
8060 `character-quote' (\\s/)
8061 `comment-start' (\\s<)
8062 `comment-end' (\\s>)
8064 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
8065 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
8067 `(category CATEGORY)'
8068 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
8069 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
8071 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
8073 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
8074 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
8078 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
8080 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
8081 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
8082 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
8083 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
8084 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
8085 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
8086 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
8087 `indian-two-byte' (\\cI)
8088 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
8089 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
8090 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
8099 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
8103 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
8110 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
8111 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
8113 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
8114 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
8116 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
8117 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
8118 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
8120 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
8121 another name for `submatch'.
8123 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
8124 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
8125 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
8128 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
8129 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
8130 zero or more occurrences of something are \"greedy\" in that they
8131 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
8132 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
8134 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
8135 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
8137 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
8138 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
8141 like `zero-or-more'.
8144 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
8147 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
8149 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
8150 matches one or more occurrences of A.
8156 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
8159 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
8161 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
8162 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
8168 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
8171 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
8174 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
8177 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
8180 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
8184 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
8186 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
8188 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
8189 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
8190 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
8191 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
8193 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
8194 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
8195 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
8196 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
8198 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
8199 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
8200 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
8202 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
8203 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
8204 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
8205 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
8206 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
8207 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
8208 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
8211 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
8213 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
8214 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
8215 character set as previously.
8217 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
8218 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
8219 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
8221 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
8222 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
8223 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
8224 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
8226 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
8227 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
8229 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
8230 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
8233 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
8234 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
8236 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
8237 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
8238 buffers and strings.
8240 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
8241 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
8242 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
8243 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
8244 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
8245 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
8246 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
8249 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
8250 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
8251 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
8253 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
8254 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
8255 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
8256 may differ between buffer and string text.
8258 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
8259 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
8261 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
8262 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
8263 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
8264 `composition' from STRING.
8266 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
8267 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
8269 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
8272 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
8273 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
8275 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
8276 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
8277 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
8278 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
8280 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
8281 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
8282 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
8283 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
8284 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
8285 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
8287 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
8288 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
8289 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
8291 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
8292 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
8293 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
8295 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
8296 have been introduced.
8298 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
8299 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
8300 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
8301 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
8302 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
8303 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
8304 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
8305 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
8306 their multibyte equivalent.
8308 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
8309 that offset in the file before writing.
8311 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
8312 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
8314 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
8315 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
8316 from which the command was issued.
8318 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
8319 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
8320 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
8321 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
8324 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
8325 to `window-buffer-height'.
8327 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
8329 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
8330 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
8331 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
8333 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
8336 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
8337 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
8339 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
8340 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
8341 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
8343 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
8344 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
8345 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
8346 is currently displayed in some window.
8348 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
8349 argument function's results.
8351 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
8352 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
8353 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
8354 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
8357 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
8358 header in the list of headers passed to it.
8360 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
8361 ignores differences in case and text representation.
8363 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
8364 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
8367 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
8368 nil don't display a cursor
8369 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
8370 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
8371 others display a box cursor.
8373 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
8374 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
8375 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
8376 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
8378 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
8379 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
8380 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
8381 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
8385 (string-to-syntax "()")
8388 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
8391 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
8392 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
8399 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
8404 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
8409 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
8416 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
8417 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
8420 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
8421 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
8422 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
8423 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
8425 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
8427 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
8428 for a regexp in a string.
8430 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
8431 `mouse-position-function'.
8433 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
8434 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
8436 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
8437 Keywords are now always considered constants.
8439 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
8442 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
8443 returned by function `recent-keys'.
8445 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
8446 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
8447 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
8448 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
8451 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
8452 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
8454 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
8455 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
8456 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
8457 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
8460 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
8461 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
8462 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
8463 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
8465 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
8466 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
8467 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
8469 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
8470 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
8473 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
8475 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
8476 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
8477 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
8480 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
8481 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
8482 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
8483 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
8484 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
8486 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
8487 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
8489 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
8490 instead of being optional.
8492 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
8493 modify read-only text.
8495 ** New functions and variables for locales.
8497 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
8498 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
8499 time functions like strftime. The new variables
8500 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
8501 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
8503 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
8504 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
8505 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
8506 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
8507 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
8508 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
8509 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
8511 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
8512 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
8513 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
8516 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
8517 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
8519 ** New function `propertize'
8521 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
8522 strings with text properties.
8524 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
8526 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
8527 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
8528 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
8529 specified value of that property. Example:
8531 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
8533 ** push and pop macros.
8535 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
8536 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
8537 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
8539 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
8540 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
8541 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
8543 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
8545 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
8546 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
8548 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
8549 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
8550 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
8551 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
8553 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
8554 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
8555 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
8556 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
8558 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
8559 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
8560 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
8563 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
8564 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
8565 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
8566 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
8567 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
8569 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
8571 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
8572 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
8573 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
8574 [:alpha:] matches letters.
8575 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
8576 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
8577 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
8578 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
8579 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
8580 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
8581 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
8582 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
8583 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
8584 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
8585 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
8587 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
8589 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
8591 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
8593 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
8594 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
8598 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
8599 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
8600 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
8604 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
8605 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
8607 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
8609 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
8610 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
8611 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
8612 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
8613 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
8615 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
8617 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
8618 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
8619 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
8623 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
8624 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
8625 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
8626 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
8627 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
8629 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
8631 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
8633 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
8635 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
8637 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
8639 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
8642 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
8644 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
8646 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
8648 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
8650 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
8652 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
8654 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
8656 Returns the size of TABLE.
8658 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
8660 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
8662 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
8664 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
8666 - Function: clrhash TABLE
8670 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
8672 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
8675 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
8677 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
8678 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
8680 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
8682 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
8684 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
8686 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
8687 arguments KEY and VALUE.
8689 - Function: sxhash OBJ
8691 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
8693 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
8695 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
8696 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
8697 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
8698 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
8699 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
8701 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
8703 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
8704 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
8705 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
8707 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
8708 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
8710 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
8711 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
8713 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
8714 (sxhash (upcase a)))
8716 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
8717 'case-fold-string-hash))
8719 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
8721 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
8723 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
8724 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
8725 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
8727 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
8729 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
8730 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
8732 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
8733 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
8734 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
8735 is too short to reach that column.
8737 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
8738 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
8739 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
8740 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
8742 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
8743 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
8744 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
8746 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
8747 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
8749 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
8750 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
8752 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
8753 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
8754 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
8755 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
8756 temporary-file-directory instead.
8758 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
8759 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
8760 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
8761 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
8763 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
8764 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
8766 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
8768 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
8769 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
8770 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
8772 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
8774 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
8775 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
8776 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
8777 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
8778 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
8779 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
8781 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
8782 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
8783 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
8784 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
8786 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
8788 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
8789 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
8790 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
8793 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
8794 string where arguments appear in the result string.
8798 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
8800 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
8801 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
8804 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
8806 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
8808 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
8809 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
8812 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
8814 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
8815 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
8820 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
8821 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
8823 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
8824 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
8825 to enable sound support.
8827 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
8828 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
8829 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
8830 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
8831 sound to play, before playing the sound.
8833 The following sound properties are supported:
8837 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
8838 searched relative to `data-directory'.
8842 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
8843 may be present, but not both.
8847 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
8848 0..1. This property is optional.
8852 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
8853 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
8855 Other properties are ignored.
8857 An alternative interface is called as
8858 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
8860 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
8862 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
8865 ** Changes to garbage collection
8867 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
8868 of live and free strings.
8870 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
8871 strings that have been consed so far.
8874 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
8877 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
8880 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
8881 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
8882 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
8884 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
8886 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
8888 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
8891 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
8893 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
8895 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
8896 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
8897 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
8898 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
8899 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
8901 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
8904 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
8906 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
8907 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
8908 or omitted means use the selected frame.
8910 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
8911 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
8913 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
8916 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
8920 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
8922 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
8923 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
8925 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
8926 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
8927 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
8928 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
8929 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
8930 just display it black instead.
8932 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
8935 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
8939 ** New face implementation.
8941 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
8942 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
8946 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
8948 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
8950 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
8951 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
8953 3. Font height in 1/10pt
8955 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
8957 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
8959 6. Foreground color.
8961 7. Background color.
8963 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
8965 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
8967 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
8969 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
8971 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
8974 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
8975 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
8977 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
8978 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
8979 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
8980 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
8981 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
8982 attributes mentioned above.
8984 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
8985 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
8988 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
8989 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
8994 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
8995 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
8996 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
8997 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
8998 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
8999 results in a fully-specified face.
9001 *** Face realization.
9003 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
9004 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
9005 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
9006 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
9007 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
9008 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
9010 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
9011 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
9012 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
9013 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
9015 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
9016 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
9017 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
9018 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
9019 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
9021 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
9022 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
9023 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
9024 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
9025 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
9028 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
9029 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
9030 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
9031 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
9033 **** Clearing face caches.
9035 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
9036 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
9041 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
9042 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
9043 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
9045 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
9046 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
9047 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
9048 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
9049 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
9051 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
9052 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
9053 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
9055 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
9057 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
9058 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
9059 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
9060 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
9061 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
9062 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
9063 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
9065 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
9066 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
9069 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
9070 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
9073 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
9076 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
9081 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
9082 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
9085 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
9086 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
9087 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
9088 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
9089 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
9092 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
9094 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
9096 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
9098 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
9100 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
9101 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
9102 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
9104 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
9105 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
9106 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
9107 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
9108 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
9109 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
9110 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
9111 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
9112 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
9113 of the face font sort order.
9115 - Function: x-font-family-list
9117 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
9118 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
9119 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
9120 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
9122 - Variable: font-list-limit
9124 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
9125 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
9126 matching font. The default is currently 100.
9128 *** Setting face attributes.
9130 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
9131 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
9132 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
9135 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
9136 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
9138 The following attributes are recognized:
9142 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
9143 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
9144 and `?' are allowed.
9148 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
9149 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
9150 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
9151 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
9155 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
9156 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
9157 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
9158 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
9162 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
9163 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
9164 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
9168 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
9169 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
9172 `:foreground', `:background'
9174 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
9178 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
9179 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
9180 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
9185 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
9186 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
9187 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
9192 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
9193 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
9194 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
9195 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
9199 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
9200 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
9201 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
9202 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
9203 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
9204 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
9205 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
9206 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
9207 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
9208 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
9209 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
9210 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
9211 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
9212 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
9213 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
9214 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
9219 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
9220 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
9224 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
9225 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
9226 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
9227 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
9228 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
9229 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
9231 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
9232 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
9236 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
9237 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
9238 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
9241 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
9242 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
9243 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
9245 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
9250 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
9251 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
9252 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
9254 *** Face attributes and X resources
9256 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
9259 Face attribute X resource class
9260 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
9261 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
9262 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
9263 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
9264 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
9265 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
9266 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
9267 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
9268 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
9269 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
9270 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
9271 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
9272 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
9273 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
9274 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
9275 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
9276 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
9277 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
9278 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
9279 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
9281 *** Text property `face'.
9283 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
9284 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
9285 specification can be
9287 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
9289 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
9290 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
9291 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
9292 for face attribute names.
9294 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
9295 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
9296 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
9298 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
9300 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
9301 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
9302 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
9303 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
9304 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
9305 used to clear the mapping table.
9307 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
9309 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
9310 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
9311 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
9312 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
9313 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
9314 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
9315 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
9316 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
9317 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
9318 modify their color-related behavior.
9320 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
9323 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
9325 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
9326 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
9327 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
9328 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
9329 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
9330 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
9331 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
9332 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
9333 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
9335 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
9336 display can display image files.
9338 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
9340 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
9341 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
9342 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
9343 `Inviolable' option.
9345 The function `minibuffer-prompt-end' returns the current position of the
9346 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
9347 Otherwise, it returns `(point-min)'.
9349 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
9351 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
9352 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
9353 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
9355 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
9356 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
9357 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
9358 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
9359 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
9360 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
9361 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
9364 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
9365 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
9366 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
9368 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
9370 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
9372 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
9374 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
9375 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
9376 constrained position if that is different.
9378 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
9379 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
9380 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
9381 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
9382 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
9383 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
9384 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
9385 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
9386 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
9388 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
9389 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
9390 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
9391 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
9392 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
9394 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
9395 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
9397 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
9399 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
9401 Delete the field surrounding POS.
9402 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
9403 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
9405 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
9407 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
9408 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
9409 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
9410 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
9411 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
9413 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
9415 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
9416 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
9417 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
9418 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
9419 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
9421 - Function: field-string &optional POS
9423 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
9424 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
9425 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
9427 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
9429 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
9430 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
9431 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
9435 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
9436 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
9437 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
9438 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
9440 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
9441 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
9442 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
9443 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
9446 IMAGE is an image specification.
9448 *** Image specifications
9450 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
9451 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
9452 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
9453 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
9454 described below are ignored.
9456 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
9460 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
9461 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
9462 to use for its ascent.
9464 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
9465 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
9467 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
9468 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
9469 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
9470 overlays that apply to the image.
9474 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
9475 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
9476 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
9480 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
9485 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
9487 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
9488 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
9490 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
9491 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
9492 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
9493 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
9494 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
9495 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
9496 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
9497 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
9500 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
9502 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
9504 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
9505 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
9506 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
9507 of the factors' absolute values.
9509 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
9515 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
9521 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
9526 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
9527 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
9528 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
9529 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
9530 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
9531 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
9532 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
9535 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
9536 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
9541 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
9542 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
9543 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
9544 may be present in the image specification.
9548 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
9549 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
9550 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
9551 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
9553 *** Supported image types
9555 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
9557 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
9558 properties supported are:
9562 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
9563 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
9567 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
9568 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
9570 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
9571 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
9572 instead of a `:file' property.
9576 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
9580 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
9586 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
9587 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
9589 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
9591 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
9594 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
9595 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
9598 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
9600 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
9601 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
9602 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
9603 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
9605 Additional image properties supported are:
9607 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
9609 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
9610 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
9613 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
9614 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
9616 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
9617 to display compressed images.
9619 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
9621 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
9622 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
9627 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
9628 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
9632 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
9633 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
9635 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
9637 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
9638 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
9641 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
9643 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
9644 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
9647 **** GIF, image type `gif'
9649 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
9650 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
9652 Additional image properties supported are:
9656 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
9657 multi-image GIF file. If INDEX is too large, the image displays
9660 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
9661 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
9662 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
9665 (defun show-anim (file max)
9666 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
9667 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
9669 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
9672 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
9675 (goto-char (point-min))
9676 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
9677 (insert-image img "x"))
9678 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
9680 **** PNG, image type `png'
9682 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
9683 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
9686 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
9688 Additional image properties supported are:
9692 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
9693 integer. This is a required property.
9697 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
9698 must be a integer. This is an required property.
9702 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
9703 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
9704 files. This is an required property.
9706 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
9711 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
9712 which are supported in the current configuration.
9714 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
9715 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
9716 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
9717 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
9718 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
9720 *** Simplified image API, image.el
9722 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
9723 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
9724 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
9725 define an image based on available image types. The functions
9726 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
9731 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
9734 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
9735 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
9736 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
9737 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
9738 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
9739 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
9740 of the display margins.
9742 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
9743 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
9744 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
9745 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
9750 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
9751 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
9752 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
9753 that have a `help-echo' property.
9755 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
9756 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
9757 the window in which the help was found.
9759 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
9760 `help-echo' text property was found.
9762 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
9763 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
9765 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
9766 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
9769 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
9770 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
9772 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
9773 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
9774 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
9775 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
9776 used as help string.
9778 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
9779 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
9780 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
9782 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
9784 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
9785 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
9787 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
9788 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
9789 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
9790 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
9793 (global-set-key [A-down]
9796 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
9797 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
9798 (global-set-key [A-up]
9801 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
9802 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
9804 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
9806 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
9807 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
9808 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
9809 is called with one argument, POS.
9811 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
9812 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
9813 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
9814 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
9815 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
9817 ** Tool bar support.
9819 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
9820 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
9821 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
9822 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
9823 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
9824 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
9826 *** Tool bar item definitions
9828 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
9829 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
9830 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
9832 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
9833 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
9834 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
9835 property (see below).
9837 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
9838 binding are currently ignored.
9840 The following properties are recognized:
9844 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
9849 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
9853 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
9854 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
9855 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
9857 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
9859 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
9860 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
9864 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
9865 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
9866 meaning of each of the four elements:
9868 Index Use when item is
9869 ----------------------------------------
9870 0 enabled and selected
9871 1 enabled and deselected
9872 2 disabled and selected
9873 3 disabled and deselected
9875 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
9876 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
9878 `:help HELP-STRING'.
9880 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
9881 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
9883 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
9884 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
9885 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
9888 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
9889 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
9890 buffer-locally to override the global map.
9892 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
9894 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
9895 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
9896 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
9898 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
9899 raised when the mouse moves over them.
9901 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
9902 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
9903 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
9904 vertical margins . Default is 1.
9906 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
9907 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
9909 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
9911 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
9914 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
9915 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
9916 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
9918 is the original tool bar item definition, then
9920 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
9922 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
9925 ** Mode line changes.
9927 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
9929 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
9930 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
9931 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
9933 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
9934 a `local-map' text property.
9936 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
9937 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
9939 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
9940 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
9941 `local-map' property.
9943 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
9944 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
9947 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
9948 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
9950 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
9951 variable mode-line-format to nil.
9953 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
9955 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
9956 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
9957 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
9958 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
9961 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
9964 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
9965 position in the header-line.
9967 ** Text property `display'
9969 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
9970 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
9971 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
9972 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
9973 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
9975 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
9977 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
9978 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
9980 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
9981 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
9982 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
9983 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
9984 simpler form STRING as property value.
9986 *** Variable width and height spaces
9988 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
9989 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
9990 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
9991 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
9992 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
9993 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
9994 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
9996 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
9997 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
9998 properties described below.
10000 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
10001 characters having the `display' property.
10005 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
10006 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
10008 - :relative-width FACTOR
10010 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
10011 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
10012 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
10013 width of that character by FACTOR.
10017 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
10018 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
10020 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
10024 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
10025 normal line height.
10027 - :relative-height FACTOR
10029 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
10030 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
10034 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
10035 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
10036 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
10039 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
10043 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
10044 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
10045 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
10046 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
10047 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
10048 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
10049 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
10050 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
10051 as display specification.
10053 *** Other display properties
10055 - (space-width FACTOR)
10057 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
10058 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
10063 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
10065 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
10066 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
10067 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
10068 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
10069 a font is available counts as a step.
10071 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
10072 as tall as the frame's default font.
10074 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
10075 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
10077 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
10078 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
10082 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
10083 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
10084 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
10085 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
10086 `height' subproperty.
10088 *** Conditional display properties
10090 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
10091 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
10092 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
10093 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
10094 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
10095 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
10096 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
10097 different when object is a string.
10099 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
10102 ** New menu separator types.
10104 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
10105 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
10106 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
10107 to specify other menu separator types.
10109 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
10111 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
10114 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
10116 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
10118 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
10120 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
10122 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
10124 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
10126 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
10128 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
10130 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
10132 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
10133 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
10135 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
10137 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
10139 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
10141 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
10143 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
10145 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
10147 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
10149 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
10151 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
10153 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
10155 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
10157 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
10159 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
10161 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
10163 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
10164 the corresponding single-line separators.
10166 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
10168 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
10169 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
10170 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
10171 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
10172 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
10173 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
10174 default foreground is black.
10176 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
10177 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
10178 `ScrollBarBackground').
10180 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
10181 settings for scroll bar colors.
10183 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
10184 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
10186 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
10187 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
10188 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
10189 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
10190 the original window start.
10192 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
10193 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
10194 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
10196 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
10198 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
10199 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
10200 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
10201 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
10203 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
10204 fixed-width and fixed-height.
10206 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
10208 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
10209 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
10210 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
10211 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
10212 temporarily to nil, for example
10214 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
10215 (enlarge-window 10))
10217 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
10218 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
10220 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
10221 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
10222 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
10223 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
10224 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
10225 support a vertical-bar cursor).
10229 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
10231 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
10234 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
10236 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
10238 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
10239 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
10240 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
10241 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
10242 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
10244 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
10248 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
10250 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
10254 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
10256 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
10257 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
10259 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
10261 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
10263 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
10264 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
10265 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
10267 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
10268 is the one that is used.
10270 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
10271 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
10272 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
10273 separate from the command's regular output.
10274 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
10275 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
10276 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
10279 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
10280 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
10281 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
10282 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
10284 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
10285 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
10286 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
10287 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
10289 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
10290 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
10291 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
10292 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
10294 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
10295 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
10296 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
10297 they never ignore case.
10299 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
10300 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
10301 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
10302 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
10303 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
10304 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
10305 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
10307 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
10308 the same format that was used in the file before.
10310 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
10311 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
10313 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
10314 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
10315 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
10317 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
10318 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
10319 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
10320 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
10321 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
10322 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
10323 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
10325 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
10326 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
10327 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
10328 format. You can now customize these variables.
10330 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
10331 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
10332 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
10333 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
10335 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
10336 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
10337 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
10339 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
10340 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
10341 doesn't have any effect.
10343 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
10344 not one per buffer.
10346 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
10347 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
10348 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
10350 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
10351 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
10352 `auto-show-mode' command.
10354 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
10355 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
10356 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
10357 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
10358 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
10360 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
10361 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
10363 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
10364 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
10365 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
10367 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
10368 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
10369 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
10370 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
10372 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
10374 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
10375 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
10376 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
10377 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
10378 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
10380 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
10381 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
10383 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
10384 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
10385 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
10386 `?' on other systems.
10388 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
10389 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
10392 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
10393 current codepage when it starts.
10397 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
10398 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
10399 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
10400 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
10401 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
10402 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
10406 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
10407 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
10409 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
10410 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
10411 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
10412 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
10413 buffer-file-coding-system.
10415 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
10416 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
10419 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
10420 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
10421 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
10422 list of possible coding systems.
10426 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
10427 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
10428 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
10429 docstring for details.
10431 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
10432 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
10433 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
10434 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
10435 lineup functions use this feature currently.
10437 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
10438 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
10440 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
10441 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
10443 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
10444 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
10445 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
10446 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
10449 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
10450 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
10452 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
10453 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
10454 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
10455 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
10457 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
10458 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
10459 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
10460 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
10461 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
10463 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
10465 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
10467 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
10468 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
10470 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
10472 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
10473 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
10474 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
10475 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
10476 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
10480 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
10481 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
10482 Gnus manual for the full story.
10484 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
10485 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
10486 group, which is created automatically.
10488 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
10491 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
10493 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
10494 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
10496 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
10499 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
10501 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
10502 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
10504 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
10506 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
10507 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
10509 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
10510 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
10512 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
10513 control over simplification.
10515 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
10517 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
10520 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
10522 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
10524 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
10525 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
10526 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
10528 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
10529 `a' forces normal posting method.
10531 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
10534 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
10535 to a non-nil value.
10537 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
10538 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
10540 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
10543 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
10545 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
10547 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
10548 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
10550 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
10551 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
10553 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
10555 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
10558 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
10559 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
10561 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
10562 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
10564 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
10566 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
10568 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
10570 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
10572 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
10573 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
10574 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
10576 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
10577 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
10578 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
10579 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
10580 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
10582 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
10583 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
10584 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
10585 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
10587 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
10588 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
10589 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
10592 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
10594 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
10595 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
10597 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
10598 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
10599 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
10600 removed from the label.
10602 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
10603 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
10605 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
10606 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
10608 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
10609 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
10612 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
10614 ** New/deleted modes and packages
10616 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
10617 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
10619 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
10620 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
10621 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
10623 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
10624 changes with a special face.
10626 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
10627 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
10628 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
10630 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
10632 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
10633 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
10634 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
10635 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
10636 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
10638 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
10639 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
10640 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
10642 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
10643 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
10644 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
10645 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
10646 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
10647 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
10648 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
10649 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
10650 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
10652 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
10653 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
10654 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
10655 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
10656 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
10659 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
10660 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
10661 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
10662 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
10663 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
10664 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
10666 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
10667 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
10668 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
10669 was not documented clearly before.
10671 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
10672 This includes Tetris and Snake.
10674 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
10676 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
10677 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
10678 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
10679 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
10681 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
10682 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
10683 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
10685 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
10687 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
10688 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
10690 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
10691 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
10694 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
10695 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
10696 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
10697 file names and attributes are returned.
10699 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
10700 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
10701 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
10702 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
10703 returns the result.
10705 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
10706 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
10708 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
10710 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
10711 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
10712 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
10715 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
10716 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
10719 The new function process-running-child-p
10720 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
10721 terminal to its own child process.
10723 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
10724 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
10725 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
10726 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
10728 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
10729 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
10731 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
10732 :included is an alias for :visible.
10734 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
10735 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
10736 to move or copy menu entries.
10738 ** Multibyte editing changes
10740 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
10741 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
10742 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
10743 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
10744 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
10745 (setq char (sref str idx)
10746 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
10747 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
10749 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
10750 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
10751 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
10753 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
10754 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
10755 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
10757 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
10759 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
10760 across the boundary.
10762 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
10763 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
10764 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
10765 contains 8-bit characters.
10766 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
10767 contains invalid characters.
10769 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
10770 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
10771 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
10772 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
10775 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
10776 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
10777 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
10778 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
10780 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
10781 compose Thai characters in a string.
10783 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
10784 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
10785 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
10786 menus should always use the third argument.
10788 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
10789 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
10790 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
10791 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
10793 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
10794 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
10795 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
10796 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
10798 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
10799 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
10800 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
10801 echo area contents.
10803 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
10805 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
10806 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
10807 requested feature cannot be loaded.
10809 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
10810 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
10811 means to clear out that attribute.
10813 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
10814 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
10816 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
10817 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
10818 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
10819 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
10821 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
10822 the gap of the current buffer.
10824 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
10825 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
10828 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
10829 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
10830 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
10831 it back in after any modifications have been made.
10833 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
10835 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
10836 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
10837 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
10838 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
10839 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
10841 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
10842 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
10843 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
10844 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
10845 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
10847 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
10848 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
10849 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
10851 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
10852 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
10853 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
10854 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
10855 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
10858 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
10859 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
10860 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
10861 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
10863 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
10865 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
10866 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
10867 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
10868 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
10870 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
10871 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
10872 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
10873 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
10874 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
10875 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
10876 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
10879 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
10882 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
10883 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
10884 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
10885 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
10886 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
10888 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
10889 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
10890 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
10891 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
10893 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
10894 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
10895 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
10896 something that most users not do.
10898 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
10899 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
10900 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
10903 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
10904 pasting operations.
10906 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
10907 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
10908 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
10909 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
10912 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
10913 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
10914 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
10915 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
10916 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
10919 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
10920 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
10921 to be confused by TeX commands.
10923 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
10924 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
10925 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
10926 of various alternative replacements and actions.
10928 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
10929 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
10930 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
10931 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
10932 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
10934 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
10935 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
10937 ** Changes in input method usage.
10939 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
10940 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
10943 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
10945 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
10946 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
10948 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
10949 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
10951 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
10953 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
10955 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
10956 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
10958 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
10959 given in the following case:
10960 o When you are using a complex input method.
10961 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
10963 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
10964 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
10965 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
10966 setting it to t is helpful.
10968 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
10970 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
10972 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
10973 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
10974 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
10975 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
10978 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
10979 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
10980 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
10983 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
10985 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
10987 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
10988 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
10990 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
10991 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
10992 its owner and group.
10994 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
10995 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
10997 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
10998 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
11000 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
11001 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
11002 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
11003 by the left edge of the rectangle.
11005 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
11006 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
11007 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
11008 for writing keyboard macros.
11010 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
11011 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
11012 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
11013 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
11014 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
11017 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
11019 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
11020 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
11023 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
11024 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
11025 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
11026 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
11028 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
11029 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
11030 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
11032 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
11033 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
11034 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
11035 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
11037 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
11038 failure if the command produces no output.
11040 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
11041 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
11044 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
11045 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
11046 function and variable names.
11048 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
11049 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
11050 file-coding-system-alist.
11052 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
11053 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
11054 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
11055 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
11056 according to the current fontset.
11058 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
11060 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
11061 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
11062 nonascii-insert-offset.
11064 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
11065 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
11066 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
11067 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
11069 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
11070 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
11072 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
11073 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
11075 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
11076 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
11079 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
11080 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
11082 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
11083 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
11084 all variables that have documentation.
11086 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
11087 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
11088 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
11089 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
11090 it should show; the default is 20.
11092 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
11093 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
11096 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
11097 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
11098 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
11099 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
11100 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
11101 Newly added options are included as well.
11103 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
11104 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
11105 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
11107 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
11110 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
11111 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
11113 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
11114 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
11117 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
11118 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
11121 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
11122 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
11123 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
11124 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
11127 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
11129 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
11130 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
11131 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
11133 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
11134 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
11135 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
11140 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
11141 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
11143 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
11144 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
11146 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
11147 read and post multi-lingual articles.
11149 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
11150 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
11151 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
11152 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
11153 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
11154 made invisible again.
11156 ** Mail reading and sending changes
11158 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
11159 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
11160 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
11163 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
11164 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
11165 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
11166 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
11167 rmail-default-body-file.
11169 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
11170 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
11171 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
11173 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
11174 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
11175 is evaluated to insert the signature.
11177 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
11178 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
11179 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
11180 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
11181 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
11182 especially interested in trying feedmail.
11184 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
11185 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
11186 provided by feedmail are:
11188 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
11189 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
11190 there is also a queue for draft messages
11192 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
11193 be prompted for confirmation
11195 **** does smart filling of address headers
11197 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
11198 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
11199 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
11201 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
11202 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
11203 /usr/lib/sendmail, and Emacs Lisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
11204 function for something else (10-20 lines of Lisp code).
11208 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
11209 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
11211 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
11212 run Dired on the directory name at point.
11214 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
11215 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
11216 for a specified regexp.
11220 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
11223 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
11224 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
11227 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
11228 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
11229 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
11230 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
11232 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
11233 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
11234 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
11235 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
11236 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
11238 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
11239 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
11240 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
11241 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
11242 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
11244 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
11245 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
11246 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
11247 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
11249 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
11250 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
11251 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
11253 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
11254 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
11255 session to resolve them.
11257 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
11258 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
11259 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
11262 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
11263 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
11264 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
11265 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
11266 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
11267 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
11270 ** Changes in Font Lock
11272 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
11273 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
11274 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
11275 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
11276 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
11278 ** Frame name display changes
11280 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
11281 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
11282 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
11283 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
11285 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
11286 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
11289 ** Comint (subshell) changes
11291 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
11292 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
11293 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
11295 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
11297 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
11298 that is, the line after the last line you got.
11299 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
11301 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
11302 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
11303 the following line.
11305 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
11306 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
11307 previously sent input.
11309 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
11310 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
11311 as the search string.
11313 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
11314 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
11318 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
11319 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
11320 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
11323 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
11324 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
11325 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
11326 style is still the default however.
11328 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
11330 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
11331 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
11332 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
11334 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
11335 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
11337 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
11338 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
11340 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
11341 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
11343 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
11344 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
11346 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
11347 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
11348 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
11349 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
11351 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
11353 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
11354 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
11355 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
11357 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
11358 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
11359 expanding dynamically.
11361 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
11362 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
11364 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
11365 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
11366 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
11367 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
11369 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
11371 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
11373 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
11374 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
11375 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
11376 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
11377 against the first word in the title.
11379 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
11380 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
11381 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
11382 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
11383 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
11384 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
11386 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
11387 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
11388 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
11389 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
11391 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
11393 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
11394 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
11395 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
11396 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
11397 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
11398 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
11400 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
11401 Editing group once the package is loaded.
11403 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
11404 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
11405 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
11407 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
11408 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
11412 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
11413 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
11414 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
11416 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
11417 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
11418 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
11419 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
11422 o URLs are automatically skipped
11423 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
11425 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
11427 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
11429 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
11430 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
11431 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
11432 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
11434 *** New recursive parser.
11436 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
11437 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
11438 recursive parser scans the individual files.
11440 *** Parsing only part of a document.
11442 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
11443 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
11444 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
11446 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
11448 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
11450 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
11452 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
11454 *** Using multiple selection buffers
11456 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
11457 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
11459 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
11461 *** References to external documents.
11463 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
11464 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
11465 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
11466 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
11467 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
11468 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
11469 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
11471 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
11473 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
11474 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
11476 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
11477 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
11479 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
11481 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
11482 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
11484 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
11486 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
11487 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
11488 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
11489 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
11490 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
11491 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
11494 *** Support for the varioref package
11496 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
11500 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
11501 and citations are created. These hooks are
11502 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
11503 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
11505 *** Citations outside LaTeX
11507 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
11508 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
11510 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
11512 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
11513 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
11516 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
11518 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
11519 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
11520 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
11521 directories that contain the same file name.
11523 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
11524 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
11525 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
11526 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
11527 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
11528 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
11529 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
11532 ** New modes and packages
11534 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
11535 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
11536 it, but some do not.
11538 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
11541 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
11542 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
11543 around in a buffer.
11545 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
11547 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
11548 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
11549 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
11550 established system of notation similar to Chess.
11552 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
11553 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
11554 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
11556 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
11557 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
11558 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
11559 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
11560 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
11563 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
11564 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
11566 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
11567 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
11568 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
11569 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
11571 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
11573 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
11574 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
11575 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
11576 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
11577 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
11578 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
11579 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
11580 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
11581 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
11582 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
11583 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
11585 Platform-specific modes:
11587 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
11588 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
11589 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
11590 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
11591 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
11592 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
11593 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
11594 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
11595 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
11597 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
11599 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
11600 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
11601 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
11602 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
11604 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
11605 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
11606 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
11608 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
11609 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
11610 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
11611 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
11613 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
11614 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
11615 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
11618 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
11619 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
11620 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
11621 current input method for reading this one event.
11623 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
11624 now control whether to output certain characters as
11625 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
11626 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
11627 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
11628 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
11630 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
11632 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
11633 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
11635 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
11636 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
11637 always increases point by 1.
11639 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
11640 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
11642 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
11644 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
11645 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
11646 default value changed. For example,
11648 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
11653 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
11656 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
11657 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
11658 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
11659 `:version' in the top level group.
11661 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
11663 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
11664 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
11666 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
11667 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
11668 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
11671 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
11672 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
11675 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
11676 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
11677 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
11679 ** Frame-local variables.
11681 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
11682 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
11683 local bindings for that variable.
11685 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
11686 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
11687 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
11690 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
11691 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
11692 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
11693 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
11695 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
11696 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
11697 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
11698 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
11700 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
11701 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
11702 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
11703 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
11704 See the documentation in sregex.el.
11706 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
11707 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
11708 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
11709 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
11711 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
11712 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
11714 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
11715 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
11716 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
11718 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
11719 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
11720 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
11721 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
11723 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
11724 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
11727 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
11728 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
11729 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
11730 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
11731 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
11733 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
11734 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
11735 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
11736 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
11738 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
11739 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
11740 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
11741 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
11742 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
11744 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
11745 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
11746 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
11747 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
11749 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
11750 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
11751 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
11753 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
11754 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
11755 was directed to display this buffer.
11757 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
11758 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
11759 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
11760 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
11761 set-window-configuration.
11763 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
11764 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
11765 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
11766 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
11768 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
11769 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
11770 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
11772 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
11773 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
11774 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
11776 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
11777 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
11779 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
11780 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
11782 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
11783 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
11784 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
11786 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
11787 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
11788 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
11789 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
11793 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
11794 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
11797 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
11798 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
11799 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
11800 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
11801 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
11803 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
11805 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
11806 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
11807 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
11808 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
11811 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
11812 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
11813 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
11814 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
11815 The supported properties include
11817 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
11819 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
11820 item should appear in the menu.
11822 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
11823 which will be REAL-BINDING.
11824 It should return a binding to use instead.
11826 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
11827 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
11828 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
11829 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
11830 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
11833 This means that the command normally has no
11834 keyboard equivalent.
11835 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
11836 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
11837 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
11838 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
11839 value says whether this button is currently selected.
11841 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
11842 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
11844 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
11848 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
11849 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
11850 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
11851 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
11853 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
11855 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
11856 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
11857 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
11858 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
11859 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
11860 forward, away from the user.
11862 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
11864 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
11865 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
11866 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
11867 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
11868 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
11870 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
11872 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
11873 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
11874 that were dragged and dropped.
11876 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
11878 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
11880 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
11881 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
11882 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
11884 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
11885 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
11886 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
11888 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
11889 in Emacs 19 and before.
11891 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
11892 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
11894 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
11895 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
11896 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
11897 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
11899 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
11900 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
11901 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
11902 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
11903 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
11905 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
11906 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
11907 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
11908 consistent with the new representation.
11910 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
11911 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
11912 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
11913 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
11915 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
11916 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
11917 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
11919 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
11920 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
11921 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
11923 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
11924 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
11925 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
11927 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
11928 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
11930 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
11931 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
11933 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
11934 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
11935 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
11936 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
11938 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
11939 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
11941 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
11942 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
11943 buffer or string being searched.
11945 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
11946 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
11947 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
11948 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
11949 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
11950 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
11951 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
11953 *** Structure of coding system changed.
11955 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
11956 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
11957 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
11958 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
11959 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
11960 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
11961 define-coding-system-alias.
11963 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
11964 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
11965 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
11966 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
11967 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
11968 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
11969 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
11972 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
11973 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
11974 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
11975 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
11977 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
11978 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
11979 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
11980 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
11982 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
11983 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
11984 This function requires a user interaction.
11986 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
11987 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
11988 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
11989 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
11990 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
11991 select-safe-coding-system.
11993 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
11994 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
11995 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
11998 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
11999 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
12000 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
12002 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
12003 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
12004 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
12005 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
12007 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
12008 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
12009 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
12012 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
12013 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
12015 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
12016 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
12017 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
12018 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
12019 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
12020 range of characters.
12022 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
12023 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
12025 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
12026 in the current buffer at position POS.
12028 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
12029 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
12030 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
12031 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
12032 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
12033 binding input-method-function to nil.
12035 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
12036 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
12037 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
12038 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
12039 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
12041 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
12042 subsequent events of a key sequence.
12044 *** You can customize any language environment by using
12045 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
12047 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
12048 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
12049 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
12050 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
12051 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
12053 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
12055 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
12056 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
12057 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
12060 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
12061 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
12063 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
12064 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
12065 in your .emacs file.)
12067 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
12068 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
12070 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
12071 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
12073 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
12074 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
12077 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
12078 delete the character before point, as usual.
12080 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
12081 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
12082 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
12084 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
12085 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
12086 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
12087 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
12088 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
12091 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
12092 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
12093 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
12094 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
12095 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
12097 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
12098 and is an alias for it.
12100 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
12101 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
12103 ** Scrolling changes
12105 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
12106 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
12108 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
12109 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
12112 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
12113 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
12114 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
12115 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
12117 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
12118 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
12119 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
12120 recenters the window.
12122 ** International character set support (MULE)
12124 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
12125 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
12126 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
12127 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
12128 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
12129 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
12131 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
12132 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
12133 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
12134 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
12135 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
12137 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
12138 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
12139 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
12140 language, to make it possible to type them.
12142 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
12143 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
12145 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
12146 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
12148 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
12150 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
12152 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
12153 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
12154 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
12155 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
12156 characters for their work until they want to change.
12160 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
12161 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
12162 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
12163 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
12164 support several input methods.
12166 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
12167 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
12170 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
12171 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
12172 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
12173 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
12174 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
12177 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
12178 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
12179 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
12180 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
12181 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
12183 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
12184 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
12185 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
12186 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
12188 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
12189 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
12190 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
12191 the first guess is wrong.
12193 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
12194 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
12196 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
12197 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
12198 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
12199 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
12201 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
12202 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
12203 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
12204 translate automatically to and from either one.
12206 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
12208 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
12209 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
12210 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
12213 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
12214 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
12215 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
12216 multibyte characters in that buffer.
12218 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
12219 character conversion as well.
12221 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
12223 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
12224 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
12225 requires using many fonts.
12227 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
12228 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
12230 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
12231 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
12232 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
12233 you would use a font.
12235 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
12236 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
12237 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
12239 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
12240 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
12243 *** Defining fontsets.
12245 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
12246 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
12247 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
12249 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
12250 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
12251 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
12252 standard fontset are created automatically.
12254 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
12255 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
12256 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
12257 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
12258 name is `fontset-startup'.
12260 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
12261 The resource value should have this form:
12262 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
12263 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
12264 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
12265 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
12266 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
12267 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
12268 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
12269 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
12270 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
12272 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
12273 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
12274 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
12276 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
12277 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
12278 following resource,
12279 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
12280 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
12281 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
12282 Here is the substitution rule:
12283 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
12284 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
12285 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
12286 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
12287 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
12289 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
12290 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
12291 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
12293 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
12294 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
12295 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
12296 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
12299 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
12300 defaults for a particular choice of language.
12302 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
12303 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
12304 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
12305 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
12306 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
12307 system for new files that you create.
12309 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
12310 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
12311 whole Emacs session.
12313 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
12314 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
12315 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
12317 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
12318 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
12319 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
12320 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
12321 coding systems that Emacs supports.
12323 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
12324 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
12325 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
12326 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
12327 is used for *the immediately following command*.
12329 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
12330 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
12332 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
12333 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
12335 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
12336 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
12338 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
12339 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
12340 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
12341 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
12344 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
12345 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
12346 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
12347 translated into that character code.
12349 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
12350 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
12352 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
12354 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
12355 the coding system for keyboard input.
12357 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
12358 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
12359 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
12361 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
12363 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
12364 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
12365 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
12366 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
12367 designed to work with terminals.
12369 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
12370 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
12371 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
12372 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
12373 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
12374 in the corresponding buffer.
12376 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
12378 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
12379 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
12380 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
12382 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
12383 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
12384 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
12387 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
12388 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
12390 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
12391 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
12392 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
12393 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
12395 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
12396 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
12397 related information.
12399 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
12400 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
12403 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
12404 information about the support for a particular language.
12405 You specify the language as an argument.
12407 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
12408 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
12411 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
12412 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
12413 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
12414 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
12416 A alternativnyj (Russian)
12418 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
12419 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
12420 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
12421 E euc-japan (Japanese)
12422 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
12423 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
12424 K euc-korea (Korean)
12427 S shift_jis (Japanese)
12430 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
12431 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
12432 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
12433 v viqr (Vietnamese)
12436 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
12437 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
12438 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
12439 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
12441 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
12442 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
12444 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
12445 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
12446 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
12447 Rmail files themselves.
12449 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
12450 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
12452 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
12455 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
12456 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
12457 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
12458 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
12459 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
12461 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
12462 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
12463 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
12466 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
12467 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
12468 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
12469 without any conversion.
12471 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
12472 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
12473 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
12474 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
12476 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
12477 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
12479 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
12480 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
12482 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
12483 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
12485 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
12486 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
12487 in the buffer before point.
12489 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
12490 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
12493 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
12494 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
12496 ** File locking works with NFS now.
12498 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
12499 in the same directory as FILENAME.
12501 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
12502 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
12503 can become a bottleneck.
12505 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
12506 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
12507 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
12508 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
12509 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
12510 so useful that the change is worth while.
12512 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
12513 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
12514 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
12515 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
12517 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
12518 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
12521 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
12522 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
12523 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
12525 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
12526 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
12527 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
12529 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
12530 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
12531 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
12533 ** Changes in View mode.
12535 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
12536 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
12538 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
12539 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
12541 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
12544 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
12545 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
12547 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
12548 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
12549 not just the selected window.
12551 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
12552 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
12553 turns View mode on or off.
12555 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
12556 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
12557 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
12559 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
12560 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
12562 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
12563 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
12564 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
12565 which version to compare with.
12567 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
12568 blocks if a match is inside the block.
12570 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
12571 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
12572 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
12573 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
12575 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
12576 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
12577 blocks, all of them or none.
12579 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
12580 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
12581 confirmation first.
12583 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
12584 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
12585 However, the mode will not be changed if
12586 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
12587 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
12588 not suitable for ordinary files, or
12589 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
12591 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
12593 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
12594 these commands do not change the major mode.
12596 ** M-x occur changes.
12598 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
12599 it performs a case-sensitive search.
12601 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
12602 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
12603 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
12605 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
12606 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
12607 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
12608 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
12609 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
12611 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
12612 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
12613 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
12614 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
12616 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
12617 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
12618 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
12620 ** Outline mode changes.
12622 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
12624 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
12626 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
12627 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
12628 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
12629 was already active.
12631 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
12632 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
12633 get confused by it.
12635 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
12636 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
12638 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
12640 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
12641 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
12642 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
12643 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
12645 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
12646 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
12647 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
12649 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
12650 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
12653 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
12654 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
12655 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
12656 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
12658 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
12659 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
12660 can be. The default value is 30.
12662 ** Changes in Mail mode.
12664 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
12665 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
12666 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
12667 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
12668 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
12671 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
12672 compose-mail-other-frame.
12674 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
12675 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
12676 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
12677 buffer that shows the original message.
12679 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
12680 with separator lines around the contents.
12682 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
12683 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
12684 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
12685 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
12687 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
12689 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
12690 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
12691 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
12692 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
12694 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
12695 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
12698 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
12699 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
12702 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
12703 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
12704 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
12705 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
12707 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
12708 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
12709 be taken to be magic.
12711 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
12712 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
12713 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
12715 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
12716 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
12718 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
12719 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
12721 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
12723 new key dired.el binding old key
12724 ------- ---------------- -------
12725 * c dired-change-marks c
12727 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
12728 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
12729 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
12731 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
12732 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
12733 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
12734 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
12735 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
12736 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
12740 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
12741 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
12742 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
12743 each time you run it.
12745 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
12746 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
12748 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
12749 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
12750 means to move in the opposite direction.
12752 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
12753 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
12755 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
12756 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
12757 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
12758 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
12763 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
12765 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
12768 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
12769 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
12771 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
12774 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
12776 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
12778 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
12780 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
12781 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
12782 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
12784 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
12786 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
12788 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
12789 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
12791 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
12792 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
12793 used to pick articles.
12795 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
12796 another have been added.
12798 `M-x gnus-change-server'
12800 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
12801 generating lines in buffers.
12803 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
12806 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
12808 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
12810 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
12812 *** Scores can be decayed.
12814 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
12816 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
12817 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
12819 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
12822 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
12824 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
12825 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
12827 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
12829 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
12830 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
12832 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
12833 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
12835 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
12838 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
12839 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
12841 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
12843 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
12845 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
12847 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
12849 Use the `Y c' command.
12851 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
12853 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
12855 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
12857 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
12858 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
12860 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
12862 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
12864 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
12865 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
12867 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
12869 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
12870 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
12871 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
12872 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
12875 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
12876 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
12877 particular news group. This can be done by:
12879 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
12881 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
12882 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
12883 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
12884 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
12885 for reading and posting).
12887 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
12888 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
12889 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
12890 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
12893 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
12894 default. Here are some of these default settings:
12896 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
12897 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
12898 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
12899 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
12900 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
12902 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
12903 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
12905 ** CC mode changes.
12907 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
12908 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
12909 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
12910 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
12911 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
12914 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
12915 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
12916 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
12917 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
12918 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
12919 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
12921 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
12922 of the current buffer.
12924 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
12925 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
12926 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
12928 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
12929 style that the Python developers like.
12931 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
12932 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
12933 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
12935 ** VC Changes [new]
12937 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
12938 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
12939 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
12941 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
12942 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
12945 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
12946 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
12948 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
12949 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
12950 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
12951 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
12953 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
12954 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
12956 ** Calendar changes.
12958 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
12959 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
12960 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
12961 following/previous years.
12963 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
12964 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
12965 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
12966 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
12967 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
12968 supposed attribute of God.
12970 ** ps-print changes
12972 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
12975 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
12977 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
12978 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
12979 printer system has this behavior, set variable
12980 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
12982 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
12983 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
12984 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
12986 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
12987 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
12989 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
12990 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
12991 printing for your printer.
12993 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
12994 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
12996 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
12997 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
12999 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
13000 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
13001 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
13002 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
13003 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
13004 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
13005 The default value is nil.
13007 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
13008 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
13010 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
13011 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
13012 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
13013 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
13014 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
13015 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
13016 color). The default is 0 ("black").
13018 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
13019 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
13021 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
13022 The default is 0 ("black").
13024 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
13025 The default is 0 ("black").
13027 border-width Specify the border width.
13028 The default is 0.4.
13030 Any other property is ignored.
13032 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
13033 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
13036 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
13037 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
13038 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
13039 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
13040 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
13041 controlling headers.
13043 *** Color management (subgroup)
13045 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
13048 *** Face Management (subgroup)
13050 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
13051 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
13052 background should be used. Valid values are:
13054 t always use face background color.
13055 nil never use face background color.
13056 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
13058 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
13060 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
13063 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
13064 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
13066 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
13069 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
13070 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
13071 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
13073 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
13077 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
13081 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
13085 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
13089 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
13091 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
13093 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
13096 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
13097 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
13098 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
13100 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
13101 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
13102 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13103 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13104 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13108 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13109 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13110 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13113 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
13114 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
13115 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
13116 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
13117 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
13118 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13119 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13120 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
13121 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
13122 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
13123 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
13126 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
13128 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
13131 *** Printer management (subgroup)
13133 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
13134 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
13135 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
13136 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
13139 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
13140 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
13141 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
13143 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
13144 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
13147 *** Page settings (subgroup)
13149 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
13150 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
13151 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
13152 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
13153 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
13154 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
13157 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
13158 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
13159 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
13161 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
13162 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
13163 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
13164 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
13165 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
13166 its TO, are ignored.
13168 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
13169 pages. Valid values are:
13171 nil print all pages.
13173 `even-page' print only even pages.
13175 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
13177 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
13178 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
13179 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
13180 print only the even sheet of paper.
13182 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
13183 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
13184 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
13185 only the odd sheet of paper.
13187 Any other value is treated as nil.
13189 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
13190 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
13191 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
13193 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
13195 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
13196 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
13198 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
13199 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
13200 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
13201 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
13202 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
13203 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
13204 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
13206 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
13207 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
13208 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
13209 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
13210 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
13211 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
13212 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
13214 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
13216 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
13217 messages should be sent.
13219 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
13220 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
13221 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
13223 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
13225 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
13226 points for line numbers.
13228 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
13229 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
13231 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
13232 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
13233 to 2, the printing will look like:
13245 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
13246 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
13249 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
13250 zebra stripe is to be printed.
13252 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
13254 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
13255 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
13256 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
13257 3, the output will look like:
13271 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
13272 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
13274 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
13275 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
13278 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
13279 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
13282 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
13284 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
13285 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
13287 ** hideshow changes.
13289 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
13292 *** Support for java-mode added.
13294 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
13295 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
13297 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
13298 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
13299 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
13301 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
13302 robust and a lot faster.
13304 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
13306 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
13307 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
13308 documentation for more details.
13310 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
13312 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
13313 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
13314 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
13315 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
13316 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
13318 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
13319 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
13320 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
13321 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
13327 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
13328 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
13329 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
13330 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
13331 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
13332 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
13334 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
13336 *** Maximum decoration
13338 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
13339 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
13340 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
13341 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
13342 to get the old behavior.
13346 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
13348 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
13349 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
13351 *** Configurable support
13353 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
13354 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
13355 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
13356 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
13357 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
13358 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
13359 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
13361 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
13362 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
13363 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
13365 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
13367 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
13368 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
13371 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
13373 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
13379 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
13380 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
13381 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
13382 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
13384 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
13386 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
13387 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
13388 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
13390 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
13392 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
13393 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
13394 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
13395 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
13396 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
13397 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
13398 Lock mode behavior and the behavior of Font Lock mode.
13400 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
13401 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
13402 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
13403 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
13404 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
13405 the command M-o M-o (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
13407 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
13409 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
13410 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
13411 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
13412 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
13414 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
13417 ** Ada mode changes.
13419 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
13420 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
13421 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
13422 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
13425 *** There are two new commands:
13426 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
13427 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
13429 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
13430 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
13431 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
13433 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
13434 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
13435 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
13437 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
13438 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
13439 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
13440 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
13442 ** Scheme mode changes.
13444 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
13445 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
13446 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
13447 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
13450 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
13451 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
13452 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
13453 variables as buffer-local variables.
13455 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
13456 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
13458 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
13460 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
13461 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
13462 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
13463 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
13465 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
13466 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
13469 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
13470 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
13471 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
13472 option takes precedence.
13474 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
13475 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
13476 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
13478 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
13479 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
13482 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
13483 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
13485 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
13486 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
13489 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
13490 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
13491 these register values no longer become completely useless.
13492 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
13493 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
13494 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
13496 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
13497 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
13498 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
13499 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
13501 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
13502 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
13503 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
13504 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
13505 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
13507 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
13508 since it applies only to the current frame.
13510 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
13511 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
13512 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
13514 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
13515 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
13516 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
13517 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
13518 instead of just the file you are editing.
13522 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
13523 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
13524 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
13525 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
13526 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
13529 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
13530 knows which kind of label is needed.
13532 C-c ) reftex-reference
13533 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
13534 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
13536 C-c [ reftex-citation
13537 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
13538 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
13540 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
13541 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
13544 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
13545 can quickly jump to every section.
13547 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
13548 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
13549 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
13550 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
13551 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
13553 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
13555 *** Info documentation is now available.
13557 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
13558 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
13560 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
13561 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
13563 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
13564 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
13566 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
13567 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
13568 appropriate functions.
13570 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
13571 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
13573 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
13576 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
13577 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
13579 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
13580 shall be delimited.
13582 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
13583 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
13584 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
13586 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
13587 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
13588 prefixed with `ALT'.
13590 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
13591 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
13592 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
13595 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
13596 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
13597 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
13599 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
13600 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
13602 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
13603 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
13604 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
13606 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
13608 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
13610 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
13611 from alien sources.
13613 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
13614 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
13617 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
13620 *** Added support for imenu.
13622 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
13623 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
13624 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
13625 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
13627 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
13628 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
13630 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
13632 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
13634 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
13635 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
13636 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
13639 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
13640 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
13642 ** browse-url changes
13644 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
13645 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
13646 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
13647 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
13648 customization variables.
13650 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
13652 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
13653 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
13654 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
13656 ** Changes in Ediff
13658 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
13659 pops up the Info file for this command.
13661 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
13662 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
13663 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
13666 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
13667 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
13668 files in the same directory.
13670 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
13671 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
13672 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
13674 ** Changes in Viper
13676 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
13677 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
13679 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
13680 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
13681 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
13682 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
13683 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
13684 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
13685 color when Viper is in insert state.
13686 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
13687 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
13688 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
13692 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
13693 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
13694 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
13695 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
13696 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
13698 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
13700 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
13701 constructs are tagged. Files are recognized by the extension .java.
13703 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
13704 recognized by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
13705 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
13707 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
13708 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
13709 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
13710 methods and protocols.
13712 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognized by the extension
13713 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
13714 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
13717 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
13718 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
13719 at least M times and as many as N times.
13721 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
13722 in files has changed slightly.
13724 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
13725 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
13726 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
13727 with old time-stamp-format values.
13729 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
13730 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
13731 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
13734 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
13735 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
13736 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
13737 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
13738 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
13739 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
13741 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
13742 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
13743 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
13745 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
13746 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
13747 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
13748 recommended now will continue to work then.
13750 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
13753 ** There are some additional major modes:
13755 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
13756 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
13757 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
13759 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
13760 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
13763 ** New Lisp packages include:
13765 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
13767 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
13768 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
13770 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
13772 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
13775 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
13776 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
13779 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
13780 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
13781 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
13782 strings or comments.
13784 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
13785 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
13786 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
13787 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
13790 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
13791 can visit them by short forms of their names.
13793 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
13794 Emacs Lisp function at point.
13796 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
13798 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
13799 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
13801 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
13803 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
13805 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
13807 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
13808 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
13810 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
13811 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
13812 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
13813 original place after inserting the copy.
13815 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
13818 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
13819 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
13820 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
13822 Enable mouse-drag with:
13823 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
13825 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
13827 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
13828 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
13830 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
13831 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
13835 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
13836 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
13837 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
13838 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
13839 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
13840 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
13841 instance) and vice versa.
13843 To use this package load it using
13844 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
13845 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
13846 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
13847 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
13848 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
13849 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
13851 *** Interface to ph.
13853 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
13855 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
13856 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
13859 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
13861 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
13862 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
13863 while the real cursor does not move.
13865 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
13866 for visiting your favorite web sites.
13868 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
13869 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
13873 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
13874 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
13875 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
13876 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
13878 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
13880 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
13882 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
13884 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
13885 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
13886 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
13887 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
13888 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
13890 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
13891 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
13892 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
13893 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
13894 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
13895 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
13897 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
13899 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
13900 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
13901 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
13902 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
13904 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
13905 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
13907 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
13908 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
13911 ** Basic Lisp changes
13913 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
13914 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
13916 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
13917 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
13920 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
13922 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
13924 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
13925 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
13927 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
13928 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
13931 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
13933 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
13935 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
13937 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
13938 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
13939 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
13942 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
13943 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
13944 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
13946 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
13947 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
13948 adding one of these suffixes.
13950 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
13951 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
13952 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
13954 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
13955 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
13957 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
13959 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
13960 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
13962 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
13963 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
13965 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
13967 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
13968 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
13970 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
13971 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
13972 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
13973 works using `save-current-buffer'.
13975 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
13976 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
13979 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
13980 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
13981 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
13984 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
13985 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
13988 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
13990 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
13991 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
13992 Then it returns that string.
13994 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
13996 (with-output-to-string
13997 (princ "The buffer is ")
13998 (princ (buffer-name)))
14000 returns "The buffer is foo".
14002 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
14005 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
14006 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
14007 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
14009 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
14010 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
14012 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
14013 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
14014 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
14015 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
14016 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
14017 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
14019 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
14020 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
14021 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
14024 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
14025 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
14026 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
14027 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
14028 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
14030 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
14031 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
14032 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
14033 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
14035 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
14036 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
14038 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
14040 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
14041 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
14042 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
14043 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
14046 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
14047 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
14050 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
14052 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
14053 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
14054 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
14055 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
14056 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
14058 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
14060 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
14061 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
14062 more than the number of characters.
14064 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
14065 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
14066 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
14067 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
14068 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
14069 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
14071 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
14072 and returns a string containing those characters.
14074 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
14075 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
14076 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
14077 character, sref signals an error.
14079 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
14080 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
14081 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
14083 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
14084 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
14085 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
14087 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
14088 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
14089 to a vector of the characters in it.
14091 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
14092 of a string. You call it as follows:
14094 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
14096 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
14097 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
14098 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
14099 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
14100 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
14102 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
14103 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
14105 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
14106 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
14108 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
14109 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
14110 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
14111 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
14113 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
14115 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
14117 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
14118 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
14119 are not included in the resulting value.
14121 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
14122 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
14123 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
14124 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
14126 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
14127 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
14128 character extends across that column), then the padding character
14129 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
14130 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
14131 column START-COLUMN.
14133 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
14134 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
14135 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
14136 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
14137 changed text, before the change.
14139 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
14140 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
14141 one character set for each script, not for each language.
14143 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
14145 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
14147 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
14148 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
14150 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
14151 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
14152 which identify the character within that character set.
14154 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
14155 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
14156 opposite of split-char.
14158 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
14159 of all the characters between BEG and END.
14161 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
14162 of all the characters in a string.
14164 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
14165 and specifying coding systems.
14167 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
14168 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
14169 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
14170 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
14171 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
14172 as what to do about code conversion.)
14174 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
14175 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
14177 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
14178 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
14179 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
14181 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
14182 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
14183 to match against a file name.
14185 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
14186 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
14187 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
14188 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
14189 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
14190 specifies the coding system for encoding.
14192 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
14193 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
14195 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
14196 the coding system to use for network sockets.
14198 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
14199 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
14200 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
14203 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
14204 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
14205 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
14206 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
14207 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
14208 specifies the coding system for encoding.
14210 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
14211 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
14213 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
14214 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
14215 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
14216 start the subprocess.
14218 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
14219 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
14220 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
14221 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
14222 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
14224 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
14225 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
14228 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
14229 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
14230 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
14231 connection permanently or until overridden.
14233 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
14234 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
14235 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
14236 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
14237 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
14238 system for one operation at a time.
14240 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
14241 files, subprocesses or network connections.
14243 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
14244 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
14245 The value is a cons cell,
14246 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
14247 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
14248 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
14249 input to the subprocess.
14251 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
14252 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
14254 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
14255 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
14256 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
14258 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
14259 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
14260 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
14261 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
14264 Thus, instead of writing
14266 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
14267 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
14269 you would now write this:
14271 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
14272 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
14276 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
14277 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
14278 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
14279 for a description of them.
14281 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
14282 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
14284 (defgroup ispell nil
14285 "Spell checking using Ispell."
14288 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
14289 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
14290 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
14291 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
14292 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
14294 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
14295 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
14296 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
14297 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
14298 first-level subgroups.
14300 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
14302 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
14303 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
14307 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
14308 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
14309 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
14310 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
14311 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
14312 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
14314 ** Text property changes
14316 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
14319 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
14320 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
14321 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
14322 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
14323 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
14325 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
14326 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
14327 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
14328 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
14330 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
14331 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
14332 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
14334 ** Changes in invisibility features
14336 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
14337 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
14338 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
14339 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
14340 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
14341 make the overlay visible.
14343 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
14344 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
14345 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
14346 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
14347 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
14348 t when it should hide it.
14350 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
14352 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
14353 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
14354 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
14355 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
14356 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
14357 Here is an example of how to do this:
14359 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
14360 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
14361 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
14362 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
14365 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
14368 ;; When done with the overlays:
14369 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
14370 ;; Or respectively:
14371 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
14373 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
14375 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
14376 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
14377 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
14378 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
14380 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
14381 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
14382 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
14384 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
14385 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
14387 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
14388 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
14390 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
14391 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
14392 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
14394 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
14395 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
14396 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
14397 determine the syntax type of the character.
14399 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
14400 of the current buffer.
14402 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
14403 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
14404 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
14406 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
14407 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
14408 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
14409 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
14410 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
14412 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
14415 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
14416 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
14417 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
14419 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
14420 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
14421 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
14422 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
14423 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
14425 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
14426 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
14427 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
14429 ** Changes in face features
14431 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
14432 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
14434 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
14435 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
14437 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
14438 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
14440 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
14441 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
14443 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
14444 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
14445 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
14446 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
14449 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
14450 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
14452 ** Changes in file-handling functions
14454 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
14455 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
14456 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
14457 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
14459 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
14462 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
14463 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
14465 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
14466 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
14468 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
14469 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
14471 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
14472 character code conversion as well as other things.
14474 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
14475 (formerly it did not).
14477 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
14478 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
14480 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
14481 instead of constant strings.
14483 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
14484 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
14485 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
14487 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
14488 in the same way as before.
14490 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
14491 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
14492 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
14494 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
14495 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
14496 else, and returns nil.
14498 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
14499 directory cannot be listed.
14501 ** Changes in minibuffer input
14503 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
14504 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
14505 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
14506 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
14509 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
14510 It is available through the history command M-n.
14512 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
14513 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
14514 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
14515 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
14516 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
14518 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
14519 argument in this way.
14521 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
14522 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
14523 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
14525 ** Echo area features
14527 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
14528 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
14529 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
14530 after the echo area is cleared.
14532 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
14533 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
14535 ** Keyboard input features
14537 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
14538 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
14540 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
14541 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
14542 by keyboard macros.
14544 ** Frame-related changes
14546 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
14547 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
14548 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
14550 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
14551 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
14552 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
14554 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
14555 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
14556 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
14557 in the selected frame.
14559 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
14560 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
14561 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
14563 ** X Windows features
14565 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
14566 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
14567 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
14569 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
14570 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
14572 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
14573 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
14574 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
14576 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
14577 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
14579 ** Subprocess features
14581 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
14582 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
14585 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
14586 and returns the output from the command as a string.
14588 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
14589 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
14591 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
14592 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
14594 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
14595 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
14596 goes after the other menu items.
14598 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
14599 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
14600 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
14603 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
14604 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
14606 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
14607 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
14610 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
14611 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
14612 but its hook is still run.
14614 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
14615 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
14617 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
14618 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
14619 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
14621 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
14622 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
14623 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
14626 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
14627 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
14629 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
14630 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
14631 functions like display-time.
14633 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
14634 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
14636 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
14637 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
14638 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
14640 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
14641 if there is an error in compilation.
14643 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
14644 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
14645 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
14646 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
14648 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
14649 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
14650 the *scratch* buffer.
14652 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
14653 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
14654 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
14655 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
14657 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
14658 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
14659 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
14661 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
14662 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
14663 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
14664 and compose-mail-other-frame.
14666 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
14667 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
14668 full name of the specified user will be returned.
14670 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
14671 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
14672 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
14673 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
14674 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
14677 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
14678 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
14679 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
14680 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
14682 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
14683 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
14684 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
14685 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
14687 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
14689 ** imenu.el changes.
14691 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
14692 item from menu created by imenu.
14694 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
14695 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
14696 select one of those items.
14698 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
14700 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
14701 Copyright information:
14703 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
14704 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
14706 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
14707 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
14708 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
14709 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
14711 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
14712 of this document, or of portions of it,
14713 under the above conditions, provided also that they
14714 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
14718 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
14721 arch-tag: 1aca9dfa-2ac4-4d14-bebf-0007cee12793