1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-08-14
2 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file NEWS.1.
9 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
11 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
13 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
14 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
16 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
17 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
20 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
21 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
23 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
24 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
26 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
27 support 64-bit executables. See etc/MACHINES for instructions.
30 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
32 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
33 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
35 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
36 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
37 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
38 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
39 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
40 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
42 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
43 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
44 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
45 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
47 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable because it contains
48 a version-dependent component.
50 ** The <delete> function key is now bound to `delete-char' by default.
51 Note that this takes effect only on window systems. On TTYs, Emacs
52 will receive ASCII 127 when the DEL key is pressed. This
53 character is still bound as before.
55 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
58 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
59 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to executable-chmod.
61 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
62 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
63 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
64 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
65 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
66 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
67 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
69 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
70 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
71 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
72 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
73 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
74 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
75 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
76 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
77 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
79 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
80 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
82 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
83 point in a pop-up window.
85 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
86 displays all characters in that character set.
88 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
89 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
91 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
94 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
96 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
97 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
99 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
100 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
101 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
102 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
104 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
105 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
106 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
107 You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
109 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
110 on the display using several methods
112 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
113 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
114 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
116 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
117 equivalent ot specifying the frame parameter.
119 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
121 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
122 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
124 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
125 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
126 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
127 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
129 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
130 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
131 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
133 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
134 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
136 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
137 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
140 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
141 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
144 ** New X resources recognized
146 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
147 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
148 is useful for debugging X problems.
152 emacs.synchronous: true
154 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
155 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
156 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
157 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
158 visual class names are
167 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
168 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
171 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
172 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
173 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
178 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
180 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
181 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
182 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
183 resource values are `true' or `on'.
187 emacs.privateColormap: true
189 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
190 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
191 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
193 ** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
194 display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
195 shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
198 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
200 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
201 all frames except the selected one.
203 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
204 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
206 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
207 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
208 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
209 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
211 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
212 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
214 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
215 read mail from the menu etc.
217 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
218 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
220 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
222 ** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
226 -------------------------
233 ** Changes in Outline mode.
235 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
236 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
237 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
239 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
240 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
242 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either M-x clone-buffer
243 or C-u m <entry> RET. M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and
244 several other special buffers.
246 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
247 under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
250 The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
251 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
253 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
254 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
255 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
257 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
258 is running in batch mode. For example,
260 (message "%s" (read t))
262 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
265 ** Faces and frame parameters.
267 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
268 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
269 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
270 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
271 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
272 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
273 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
275 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
276 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
277 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
278 `default' face and vice versa.
282 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
283 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
284 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
286 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
288 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
289 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
290 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
291 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
293 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
294 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
295 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
297 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
300 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
302 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
303 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
304 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
305 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
308 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
310 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
311 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
312 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
313 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
316 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
317 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
318 under Lisp changes, below.
320 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
322 ** When using a windowing terminal, Emacs window now has a cursor of
323 its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid; otherwise,
326 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
327 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
328 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
329 customizing face `fringe'.
331 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
332 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
336 Emacs now runs with LessTif (see <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will
337 need a version 0.88.1 or later.
339 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
341 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
342 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
343 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
344 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
345 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
348 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
349 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
350 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
351 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
352 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
353 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
355 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
356 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
357 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
358 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
359 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
360 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
362 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
363 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
364 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
365 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
366 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
368 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
370 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
371 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
372 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
374 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
376 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
377 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
378 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
379 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
380 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
385 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
386 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
390 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
391 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
392 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
395 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
397 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
398 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
399 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
402 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
403 have to do anything to activate it.
405 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
407 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
408 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
409 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
410 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
412 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
414 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
416 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
418 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
421 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
424 ** Hscrolling in C code.
426 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
427 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
432 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
433 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
435 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
437 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
438 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
439 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
440 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
441 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
443 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
445 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
448 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
449 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
451 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
453 - Mouse-2 on the read-only status in the mode line (`%' or `*')
454 toggles the read-only status.
456 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
458 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
460 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
461 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
464 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
466 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
467 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
468 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
469 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
470 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
471 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
476 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
477 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
478 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
480 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
481 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
482 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
483 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
484 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
485 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
487 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
489 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
491 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
492 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
493 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
495 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
496 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
498 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
499 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
500 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
502 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
504 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
505 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
506 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
507 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
509 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
510 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
511 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
512 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
514 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
515 notably at the end of lines.
517 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
518 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
520 There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
522 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
523 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
524 after each match to get the replacement text.
526 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
527 you edit the replacement string.
529 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', let's
530 you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
531 lisp-complete-symbol.
533 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
535 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
536 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the minibuffer window unless
537 it is on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum minibuffer
538 window size by setting the following variable:
540 - User option: max-mini-window-height
542 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
543 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
544 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
548 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
550 ** Changes to hideshow.el
552 Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
553 selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
555 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
557 A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
558 (both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
559 which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
560 `forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
561 point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
562 (which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
564 If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
565 i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
566 backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
567 the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
569 *** Isearch support for updating mode line
571 During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
572 blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
573 line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
574 portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
575 is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
577 To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
578 something like this in your .emacs.
580 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
582 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
584 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
586 If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
587 entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
588 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
590 New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
591 buffer, fixing old-style date formats if necessary.
593 Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
594 if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
596 The search for a file's version number is performed based on regular
597 expressions from `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be
598 cutomized. Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of
601 ** Changes in Font Lock
603 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
604 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
607 ** Comint (subshell) changes
609 By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp' to
610 distiguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which parts of
611 the text were output by the process, and which entered by the user, and
612 attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use this information.
613 Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line, respect field
614 boundaries in a fairly natural manner.
615 To disable this feature, and use the old behavior, set the variable
616 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields' to a non-nil value.
618 Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
619 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
621 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
622 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
623 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
625 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
626 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
627 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
629 Packages based on comint.el like shell-mode, and scheme-interaction-mode
630 now highlight user input and program prompts, and support choosing
631 previous input with mouse-2. To control these feature, see the
632 user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
634 ** Changes to Rmail mode
636 *** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
637 set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
638 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
639 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
640 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
643 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
644 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
645 regexp matching your mail addresses.
647 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
648 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
649 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
650 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
651 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
653 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
656 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
657 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
660 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
661 in which folder to put messages automatically.
663 ** Changes to TeX mode
665 The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
668 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
670 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
671 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
672 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
673 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
674 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
675 can be edited from that buffer.
677 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
678 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
679 `A' to use all marked entries).
681 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
682 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
684 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
685 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
686 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
689 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
690 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
691 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
692 in column 1 are always made leaves.
694 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
695 has the following new features:
697 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
698 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
699 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
700 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
702 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
703 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
704 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
705 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
706 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
709 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
714 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
715 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
716 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
718 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
719 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
720 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
721 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
725 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
726 `State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
727 cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
729 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
730 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
733 *** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
734 between custom options. Example:
736 (defcustom default-input-method nil
737 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
738 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
739 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
741 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
742 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
744 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
745 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
746 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
748 ** New features in evaluation commands
750 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
751 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
752 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
753 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
754 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
756 *** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
757 code when called with a prefix argument.
761 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
762 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
763 spell-checks the current buffer.
767 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
768 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
769 is, delete only empty directories.
771 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
772 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
773 copy directories recursively.
775 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
776 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
777 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
779 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
780 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
783 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `w') shows
784 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
785 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
786 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
787 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
789 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
792 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
793 use the -f option when sending mail.
797 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
798 current user setups (although it's believed that these
799 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
800 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
801 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
802 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
805 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
806 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
807 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
808 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
809 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
812 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
813 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
814 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
815 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
816 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
817 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
819 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
820 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
821 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
822 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
823 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
824 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
825 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
826 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
828 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
829 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
830 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
831 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
834 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
835 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
836 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
837 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
838 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
839 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
840 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
841 function documentation for more info.
843 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
844 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
845 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
846 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
847 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
848 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
849 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
850 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
852 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
854 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
855 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
857 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
858 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
859 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
860 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
861 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
864 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
865 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
866 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
869 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
870 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
871 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
872 chapter about this in the manual.
874 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
875 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
876 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
877 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
878 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
880 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
881 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
882 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
884 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
885 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
887 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
888 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
889 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
892 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
893 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
894 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
895 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
898 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
899 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
900 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
903 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
904 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
905 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
906 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
909 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
910 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
911 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
912 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
915 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
916 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
917 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
919 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
921 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
922 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
923 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
924 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
926 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
927 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
928 the column specified by comment-column.
930 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
931 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
932 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
933 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
934 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
935 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
937 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
938 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
941 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
943 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
944 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
945 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
946 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
949 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
951 ** Makefile mode changes
953 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
955 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
956 Fontlock mode is active.
960 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
961 so that searches can be resumed.
963 *** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
964 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
965 that started the search.
967 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
968 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
970 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
972 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
973 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
974 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
975 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
976 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
977 `secondary-selection'.
979 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
980 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
981 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
982 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
983 usual snappy response.
985 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
986 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
987 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
988 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
990 ** Changes in sort.el
992 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
993 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
994 new user-option sort-numberic-base can be used to specify a default
997 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
999 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
1000 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
1001 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
1003 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
1004 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
1006 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
1007 output ^M at the end of lines.
1009 ** Shell script mode changes.
1011 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
1012 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
1013 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
1017 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
1019 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
1020 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
1021 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
1022 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
1023 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
1025 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
1026 declarations when given the --declarations option.
1028 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
1029 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
1031 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
1034 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
1036 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
1038 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
1041 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
1042 variables are tagged.
1044 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
1046 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
1049 ** Changes in etags.el
1051 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
1052 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
1053 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
1055 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
1056 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
1058 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
1059 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
1060 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
1061 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
1063 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
1065 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
1066 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
1068 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
1070 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
1071 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
1072 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
1074 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
1075 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
1077 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
1078 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
1080 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1081 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1082 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1084 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1085 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1086 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1087 There is currently no specific input method support for them.
1089 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
1090 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
1091 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
1093 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
1095 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
1097 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignore-regexps'
1098 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
1099 expression from that list, are not checked.
1101 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
1102 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
1103 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
1104 the buffer, just like for the local files.
1106 ** New modes and packages
1108 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
1109 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
1110 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
1111 on certain projects.
1113 *** The new package hi-lock.el, text matching interactively entered
1114 regexp's can be highlighted. For example,
1116 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
1118 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
1119 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
1120 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
1121 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
1122 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
1123 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
1124 corresponding file is read.
1126 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
1129 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
1130 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
1132 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
1133 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
1134 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
1136 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
1137 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
1138 separate Texinfo file.
1140 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine
1141 or by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
1142 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS.
1143 It comes with log-view-mode to view RCS and SCCS logs and log-edit-mode
1144 used to enter checkin log messages.
1146 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
1147 without invoking external programs.
1149 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
1150 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
1151 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
1152 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
1153 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
1155 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
1156 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
1158 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
1159 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
1161 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
1162 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
1163 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
1164 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
1165 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
1168 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
1169 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
1170 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
1171 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
1173 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
1174 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1175 actually modifying content of a buffer.
1177 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1180 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1182 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1184 ; comment (until end of line)
1188 $A default non-terminal
1189 $"C" default terminal
1190 $?C? default special
1191 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1192 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1193 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1194 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1195 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1196 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1197 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1198 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1199 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1200 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1201 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1202 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1203 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1204 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1205 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1207 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1209 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1210 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1211 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1212 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1213 equal signs of assignments.
1215 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1216 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1218 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1219 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1220 buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1221 customize the package.
1223 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
1225 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1226 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1227 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1228 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1229 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1230 which answers different needs.
1232 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1233 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1234 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1235 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1236 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1239 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1240 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1242 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1244 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1246 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1248 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1251 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1254 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1256 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1258 *** whitespace.el ???
1260 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1261 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1262 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1263 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1264 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1265 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1266 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1268 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1270 Here is an example of columns:
1273 dog pineapple car EXTRA
1274 porcupine strawberry airplane
1276 Doing the following settings:
1278 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1279 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1280 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1281 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1284 Selecting the lines above and typing:
1286 M-x delimit-columns-region
1290 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
1291 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1292 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1294 delim-col has the following options:
1296 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1299 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1300 between each column.
1302 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1305 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1308 delim-col has the following commands:
1310 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1311 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1313 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1314 were operated on recently.
1316 M-x recentf-mode RET toggles recentf mode.
1318 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET can be used to enable
1319 recentf at Emacs startup.
1321 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-menu-filter RET to specify a menu
1322 filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the recent
1323 file list can be displayed:
1325 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
1326 - sorted by file pathes, file names, ascending or descending.
1327 - showing pathes relative to the current default-directory
1329 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
1330 dynamically change the menu appearance.
1332 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1335 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
1336 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1337 specific to Message mode.
1339 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1340 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1341 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1343 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1344 interface to access directory servers using different directory
1345 protocols. It has a separate manual.
1347 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1348 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1350 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1352 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
1353 minibuffer with completion.
1355 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1356 with the diary features.
1358 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1359 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1361 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
1364 ** Withdrawn packages
1366 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1367 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
1369 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1371 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
1374 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
1375 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
1377 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
1378 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
1381 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
1384 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
1386 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
1387 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
1389 - Function: remq ELT LIST
1391 Return a copy of LIST with all occurences of ELT removed. The
1392 comparison is done with `eq'.
1394 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
1396 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
1399 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
1400 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
1401 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
1403 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
1404 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
1406 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
1407 function was declared obsolete.
1409 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
1410 retained as an alias).
1412 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
1413 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
1414 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
1416 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
1418 - Function: window-list &optional WINDOW MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES
1420 Return a list of windows in canonical order. The parameters WINDOW,
1421 MINIBUF and ALL-FRAMES are defined like for `next-window'.
1423 ** There's a new function `some-window' defined as follows
1425 - Function: some-window PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
1427 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
1429 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
1430 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
1431 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
1432 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
1435 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
1436 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
1437 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
1438 minibuffer even if it is active.
1440 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
1441 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
1442 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
1443 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
1444 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
1445 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
1447 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
1448 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
1449 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
1450 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
1451 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
1452 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
1453 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
1455 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
1456 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
1457 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
1459 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
1460 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
1461 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
1462 Default value is nil.
1464 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
1467 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
1468 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
1469 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
1471 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information on the argument list
1474 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
1475 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
1476 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
1477 than replacing the local map.
1479 ** The obsolete variables before-change-function and
1480 after-change-function are no longer acted upon and have been removed.
1482 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
1484 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments, as
1487 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
1489 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1491 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1492 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1493 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1494 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1496 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
1497 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
1498 when it finds 8-bit characters. Previously, it included `ascii' in a
1499 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
1501 *** The functions `set-buffer-modified', `string-as-multibyte' and
1502 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer if it
1503 contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
1505 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
1506 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
1507 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
1508 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
1509 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
1510 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
1511 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
1514 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
1516 A fontset can now be specified for for each independent character, for
1517 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
1518 character set as previously.
1520 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
1521 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
1522 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
1524 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
1525 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
1526 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
1527 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
1529 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
1530 name of a font and REGSITRY is a registry name of a font.
1532 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
1533 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
1536 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
1537 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
1539 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
1540 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
1541 buffers and strings.
1543 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
1544 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
1545 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
1546 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
1547 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
1548 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
1549 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
1552 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
1553 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
1554 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
1556 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
1557 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
1558 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
1559 may differ between buffer and string text.
1561 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
1562 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
1564 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
1565 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
1566 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
1567 `composition' from STRING.
1569 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
1570 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
1572 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
1575 ** The new character set `mule-unicode-0100-24ff' is introduced for
1576 Unicode characters of the range U+0100..U+24FF. Currently, this
1577 character set is not used.
1579 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
1580 `japanese-jisx0213-2' are introduced for the new Japanese standard JIS
1581 X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
1584 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
1585 are introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
1586 0xA0..0xFF respectively.
1589 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
1590 that offset in the file before writing.
1592 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
1593 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
1595 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
1596 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
1597 from which the command was issued.
1599 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
1600 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
1601 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
1602 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
1605 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
1606 to `window-buffer-height'.
1608 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
1610 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
1611 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
1612 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
1614 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
1617 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
1618 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
1620 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
1621 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
1622 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
1624 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
1625 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
1626 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
1627 is currently displayed in some window.
1629 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
1630 argument function's results.
1632 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
1633 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
1635 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
1636 header is the list of headers passed to it.
1638 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
1639 ignores differences in case and text representation.
1641 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
1642 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
1645 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
1646 nil don't display a cursor
1647 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
1648 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
1649 others display a box cursor.
1651 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
1652 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
1653 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
1654 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
1656 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
1657 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
1658 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
1659 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
1663 (string-to-syntax "()")
1666 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
1669 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
1670 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
1677 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
1682 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
1687 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
1694 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
1695 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
1698 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
1699 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
1700 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
1701 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
1704 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
1706 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
1707 for a regexp in a string.
1709 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
1710 `mouse-position-function'.
1712 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
1713 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
1715 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
1716 Keywords are now always considered constants.
1719 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
1722 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
1723 returned by function `recent-keys'.
1726 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
1727 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
1728 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
1729 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
1733 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
1734 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
1737 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
1738 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
1739 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
1740 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
1743 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
1744 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
1745 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
1746 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
1749 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
1750 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
1751 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
1754 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
1755 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
1758 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
1760 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
1761 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
1762 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
1766 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
1767 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
1770 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
1771 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
1774 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
1775 instead of being optional.
1778 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
1779 modify read-only text.
1782 ** New functions and variables for locales.
1784 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
1785 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
1786 time functions like strftime. The new variables
1787 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
1788 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
1790 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
1791 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
1792 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
1793 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
1794 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
1795 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
1796 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
1799 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
1800 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
1801 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
1805 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
1806 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
1809 ** New function `propertize'
1811 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
1812 strings with text properties.
1814 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
1816 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
1817 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
1818 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
1819 specified value of that property. Example:
1821 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
1824 ** push and pop macros.
1826 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
1827 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
1828 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
1830 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
1831 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
1832 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
1834 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
1836 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
1837 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
1839 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
1840 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
1841 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
1842 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1844 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
1845 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
1846 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
1847 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
1850 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
1851 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
1853 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
1854 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
1855 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
1856 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
1857 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
1859 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
1861 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
1862 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1863 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1864 [:alpha:] matches letters.
1865 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1866 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
1867 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
1868 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
1869 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
1870 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
1871 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
1872 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
1873 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
1874 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
1875 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
1878 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
1880 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
1882 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
1884 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
1885 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
1889 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
1890 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
1891 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
1895 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
1896 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
1898 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
1900 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
1901 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
1902 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
1903 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
1904 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
1906 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
1908 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
1909 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
1910 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
1914 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
1915 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
1916 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
1917 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
1918 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
1920 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
1922 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
1924 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
1926 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
1928 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
1930 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
1933 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
1935 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
1937 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1939 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
1941 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
1943 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
1945 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
1947 Returns the size of TABLE.
1949 - Function: hash-table-rehash-test TABLE
1951 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
1953 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
1955 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
1957 - Function: clrhash TABLE
1961 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
1963 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
1966 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
1968 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
1969 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
1971 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
1973 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
1975 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
1977 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
1978 arguments KEY and VALUE.
1980 - Function: sxhash OBJ
1982 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
1984 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
1986 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
1987 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
1988 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
1989 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
1990 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
1992 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
1994 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
1995 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
1996 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
1998 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
1999 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
2001 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
2002 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
2004 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
2005 (sxhash (upcase a)))
2007 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
2008 'case-fold-string-hash))
2010 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
2013 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
2015 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
2016 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
2017 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
2020 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
2022 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
2023 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
2026 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
2027 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
2028 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
2029 is too short to reach that column.
2032 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
2033 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
2034 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
2035 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
2037 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
2038 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
2039 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
2042 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
2043 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
2046 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
2047 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
2050 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
2051 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
2052 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
2053 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
2054 temporary-file-directory instead.
2057 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
2058 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
2059 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
2060 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
2063 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
2064 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
2067 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
2069 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
2070 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
2071 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
2074 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
2076 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
2077 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
2078 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
2079 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
2080 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
2081 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
2083 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
2084 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
2085 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
2086 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
2089 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
2091 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
2092 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
2093 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
2096 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
2097 string where arguments appear in the result string.
2101 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
2103 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
2104 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
2107 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
2110 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
2112 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
2113 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
2116 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
2118 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
2119 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
2125 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
2126 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
2128 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
2129 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
2130 to enable sound support.
2132 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
2133 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
2134 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
2135 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
2136 sound to play, before playing the sound.
2138 The following sound properties are supported:
2142 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
2143 searched relative to `data-directory'.
2147 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
2148 may be present, but not both.
2152 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
2153 0..1. This property is optional.
2155 Other properties are ignored.
2157 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
2159 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
2162 ** Changes to garbage collection
2164 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
2165 of live and free strings.
2167 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
2168 strings that have been consed so far.
2171 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
2175 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
2177 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
2180 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
2182 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
2184 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
2185 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
2186 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
2187 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
2188 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
2190 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
2191 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
2194 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
2197 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center'.
2199 When this property is specified, the image is vertically centered
2200 around a centerline which would be the vertical center of text drawn
2201 at the position of the image, in the manner specified by the text
2202 properties and overlays that apply to the image.
2205 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
2207 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2208 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2209 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2210 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2212 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
2213 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
2215 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
2216 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
2217 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
2218 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
2219 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
2220 just display it black instead.
2222 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
2225 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
2229 ** New face implementation.
2231 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
2232 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
2237 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
2239 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
2241 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
2242 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
2244 3. Font height in 1/10pt
2246 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
2248 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
2250 6. Foreground color.
2252 7. Background color.
2254 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
2256 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
2258 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
2260 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
2262 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
2265 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
2266 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
2268 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
2269 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
2270 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
2271 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
2272 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
2273 attributes mentioned above.
2275 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
2276 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
2279 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
2280 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
2286 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
2287 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
2288 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
2289 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
2290 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
2291 results in a fully-specified face.
2294 *** Face realization.
2296 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
2297 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
2298 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
2299 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
2300 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
2301 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
2303 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
2304 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
2305 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
2306 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
2308 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
2309 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
2310 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
2311 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
2312 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
2314 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
2315 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
2316 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
2317 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
2318 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
2321 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
2322 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
2323 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
2324 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
2327 **** Clearing face caches.
2329 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
2330 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
2336 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
2337 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
2338 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
2340 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
2341 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
2342 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
2343 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
2344 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
2346 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
2347 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
2348 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
2350 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
2352 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
2353 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
2354 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
2355 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
2356 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
2357 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
2358 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
2360 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
2361 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
2367 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
2368 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
2371 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
2372 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
2373 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
2374 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
2375 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
2378 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
2380 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
2383 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
2385 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
2387 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
2388 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
2389 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
2391 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
2392 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
2393 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
2394 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
2395 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
2396 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
2397 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
2398 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
2399 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
2400 of the face font sort order.
2402 - Function: x-font-family-list
2404 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
2405 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
2406 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
2407 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
2409 - Variable: font-list-limit
2411 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
2412 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
2413 matching font. The default is currently 100.
2416 *** Setting face attributes.
2418 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
2419 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
2420 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
2423 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
2424 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
2426 The following attributes are recognized:
2430 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
2431 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
2432 and `?' are allowed.
2436 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
2437 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
2438 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
2439 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
2443 VALUE must be an integer specifying the height of the font to use in
2448 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
2449 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
2450 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
2454 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
2455 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
2458 `:foreground', `:background'
2460 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
2464 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
2465 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
2466 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
2471 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
2472 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
2473 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
2478 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
2479 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
2480 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
2481 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
2485 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
2486 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
2487 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
2488 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
2489 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
2490 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
2491 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
2492 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
2493 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
2494 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
2495 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
2496 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
2497 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
2498 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
2499 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
2500 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
2505 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
2506 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
2510 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
2511 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
2512 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
2513 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
2514 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
2515 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
2517 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
2518 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
2522 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
2523 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
2524 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
2527 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
2528 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
2529 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
2531 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
2534 *** Face attributes and X resources
2536 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
2539 Face attribute X resource class
2540 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
2541 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
2542 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
2543 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
2544 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
2545 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
2546 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
2547 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
2548 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
2549 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
2550 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
2551 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
2552 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
2553 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
2554 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
2555 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
2556 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2557 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
2558 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
2559 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2562 *** Text property `face'.
2564 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
2565 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
2566 specification can be
2568 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
2570 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
2571 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
2572 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
2573 for face attribute names.
2575 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
2576 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
2577 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
2580 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
2582 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
2583 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
2584 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
2585 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
2586 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
2587 used to clear the mapping table.
2589 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
2591 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
2592 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
2593 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
2594 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
2595 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
2596 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
2597 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
2598 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
2599 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
2600 modify their color-related behavior.
2602 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
2605 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
2607 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
2608 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
2609 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
2610 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
2611 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
2612 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
2613 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
2614 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
2615 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
2618 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
2620 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
2622 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
2623 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
2624 Otherwise, it returns zero.
2626 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
2628 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
2629 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
2630 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
2632 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
2633 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
2634 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
2635 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
2636 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
2637 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
2638 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
2641 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
2642 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
2643 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
2645 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
2647 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
2649 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
2651 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2652 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
2653 constrained position if that is is different.
2655 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
2656 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
2657 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
2658 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
2659 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2660 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
2661 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
2662 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
2663 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
2665 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
2666 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
2667 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
2668 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
2669 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
2671 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
2672 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
2674 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
2676 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
2678 Delete the field surrounding POS.
2679 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2680 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2682 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2684 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
2685 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2686 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2687 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
2688 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
2690 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2692 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
2693 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2694 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2695 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
2696 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
2698 - Function: field-string &optional POS
2700 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
2701 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2702 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2704 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
2706 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
2707 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2708 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2713 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
2714 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
2715 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
2716 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
2718 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
2719 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
2720 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
2721 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
2724 IMAGE is an image specification.
2726 *** Image specifications
2728 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
2729 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
2730 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
2731 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
2732 described below are ignored.
2734 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
2738 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
2739 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
2740 to use for its ascent.
2742 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
2743 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
2745 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
2746 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
2747 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
2748 overlays that apply to the image.
2752 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
2753 margin around the image. Default is 0.
2757 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
2762 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it. ALGO must
2763 be a symbol specifying the algorithm. Currently only `laplace' is
2764 supported which applies a Laplace edge detection algorithm to an image
2765 which is intended to display images "disabled."
2767 `:heuristic-mask BG'
2769 If BG is not nil, build a clipping mask for the image, so that the
2770 background of a frame is visible behind the image. If BG is t,
2771 determine the background color of the image by looking at the 4
2772 corners of the image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from
2773 the corners is the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must
2774 be a list `(RED GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the
2775 background of the image.
2779 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
2780 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
2781 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
2782 may be present in the image specification.
2786 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
2787 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
2788 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
2789 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
2791 *** Supported image types
2793 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
2795 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
2796 properties supported are
2800 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
2801 is the frame's foreground.
2805 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
2806 the frame's background color.
2808 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
2809 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
2810 instead of a `:file' property.
2814 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
2818 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
2824 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
2825 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
2827 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
2829 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
2832 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
2833 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
2836 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
2838 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
2839 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
2840 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
2841 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
2843 Additional image properties supported are:
2845 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
2847 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
2848 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
2851 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
2852 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
2854 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
2855 to display compressed images.
2857 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
2859 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
2860 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
2863 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
2865 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
2866 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
2869 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
2871 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
2872 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2875 **** GIF, image type `gif'
2877 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
2878 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
2880 Additional image properties supported are:
2884 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
2885 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
2887 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
2888 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
2889 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
2892 (defun show-anim (file max)
2893 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
2894 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
2896 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
2899 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
2902 (goto-char (point-min))
2903 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
2904 (insert-image img "x"))
2905 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
2907 **** PNG, image type `png'
2909 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
2910 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
2913 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
2915 Additional image properties supported are:
2919 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
2920 integer. This is a required property.
2924 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
2925 must be a integer. This is an required property.
2929 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
2930 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
2931 files. This is an required property.
2933 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
2938 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
2939 which are supported in the current configuration.
2941 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
2942 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
2943 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
2944 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
2945 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
2947 *** Simplified image API, image.el
2949 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
2950 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
2951 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
2952 define an image based on available image types. The functions
2953 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
2959 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
2962 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
2963 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
2964 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
2965 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
2966 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2967 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2968 of the display margins.
2970 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
2971 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
2972 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
2973 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
2979 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
2980 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
2981 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
2982 that have a `help-echo' property.
2984 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
2985 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
2986 the window in which the help was found.
2988 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
2989 `help-echo' text property was found.
2991 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
2992 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
2994 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
2995 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
2998 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
2999 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
3001 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
3002 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
3003 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
3004 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
3005 used as help string.
3007 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
3008 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
3009 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
3012 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
3014 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
3015 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
3017 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
3018 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
3019 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
3020 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
3023 (global-set-key [A-down]
3026 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3027 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
3028 (global-set-key [A-up]
3031 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3032 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
3035 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
3037 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
3038 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
3039 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
3040 is called with one argument, POS.
3042 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
3043 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
3044 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
3045 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
3046 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
3049 ** Tool bar support.
3051 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
3052 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
3053 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
3054 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
3055 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
3056 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
3058 *** Tool bar item definitions
3060 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
3061 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
3062 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
3064 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
3065 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
3066 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
3067 property (see below).
3069 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
3070 binding are currently ignored.
3072 The following properties are recognized:
3076 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
3081 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
3085 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
3086 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
3087 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
3089 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
3091 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
3092 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
3096 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
3097 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
3098 meaning of each of the four elements:
3100 Index Use when item is
3101 ----------------------------------------
3102 0 enabled and selected
3103 1 enabled and deselected
3104 2 disabled and selected
3105 3 disabled and deselected
3107 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
3108 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
3110 `:help HELP-STRING'.
3112 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
3113 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
3115 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
3117 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
3118 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
3119 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
3121 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
3122 raised when the mouse moves over them.
3124 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
3125 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
3126 pixels. Default is 1.
3128 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
3129 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
3131 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
3133 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
3136 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
3137 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
3138 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
3140 is the original tool bar item definition, then
3142 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
3144 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
3147 ** Mode line changes.
3150 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3152 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
3153 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
3154 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
3156 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
3157 a `local-map' text property.
3159 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
3160 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
3162 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
3163 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
3164 `local-map' property.
3166 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
3167 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
3170 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
3171 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
3174 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
3175 variable mode-line-format to nil.
3178 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
3180 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
3181 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
3182 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
3183 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
3186 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
3189 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
3190 position in the header-line.
3193 ** Text property `display'
3195 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
3196 also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
3197 `display' property should be a display specification, as described
3198 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
3200 *** Variable width and height spaces
3202 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
3203 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
3204 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
3205 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
3206 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
3207 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
3208 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
3210 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
3211 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
3212 properties described below.
3214 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
3215 characters having the `display' property.
3219 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
3220 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
3222 - :relative-width FACTOR
3224 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
3225 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
3226 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
3227 width of that character by FACTOR.
3231 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
3232 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
3234 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
3238 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
3241 - :relative-height FACTOR
3243 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
3244 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
3248 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
3249 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
3250 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
3253 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
3257 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
3258 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
3259 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
3260 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
3261 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
3262 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
3263 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
3264 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
3265 as display specification.
3267 *** Other display properties
3269 - :space-width FACTOR
3271 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
3272 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
3277 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
3279 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
3280 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
3281 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
3282 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
3283 a font is available counts as a step.
3285 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
3286 as tall as the frame's default font.
3288 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
3289 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
3291 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
3292 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
3296 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
3297 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
3298 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
3299 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
3300 `:height' subproperty.
3302 *** Conditional display properties
3304 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
3305 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
3306 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
3307 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
3308 the text having the `display' property.
3310 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
3314 ** New menu separator types.
3316 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
3317 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
3318 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
3319 to specify other menu separator types.
3321 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
3323 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
3326 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
3328 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
3330 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
3332 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
3334 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
3336 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3338 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
3340 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3342 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
3344 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
3345 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
3347 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
3349 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
3351 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
3353 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
3355 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
3357 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
3359 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
3361 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3363 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
3365 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
3367 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
3369 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3371 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
3373 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
3375 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
3376 the corresponding single-line separators.
3379 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
3381 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
3382 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
3383 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
3384 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
3385 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
3386 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
3387 default foreground is black.
3389 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
3390 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
3391 `ScrollBarBackground').
3393 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
3394 settings for scroll bar colors.
3397 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
3398 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
3401 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
3402 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
3403 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
3404 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
3405 the original window start.
3408 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
3409 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
3410 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
3413 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
3415 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
3416 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
3417 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
3418 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
3420 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
3421 fixed-width and fixed-height.
3423 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
3425 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
3426 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
3427 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
3428 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
3429 temporarily to nil, for example
3431 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
3432 (enlarge-window 10))
3434 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
3435 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
3437 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
3438 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
3439 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
3440 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
3441 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
3442 support a vertical-bar cursor).
3445 * For older news, see the file NEWS.1.
3447 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
3448 Copyright information:
3450 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3452 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
3453 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
3454 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
3455 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
3457 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
3458 of this document, or of portions of it,
3459 under the above conditions, provided also that they
3460 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
3464 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"