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1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2000-08-14
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
4
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
7
8 \f
9 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
10
11 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
12
13 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
14
15 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
16 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
17
18 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
19 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
20 to list them.
21
22 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
23 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
24
25 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
26 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
27
28 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
29 support 64-bit executables. See etc/MACHINES for instructions.
30
31 \f
32 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
33
34 +++
35 * New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
36 and displayes information about that.
37
38 * When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
39 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
40
41 ** Polish and German translations of Emacs' reference card have been
42 added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex' and `de-refcard.tex'.
43 Postscript files are included.
44
45 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
46 `dired-ref.tex'.
47
48 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
49 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
50
51 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
52 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
53 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
54 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
55 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
56 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
57
58 +++
59 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
60 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
61 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
62 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
63
64 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable because it contains
65 a version-dependent component.
66
67 ** The <delete> function key is now bound to `delete-char' by default.
68 Note that this takes effect only on window systems. On TTYs, Emacs
69 will receive ASCII 127 when the DEL key is pressed. This
70 character is still bound as before.
71
72 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
73 using that menu.
74
75 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
76 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
77
78 +++
79 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
80 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
81 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
82 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
83 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
84 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
85 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
86
87 +++
88 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
89 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
90 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
91 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
92 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
93 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
94 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
95 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
96 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
97
98 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
99 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
100
101 +++
102 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
103 point in a pop-up window.
104
105 +++
106 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
107 displays all characters in that character set.
108
109 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
110 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
111
112 +++
113 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
114 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
115 defined on newcomment.el.
116
117 +++
118 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
119
120 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
121 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
122
123 +++
124 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
125 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
126 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
127 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
128
129 +++
130 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
131 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
132 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
133 You can customize `auto-save-list-prefix' to change this location.
134
135 +++
136 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
137 on the display using several methods
138
139 +++
140 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
141 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
142 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
143
144 +++
145 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
146 equivalent ot specifying the frame parameter.
147
148 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
149
150 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
151 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
152
153 +++
154 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
155 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
156 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
157 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
158
159 +++
160 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
161 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
162 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
163
164 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
165 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
166
167 +++
168 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
169 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
170 this behavior.
171
172 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs' byte
173 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
174 Emacs dump core.
175
176 +++
177 ** New X resources recognized
178
179 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
180 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
181 is useful for debugging X problems.
182
183 Example:
184
185 emacs.synchronous: true
186
187 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
188 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
189 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
190 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
191 visual class names are
192
193 TrueColor
194 PseudoColor
195 DirectColor
196 StaticColor
197 GrayScale
198 StaticGray
199
200 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
201 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
202 meaning.
203
204 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
205 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
206 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
207 visual.
208
209 Example:
210
211 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
212
213 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
214 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
215 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
216 resource values are `true' or `on'.
217
218 Example:
219
220 emacs.privateColormap: true
221
222 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
223 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
224 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
225
226 ** User-option `show-cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to
227 display the cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is
228 shown, if non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown. This option can
229 be customized.
230
231 +++
232 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
233
234 +++
235 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
236 all frames except the selected one.
237
238 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
239 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
240
241 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
242 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
243 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
244 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
245
246 +++
247 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
248 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
249
250 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
251 read mail from the menu etc.
252
253 +++
254 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
255 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
256
257 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
258
259 ** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
260 macros
261
262 Key binding Macro
263 -------------------------
264 C-c C-c C-s @strong
265 C-c C-c C-e @emph
266 C-c C-c u @url
267 C-c C-c q @quotation
268 C-c C-c m @email
269
270 ** Changes in Outline mode.
271
272 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
273 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
274 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
275
276 ** Changes to Emacs Server
277
278 +++
279 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
280 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
281 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
282 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
283 buffers to kill, as before.
284
285 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
286 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
287 this way.
288
289 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
290
291 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
292 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
293 use. Default is 1000.
294
295 +++
296 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
297 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
298
299 +++
300 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
301 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
302 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
303 buffers.
304
305 +++
306 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
307 under XFree86. To enable this, simply put (mwheel-install) in your
308 .emacs file.
309
310 The variables `mwheel-follow-mouse' and `mwheel-scroll-amount'
311 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
312
313 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
314 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
315 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
316
317 ** Faces and frame parameters.
318
319 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
320 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
321 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
322 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
323 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
324 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
325 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
326
327 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
328 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
329 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
330 `default' face and vice versa.
331
332 +++
333 ** New face `menu'.
334
335 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
336 Setting the font of LessTif/Motif menus is currently not supported;
337 attempts to set the font are ignored in this case.
338
339 +++
340 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
341
342 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
343 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
344 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
345 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
346
347 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
348 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
349 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
350
351 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
352 `ScreenGamma'.
353
354 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
355
356 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
357 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
358 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
359 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
360 the text.
361
362 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
363
364 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
365 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
366 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
367 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
368 specify a font.
369
370 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
371 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
372 under Lisp changes, below.
373
374 ** New default font is Courier 12pt.
375
376 +++
377 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
378 of its own. When the window is selected, the cursor is solid;
379 otherwise, it is hollow.
380
381 ** Bitmap areas to the left and right of windows are used to display
382 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
383 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
384 customizing face `fringe'.
385
386 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default. You
387 can change its appearance by modifying the face `modeline'.
388
389 ** LessTif support.
390
391 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see <http://www.lesstif.org>).
392 You will need a version 0.88.1 or later.
393
394 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
395
396 Emacs now uses toolkit scrollbars if available. When configured for
397 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scrollbar. Otherwise, when
398 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
399 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
400 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
401 Emacs.
402
403 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
404 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
405 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
406 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
407 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
408 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
409
410 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
411 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
412 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
413 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
414 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
415 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
416
417 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
418 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
419 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
420 image configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
421 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
422
423 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
424
425 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
426 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
427 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
428
429 +++
430 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
431
432 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
433 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
434 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
435 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
436 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
437 whitespace.
438
439 +++
440 ** Busy-cursor.
441
442 Emacs can optionally display a busy-cursor under X. You can turn the
443 display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
444
445 +++
446 ** Blinking cursor
447
448 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
449 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
450 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
451 the group `cursor'.
452
453 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
454
455 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
456 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
457 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
458 details.
459
460 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
461 have to do anything to activate it.
462
463 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
464
465 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
466 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
467 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
468 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
469
470 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
471
472 +++
473 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
474
475 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
476
477 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
478 LessTif/Motif one.
479
480 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
481 LessTif and Motif.
482
483 +++
484 ** Hscrolling in C code.
485
486 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
487 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
488 customized.
489
490 ** Tool bar support.
491
492 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
493 how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level changes.
494
495 +++
496 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
497
498 Different parts of the mode line under X have been made
499 mouse-sensitive. Moving the mouse to a mouse-sensitive part in the mode
500 line changes the appearance of the mouse pointer to an arrow, and help
501 about available mouse actions is displayed either in the echo area, or
502 in the tooltip window if you have enabled one.
503
504 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
505
506 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line switches between two
507 buffers.
508
509 - Mouse-2 on the buffer-name switches to the next buffer, and
510 M-mouse-2 switches to the previous buffer in the buffer list.
511
512 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name displays a buffer menu.
513
514 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
515 `*') toggles the status.
516
517 - Mouse-3 on the mode name display a minor-mode menu.
518
519 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
520
521 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
522 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
523 non-nil.
524
525 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
526
527 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
528 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
529 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
530 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
531 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
532 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
533 on terminals.
534
535 ** Sound support
536
537 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
538 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
539 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
540
541 +++
542 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
543 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
544 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
545 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
546 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
547 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
548
549 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
550
551 +++
552 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
553
554 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
555 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
556 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
557
558 +++
559 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
560 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi).
561
562 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
563 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
564 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
565
566 +++
567 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
568
569 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
570 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggessively' is a
571 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
572 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
573
574 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
575 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggessively' is a
576 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
577 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
578
579 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
580 notably at the end of lines.
581
582 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
583 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
584
585 +++
586 There is a new command M-x replace-rectangle.
587
588 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
589 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
590 after each match to get the replacement text.
591
592 +++
593 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
594 you edit the replacement string.
595
596 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB', lets
597 you complete mail aliases in the text, analogous to
598 lisp-complete-symbol.
599
600 +++
601 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
602
603 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
604 longer than one line, Emacs now resizes the minibuffer window unless
605 it is on a frame of its own. You can control the maximum minibuffer
606 window size by setting the following variable:
607
608 - User option: max-mini-window-height
609
610 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
611 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
612 specifies a number of lines. If nil, don't resize.
613
614 Default is 0.25.
615
616 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
617
618 ** Changes to hideshow.el
619
620 Hideshow is now at version 5.x. It uses a new algorithms for block
621 selection and traversal and includes more isearch support.
622
623 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
624
625 A block is now recognized by three things: its start and end regexps
626 (both strings), and a match-data selector (an integer) specifying
627 which sub-expression in the start regexp serves as the place where a
628 `forward-sexp'-like function can operate. Hideshow always adjusts
629 point to this sub-expression before calling `hs-forward-sexp-func'
630 (which for most modes evaluates to `forward-sexp').
631
632 If the match-data selector is not specified, it defaults to zero,
633 i.e., the entire start regexp is valid, w/ no prefix. This is
634 backwards compatible with previous versions of hideshow. Please see
635 the docstring for variable `hs-special-modes-alist' for details.
636
637 *** Isearch support for updating mode line
638
639 During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active, hidden
640 blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' records the
641 line at the beginning of the opened block (preceding the hidden
642 portion of the buffer), and the mode line is refreshed. When a block
643 is re-hidden, the variable is set to nil.
644
645 To show `hs-headline' in the mode line, you may wish to include
646 something like this in your .emacs.
647
648 (add-hook 'hs-minor-mode-hook
649 (lambda ()
650 (add-to-list 'mode-line-format 'hs-headline)))
651
652 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
653
654 +++
655 If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes an
656 entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
657 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
658
659 +++
660 New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the current
661 buffer.
662
663 +++
664 New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries in
665 a log file.
666
667 +++
668 Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log entries
669 if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
670
671 +++
672 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
673 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
674 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be cutomized.
675 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
676
677 ** Changes in Font Lock
678
679 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
680 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major
681 mode.
682
683 ** Comint (subshell) changes
684
685 By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp' to
686 distiguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which parts of
687 the text were output by the process, and which entered by the user, and
688 attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use this information.
689 Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line, respect field
690 boundaries in a fairly natural manner.
691 To disable this feature, and use the old behavior, set the variable
692 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields' to a non-nil value.
693
694 Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
695 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
696
697 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
698 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
699 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
700
701 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
702 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
703 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
704
705 Packages based on comint.el like shell-mode, and scheme-interaction-mode
706 now highlight user input and program prompts, and support choosing
707 previous input with mouse-2. To control these feature, see the
708 user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
709
710 ** Changes to Rmail mode
711
712 *** The new user-option rmail-rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
713 set to fine tune the identification of of the correspondent when
714 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
715 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
716 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
717 as correspondent.
718
719 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
720 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
721 regexp matching your mail addresses.
722
723 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
724 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
725 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
726 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
727 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
728
729 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
730 like `j'.
731
732 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
733 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
734 digest message.
735
736 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
737 in which folder to put messages automatically.
738
739 ** Changes to TeX mode
740
741 The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
742 `latex-mode'.
743
744 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
745
746 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
747 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
748 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
749 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
750 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
751 can be edited from that buffer.
752
753 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
754 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
755 `A' to use all marked entries).
756
757 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
758 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
759
760 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
761 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
762 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
763 been cited.
764
765 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
766 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
767 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
768 in column 1 are always made leaves.
769
770 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
771 has the following new features:
772
773 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
774 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
775 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
776 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
777
778 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
779 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
780 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
781 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
782 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
783 defaults to 1.
784
785 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
786 file names.
787
788 +++
789 ** Tooltips.
790
791 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
792 mouse position. To use them, use the Lisp package `tooltip' which you
793 can access via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
794
795 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
796 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
797 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
798 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
799
800 +++
801 ** Customize changes
802
803 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
804 `State' menu to add comments. Note that customization comments will
805 cause the customizations to fail in earlier versions of Emacs.
806
807 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
808 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
809 default).
810
811 *** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
812 between custom options. Example:
813
814 (defcustom default-input-method nil
815 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
816 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
817 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
818 :group 'mule
819 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
820 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
821
822 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
823 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
824 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
825
826 ** New features in evaluation commands
827
828 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
829 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
830 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the
831 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
832 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
833
834 *** The function `eval-defun' (M-C-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
835 code when called with a prefix argument.
836
837 ** Ispell changes
838
839 +++
840 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
841 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
842 spell-checks the current buffer.
843
844 +++
845 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
846 added.
847
848 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
849 correction is made and re-checked.
850
851 *** An Italian and a Portuguese dictionary definition has been added.
852
853 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
854 cases.
855
856 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
857 on syntax errors.
858
859 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
860 end of the buffer.
861
862 ** Dired changes
863
864 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
865 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
866 is, delete only empty directories.
867
868 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
869 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
870 copy directories recursively.
871
872 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
873 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
874 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
875
876 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
877 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
878 directory.
879
880 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `w') shows
881 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
882 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
883 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
884 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
885
886 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
887 from ls switches.
888
889 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
890 use the -f option when sending mail.
891
892 ** CC mode changes.
893
894 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
895 current user setups (although it's believed that these
896 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
897 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
898 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
899 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
900 release.
901
902 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
903 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
904 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
905 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
906 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
907 have to bother.
908
909 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
910 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
911 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
912 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
913 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
914 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
915
916 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
917 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
918 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
919 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
920 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
921 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
922 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
923 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
924
925 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
926 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
927 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
928 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
929 above.
930
931 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
932 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
933 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
934 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
935 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
936 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
937 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
938 function documentation for more info.
939
940 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
941 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
942 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
943 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
944 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
945 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
946 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
947 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
948
949 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
950
951 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
952 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
953
954 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
955 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
956 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
957 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
958 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
959 style system.
960
961 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
962 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
963 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
964 as far as possible.
965
966 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
967 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
968 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
969 chapter about this in the manual.
970
971 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
972 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
973 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
974 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
975 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
976
977 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
978 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
979 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
980
981 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
982 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
983
984 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
985 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
986 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
987 inside CC Mode.
988
989 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
990 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
991 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
992 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
993 cc-mode/).
994
995 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
996 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
997 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
998 literals.
999
1000 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
1001 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
1002 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
1003 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
1004 this function.
1005
1006 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
1007 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
1008 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
1009 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
1010 Thanks to Eric Eide.
1011
1012 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
1013 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
1014 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
1015
1016 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
1017
1018 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
1019 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
1020 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
1021 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
1022
1023 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
1024 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
1025 the column specified by comment-column.
1026
1027 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
1028 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
1029 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
1030 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
1031 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
1032 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
1033
1034 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
1035 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
1036 arguments.
1037
1038 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
1039
1040 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
1041 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
1042 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
1043 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
1044 Provan).
1045
1046 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
1047
1048 ** Makefile mode changes
1049
1050 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
1051
1052 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
1053 Fontlock mode is active.
1054
1055 ** Isearch changes
1056
1057 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
1058 so that searches can be resumed.
1059
1060 *** In Isearch mode, M-C-s and M-C-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
1061 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
1062 that started the search.
1063
1064 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
1065 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
1066
1067 +++
1068 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
1069
1070 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
1071 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
1072 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
1073 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
1074 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
1075 `secondary-selection'.
1076
1077 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
1078 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
1079 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
1080 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
1081 usual snappy response.
1082
1083 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
1084 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
1085 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
1086 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
1087
1088 +++
1089 ** Changes in sort.el
1090
1091 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
1092 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
1093 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
1094 numeric base.
1095
1096 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
1097
1098 +++
1099 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
1100 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
1101 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
1102
1103 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
1104 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
1105
1106 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
1107 output ^M at the end of lines.
1108
1109 ** Shell script mode changes.
1110
1111 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
1112 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizeable, and
1113 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
1114
1115 ** Etags changes.
1116
1117 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
1118
1119 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
1120 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
1121 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
1122 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
1123 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
1124
1125 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
1126 declarations when given the --declarations option.
1127
1128 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
1129 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
1130
1131 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
1132 types.
1133
1134 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
1135
1136 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
1137
1138 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
1139 are now tagged.
1140
1141 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
1142 variables are tagged.
1143
1144 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
1145
1146 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
1147 for PSWrap.
1148
1149 +++
1150 ** Changes in etags.el
1151
1152 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
1153 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
1154 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
1155
1156 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
1157 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
1158
1159 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
1160 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
1161 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
1162 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
1163
1164 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
1165
1166 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
1167 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
1168
1169 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
1170
1171 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
1172 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
1173 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
1174
1175 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
1176 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
1177
1178 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
1179 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
1180
1181 +++
1182 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
1183 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
1184 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
1185
1186 +++
1187 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
1188 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
1189 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
1190 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet; there are basic 8859-14 and
1191 8859-15 fonts at <URL:http://czyborra.com/charsets/> and recent X
1192 releases have 8859-15. There are new Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix
1193 (only) and Polish slash input methods in Leim.
1194
1195 +++
1196 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
1197 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
1198 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
1199
1200 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
1201
1202 +++
1203 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
1204
1205 +++
1206 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
1207 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
1208 expression from that list, are not checked.
1209
1210 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
1211 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
1212 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
1213 the buffer, just like for the local files.
1214
1215 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
1216
1217 +++
1218 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
1219 displays local abbrevs, only.
1220
1221 ** VC Changes
1222
1223 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
1224 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
1225 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
1226 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
1227 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
1228 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of atoms that identify
1229 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
1230 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
1231 file is registered in that backend.
1232
1233 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
1234 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
1235 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
1236 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
1237 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
1238 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
1239
1240 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
1241 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
1242 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
1243 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
1244 where it doesn't make sense.)
1245
1246 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
1247 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
1248 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
1249
1250 *** General Changes
1251
1252 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
1253 checks are always done now.
1254
1255 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
1256 operations.
1257
1258 *** Changes for CVS
1259
1260 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
1261 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
1262 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
1263 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
1264 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
1265 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
1266 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
1267
1268 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
1269 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
1270 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
1271 commit, you can either use C-u C-x v m to perform an update on the
1272 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
1273 entire directory tree.
1274
1275 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
1276 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
1277 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
1278 "watched" by other developers.)
1279
1280 *** Lisp Changes in VC
1281
1282 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
1283 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
1284 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
1285 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
1286 a version system named FOO, you write a library named vc-foo.el, which
1287 provides a number of functions vc-foo-... (see commentary at the end
1288 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
1289 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the atom
1290 `FOO' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
1291
1292 ** New modes and packages
1293
1294 +++
1295 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
1296 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
1297 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
1298 on certain projects.
1299
1300 +++
1301 *** The new package hi-lock.el, text matching interactively entered
1302 regexp's can be highlighted. For example,
1303
1304 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
1305
1306 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
1307 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
1308 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
1309 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
1310 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
1311 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
1312 corresponding file is read.
1313
1314 +++
1315 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
1316 Emacs is idle.
1317
1318 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
1319 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
1320
1321 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
1322 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
1323 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
1324
1325 +++
1326 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
1327 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
1328 separate Texinfo file.
1329
1330 +++
1331 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
1332 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
1333 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
1334 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
1335 enter checkin log messages.
1336
1337 +++
1338 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
1339 without invoking external programs.
1340
1341 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
1342 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
1343 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
1344 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
1345 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
1346
1347 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
1348 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
1349
1350 +++
1351 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
1352 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
1353
1354 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
1355 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
1356 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
1357 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
1358 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
1359 single step.
1360
1361 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
1362 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
1363 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
1364 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
1365
1366 +++
1367 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
1368 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
1369 actually modifying content of a buffer.
1370
1371 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
1372 PostScript.
1373
1374 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
1375
1376 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
1377
1378 ; comment (until end of line)
1379 A non-terminal
1380 "C" terminal
1381 ?C? special
1382 $A default non-terminal
1383 $"C" default terminal
1384 $?C? default special
1385 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
1386 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
1387 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
1388 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
1389 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
1390 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
1391 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
1392 C+ one or more occurrences of C
1393 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
1394 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
1395 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
1396 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
1397 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
1398 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1399 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
1400
1401 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
1402
1403 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
1404 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
1405 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
1406 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
1407 equal signs of assignments.
1408
1409 +++
1410 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
1411 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
1412
1413 +++
1414 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
1415 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
1416 buffer menu with this package. You can use M-x bs-customize to
1417 customize the package.
1418
1419 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
1420
1421 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
1422 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
1423 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
1424 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
1425 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
1426 which answers different needs.
1427
1428 +++
1429 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
1430 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
1431 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
1432 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
1433 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
1434 to be enabled.
1435
1436 +++
1437 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
1438 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
1439
1440 +++
1441 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
1442
1443 +++
1444 *** hl-line.el provides a minor mode to highlight the current line.
1445
1446 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
1447
1448 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
1449 Pascal) language.
1450
1451 +++
1452 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
1453 the text at point.
1454
1455 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
1456
1457 +++
1458 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
1459
1460 *** whitespace.el ???
1461
1462 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
1463 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
1464 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
1465 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
1466 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
1467 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
1468 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
1469
1470 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
1471
1472 Here is an example of columns:
1473
1474 horse apple bus
1475 dog pineapple car EXTRA
1476 porcupine strawberry airplane
1477
1478 Doing the following settings:
1479
1480 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
1481 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
1482 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
1483 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
1484
1485
1486 Selecting the lines above and typing:
1487
1488 M-x delimit-columns-region
1489
1490 It results:
1491
1492 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
1493 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
1494 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
1495
1496 delim-col has the following options:
1497
1498 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
1499 before all columns.
1500
1501 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
1502 between each column.
1503
1504 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
1505 after all columns.
1506
1507 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
1508 each column.
1509
1510 delim-col has the following commands:
1511
1512 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
1513 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
1514
1515 +++
1516 *** The package recentf.el maintains a menu for visiting files that
1517 were operated on recently.
1518
1519 M-x recentf-mode RET toggles recentf mode.
1520
1521 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-mode RET can be used to enable
1522 recentf at Emacs startup.
1523
1524 M-x customize-variable RET recentf-menu-filter RET to specify a menu
1525 filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the recent
1526 file list can be displayed:
1527
1528 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
1529 - sorted by file pathes, file names, ascending or descending.
1530 - showing pathes relative to the current default-directory
1531
1532 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
1533 dynamically change the menu appearance.
1534
1535 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
1536 text.
1537
1538 +++
1539 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
1540 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
1541 specific to Message mode.
1542
1543 +++
1544 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
1545 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
1546 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
1547
1548 +++
1549 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
1550 interface to access directory servers using different directory
1551 protocols. It has a separate manual.
1552
1553 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
1554 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
1555
1556 +++
1557 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
1558
1559 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
1560 minibuffer with completion.
1561
1562 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
1563 with the diary features.
1564
1565 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
1566 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
1567
1568 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
1569 Fill mode.
1570
1571 ** Withdrawn packages
1572
1573 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
1574 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
1575
1576 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
1577
1578 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
1579
1580 \f
1581 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
1582 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
1583
1584 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
1585 with the more general `:mask' property.
1586
1587 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
1588 backslash.
1589
1590 +++
1591 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
1592 is running in batch mode. For example,
1593
1594 (message "%s" (read t))
1595
1596 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
1597 to standard output.
1598
1599 +++
1600 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
1601 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
1602
1603 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
1604 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
1605 frame or window.
1606
1607 +++
1608 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
1609 were added
1610
1611 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
1612
1613 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
1614 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
1615
1616 - Function: remq ELT LIST
1617
1618 Return a copy of LIST with all occurences of ELT removed. The
1619 comparison is done with `eq'.
1620
1621 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
1622
1623 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
1624 has been changed.
1625
1626 +++
1627 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
1628 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
1629 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
1630
1631 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
1632 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
1633
1634 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
1635 function was declared obsolete.
1636
1637 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
1638 retained as an alias).
1639
1640 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
1641 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
1642 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
1643
1644 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
1645
1646 - Function: window-list &optional WINDOW MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES
1647
1648 Return a list of windows in canonical order. The parameters WINDOW,
1649 MINIBUF and ALL-FRAMES are defined like for `next-window'.
1650
1651 ** There's a new function `some-window' defined as follows
1652
1653 - Function: some-window PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
1654
1655 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
1656
1657 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
1658 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
1659 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
1660 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
1661 returned.
1662
1663 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
1664 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
1665 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
1666 minibuffer even if it is active.
1667
1668 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
1669 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
1670 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
1671 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
1672 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
1673 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
1674
1675 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
1676 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
1677 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
1678 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
1679 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
1680 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
1681 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
1682
1683 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
1684 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
1685 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
1686
1687 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
1688 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
1689 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
1690 Default value is nil.
1691
1692 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
1693 meaning no limit.
1694
1695 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
1696 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
1697 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
1698
1699 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information on the argument list
1700 of a primitive.
1701
1702 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
1703 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
1704 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
1705 than replacing the local map.
1706
1707 ** The obsolete variables before-change-function and
1708 after-change-function are no longer acted upon and have been removed.
1709
1710 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
1711
1712 +++
1713 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments, as
1714 promised long ago.
1715
1716 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
1717 \f
1718 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
1719
1720 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
1721 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
1722 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
1723 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
1724
1725 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
1726 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
1727 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
1728 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
1729
1730 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
1731 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
1732 when it finds 8-bit characters. Previously, it included `ascii' in a
1733 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
1734
1735 *** The functions `set-buffer-modified', `string-as-multibyte' and
1736 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer if it
1737 contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
1738
1739 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
1740 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
1741 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
1742 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
1743 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
1744 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
1745 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
1746 eight-bit-graphic.
1747
1748 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
1749
1750 A fontset can now be specified for for each independent character, for
1751 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
1752 character set as previously.
1753
1754 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
1755 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
1756 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
1757
1758 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
1759 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
1760 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
1761 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
1762
1763 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
1764 name of a font and REGSITRY is a registry name of a font.
1765
1766 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
1767 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
1768 "fontset-default".
1769
1770 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
1771 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
1772
1773 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
1774 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
1775 buffers and strings.
1776
1777 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
1778 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
1779 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
1780 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
1781 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
1782 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
1783 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
1784 also been deleted.
1785
1786 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
1787 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
1788 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
1789
1790 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
1791 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
1792 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
1793 may differ between buffer and string text.
1794
1795 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
1796 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
1797
1798 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
1799 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
1800 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
1801 `composition' from STRING.
1802
1803 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
1804 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
1805
1806 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
1807 obsolete.
1808
1809 ** The new character set `mule-unicode-0100-24ff' is introduced for
1810 Unicode characters of the range U+0100..U+24FF. Currently, this
1811 character set is not used.
1812
1813 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
1814 `japanese-jisx0213-2' are introduced for the new Japanese standard JIS
1815 X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
1816
1817 +++
1818 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
1819 are introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
1820 0xA0..0xFF respectively.
1821
1822 +++
1823 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
1824 that offset in the file before writing.
1825
1826 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
1827 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
1828
1829 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
1830 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
1831 from which the command was issued.
1832
1833 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
1834 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
1835 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
1836 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
1837 operate on.
1838
1839 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
1840 to `window-buffer-height'.
1841
1842 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
1843
1844 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
1845 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
1846 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
1847
1848 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
1849 respectively.
1850
1851 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optinal third argument
1852 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
1853
1854 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
1855 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
1856 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
1857
1858 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
1859 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
1860 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
1861 is currently displayed in some window.
1862
1863 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
1864 argument function's results.
1865
1866 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
1867 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails.
1868
1869 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
1870 header is the list of headers passed to it.
1871
1872 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
1873 ignores differences in case and text representation.
1874
1875 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
1876 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
1877 as follows:
1878
1879 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
1880 nil don't display a cursor
1881 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
1882 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
1883 others display a box cursor.
1884
1885 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
1886 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
1887 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
1888 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
1889
1890 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
1891 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
1892 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
1893 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
1894
1895 Example:
1896
1897 (string-to-syntax "()")
1898 => (4 . 41)
1899
1900 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
1901 other than 10.
1902
1903 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
1904 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
1905
1906 #b1111
1907 => 15
1908 #b-1111
1909 => -15
1910
1911 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
1912
1913 #o666
1914 => 438
1915
1916 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
1917
1918 #xbeef
1919 => 48815
1920
1921 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
1922
1923 #2R-111
1924 => -7
1925 #25rah
1926 => 267
1927
1928 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
1929 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
1930 and isn't a string.
1931
1932 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
1933 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
1934 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
1935 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
1936
1937 +++
1938 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
1939
1940 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
1941 for a regexp in a string.
1942
1943 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
1944 `mouse-position-function'.
1945
1946 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
1947 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
1948
1949 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
1950 Keywords are now always considered constants.
1951
1952 +++
1953 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
1954 returns it.
1955
1956 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
1957 returned by function `recent-keys'.
1958
1959 +++
1960 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
1961 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
1962 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding M-C-a
1963 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
1964 mode.
1965
1966 +++
1967 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
1968 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
1969
1970 +++
1971 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
1972 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
1973 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
1974 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
1975 been performed."
1976
1977 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
1978 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
1979 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
1980 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
1981
1982 +++
1983 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
1984 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
1985 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
1986
1987 +++
1988 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
1989 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
1990 specified table.
1991
1992 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
1993
1994 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
1995 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
1996 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
1997 what BODY returns.
1998
1999 +++
2000 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
2001 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
2002
2003 +++
2004 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
2005 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
2006
2007 +++
2008 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
2009 instead of being optional.
2010
2011 +++
2012 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
2013 modify read-only text.
2014
2015 +++
2016 ** New functions and variables for locales.
2017
2018 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
2019 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
2020 time functions like strftime. The new variables
2021 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
2022 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
2023
2024 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
2025 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
2026 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
2027 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
2028 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
2029 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
2030 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
2031
2032 +++
2033 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
2034 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
2035 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
2036 start sequences.
2037
2038 +++
2039 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
2040 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
2041
2042 +++
2043 ** New function `propertize'
2044
2045 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
2046 strings with text properties.
2047
2048 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
2049
2050 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
2051 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
2052 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
2053 specified value of that property. Example:
2054
2055 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
2056
2057 +++
2058 ** push and pop macros.
2059
2060 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
2061 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
2062 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
2063
2064 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
2065 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
2066 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
2067
2068 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
2069
2070 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
2071 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
2072
2073 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
2074 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
2075 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
2076 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
2077
2078 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
2079 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
2080 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
2081 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
2082
2083 +++
2084 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such
2085 as [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on.
2086
2087 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
2088 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
2089 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
2090 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
2091 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
2092 space, and DEL.
2093 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
2094 and DEL.
2095 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
2096 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2097 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2098 [:alpha:] matches letters.
2099 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2100 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
2101 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
2102 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
2103 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
2104 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
2105 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
2106 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
2107 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
2108 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
2109 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
2110
2111 +++
2112 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
2113
2114 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
2115
2116 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
2117
2118 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
2119 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
2120
2121 :test TEST
2122
2123 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
2124 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
2125 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
2126
2127 :size SIZE
2128
2129 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
2130 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
2131
2132 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
2133
2134 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
2135 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
2136 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
2137 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
2138 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
2139
2140 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
2141
2142 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
2143 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
2144 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
2145
2146 :weakness WEAK
2147
2148 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
2149 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
2150 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
2151 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
2152 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
2153
2154 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
2155
2156 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
2157
2158 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
2159
2160 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
2161
2162 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
2163
2164 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
2165 values are shared.
2166
2167 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
2168
2169 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
2170
2171 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2172
2173 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
2174
2175 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
2176
2177 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
2178
2179 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
2180
2181 Returns the size of TABLE.
2182
2183 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
2184
2185 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
2186
2187 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
2188
2189 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
2190
2191 - Function: clrhash TABLE
2192
2193 Clear TABLE.
2194
2195 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
2196
2197 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
2198 not found.
2199
2200 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
2201
2202 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
2203 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
2204
2205 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
2206
2207 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
2208
2209 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
2210
2211 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
2212 arguments KEY and VALUE.
2213
2214 - Function: sxhash OBJ
2215
2216 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
2217
2218 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
2219
2220 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
2221 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
2222 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
2223 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
2224 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
2225
2226 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
2227
2228 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
2229 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
2230 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
2231
2232 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
2233 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
2234
2235 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
2236 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
2237
2238 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
2239 (sxhash (upcase a)))
2240
2241 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
2242 'case-fold-string-hash))
2243
2244 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
2245
2246 +++
2247 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
2248
2249 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
2250 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
2251 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
2252
2253 +++
2254 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
2255
2256 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
2257 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
2258
2259 +++
2260 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
2261 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
2262 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
2263 is too short to reach that column.
2264
2265 +++
2266 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
2267 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
2268 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
2269 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
2270
2271 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
2272 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
2273 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
2274
2275 +++
2276 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
2277 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
2278
2279 +++
2280 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
2281 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
2282
2283 +++
2284 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
2285 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
2286 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
2287 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
2288 temporary-file-directory instead.
2289
2290 +++
2291 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
2292 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
2293 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
2294 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
2295
2296 +++
2297 ** assoc-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
2298 elements of an alist which have a particular value as the car.
2299
2300 +++
2301 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
2302
2303 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
2304 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
2305 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
2306
2307 +++
2308 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
2309
2310 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
2311 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
2312 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
2313 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
2314 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
2315 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
2316
2317 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
2318 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
2319 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
2320 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
2321
2322 +++
2323 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
2324
2325 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
2326 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
2327 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
2328 result string.
2329
2330 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
2331 string where arguments appear in the result string.
2332
2333 Example:
2334
2335 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
2336 (s2 "world"))
2337 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
2338 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
2339 (format s1 s2))
2340
2341 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
2342
2343 +++
2344 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
2345
2346 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
2347 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
2348 argument in it.
2349
2350 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
2351 (arg "world"))
2352 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
2353 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
2354 (message msg arg))
2355
2356 +++
2357 ** Sound support
2358
2359 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
2360 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
2361
2362 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
2363 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
2364 to enable sound support.
2365
2366 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
2367 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
2368 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
2369 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
2370 sound to play, before playing the sound.
2371
2372 The following sound properties are supported:
2373
2374 - `:file FILE'
2375
2376 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
2377 searched relative to `data-directory'.
2378
2379 - `:data DATA'
2380
2381 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
2382 may be present, but not both.
2383
2384 - `:volume VOLUME'
2385
2386 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
2387 0..1. This property is optional.
2388
2389 Other properties are ignored.
2390
2391 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
2392
2393 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
2394 a keyword symbol.
2395
2396 ** Changes to garbage collection
2397
2398 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
2399 of live and free strings.
2400
2401 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
2402 strings that have been consed so far.
2403
2404 \f
2405 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
2406 Lisp Manual
2407
2408 *** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
2409
2410 +++
2411 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
2412
2413 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
2414 image.
2415
2416 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
2417
2418 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
2419
2420 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
2421 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
2422 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
2423 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
2424 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
2425
2426 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
2427 has a mask bitmap.
2428
2429 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
2430
2431 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
2432 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
2433 or omitted means use the selected frame.
2434
2435 +++
2436 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
2437 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
2438
2439 +++
2440 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
2441 optional.
2442
2443 +++
2444 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
2445 below).
2446
2447 \f
2448 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
2449
2450 Note that +++ before an item means the Lisp manual has been updated.
2451 --- means that I have decided it does not need to be in the Lisp manual.
2452 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
2453 so I will know I still need to look at it -- rms.
2454
2455 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
2456 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
2457
2458 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
2459 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
2460 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
2461 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
2462 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
2463 just display it black instead.
2464
2465 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
2466 a line like
2467
2468 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
2469
2470 in your `.emacs'.
2471
2472 ** New face implementation.
2473
2474 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
2475 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
2476
2477 +++
2478 *** New faces.
2479
2480 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
2481
2482 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
2483
2484 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
2485 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
2486
2487 3. Font height in 1/10pt
2488
2489 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
2490
2491 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
2492
2493 6. Foreground color.
2494
2495 7. Background color.
2496
2497 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
2498
2499 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
2500
2501 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
2502
2503 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
2504
2505 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
2506 color.
2507
2508 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
2509 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
2510
2511 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
2512 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
2513 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
2514 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
2515 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each each of the face
2516 attributes mentioned above.
2517
2518 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
2519 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
2520 created frames.
2521
2522 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
2523 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
2524 `fully-specified'.
2525
2526 +++
2527 *** Face merging.
2528
2529 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
2530 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
2531 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
2532 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
2533 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
2534 results in a fully-specified face.
2535
2536 +++
2537 *** Face realization.
2538
2539 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
2540 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
2541 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
2542 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
2543 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
2544 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
2545
2546 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
2547 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
2548 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
2549 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
2550
2551 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
2552 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
2553 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
2554 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
2555 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
2556
2557 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
2558 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
2559 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
2560 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
2561 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
2562 Emacs.
2563
2564 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
2565 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
2566 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
2567 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
2568
2569 ++++
2570 **** Clearing face caches.
2571
2572 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
2573 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
2574 unused fonts.
2575
2576 +++
2577 *** Font selection.
2578
2579 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
2580 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
2581 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
2582
2583 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
2584 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
2585 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
2586 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
2587 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
2588
2589 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
2590 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
2591 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
2592
2593 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
2594
2595 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
2596 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
2597 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
2598 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
2599 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
2600 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
2601 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
2602
2603 Setting `face-alternative-font-family-alist' allows the user to
2604 specify alternative font families to try if a family specified by a
2605 face doesn't exist.
2606
2607 +++
2608 **** Scalable fonts
2609
2610 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
2611 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
2612 servers.
2613
2614 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
2615 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
2616 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
2617 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
2618 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
2619 that list. Example:
2620
2621 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
2622
2623 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
2624
2625 +++
2626 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
2627
2628 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
2629
2630 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
2631 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
2632 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
2633
2634 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
2635 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
2636 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
2637 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
2638 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
2639 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
2640 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
2641 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
2642 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
2643 of the face font sort order.
2644
2645 - Function: x-font-family-list
2646
2647 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
2648 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
2649 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
2650 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
2651
2652 - Variable: font-list-limit
2653
2654 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
2655 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
2656 matching font. The default is currently 100.
2657
2658 +++
2659 *** Setting face attributes.
2660
2661 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
2662 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
2663 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
2664 `face-attribute'.
2665
2666 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
2667 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
2668
2669 The following attributes are recognized:
2670
2671 `:family'
2672
2673 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
2674 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
2675 and `?' are allowed.
2676
2677 `:width'
2678
2679 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
2680 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
2681 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
2682 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
2683
2684 `:height'
2685
2686 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
2687 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
2688 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
2689 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
2690
2691 `:weight'
2692
2693 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
2694 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
2695 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
2696
2697 `:slant'
2698
2699 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
2700 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
2701 `reverse-oblique'.
2702
2703 `:foreground', `:background'
2704
2705 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
2706
2707 `:underline'
2708
2709 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
2710 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
2711 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
2712 don't underline.
2713
2714 `:overline'
2715
2716 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
2717 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
2718 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
2719 overline.
2720
2721 `:strike-through'
2722
2723 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
2724 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
2725 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
2726 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
2727
2728 `:box'
2729
2730 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
2731 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
2732 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
2733 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
2734 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
2735 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
2736 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
2737 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
2738 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
2739 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
2740 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
2741 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
2742 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
2743 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
2744 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
2745 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
2746 box.
2747
2748 `:inverse-video'
2749
2750 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
2751 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
2752
2753 `:stipple'
2754
2755 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
2756 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
2757 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
2758 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
2759 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
2760 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
2761
2762 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
2763 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
2764
2765 `:font'
2766
2767 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
2768 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
2769 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
2770 versions of Emacs.
2771
2772 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
2773 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
2774 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
2775
2776 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
2777 `defface'.
2778
2779 `:inherit'
2780
2781 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
2782 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
2783 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
2784
2785 *** Face attributes and X resources
2786
2787 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
2788 from X resources:
2789
2790 Face attribute X resource class
2791 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
2792 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
2793 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
2794 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
2795 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
2796 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
2797 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
2798 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
2799 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
2800 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
2801 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
2802 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
2803 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
2804 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
2805 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
2806 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
2807 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2808 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
2809 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
2810 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
2811
2812 +++
2813 *** Text property `face'.
2814
2815 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
2816 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
2817 specification can be
2818
2819 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
2820
2821 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
2822 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
2823 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
2824 for face attribute names.
2825
2826 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
2827 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
2828 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
2829
2830 +++
2831 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
2832
2833 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
2834 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
2835 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
2836 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
2837 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
2838 used to clear the mapping table.
2839
2840 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
2841
2842 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
2843 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
2844 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
2845 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
2846 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
2847 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
2848 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
2849 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
2850 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
2851 modify their color-related behavior.
2852
2853 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
2854 any frame type.
2855
2856 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
2857
2858 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
2859 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
2860 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
2861 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
2862 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
2863 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
2864 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
2865 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
2866 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
2867
2868 +++
2869 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
2870
2871 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
2872
2873 The function minubuffer-prompt-end returns the current position of the
2874 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
2875 Otherwise, it returns zero.
2876
2877 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
2878
2879 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
2880 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
2881 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
2882
2883 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
2884 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
2885 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
2886 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
2887 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
2888 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
2889 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
2890 functions.
2891
2892 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
2893 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
2894 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
2895
2896 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
2897
2898 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
2899
2900 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
2901
2902 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2903 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
2904 constrained position if that is is different.
2905
2906 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
2907 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
2908 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
2909 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
2910 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2911 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
2912 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
2913 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
2914 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
2915
2916 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
2917 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
2918 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
2919 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
2920 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
2921
2922 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
2923 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
2924
2925 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
2926
2927 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
2928
2929 Delete the field surrounding POS.
2930 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2931 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2932
2933 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2934
2935 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
2936 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2937 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2938 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
2939 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
2940
2941 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
2942
2943 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
2944 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2945 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2946 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
2947 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
2948
2949 - Function: field-string &optional POS
2950
2951 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
2952 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2953 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2954
2955 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
2956
2957 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
2958 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
2959 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
2960
2961 +++
2962 ** Image support.
2963
2964 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
2965 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
2966 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
2967 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
2968
2969 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
2970 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
2971 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
2972 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
2973 area.
2974
2975 IMAGE is an image specification.
2976
2977 *** Image specifications
2978
2979 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
2980 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
2981 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
2982 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
2983 described below are ignored.
2984
2985 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
2986
2987 `:ascent ASCENT'
2988
2989 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
2990 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
2991 to use for its ascent.
2992
2993 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
2994 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
2995
2996 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
2997 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
2998 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
2999 overlays that apply to the image.
3000
3001 `:margin MARGIN'
3002
3003 MARGIN must be a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put as
3004 margin around the image. Default is 0.
3005
3006 `:relief RELIEF'
3007
3008 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
3009 around an image.
3010
3011 `:algorithm ALGO'
3012
3013 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
3014
3015 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
3016 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
3017
3018 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
3019 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
3020 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
3021 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
3022 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
3023 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
3024 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
3025 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
3026 below.
3027
3028 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
3029 x-1/y x/y x+1/y
3030 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
3031
3032 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
3033 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
3034 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
3035 of the factors' absolute values.
3036
3037 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
3038
3039 (1 0 0
3040 0 0 0
3041 9 9 -1)
3042
3043 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
3044
3045 ( 2 -1 0
3046 -1 0 1
3047 0 1 -2)
3048
3049 `:mask MASK'
3050
3051 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
3052 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
3053 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
3054 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
3055 image, assuming the most frequently occuring color from the corners is
3056 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
3057 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
3058 image.
3059
3060 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
3061 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
3062 `:mask nil'.
3063
3064 `:file FILE'
3065
3066 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
3067 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
3068 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
3069 may be present in the image specification.
3070
3071 `:data DATA'
3072
3073 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
3074 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
3075 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
3076 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
3077
3078 *** Supported image types
3079
3080 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
3081
3082 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
3083 properties supported are
3084
3085 `:foreground FG'
3086
3087 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default
3088 is the frame's foreground.
3089
3090 `:background FG'
3091
3092 BG must be a string specifying the image foreground color. Default is
3093 the frame's background color.
3094
3095 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
3096 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
3097 instead of a `:file' property.
3098
3099 `:width WIDTH'
3100
3101 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
3102
3103 `:height HEIGHT'
3104
3105 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
3106
3107 `:data DATA'
3108
3109 DATA must be either
3110
3111 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
3112 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
3113
3114 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
3115
3116 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
3117 bitmap.
3118
3119 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
3120 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
3121 in the file.
3122
3123 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
3124
3125 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
3126 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
3127 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
3128 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
3129
3130 Additional image properties supported are:
3131
3132 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
3133
3134 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
3135 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
3136 name.
3137
3138 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
3139 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
3140
3141 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
3142 to display compressed images.
3143
3144 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
3145
3146 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
3147 mono images are supported. There are no additional image properties
3148 defined.
3149
3150 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
3151
3152 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
3153 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. Additional image properties
3154 are:
3155
3156 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
3157
3158 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
3159 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3160 properties defined.
3161
3162 **** GIF, image type `gif'
3163
3164 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
3165 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
3166
3167 Additional image properties supported are:
3168
3169 `:index INDEX'
3170
3171 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
3172 multi-image GIF file. An error is signalled if INDEX is too large.
3173
3174 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
3175 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
3176 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
3177 every 0.1 seconds.
3178
3179 (defun show-anim (file max)
3180 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
3181 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
3182
3183 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
3184 (when (= idx max)
3185 (setq idx 0))
3186 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
3187 (save-excursion
3188 (set-buffer buffer)
3189 (goto-char (point-min))
3190 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
3191 (insert-image img "x"))
3192 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
3193
3194 **** PNG, image type `png'
3195
3196 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
3197 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
3198 properties defined.
3199
3200 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
3201
3202 Additional image properties supported are:
3203
3204 `:pt-width WIDTH'
3205
3206 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
3207 integer. This is a required property.
3208
3209 `:pt-height HEIGHT'
3210
3211 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
3212 must be a integer. This is an required property.
3213
3214 `:bounding-box BOX'
3215
3216 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
3217 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
3218 files. This is an required property.
3219
3220 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
3221 lisp/gs.el.
3222
3223 *** Lisp interface.
3224
3225 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
3226 which are supported in the current configuration.
3227
3228 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
3229 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
3230 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
3231 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
3232 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
3233
3234 *** Simplified image API, image.el
3235
3236 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
3237 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
3238 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
3239 define an image based on available image types. The functions
3240 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
3241 buffer.
3242
3243 +++
3244 ** Display margins.
3245
3246 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
3247 and images.
3248
3249 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
3250 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
3251 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
3252 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
3253 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
3254 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
3255 of the display margins.
3256
3257 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
3258 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
3259 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
3260 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
3261 in this file).
3262
3263 +++
3264 ** Help display
3265
3266 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
3267 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
3268 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
3269 that have a `help-echo' property.
3270
3271 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
3272 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
3273 the window in which the help was found.
3274
3275 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
3276 `help-echo' text property was found.
3277
3278 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
3279 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
3280
3281 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
3282 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
3283 mouse.
3284
3285 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
3286 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
3287
3288 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
3289 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
3290 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
3291 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
3292 used as help string.
3293
3294 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
3295 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
3296 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
3297
3298 +++
3299 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
3300
3301 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
3302 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
3303
3304 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
3305 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
3306 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
3307 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
3308 used.
3309
3310 (global-set-key [A-down]
3311 #'(lambda ()
3312 (interactive)
3313 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3314 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
3315 (global-set-key [A-up]
3316 #'(lambda ()
3317 (interactive)
3318 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
3319 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
3320
3321 +++
3322 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
3323
3324 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
3325 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
3326 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
3327 is called with one argument, POS.
3328
3329 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
3330 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
3331 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
3332 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
3333 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
3334
3335 +++
3336 ** Tool bar support.
3337
3338 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
3339 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
3340 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
3341 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
3342 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
3343 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
3344
3345 before this facility can be useful, we need people to donate icons.
3346
3347 *** Tool bar item definitions
3348
3349 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
3350 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
3351 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
3352
3353 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
3354 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
3355 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
3356 property (see below).
3357
3358 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
3359 binding are currently ignored.
3360
3361 The following properties are recognized:
3362
3363 `:enable FORM'.
3364
3365 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
3366 or disabled.
3367
3368 `:visible FORM'
3369
3370 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
3371
3372 `:filter FUNCTION'
3373
3374 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
3375 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
3376 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
3377
3378 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
3379
3380 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
3381 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
3382
3383 `:image IMAGES'
3384
3385 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
3386 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
3387 meaning of each of the four elements:
3388
3389 Index Use when item is
3390 ----------------------------------------
3391 0 enabled and selected
3392 1 enabled and deselected
3393 2 disabled and selected
3394 3 disabled and deselected
3395
3396 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
3397 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
3398
3399 `:help HELP-STRING'.
3400
3401 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
3402 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
3403
3404 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
3405
3406 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
3407 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
3408 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
3409
3410 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
3411 raised when the mouse moves over them.
3412
3413 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
3414 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
3415 pixels. Default is 1.
3416
3417 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
3418 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
3419
3420 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
3421
3422 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
3423 a tool bar item. If
3424
3425 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
3426 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
3427 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
3428
3429 is the original tool bar item definition, then
3430
3431 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
3432
3433 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
3434 item.
3435
3436 ** Mode line changes.
3437
3438 +++
3439 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3440
3441 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
3442 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
3443 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
3444
3445 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
3446 a `local-map' text property.
3447
3448 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
3449 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
3450
3451 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
3452 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
3453 `local-map' property.
3454
3455 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
3456 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
3457 example.
3458
3459 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
3460 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
3461
3462 +++
3463 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
3464 variable mode-line-format to nil.
3465
3466 +++
3467 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
3468
3469 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
3470 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
3471 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
3472 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
3473 line.
3474
3475 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
3476 `header-line'.
3477
3478 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
3479 position in the header-line.
3480
3481 +++
3482 ** Text property `display'
3483
3484 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text, and
3485 also control other aspects of how text displays. The value of the
3486 `display' property should be a display specification, as described
3487 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
3488
3489 *** Variable width and height spaces
3490
3491 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
3492 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
3493 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
3494 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
3495 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
3496 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
3497 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
3498
3499 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
3500 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
3501 properties described below.
3502
3503 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
3504 characters having the `display' property.
3505
3506 - :width WIDTH
3507
3508 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
3509 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
3510
3511 - :relative-width FACTOR
3512
3513 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
3514 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
3515 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
3516 width of that character by FACTOR.
3517
3518 - :align-to HPOS
3519
3520 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
3521 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
3522
3523 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
3524
3525 - :height HEIGHT
3526
3527 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
3528 normal line height.
3529
3530 - :relative-height FACTOR
3531
3532 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
3533 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
3534
3535 - :ascent ASCENT
3536
3537 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
3538 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
3539 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
3540 equal to 100.
3541
3542 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
3543
3544 *** Images
3545
3546 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
3547 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
3548 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
3549 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
3550 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
3551 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
3552 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
3553 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
3554 as display specification.
3555
3556 *** Other display properties
3557
3558 - :space-width FACTOR
3559
3560 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
3561 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
3562 integer or float.
3563
3564 - :height HEIGHT
3565
3566 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
3567
3568 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
3569 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
3570 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
3571 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
3572 a font is available counts as a step.
3573
3574 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
3575 as tall as the frame's default font.
3576
3577 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
3578 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
3579
3580 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
3581 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
3582
3583 - :raise FACTOR
3584
3585 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
3586 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
3587 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
3588 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
3589 `:height' subproperty.
3590
3591 *** Conditional display properties
3592
3593 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
3594 has the form `(:when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC
3595 applies only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated.
3596 During evaluattion, point is temporarily set to the end position of
3597 the text having the `display' property.
3598
3599 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
3600 `(:when t SPEC)'.
3601
3602 +++
3603 ** New menu separator types.
3604
3605 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
3606 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
3607 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
3608 to specify other menu separator types.
3609
3610 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
3611
3612 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
3613 separator occurs.
3614
3615 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
3616
3617 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
3618
3619 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
3620
3621 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
3622
3623 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
3624
3625 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3626
3627 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
3628
3629 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
3630
3631 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
3632
3633 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the the form
3634 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
3635
3636 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
3637
3638 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
3639
3640 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
3641
3642 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
3643
3644 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
3645
3646 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
3647
3648 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
3649
3650 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3651
3652 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
3653
3654 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
3655
3656 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
3657
3658 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
3659
3660 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
3661
3662 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
3663
3664 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
3665 the corresponding single-line separators.
3666
3667 +++
3668 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
3669
3670 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
3671 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
3672 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
3673 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
3674 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
3675 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
3676 default foreground is black.
3677
3678 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
3679 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
3680 `ScrollBarBackground').
3681
3682 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
3683 settings for scroll bar colors.
3684
3685 +++
3686 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
3687 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
3688
3689 ---
3690 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
3691 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
3692 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
3693 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
3694 the original window start.
3695
3696 ---
3697 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
3698 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
3699 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
3700
3701 +++
3702 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
3703
3704 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
3705 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
3706 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
3707 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
3708
3709 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
3710 fixed-width and fixed-height.
3711
3712 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
3713
3714 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
3715 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
3716 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
3717 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
3718 temporarily to nil, for example
3719
3720 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
3721 (enlarge-window 10))
3722
3723 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
3724 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
3725
3726 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
3727 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
3728 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
3729 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
3730 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
3731 support a vertical-bar cursor).
3732
3733
3734 ^L
3735 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
3736
3737 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
3738 input.
3739
3740 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
3741
3742 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
3743
3744 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
3745 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
3746 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
3747 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
3748 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
3749
3750 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
3751 been added.
3752
3753 ^L
3754 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
3755
3756 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
3757
3758 ^L
3759 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
3760
3761 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
3762 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
3763 \f
3764 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
3765
3766 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
3767
3768 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
3769 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
3770 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
3771
3772 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
3773 is the one that is used.
3774
3775 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
3776 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
3777 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
3778 separate from the command's regular output.
3779 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
3780 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
3781 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
3782 the buffer name.
3783
3784 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
3785 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
3786 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
3787 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
3788
3789 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
3790 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
3791 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
3792 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
3793
3794 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
3795 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
3796 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
3797 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
3798
3799 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
3800 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
3801 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
3802 they never ignore case.
3803
3804 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
3805 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
3806 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
3807 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
3808 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
3809 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
3810 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
3811
3812 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
3813 the same format that was used in the file before.
3814
3815 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
3816 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
3817
3818 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
3819 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
3820 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
3821
3822 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
3823 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
3824 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
3825 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
3826 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
3827 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
3828 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
3829
3830 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
3831 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
3832 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
3833 format. You can now customize these variables.
3834
3835 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
3836 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
3837 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
3838 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
3839
3840 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
3841 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
3842 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
3843
3844 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
3845 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
3846 doesn't have any effect.
3847
3848 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
3849 not one per buffer.
3850
3851 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
3852 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
3853 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
3854
3855 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
3856 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
3857 `auto-show-mode' command.
3858
3859 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
3860 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
3861 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
3862 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
3863 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
3864
3865 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
3866 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
3867
3868 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
3869 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
3870 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
3871
3872 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
3873 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
3874 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
3875 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
3876
3877 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
3878
3879 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
3880 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
3881 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
3882 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
3883 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
3884
3885 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
3886 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
3887
3888 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
3889 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
3890 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
3891 `?' on other systems.
3892
3893 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
3894 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
3895 Unix.
3896
3897 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
3898 current codepage when it starts.
3899
3900 ** Mail changes
3901
3902 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
3903 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
3904 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
3905 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
3906 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
3907 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
3908 latin-1:
3909
3910 MIME-version: 1.0
3911 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
3912 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
3913
3914 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
3915 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
3916 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
3917 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
3918 buffer-file-coding-system.
3919
3920 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
3921 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
3922 mail.
3923
3924 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
3925 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
3926 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
3927 list of possible coding systems.
3928
3929 ** CC Mode changes
3930
3931 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
3932 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
3933 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
3934 docstring for details.
3935
3936 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
3937 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
3938 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
3939 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
3940 lineup functions use this feature currently.
3941
3942 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
3943 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
3944
3945 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
3946 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
3947
3948 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
3949 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
3950 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
3951 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
3952 anonymous classes.
3953
3954 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
3955 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
3956
3957 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
3958 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
3959 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
3960 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
3961
3962 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
3963 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
3964 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
3965 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
3966 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
3967
3968 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
3969
3970 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
3971
3972 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
3973 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
3974
3975 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
3976
3977 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
3978 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
3979 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
3980 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
3981 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
3982
3983 ** Gnus changes.
3984
3985 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
3986 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
3987 Gnus manual for the full story.
3988
3989 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
3990 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
3991 group, which is created automatically.
3992
3993 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
3994 values.
3995
3996 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
3997
3998 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
3999 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
4000
4001 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
4002 `C-u C-c C-c'.
4003
4004 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
4005
4006 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
4007 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
4008
4009 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
4010
4011 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
4012 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
4013
4014 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
4015 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
4016
4017 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
4018 control over simplification.
4019
4020 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
4021
4022 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
4023 limit.
4024
4025 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
4026
4027 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
4028
4029 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
4030 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
4031 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
4032
4033 *** Cancelling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
4034 `a' forces normal posting method.
4035
4036 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
4037 -- `W d'.
4038
4039 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
4040 to a non-nil value.
4041
4042 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
4043 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
4044
4045 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
4046 has been added.
4047
4048 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
4049
4050 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
4051
4052 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
4053 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
4054
4055 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
4056 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
4057
4058 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
4059
4060 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
4061 been added.
4062
4063 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
4064 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
4065
4066 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
4067 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
4068
4069 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
4070
4071 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
4072
4073 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
4074
4075 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
4076
4077 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
4078 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
4079 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
4080
4081 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
4082 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
4083 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
4084 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
4085 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
4086
4087 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
4088 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
4089 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
4090 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
4091
4092 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
4093 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
4094 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
4095 mismatch.
4096
4097 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4098
4099 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
4100 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
4101
4102 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
4103 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
4104 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
4105 removed from the label.
4106
4107 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
4108 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
4109
4110 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
4111 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
4112
4113 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
4114 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
4115 expressions.
4116
4117 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
4118
4119 ** New/deleted modes and packages
4120
4121 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
4122 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
4123
4124 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
4125 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
4126 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
4127
4128 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
4129 changes with a special face.
4130
4131 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
4132 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
4133 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
4134 \f
4135 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
4136
4137 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
4138 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
4139 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
4140 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
4141 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
4142
4143 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
4144 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
4145 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
4146
4147 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
4148 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
4149 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
4150 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
4151 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
4152 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
4153 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
4154 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
4155 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
4156
4157 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
4158 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
4159 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
4160 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
4161 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
4162 program.
4163
4164 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
4165 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
4166 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
4167 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
4168 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
4169 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
4170
4171 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
4172 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
4173 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
4174 was not documented clearly before.
4175
4176 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
4177 This includes Tetris and Snake.
4178 \f
4179 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
4180
4181 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
4182 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
4183 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
4184 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
4185
4186 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
4187 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
4188 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
4189
4190 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
4191
4192 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
4193 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
4194
4195 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
4196 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
4197 integers.
4198
4199 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
4200 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
4201 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
4202 file names and attributes are returned.
4203
4204 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
4205 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
4206 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its atttributes.
4207 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
4208 returns the result.
4209
4210 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
4211 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
4212
4213 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
4214
4215 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
4216 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
4217 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
4218 optionally.
4219
4220 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
4221 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
4222
4223 **
4224 The new function process-running-child-p
4225 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
4226 terminal to its own child process.
4227
4228 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
4229 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
4230 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
4231 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
4232
4233 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
4234 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
4235
4236 ** easymenu.el Now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
4237 :included is an alias for :visible.
4238
4239 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
4240 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
4241 to move or copy menu entries.
4242
4243 ** Multibyte editing changes
4244
4245 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
4246 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
4247 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
4248 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
4249 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
4250 (setq char (sref str idx)
4251 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
4252 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
4253
4254 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
4255 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
4256 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
4257
4258 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
4259 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
4260 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
4261
4262 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibitted
4263
4264 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
4265 across the boundary.
4266
4267 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
4268 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
4269 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
4270 contains 8-bit characters.
4271 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
4272 contains invalid characters.
4273
4274 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
4275 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
4276 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
4277 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
4278 way.
4279
4280 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
4281 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
4282 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
4283 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
4284
4285 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
4286 compose Thai characters in a string.
4287
4288 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
4289 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
4290 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
4291 menus should always use the third argument.
4292
4293 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
4294 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
4295 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
4296 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
4297
4298 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
4299 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
4300 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
4301 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
4302
4303 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
4304 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
4305 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
4306 echo area contents.
4307
4308 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
4309
4310 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
4311 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
4312 requested feature cannot be loaded.
4313
4314 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
4315 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
4316 means to clear out that attribute.
4317
4318 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
4319 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
4320
4321 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
4322 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
4323 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
4324 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
4325
4326 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
4327 the gap of the current buffer.
4328
4329 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
4330 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
4331 current buffer.
4332
4333 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
4334 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
4335 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
4336 it back in after any modifications have been made.
4337 \f
4338 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
4339
4340 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
4341 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
4342 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
4343 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
4344 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
4345
4346 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
4347 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
4348 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
4349 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
4350 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
4351
4352 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
4353 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
4354 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
4355
4356 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
4357 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
4358 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
4359 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
4360 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
4361 results.
4362
4363 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
4364 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
4365 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
4366 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
4367 \f
4368 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
4369
4370 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
4371 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
4372 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
4373 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
4374
4375 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
4376 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
4377 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
4378 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
4379 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
4380 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
4381 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
4382 region.
4383
4384 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
4385 selective undo.
4386
4387 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
4388 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
4389 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
4390 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
4391 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
4392
4393 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
4394 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
4395 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
4396 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
4397
4398 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
4399 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
4400 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
4401 something that most users not do.
4402
4403 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
4404 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
4405 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
4406 applications.
4407
4408 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
4409 pasting operations.
4410
4411 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
4412 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
4413 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
4414 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
4415 `ps-printer-name'.
4416
4417 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
4418 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
4419 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
4420 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
4421 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
4422 hits a new word.
4423
4424 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
4425 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
4426 to be confused by TeX commands.
4427
4428 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
4429 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
4430 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
4431 of various alternative replacements and actions.
4432
4433 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
4434 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
4435 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
4436 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
4437 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
4438
4439 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
4440 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
4441
4442 ** Changes in input method usage.
4443
4444 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
4445 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
4446 respectively.
4447
4448 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
4449
4450 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
4451 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
4452
4453 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
4454 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
4455
4456 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
4457
4458 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
4459
4460 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
4461 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
4462
4463 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
4464 given in the following case:
4465 o When you are using a complex input method.
4466 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
4467
4468 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
4469 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
4470 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
4471 setting it to t is helpful.
4472
4473 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
4474
4475 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
4476 keys:
4477 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
4478 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
4479 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
4480 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
4481 environment.
4482
4483 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
4484 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
4485 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
4486 get
4487
4488 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
4489
4490 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
4491
4492 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
4493 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
4494
4495 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
4496 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
4497 its owner and group.
4498
4499 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
4500 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
4501
4502 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
4503 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
4504
4505 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
4506 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
4507 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
4508 by the left edge of the rectangle.
4509
4510 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
4511 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
4512 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
4513 for writing keyboard macros.
4514
4515 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
4516 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
4517 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
4518 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
4519 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
4520 info.
4521
4522 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
4523
4524 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
4525 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
4526 contents only.
4527
4528 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
4529 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
4530 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
4531 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
4532
4533 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
4534 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
4535 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
4536
4537 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
4538 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
4539 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
4540 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
4541
4542 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
4543 failure if the command produces no output.
4544
4545 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
4546 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
4547 the mouse.
4548
4549 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
4550 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
4551 function and variable names.
4552
4553 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
4554 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
4555 file-coding-system-alist.
4556
4557 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
4558 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
4559 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
4560 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
4561 according to the current fontset.
4562
4563 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
4564
4565 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
4566 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
4567 nonascii-insert-offset.
4568
4569 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
4570 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
4571 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
4572 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
4573
4574 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
4575 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
4576
4577 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
4578 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
4579
4580 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
4581 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
4582 command keys.
4583
4584 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
4585 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
4586
4587 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
4588 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
4589 all variables that have documentation.
4590
4591 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
4592 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
4593 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
4594 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
4595 it should show; the default is 20.
4596
4597 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
4598 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
4599 of your input.
4600
4601 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
4602 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
4603 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
4604 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
4605 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
4606 Newly added options are included as well.
4607
4608 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
4609 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
4610 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
4611
4612 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
4613 Customize menu.
4614
4615 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
4616 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
4617
4618 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
4619 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
4620 invoked.
4621
4622 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
4623 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
4624 The default is 1.
4625
4626 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
4627 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
4628 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
4629 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
4630 sensibly.
4631
4632 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
4633
4634 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
4635 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
4636 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
4637
4638 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
4639 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
4640 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
4641 every night.
4642
4643 ** Desktop changes
4644
4645 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
4646 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
4647
4648 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
4649 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
4650
4651 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
4652 read and post multi-lingual articles.
4653
4654 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
4655 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
4656 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
4657 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
4658 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
4659 made invisible again.
4660
4661 ** Mail reading and sending changes
4662
4663 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
4664 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
4665 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
4666 toggle.
4667
4668 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
4669 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
4670 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
4671 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
4672 rmail-default-body-file.
4673
4674 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
4675 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
4676 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
4677
4678 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
4679 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
4680 is evaluated to insert the signature.
4681
4682 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
4683 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
4684 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
4685 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
4686 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
4687 especially interested in trying feedmail.
4688
4689 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
4690 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
4691 provided by feedmail are:
4692
4693 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
4694 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
4695 there is also a queue for draft messages
4696
4697 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
4698 be prompted for confirmation
4699
4700 **** does smart filling of address headers
4701
4702 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
4703 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
4704 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
4705
4706 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
4707 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
4708 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
4709 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
4710
4711 ** Dired changes
4712
4713 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
4714 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
4715
4716 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
4717 run Dired on the directory name at point.
4718
4719 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
4720 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
4721 for a specified regexp.
4722
4723 ** VC Changes
4724
4725 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
4726 conveniently.
4727
4728 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
4729 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
4730 Dired.
4731
4732 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
4733 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
4734 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
4735 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
4736
4737 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
4738 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
4739 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
4740 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
4741 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
4742
4743 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
4744 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
4745 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
4746 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
4747 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
4748
4749 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
4750 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
4751 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
4752 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
4753
4754 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
4755 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
4756 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
4757
4758 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
4759 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
4760 session to resolve them.
4761
4762 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
4763 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
4764 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
4765 uses as well).
4766
4767 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
4768 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
4769 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
4770 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
4771 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
4772 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
4773 using ediff.
4774
4775 ** Changes in Font Lock
4776
4777 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
4778 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
4779 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
4780 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
4781 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
4782
4783 ** Frame name display changes
4784
4785 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
4786 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
4787 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
4788 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
4789
4790 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
4791 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
4792 menu.
4793
4794 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4795
4796 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
4797 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
4798 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
4799
4800 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
4801
4802 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
4803 that is, the line after the last line you got.
4804 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
4805
4806 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
4807 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
4808 the following line.
4809
4810 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
4811 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
4812 previously sent input.
4813
4814 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
4815 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
4816 as the search string.
4817
4818 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
4819 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
4820
4821 ** C mode changes
4822
4823 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
4824 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
4825 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
4826 definition.
4827
4828 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
4829 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
4830 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
4831 style is still the default however.
4832
4833 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
4834
4835 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
4836 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
4837 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
4838
4839 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
4840 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
4841
4842 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
4843 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
4844
4845 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
4846 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
4847
4848 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
4849 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
4850
4851 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
4852 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
4853 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
4854 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
4855
4856 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
4857
4858 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
4859 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
4860 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
4861
4862 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
4863 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
4864 expanding dynamically.
4865
4866 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
4867 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
4868
4869 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
4870 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
4871 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
4872 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
4873
4874 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
4875
4876 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
4877
4878 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
4879 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
4880 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
4881 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
4882 against the first word in the title.
4883
4884 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
4885 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
4886 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
4887 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
4888 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
4889 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
4890
4891 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
4892 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
4893 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
4894 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
4895
4896 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
4897
4898 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
4899 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
4900 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
4901 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
4902 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
4903 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
4904
4905 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
4906 Editing group once the package is loaded.
4907
4908 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
4909 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
4910 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behaviour.
4911
4912 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
4913 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
4914
4915 ** Ispell changes.
4916
4917 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
4918 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
4919 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
4920
4921 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
4922 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
4923 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
4924 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
4925 include:
4926
4927 o URLs are automatically skipped
4928 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
4929
4930 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
4931
4932 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4933
4934 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
4935 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
4936 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
4937 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
4938
4939 *** New recursive parser.
4940
4941 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
4942 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
4943 recursive parser scans the individual files.
4944
4945 *** Parsing only part of a document.
4946
4947 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
4948 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
4949 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
4950
4951 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
4952
4953 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
4954
4955 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
4956
4957 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
4958
4959 *** Using multiple selection buffers
4960
4961 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
4962 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
4963
4964 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
4965
4966 *** References to external documents.
4967
4968 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
4969 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
4970 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
4971 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
4972 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
4973 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
4974 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
4975
4976 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
4977
4978 The builtin command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
4979 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
4980
4981 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
4982 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
4983
4984 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
4985
4986 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
4987 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
4988
4989 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
4990
4991 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
4992 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
4993 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
4994 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
4995 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
4996 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
4997 more.
4998
4999 *** Support for the varioref package
5000
5001 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
5002
5003 *** New hooks
5004
5005 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
5006 and citations are created. These hooks are
5007 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
5008 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
5009
5010 *** Citations outside LaTeX
5011
5012 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
5013 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
5014
5015 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
5016
5017 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
5018 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
5019 fontified, use
5020
5021 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
5022
5023 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
5024 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
5025 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
5026 directories that contain the same file name.
5027
5028 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
5029 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
5030 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
5031 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
5032 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
5033 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
5034 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
5035 directory.
5036
5037 ** New modes and packages
5038
5039 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
5040 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
5041 it, but some do not.
5042
5043 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
5044 code.
5045
5046 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
5047 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
5048 around in a buffer.
5049
5050 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
5051
5052 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
5053 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
5054 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
5055 established system of notation similar to Chess.
5056
5057 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
5058 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
5059 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
5060
5061 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
5062 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
5063 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
5064 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
5065 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
5066 the like.
5067
5068 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
5069 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
5070
5071 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
5072 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
5073 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
5074 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
5075
5076 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
5077
5078 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
5079 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
5080 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
5081 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
5082 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
5083 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
5084 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
5085 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
5086 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
5087 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
5088 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
5089
5090 Platform-specific modes:
5091
5092 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
5093 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
5094 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
5095 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
5096 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
5097 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
5098 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
5099 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
5100 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
5101 \f
5102 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
5103
5104 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
5105 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
5106 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
5107 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
5108
5109 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
5110 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
5111 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
5112
5113 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
5114 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
5115 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
5116 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
5117
5118 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
5119 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
5120 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
5121 environment.
5122
5123 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
5124 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
5125 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
5126 current input method for reading this one event.
5127
5128 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
5129 now control whether to output certain characters as
5130 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
5131 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
5132 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
5133 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
5134 \f
5135 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
5136
5137 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
5138 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
5139
5140 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
5141 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
5142 always increases point by 1.
5143
5144 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
5145 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
5146
5147 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
5148
5149 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
5150 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
5151 default value changed. For example,
5152
5153 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
5154 :type 'integer
5155 :group 'foo
5156 :version "20.3")
5157
5158 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
5159 :version "20.3")
5160
5161 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
5162 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
5163 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
5164 `:version' in the top level group.
5165
5166 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
5167
5168 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
5169 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
5170
5171 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
5172 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
5173 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
5174 to themselves.
5175
5176 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
5177 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
5178 values whatever.
5179
5180 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
5181 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
5182 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
5183
5184 ** Frame-local variables.
5185
5186 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
5187 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
5188 local bindings for that variable.
5189
5190 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
5191 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
5192 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
5193 parameter name.
5194
5195 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
5196 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
5197 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
5198 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
5199
5200 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
5201 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
5202 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
5203 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
5204
5205 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
5206 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
5207 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
5208 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
5209 See the documentation in sregex.el.
5210
5211 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
5212 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
5213 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
5214 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
5215
5216 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
5217 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
5218
5219 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
5220 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
5221 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
5222
5223 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
5224 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
5225 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
5226 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
5227
5228 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
5229 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
5230 empty input.
5231
5232 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
5233 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
5234 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
5235 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
5236 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
5237
5238 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
5239 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
5240 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
5241 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
5242
5243 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
5244 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
5245 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
5246 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
5247 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
5248
5249 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
5250 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
5251 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
5252 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
5253
5254 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
5255 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
5256 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
5257
5258 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
5259 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
5260 was directed to display this buffer.
5261
5262 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
5263 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
5264 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
5265 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
5266 set-window-configuration.
5267
5268 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
5269 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
5270 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
5271 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
5272
5273 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
5274 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
5275 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
5276
5277 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
5278 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
5279 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
5280
5281 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
5282 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
5283
5284 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
5285 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
5286
5287 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
5288 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
5289 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
5290
5291 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
5292 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
5293 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
5294 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
5295
5296 ** Menu changes
5297
5298 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
5299 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
5300 better supported.
5301
5302 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
5303 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
5304 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
5305 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
5306 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
5307
5308 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
5309
5310 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
5311 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
5312 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
5313 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
5314
5315 The format is:
5316 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
5317 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
5318 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
5319 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
5320 The supported properties include
5321
5322 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5323 item is enabled.
5324 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
5325 item should appear in the menu.
5326 :filter FILTER-FN
5327 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
5328 which will be REAL-BINDING.
5329 It should return a binding to use instead.
5330 :keys DESCRIPTION
5331 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
5332 binding for for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
5333 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
5334 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
5335 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
5336 keyboard binding.
5337 :key-sequence nil
5338 This means that the command normally has no
5339 keyboard equivalent.
5340 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
5341 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
5342 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
5343 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
5344 value says whether this button is currently selected.
5345
5346 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
5347 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
5348
5349 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
5350
5351 ** New event types
5352
5353 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
5354 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
5355 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
5356 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
5357
5358 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
5359
5360 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5361 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
5362 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
5363 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
5364 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
5365 forward, away from the user.
5366
5367 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5368
5369 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
5370 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
5371 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
5372 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
5373 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
5374
5375 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
5376
5377 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
5378 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
5379 that were dragged and dropped.
5380
5381 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
5382
5383 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
5384
5385 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
5386 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
5387 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
5388
5389 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
5390 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
5391 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
5392
5393 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
5394 in Emacs 19 and before.
5395
5396 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
5397 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
5398
5399 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
5400 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
5401 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
5402 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
5403
5404 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
5405 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
5406 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
5407 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
5408 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
5409
5410 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
5411 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
5412 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
5413 consistent with the new representation.
5414
5415 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
5416 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
5417 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
5418 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5419
5420 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
5421 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
5422 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
5423
5424 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
5425 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
5426 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
5427
5428 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
5429 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
5430 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
5431
5432 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5433 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
5434
5435 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
5436 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
5437
5438 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
5439 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
5440 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
5441 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
5442
5443 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
5444 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
5445
5446 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
5447 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
5448 buffer or string being searched.
5449
5450 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
5451 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
5452 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
5453 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
5454 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
5455 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
5456 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
5457
5458 *** Structure of coding system changed.
5459
5460 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
5461 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
5462 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
5463 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
5464 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
5465 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
5466 define-coding-system-alias.
5467
5468 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
5469 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
5470 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
5471 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
5472 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
5473 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
5474 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
5475 `iso-8859-1'.
5476
5477 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
5478 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
5479 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
5480 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
5481
5482 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
5483 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
5484 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
5485 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
5486
5487 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
5488 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
5489 This function requires a user interaction.
5490
5491 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
5492 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
5493 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
5494 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
5495 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
5496 select-safe-coding-system.
5497
5498 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
5499 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
5500 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
5501 was done.
5502
5503 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
5504 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
5505 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
5506
5507 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
5508 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
5509 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
5510 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
5511
5512 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
5513 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
5514 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
5515 converted.
5516
5517 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
5518 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
5519
5520 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
5521 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
5522 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
5523 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
5524 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
5525 range of characters.
5526
5527 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
5528 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
5529
5530 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
5531 in the current buffer at position POS.
5532
5533 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
5534 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
5535 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
5536 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
5537 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
5538 binding input-method-function to nil.
5539
5540 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
5541 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
5542 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
5543 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
5544 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
5545
5546 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
5547 subsequent events of a key sequence.
5548
5549 *** You can customize any language environment by using
5550 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
5551
5552 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
5553 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
5554 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
5555 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
5556 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
5557 \f
5558 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
5559
5560 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
5561 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
5562 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
5563 tree structure.
5564
5565 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
5566 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
5567
5568 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
5569 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
5570 in your .emacs file.)
5571
5572 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
5573 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
5574
5575 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
5576 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
5577
5578 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
5579 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
5580 kills the region.
5581
5582 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
5583 delete the character before point, as usual.
5584
5585 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
5586 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
5587 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
5588
5589 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
5590 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
5591 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
5592 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
5593 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
5594 past.)
5595
5596 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
5597 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
5598 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
5599 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
5600 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
5601
5602 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
5603 and is an alias for it.
5604
5605 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
5606 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
5607
5608 ** Scrolling changes
5609
5610 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
5611 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
5612
5613 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
5614 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
5615 where it started.
5616
5617 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
5618 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
5619 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
5620 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
5621
5622 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
5623 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
5624 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
5625 recenters the window.
5626
5627 ** International character set support (MULE)
5628
5629 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
5630 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
5631 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
5632 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
5633 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
5634 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
5635
5636 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
5637 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
5638 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
5639 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
5640 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
5641
5642 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
5643 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
5644 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
5645 language, to make it possible to type them.
5646
5647 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
5648 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
5649
5650 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
5651 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
5652
5653 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
5654
5655 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
5656
5657 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
5658 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
5659 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
5660 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
5661 characters for their work until they want to change.
5662
5663 *** Input methods
5664
5665 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
5666 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
5667 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
5668 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
5669 support several input methods.
5670
5671 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
5672 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
5673 work.
5674
5675 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
5676 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
5677 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
5678 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
5679 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
5680 letter.
5681
5682 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
5683 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
5684 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
5685 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
5686 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
5687
5688 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
5689 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
5690 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
5691 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
5692
5693 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
5694 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
5695 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
5696 the first guess is wrong.
5697
5698 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
5699 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
5700
5701 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
5702 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
5703 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
5704 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
5705
5706 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
5707 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
5708 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
5709 translate automatically to and from either one.
5710
5711 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
5712
5713 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
5714 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
5715 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
5716 what you want.
5717
5718 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
5719 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
5720 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
5721 multibyte characters in that buffer.
5722
5723 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
5724 character conversion as well.
5725
5726 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
5727
5728 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
5729 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
5730 requires using many fonts.
5731
5732 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
5733 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
5734
5735 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
5736 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
5737 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
5738 you would use a font.
5739
5740 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
5741 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
5742 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
5743
5744 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
5745 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
5746 characters). If another font in the fontset has a different height,
5747 or the wrong width, then characters assigned to that font are clipped,
5748 and displayed within a box if highlight-wrong-size-font is non-nil.
5749
5750 *** Defining fontsets.
5751
5752 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
5753 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
5754 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
5755
5756 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
5757 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
5758 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
5759 standard fontset are created automatically.
5760
5761 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
5762 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
5763 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
5764 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
5765 name is `fontset-startup'.
5766
5767 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
5768 The resource value should have this form:
5769 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
5770 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
5771 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
5772 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
5773 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
5774 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
5775 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
5776 CHARSET-NAME should be the name name of a character set, and
5777 FONT-NAME should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
5778
5779 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
5780 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
5781 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
5782
5783 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
5784 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
5785 following resource,
5786 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
5787 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
5788 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
5789 Here is the substitution rule:
5790 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
5791 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
5792 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
5793 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
5794 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
5795
5796 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
5797 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
5798 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
5799
5800 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
5801 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
5802 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
5803 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
5804 fontsets.
5805
5806 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
5807 defaults for a particular choice of language.
5808
5809 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
5810 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
5811 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
5812 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
5813 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
5814 system for new files that you create.
5815
5816 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
5817 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
5818 whole Emacs session.
5819
5820 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
5821 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
5822 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
5823
5824 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
5825 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
5826 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
5827 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
5828 coding systems that Emacs supports.
5829
5830 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
5831 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
5832 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
5833 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
5834 is used for *the immediately following command*.
5835
5836 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
5837 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
5838
5839 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
5840 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
5841
5842 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
5843 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
5844
5845 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
5846 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
5847 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
5848 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
5849 of the file.
5850
5851 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
5852 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
5853 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
5854 translated into that character code.
5855
5856 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
5857 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
5858
5859 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
5860
5861 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
5862 the coding system for keyboard input.
5863
5864 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
5865 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
5866 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
5867
5868 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
5869
5870 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
5871 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
5872 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
5873 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
5874 designed to work with terminals.
5875
5876 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
5877 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
5878 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
5879 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
5880 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
5881 in the corresponding buffer.
5882
5883 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
5884
5885 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
5886 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
5887 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
5888
5889 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
5890 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
5891 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
5892 want to use.
5893
5894 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
5895 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
5896
5897 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
5898 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
5899 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
5900 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
5901
5902 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
5903 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
5904 related information.
5905
5906 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
5907 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
5908 scripts.
5909
5910 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
5911 information about the support for a particular language.
5912 You specify the language as an argument.
5913
5914 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
5915 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
5916 first dash.
5917
5918 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
5919 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
5920 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
5921 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
5922
5923 A alternativnyj (Russian)
5924 B big5 (Chinese)
5925 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
5926 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
5927 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
5928 E euc-japan (Japanese)
5929 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5930 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
5931 K euc-korea (Korean)
5932 R koi8 (Russian)
5933 Q tibetan
5934 S shift_jis (Japanese)
5935 T lao
5936 T tis620 (Thai)
5937 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
5938 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
5939 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
5940 v viqr (Vietnamese)
5941 z hz (Chinese)
5942
5943 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
5944 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
5945 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
5946 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
5947
5948 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
5949 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
5950
5951 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
5952 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
5953 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
5954 Rmail files themselves.
5955
5956 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
5957 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
5958
5959 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
5960 for sending mail:
5961
5962 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
5963 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
5964 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
5965 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
5966 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
5967
5968 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
5969 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
5970 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
5971 translations.
5972
5973 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
5974 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
5975 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
5976 without any conversion.
5977
5978 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
5979 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
5980 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
5981 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
5982
5983 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
5984 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
5985
5986 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
5987 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
5988
5989 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
5990 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
5991
5992 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
5993 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
5994 in the buffer before point.
5995
5996 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
5997 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
5998 you are using.
5999
6000 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
6001 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
6002
6003 ** File locking works with NFS now.
6004
6005 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
6006 in the same directory as FILENAME.
6007
6008 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
6009 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
6010 can become a bottleneck.
6011
6012 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
6013 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
6014 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
6015 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
6016 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
6017 so useful that the change is worth while.
6018
6019 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
6020 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
6021 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
6022 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
6023
6024 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
6025 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
6026 show-paren-mode.
6027
6028 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
6029 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
6030 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
6031
6032 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
6033 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
6034 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
6035
6036 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
6037 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
6038 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
6039
6040 ** Changes in View mode.
6041
6042 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
6043 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
6044
6045 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
6046 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
6047
6048 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
6049 previous state.
6050
6051 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
6052 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
6053
6054 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
6055 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
6056 not just the selected window.
6057
6058 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
6059 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
6060 turns View mode on or off.
6061
6062 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
6063 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
6064 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
6065
6066 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
6067 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
6068
6069 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
6070 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
6071 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
6072 which version to compare with.
6073
6074 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
6075 blocks if a match is inside the block.
6076
6077 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
6078 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
6079 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
6080 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
6081
6082 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
6083 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
6084 blocks, all of them or none.
6085
6086 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
6087 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
6088 confirmation first.
6089
6090 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
6091 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
6092 However, the mode will not be changed if
6093 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
6094 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
6095 not suitable for ordinary files, or
6096 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
6097
6098 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
6099
6100 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
6101 these commands do not change the major mode.
6102
6103 ** M-x occur changes.
6104
6105 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
6106 it performs a case-sensitive search.
6107
6108 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
6109 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
6110 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
6111
6112 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
6113 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
6114 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
6115 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
6116 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
6117
6118 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
6119 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
6120 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
6121 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
6122
6123 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
6124 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
6125 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
6126
6127 ** Outline mode changes.
6128
6129 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
6130
6131 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
6132
6133 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
6134 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
6135 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
6136 was already active.
6137
6138 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
6139 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
6140 get confused by it.
6141
6142 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
6143 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
6144
6145 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
6146
6147 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
6148 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
6149 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
6150 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
6151
6152 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
6153 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
6154 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
6155
6156 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
6157 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
6158 values.
6159
6160 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
6161 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
6162 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
6163 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
6164
6165 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
6166 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
6167 can be. The default value is 30.
6168
6169 ** Changes in Mail mode.
6170
6171 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
6172 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
6173 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
6174 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
6175 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
6176 behavior.
6177
6178 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
6179 compose-mail-other-frame.
6180
6181 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
6182 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
6183 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
6184 buffer that shows the original message.
6185
6186 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
6187 with separator lines around the contents.
6188
6189 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
6190 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
6191 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
6192 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
6193
6194 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
6195
6196 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
6197 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
6198 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
6199 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
6200
6201 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
6202 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
6203 /etc/passwd.
6204
6205 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
6206 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
6207 /etc/passwd.
6208
6209 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
6210 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
6211 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
6212 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
6213
6214 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
6215 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
6216 be taken to be magic.
6217
6218 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
6219 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
6220 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
6221
6222 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
6223 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
6224
6225 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
6226 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
6227
6228 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
6229
6230 new key dired.el binding old key
6231 ------- ---------------- -------
6232 * c dired-change-marks c
6233 * m dired-mark m
6234 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
6235 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
6236 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
6237 * u dired-unmark u
6238 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
6239 * ? dired-unmark-all-files M-C-?
6240 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
6241 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
6242 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
6243 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
6244
6245 ** Rmail changes.
6246
6247 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
6248 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
6249 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
6250 each time you run it.
6251
6252 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
6253 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
6254
6255 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
6256 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
6257 means to move in the opposite direction.
6258
6259 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
6260 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
6261
6262 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
6263 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
6264 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
6265 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
6266 for output.
6267
6268 ** Gnus changes.
6269
6270 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
6271
6272 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
6273 Gnus.
6274
6275 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
6276 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
6277
6278 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
6279 article mode line.
6280
6281 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
6282
6283 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
6284
6285 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
6286
6287 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
6288 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
6289 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
6290
6291 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
6292
6293 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
6294
6295 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
6296 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
6297
6298 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
6299 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
6300 used to pick articles.
6301
6302 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
6303 another have been added.
6304
6305 `M-x gnus-change-server'
6306
6307 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
6308 generating lines in buffers.
6309
6310 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
6311 `M-C-_'.
6312
6313 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
6314
6315 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
6316
6317 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
6318
6319 *** Scores can be decayed.
6320
6321 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
6322
6323 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
6324 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
6325
6326 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
6327 the native server.
6328
6329 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
6330
6331 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
6332 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `M-C-d'.
6333
6334 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
6335
6336 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
6337 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
6338
6339 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
6340 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
6341
6342 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
6343 a group.
6344
6345 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
6346 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
6347
6348 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
6349
6350 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
6351
6352 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
6353
6354 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
6355
6356 Use the `Y c' command.
6357
6358 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
6359
6360 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
6361
6362 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
6363
6364 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
6365 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
6366
6367 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
6368
6369 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
6370
6371 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
6372 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
6373
6374 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
6375
6376 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
6377 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
6378 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
6379 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
6380 this issue.)
6381
6382 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
6383 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
6384 particular news group. This can be done by:
6385
6386 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
6387
6388 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
6389 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
6390 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
6391 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
6392 for reading and posting).
6393
6394 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
6395 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
6396 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
6397 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
6398 there.
6399
6400 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
6401 default. Here are some of these default settings:
6402
6403 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
6404 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
6405 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
6406 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
6407 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
6408
6409 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
6410 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
6411
6412 ** CC mode changes.
6413
6414 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
6415 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
6416 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
6417 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
6418 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
6419 loaded.
6420
6421 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
6422 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
6423 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
6424 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
6425 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
6426 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
6427
6428 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
6429 of the current buffer.
6430
6431 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
6432 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
6433 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
6434
6435 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
6436 style that the Python developers like.
6437
6438 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
6439 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
6440 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
6441
6442 ** VC Changes [new]
6443
6444 ** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
6445 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
6446 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
6447
6448 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
6449 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
6450 developers.
6451
6452 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
6453 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
6454
6455 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
6456 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
6457 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
6458 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
6459
6460 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
6461 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
6462
6463 ** Calendar changes.
6464
6465 A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or subclasses
6466 of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow you do this
6467 for the year of the selected date, or the following/previous years.
6468
6469 ** ps-print changes
6470
6471 There are some new user variables for customizing the page layout.
6472
6473 *** Paper size, paper orientation, columns
6474
6475 The variable `ps-paper-type' determines the size of paper ps-print
6476 formats for; it should contain one of the symbols:
6477 `a4' `a3' `letter' `legal' `letter-small' `tabloid'
6478 `ledger' `statement' `executive' `a4small' `b4' `b5'
6479 It defaults to `letter'.
6480 If you need other sizes, see the variable `ps-page-dimensions-database'.
6481
6482 The variable `ps-landscape-mode' determines the orientation
6483 of the printing on the page. nil, the default, means "portrait" mode,
6484 non-nil means "landscape" mode.
6485
6486 The variable `ps-number-of-columns' must be a positive integer.
6487 It determines the number of columns both in landscape and portrait mode.
6488 It defaults to 1.
6489
6490 *** Horizontal layout
6491
6492 The horizontal layout is determined by the variables
6493 `ps-left-margin', `ps-inter-column', and `ps-right-margin'.
6494 All are measured in points.
6495
6496 *** Vertical layout
6497
6498 The vertical layout is determined by the variables
6499 `ps-bottom-margin', `ps-top-margin', and `ps-header-offset'.
6500 All are measured in points.
6501
6502 *** Headers
6503
6504 If the variable `ps-print-header' is nil, no header is printed. Then
6505 `ps-header-offset' is not relevant and `ps-top-margin' represents the
6506 margin above the text.
6507
6508 If the variable `ps-print-header-frame' is non-nil, a gaudy
6509 framing box is printed around the header.
6510
6511 The contents of the header are determined by `ps-header-lines',
6512 `ps-show-n-of-n', `ps-left-header' and `ps-right-header'.
6513
6514 The height of the header is determined by `ps-header-line-pad',
6515 `ps-header-font-family', `ps-header-title-font-size' and
6516 `ps-header-font-size'.
6517
6518 *** Font managing
6519
6520 The variable `ps-font-family' determines which font family is to be
6521 used for ordinary text. Its value must be a key symbol in the alist
6522 `ps-font-info-database'. You can add other font families by adding
6523 elements to this alist.
6524
6525 The variable `ps-font-size' determines the size of the font
6526 for ordinary text. It defaults to 8.5 points.
6527
6528 ** hideshow changes.
6529
6530 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
6531 C++, ; for lisp).
6532
6533 *** Support for java-mode added.
6534
6535 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
6536 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
6537
6538 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the the comments at
6539 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
6540 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
6541
6542 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
6543 robust and a lot faster.
6544
6545 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
6546
6547 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
6548 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
6549 documentation for more details.
6550
6551 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
6552
6553 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
6554 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
6555 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
6556 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
6557 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
6558
6559 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
6560 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
6561 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
6562 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
6563
6564 ** Font Lock mode
6565
6566 *** Custom support
6567
6568 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
6569 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
6570 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
6571 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
6572 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
6573 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
6574
6575 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
6576
6577 *** Maximum decoration
6578
6579 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
6580 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
6581 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
6582 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
6583 to get the old behavior.
6584
6585 *** New support
6586
6587 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
6588
6589 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
6590 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
6591
6592 *** Configurable support
6593
6594 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
6595 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
6596 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
6597 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
6598 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
6599 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
6600 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
6601
6602 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
6603 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
6604 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
6605
6606 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
6607
6608 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
6609 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
6610 for any mode.
6611
6612 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
6613
6614 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
6615
6616 in your ~/.emacs.
6617
6618 *** New faces
6619
6620 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
6621 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
6622 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
6623 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
6624
6625 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
6626
6627 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
6628 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
6629 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
6630
6631 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
6632
6633 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
6634 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
6635 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
6636 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
6637 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
6638 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
6639 Lock mode behaviour and the behaviour of Font Lock mode.
6640
6641 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
6642 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
6643 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
6644 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
6645 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
6646 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
6647
6648 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
6649
6650 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
6651 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
6652 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
6653 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
6654
6655 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
6656 settings.
6657
6658 ** Ada mode changes.
6659
6660 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
6661 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
6662 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
6663 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
6664 stubs.
6665
6666 *** There are two new commands:
6667 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
6668 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
6669
6670 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
6671 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
6672 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
6673
6674 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
6675 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
6676 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
6677
6678 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
6679 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
6680 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
6681 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
6682
6683 ** Scheme mode changes.
6684
6685 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
6686 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
6687 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
6688 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
6689 have any effect.
6690
6691 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
6692 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
6693 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
6694 variables as buffer-local variables.
6695
6696 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
6697 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
6698
6699 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
6700
6701 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
6702 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
6703 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
6704 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
6705
6706 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
6707 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
6708 buffer in Emacs.
6709
6710 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
6711 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
6712 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
6713 option takes precedence.
6714
6715 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
6716 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
6717 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
6718
6719 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
6720 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
6721 the current defun.
6722
6723 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
6724 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
6725
6726 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
6727 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
6728 necessary).
6729
6730 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
6731 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
6732 these register values no longer become completely useless.
6733 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
6734 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
6735 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
6736
6737 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
6738 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
6739 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
6740 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
6741
6742 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
6743 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
6744 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
6745 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
6746 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
6747
6748 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
6749 since it applies only to the current frame.
6750
6751 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
6752 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
6753 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
6754
6755 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
6756 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
6757 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
6758 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
6759 instead of just the file you are editing.
6760
6761 ** RefTeX mode
6762
6763 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
6764 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
6765 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
6766 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
6767 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
6768
6769 C-c ( reftex-label
6770 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
6771 knows which kind of label is needed.
6772
6773 C-c ) reftex-reference
6774 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
6775 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
6776
6777 C-c [ reftex-citation
6778 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
6779 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
6780
6781 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
6782 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
6783
6784 C-c = reftex-toc
6785 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
6786 can quickly jump to every section.
6787
6788 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
6789 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
6790 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
6791 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
6792 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
6793
6794 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
6795
6796 *** Info documentation is now available.
6797
6798 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
6799 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
6800
6801 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
6802 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
6803
6804 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
6805 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
6806
6807 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
6808 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
6809 appropriate functions.
6810
6811 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
6812 entries. They are bound by default to M-C-l and M-C-h.
6813
6814 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
6815 been cleaned.
6816
6817 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
6818 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
6819
6820 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
6821 shall be delimited.
6822
6823 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
6824 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
6825 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
6826
6827 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
6828 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
6829 prefixed with `ALT'.
6830
6831 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
6832 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
6833 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
6834 documentation).
6835
6836 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
6837 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
6838 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
6839
6840 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
6841 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
6842
6843 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
6844 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
6845 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
6846
6847 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
6848
6849 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
6850
6851 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
6852 from alien sources.
6853
6854 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
6855 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
6856 crossref entries.
6857
6858 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
6859 region.
6860
6861 *** Added support for imenu.
6862
6863 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
6864 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
6865 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
6866 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
6867
6868 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
6869 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
6870
6871 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
6872
6873 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
6874
6875 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
6876 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
6877 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
6878 as an argument.
6879
6880 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
6881 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
6882
6883 ** browse-url changes
6884
6885 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
6886 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
6887 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
6888 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
6889 customization variables.
6890
6891 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
6892
6893 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
6894 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
6895 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
6896
6897 ** Changes in Ediff
6898
6899 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
6900 pops up the Info file for this command.
6901
6902 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
6903 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
6904 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
6905 directories).
6906
6907 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
6908 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
6909 files in the same directory.
6910
6911 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
6912 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
6913 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
6914
6915 ** Changes in Viper
6916
6917 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
6918 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
6919 instead of vip-.
6920 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
6921 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
6922 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
6923 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
6924 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
6925 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
6926 color when Viper is in insert state.
6927 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
6928 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
6929 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
6930
6931 ** Etags changes.
6932
6933 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
6934 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
6935 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
6936 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
6937 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
6938
6939 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
6940
6941 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
6942 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
6943
6944 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
6945 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
6946 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
6947
6948 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
6949 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
6950 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
6951 methods and protocols.
6952
6953 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
6954 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
6955 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
6956 paragraph name.
6957
6958 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
6959 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
6960 at least M times and as many as N times.
6961
6962 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
6963 in files has changed slightly.
6964
6965 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
6966 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
6967 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
6968 with old time-stamp-format values.
6969
6970 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
6971 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
6972 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
6973 reasons.
6974
6975 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
6976 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
6977 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
6978 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
6979 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
6980 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
6981
6982 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
6983 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
6984 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
6985
6986 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
6987 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
6988 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
6989 recommended now will continue to work then.
6990
6991 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
6992 details.
6993
6994 ** There are some additional major modes:
6995
6996 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
6997 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
6998 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
6999
7000 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
7001 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
7002 into Emacs.
7003
7004 ** New Lisp packages include:
7005
7006 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
7007
7008 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
7009 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
7010
7011 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
7012
7013 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
7014 in shell buffers.
7015
7016 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
7017 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
7018 and `elint-defun'.
7019
7020 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
7021 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
7022 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
7023 strings or comments.
7024
7025 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
7026 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
7027 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
7028 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
7029 at these points.
7030
7031 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
7032 can visit them by short forms of their names.
7033
7034 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
7035 Emacs Lisp function at point.
7036
7037 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
7038
7039 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
7040 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
7041
7042 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
7043
7044 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
7045
7046 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
7047
7048 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
7049 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
7050
7051 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
7052 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
7053 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
7054 original place after inserting the copy.
7055
7056 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
7057 on the buffer.
7058
7059 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
7060 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
7061 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
7062
7063 Enable mouse-drag with:
7064 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
7065 -or-
7066 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
7067
7068 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
7069 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
7070
7071 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
7072 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
7073
7074 *** ogonek
7075
7076 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
7077 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
7078 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
7079 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
7080 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
7081 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
7082 instance) and vice versa.
7083
7084 To use this package load it using
7085 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
7086 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
7087 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
7088 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
7089 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
7090 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
7091
7092 *** Interface to ph.
7093
7094 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
7095
7096 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
7097 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
7098 these servers.
7099
7100 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
7101
7102 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
7103 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
7104 while the real cursor does not move.
7105
7106 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
7107 for visiting your favorite web sites.
7108
7109 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
7110 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
7111
7112 ** movemail change
7113
7114 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
7115 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
7116 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
7117 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
7118
7119 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
7120 \f
7121 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
7122
7123 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
7124
7125 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
7126 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
7127 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
7128 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
7129 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
7130
7131 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
7132 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
7133 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
7134 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
7135 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
7136 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
7137 \f
7138 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
7139
7140 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
7141 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
7142 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
7143 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
7144
7145 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
7146 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
7147
7148 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
7149 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
7150 "win".
7151
7152 ** Basic Lisp changes
7153
7154 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
7155 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
7156
7157 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
7158 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
7159 or by the user.
7160
7161 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
7162
7163 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
7164
7165 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
7166 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
7167
7168 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
7169 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
7170 its argument.
7171
7172 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
7173
7174 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
7175
7176 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
7177
7178 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
7179 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
7180 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
7181 `format' function.
7182
7183 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
7184 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
7185 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
7186
7187 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
7188 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
7189 adding one of these suffixes.
7190
7191 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
7192 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
7193 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
7194
7195 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
7196 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
7197
7198 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
7199
7200 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
7201 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
7202
7203 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
7204 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
7205
7206 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
7207
7208 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
7209 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
7210
7211 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
7212 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
7213 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
7214 works using `save-current-buffer'.
7215
7216 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
7217 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
7218 of the last form.
7219
7220 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
7221 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
7222 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
7223 as the last form.
7224
7225 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
7226 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
7227 matches.
7228
7229 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
7230
7231 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
7232 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
7233 Then it returns that string.
7234
7235 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
7236
7237 (with-output-to-string
7238 (princ "The buffer is ")
7239 (princ (buffer-name)))
7240
7241 returns "The buffer is foo".
7242
7243 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
7244 is non-nil.
7245
7246 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
7247 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
7248 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
7249
7250 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
7251 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
7252
7253 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
7254 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
7255 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
7256 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
7257 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
7258 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
7259
7260 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
7261 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
7262 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
7263 characters".
7264
7265 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
7266 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
7267 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
7268 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
7269 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
7270
7271 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
7272 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
7273 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
7274 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
7275
7276 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
7277 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
7278
7279 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
7280
7281 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
7282 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
7283 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
7284 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
7285 guaranteed.
7286
7287 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
7288 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
7289 character).
7290
7291 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
7292
7293 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
7294 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
7295 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
7296 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
7297 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
7298
7299 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
7300
7301 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
7302 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
7303 more than the number of characters.
7304
7305 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
7306 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
7307 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
7308 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
7309 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
7310 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
7311
7312 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
7313 and returns a string containing those characters.
7314
7315 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
7316 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
7317 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
7318 character, sref signals an error.
7319
7320 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
7321 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
7322 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7323
7324 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
7325 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
7326 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
7327
7328 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
7329 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
7330 to a vector of the characters in it.
7331
7332 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
7333 of a string. You call it as follows:
7334
7335 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
7336
7337 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
7338 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
7339 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
7340 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
7341 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
7342
7343 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
7344 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7345
7346 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
7347 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
7348
7349 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
7350 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
7351 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
7352 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
7353
7354 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
7355
7356 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
7357
7358 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
7359 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
7360 are not included in the resulting value.
7361
7362 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
7363 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
7364 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
7365 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
7366
7367 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
7368 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
7369 character extends across that column), then the padding character
7370 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
7371 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
7372 column START-COLUMN.
7373
7374 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
7375 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
7376 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
7377 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
7378 changed text, before the change.
7379
7380 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
7381 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
7382 one character set for each script, not for each language.
7383
7384 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
7385
7386 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
7387
7388 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
7389 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
7390
7391 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
7392 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
7393 which identify the character within that character set.
7394
7395 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
7396 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
7397 opposite of split-char.
7398
7399 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
7400 of all the characters between BEG and END.
7401
7402 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
7403 of all the characters in a string.
7404
7405 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
7406 and specifying coding systems.
7407
7408 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
7409 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
7410 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
7411 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
7412 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
7413 as what to do about code conversion.)
7414
7415 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
7416 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
7417
7418 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7419 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7420 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
7421
7422 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7423 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
7424 to match against a file name.
7425
7426 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7427 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7428 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7429 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7430 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7431 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7432
7433 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7434 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7435
7436 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
7437 the coding system to use for network sockets.
7438
7439 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
7440 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
7441 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
7442 service names.
7443
7444 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
7445 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
7446 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
7447 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
7448 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
7449 specifies the coding system for encoding.
7450
7451 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
7452 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
7453
7454 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
7455 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
7456 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
7457 start the subprocess.
7458
7459 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
7460 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
7461 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
7462 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
7463 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
7464
7465 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
7466 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
7467 subprocess.
7468
7469 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
7470 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
7471 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
7472 connection permanently or until overridden.
7473
7474 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
7475 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
7476 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
7477 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
7478 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
7479 system for one operation at a time.
7480
7481 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
7482 files, subprocesses or network connections.
7483
7484 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
7485 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
7486 The value is a cons cell,
7487 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
7488 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
7489 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
7490 input to the subprocess.
7491
7492 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
7493 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
7494
7495 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
7496 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
7497 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
7498
7499 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
7500 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
7501 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
7502 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
7503 customization.
7504
7505 Thus, instead of writing
7506
7507 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
7508 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
7509
7510 you would now write this:
7511
7512 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
7513 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
7514 :type 'boolean
7515 :group foo)
7516
7517 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
7518 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
7519 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
7520 for a description of them.
7521
7522 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
7523 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
7524
7525 (defgroup ispell nil
7526 "Spell checking using Ispell."
7527 :group 'processes)
7528
7529 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
7530 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
7531 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
7532 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
7533 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
7534
7535 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
7536 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
7537 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
7538 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
7539 first-level subgroups.
7540
7541 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
7542
7543 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
7544 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
7545
7546 ** easy-mmode
7547
7548 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
7549 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
7550 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
7551 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
7552 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
7553 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
7554
7555 ** Text property changes
7556
7557 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
7558 text property.
7559
7560 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
7561 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
7562 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
7563 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
7564 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
7565
7566 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
7567 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
7568 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
7569 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
7570
7571 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
7572 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
7573 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
7574
7575 ** Changes in invisibility features
7576
7577 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
7578 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
7579 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
7580 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
7581 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
7582 make the overlay visible.
7583
7584 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
7585 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
7586 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
7587 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
7588 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
7589 t when it should hide it.
7590
7591 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
7592
7593 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
7594 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
7595 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
7596 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
7597 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
7598 Here is an example of how to do this:
7599
7600 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
7601 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7602 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
7603 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7604
7605 ...
7606 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
7607
7608 ...
7609 ;; When done with the overlays:
7610 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
7611 ;; Or respectively:
7612 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
7613
7614 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
7615
7616 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
7617 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
7618 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
7619 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
7620
7621 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
7622 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
7623 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
7624
7625 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
7626 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
7627
7628 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
7629 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
7630
7631 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
7632 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
7633 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
7634
7635 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
7636 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
7637 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
7638 determine the syntax type of the character.
7639
7640 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
7641 of the current buffer.
7642
7643 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
7644 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
7645 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
7646
7647 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
7648 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
7649 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
7650 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
7651 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
7652
7653 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
7654 text property.
7655
7656 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
7657 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
7658 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
7659
7660 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
7661 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
7662 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
7663 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
7664 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
7665
7666 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
7667 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
7668 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
7669
7670 ** Changes in face features
7671
7672 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
7673 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
7674
7675 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
7676 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
7677
7678 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
7679 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
7680
7681 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
7682 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
7683
7684 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
7685 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
7686 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
7687 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
7688 overlay property).
7689
7690 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
7691 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
7692
7693 ** Changes in file-handling functions
7694
7695 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
7696 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
7697 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
7698 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
7699
7700 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
7701 begins with ~.
7702
7703 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
7704 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
7705
7706 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
7707 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
7708
7709 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
7710 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
7711
7712 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
7713 character code conversion as well as other things.
7714
7715 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
7716 (formerly it did not).
7717
7718 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
7719 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
7720
7721 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
7722 instead of constant strings.
7723
7724 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
7725 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
7726 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
7727
7728 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
7729 in the same way as before.
7730
7731 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
7732 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
7733 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
7734
7735 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
7736 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
7737 else, and returns nil.
7738
7739 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
7740 directory cannot be listed.
7741
7742 ** Changes in minibuffer input
7743
7744 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
7745 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
7746 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
7747 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
7748 ways:
7749
7750 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
7751 It is available through the history command M-n.
7752
7753 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
7754 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
7755 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
7756 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
7757 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
7758
7759 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
7760 argument in this way.
7761
7762 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
7763 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
7764 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
7765
7766 ** Echo area features
7767
7768 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
7769 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
7770 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
7771 after the echo area is cleared.
7772
7773 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
7774 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
7775
7776 ** Keyboard input features
7777
7778 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
7779 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
7780
7781 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
7782 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
7783 by keyboard macros.
7784
7785 ** Frame-related changes
7786
7787 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
7788 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
7789 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
7790
7791 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
7792 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
7793 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
7794
7795 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
7796 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
7797 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
7798 in the selected frame.
7799
7800 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
7801 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
7802 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
7803
7804 ** X Windows features
7805
7806 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
7807 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
7808 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
7809
7810 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
7811 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
7812
7813 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
7814 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
7815 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
7816
7817 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
7818 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
7819
7820 ** Subprocess features
7821
7822 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
7823 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
7824 automatically.
7825
7826 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
7827 and returns the output from the command as a string.
7828
7829 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
7830 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
7831
7832 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
7833 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
7834
7835 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
7836 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
7837 goes after the other menu items.
7838
7839 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
7840 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
7841 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
7842 are in use.
7843
7844 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
7845 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
7846
7847 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
7848 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
7849 form.
7850
7851 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
7852 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
7853 but its hook is still run.
7854
7855 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
7856 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
7857
7858 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
7859 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
7860 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
7861
7862 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
7863 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
7864 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
7865 warned.
7866
7867 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
7868 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
7869
7870 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
7871 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
7872 functions like display-time.
7873
7874 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
7875 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
7876
7877 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
7878 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
7879 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
7880
7881 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
7882 if there is an error in compilation.
7883
7884 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
7885 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
7886 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
7887 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
7888
7889 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
7890 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
7891 the *scratch* buffer.
7892
7893 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
7894 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
7895 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
7896 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
7897
7898 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
7899 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
7900 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
7901
7902 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
7903 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
7904 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
7905 and compose-mail-other-frame.
7906
7907 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
7908 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
7909 full name of the specified user will be returned.
7910
7911 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
7912 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
7913 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
7914 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
7915 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
7916 files at all.
7917
7918 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
7919 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
7920 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
7921 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
7922
7923 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
7924 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
7925 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
7926 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
7927
7928 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
7929
7930 ** imenu.el changes.
7931
7932 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
7933 item from menu created by imenu.
7934
7935 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
7936 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
7937 select one of those items.
7938 \f
7939 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
7940 \f
7941 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
7942
7943 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
7944 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
7945
7946 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
7947 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
7948 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
7949 \f
7950 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
7951
7952 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
7953 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
7954
7955 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
7956 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
7957 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
7958 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
7959 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
7960 all caps.
7961
7962 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
7963 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
7964
7965 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
7966 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
7967 as in previous Emacs versions.
7968
7969 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
7970 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
7971 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
7972 frames.
7973
7974 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
7975 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
7976 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
7977 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
7978 accident.
7979
7980 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
7981 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
7982 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
7983 line and then executing the macro.
7984
7985 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
7986
7987 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
7988 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
7989 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
7990 characters.
7991
7992 ** Font Lock mode
7993
7994 *** Font Lock support modes
7995
7996 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
7997 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
7998 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
7999 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
8000 Font Lock mode is enabled.
8001
8002 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
8003
8004 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
8005
8006 in your ~/.emacs.
8007
8008 *** lazy-lock
8009
8010 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
8011 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
8012 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
8013 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
8014 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
8015 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
8016 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
8017
8018 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
8019
8020 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
8021
8022 To control the package behaviour, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
8023
8024 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8025
8026 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
8027 paren and key.
8028
8029 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
8030 supported.
8031
8032 ** Gnus changes.
8033
8034 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
8035 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
8036 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
8037 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
8038
8039 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
8040 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
8041
8042 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
8043 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
8044 obsolete.
8045
8046 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
8047 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
8048
8049 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
8050
8051 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
8052
8053 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
8054
8055 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
8056 referred.
8057
8058 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
8059
8060 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
8061
8062 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
8063
8064 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
8065
8066 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
8067 buffers.
8068
8069 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
8070
8071 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
8072
8073 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
8074
8075 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
8076
8077 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
8078
8079 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
8080
8081 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
8082
8083 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
8084 is possible.
8085
8086 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
8087
8088 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
8089 groups of groups.
8090
8091 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
8092
8093 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
8094 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
8095
8096 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
8097
8098 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
8099
8100 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
8101
8102 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
8103
8104 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
8105 expiration times.
8106
8107 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
8108
8109 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
8110 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
8111
8112 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
8113 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
8114 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
8115
8116 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
8117 articles with the `*' command.
8118
8119 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
8120
8121 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
8122
8123 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
8124
8125 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
8126
8127 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
8128 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
8129
8130 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
8131 buffer.
8132
8133 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
8134
8135 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
8136
8137 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
8138
8139 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
8140
8141 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
8142
8143 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
8144
8145 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
8146
8147 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
8148
8149 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
8150
8151 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
8152 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
8153
8154 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
8155 refetching.
8156
8157 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
8158
8159 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
8160 buffer to allow easier treatment.
8161
8162 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
8163
8164 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
8165
8166 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
8167
8168 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
8169 articles.
8170
8171 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
8172
8173 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
8174
8175 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
8176 cited text to hide is now customizable.
8177
8178 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
8179
8180 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
8181
8182 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
8183
8184 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
8185
8186 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
8187
8188 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
8189 in greater detail.
8190 \f
8191 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
8192
8193 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
8194 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
8195 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
8196 exists.
8197
8198 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
8199 as well as lists.
8200
8201 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
8202 of a given keymap.
8203
8204 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
8205 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
8206 keymap or nil.
8207
8208 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
8209 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
8210 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
8211 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
8212 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
8213 alias.
8214 \f
8215 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
8216
8217 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
8218
8219 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
8220 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
8221 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
8222 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
8223 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
8224
8225 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
8226 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
8227 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
8228
8229 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
8230
8231 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
8232 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
8233 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
8234 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
8235 chapter of the manual for details.
8236
8237 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
8238 customization variables take effect.
8239
8240 ** Marking with the mouse.
8241
8242 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
8243 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
8244 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
8245
8246 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
8247
8248 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
8249
8250 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
8251 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
8252
8253 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
8254 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
8255 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
8256 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
8257 applications, these problems are significant.
8258
8259 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
8260 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
8261 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
8262 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
8263 other DOS application as a subprocess.
8264
8265 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
8266 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
8267
8268 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
8269 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
8270 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
8271 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
8272 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
8273 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
8274
8275 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
8276
8277 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
8278 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
8279 minibuffer contains.
8280
8281 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
8282
8283 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
8284 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
8285 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
8286 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
8287
8288 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
8289 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
8290 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
8291 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
8292
8293 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
8294 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
8295
8296 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
8297 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
8298 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
8299
8300 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
8301 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
8302 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
8303 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
8304
8305 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
8306
8307 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
8308 to replace the characters it "deletes".
8309
8310 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
8311
8312 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
8313 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
8314 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
8315 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
8316 immediately after the selected one.
8317
8318 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
8319 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
8320
8321 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
8322
8323 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
8324 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
8325 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
8326 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
8327 recover-session.
8328
8329 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
8330 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
8331 will not work.
8332
8333 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
8334 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
8335 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
8336 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
8337 now that the bug is fixed.
8338
8339 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
8340
8341 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
8342 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
8343 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
8344 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
8345
8346 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
8347 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
8348 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
8349 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
8350
8351 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
8352 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
8353 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
8354
8355 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
8356 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
8357 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
8358 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
8359 remain normal.
8360
8361 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
8362 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
8363
8364 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
8365 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
8366 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
8367 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
8368
8369 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
8370 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
8371 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
8372 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
8373 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
8374 `mail-directory-stream'.)
8375
8376 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
8377 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
8378 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
8379 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
8380
8381 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
8382 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
8383 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
8384
8385 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
8386 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
8387 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
8388 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
8389 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
8390 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
8391 to a limitation in font-lock).
8392
8393 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
8394
8395 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
8396 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
8397 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
8398 this example:
8399
8400 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
8401 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
8402
8403 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
8404
8405 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
8406
8407 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
8408
8409 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
8410
8411 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
8412 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
8413 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
8414 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
8415 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
8416 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
8417
8418 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
8419 does the same job.
8420
8421 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
8422 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
8423
8424 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
8425 text.
8426
8427 ** Font Lock mode
8428
8429 *** Global Font Lock mode
8430
8431 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
8432 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
8433 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
8434 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
8435 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
8436
8437 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
8438
8439 (global-font-lock-mode t)
8440
8441 in your ~/.emacs.
8442
8443 *** Local Refontification
8444
8445 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
8446 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
8447 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
8448 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
8449
8450 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
8451 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
8452 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
8453 above and below point.
8454
8455 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
8456
8457 ** Follow mode
8458
8459 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
8460 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
8461 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
8462 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
8463 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
8464 follow-mode.
8465
8466 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
8467
8468 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
8469 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
8470
8471 ** hide-show changes.
8472
8473 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
8474 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
8475 normal hooks.
8476
8477 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
8478 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
8479
8480 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
8481 recognised by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
8482 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
8483
8484 ** MSDOS Changes
8485
8486 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
8487 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
8488
8489 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
8490 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
8491
8492 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
8493
8494 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
8495 pressing both mouse buttons.
8496
8497 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
8498 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
8499 are:
8500
8501 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
8502 now works.
8503
8504 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
8505
8506 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
8507 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
8508
8509 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
8510
8511 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
8512
8513 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
8514
8515 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
8516
8517 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
8518 \f
8519 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
8520
8521 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
8522 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
8523 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
8524 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
8525 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
8526
8527 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
8528
8529 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
8530 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
8531 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
8532 be different.
8533
8534 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
8535 than `system-type'.
8536
8537 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
8538
8539 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
8540 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
8541
8542 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
8543 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
8544
8545 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
8546 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
8547 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
8548
8549 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
8550 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
8551 like this:
8552
8553 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8554
8555 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
8556 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
8557 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
8558
8559 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
8560 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
8561 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
8562
8563 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
8564 up if too much time passes.
8565
8566 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
8567
8568 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
8569 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
8570 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
8571 form in BODY.
8572
8573 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
8574 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
8575 call looks like this:
8576
8577 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
8578
8579 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
8580 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
8581 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
8582 ARGS.
8583
8584 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
8585 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
8586 command.
8587
8588 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
8589 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
8590 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
8591 each time Emacs becomes idle.
8592
8593 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
8594 idle for SECS seconds.
8595
8596 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
8597 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
8598 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
8599 instead.
8600
8601 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
8602 there is no answer within a certain time.
8603
8604 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
8605
8606 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
8607 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
8608 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
8609
8610 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
8611 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
8612 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
8613 arguments in between are ignored.
8614
8615 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
8616 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
8617
8618 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
8619 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
8620 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
8621 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
8622 version.
8623
8624 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
8625 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
8626 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
8627 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
8628 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
8629 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
8630
8631 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
8632 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
8633 systems with limited file name syntax.
8634
8635 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
8636 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
8637 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
8638 completions.el:
8639
8640 (defvar save-completions-file-name
8641 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
8642 "*The filename to save completions to.")
8643
8644 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
8645 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
8646 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
8647 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
8648 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
8649
8650 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
8651 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
8652 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
8653
8654 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
8655 marker from its buffer position.
8656
8657 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
8658 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
8659 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
8660
8661 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
8662 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
8663 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
8664 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
8665 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
8666 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
8667
8668 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
8669 errors that happen often during editing.
8670
8671 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
8672 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
8673 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
8674
8675 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
8676 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
8677
8678 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
8679 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
8680 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
8681 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
8682 and not get-buffer-window.
8683
8684 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
8685 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
8686 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
8687
8688 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
8689 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
8690 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
8691 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
8692 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
8693 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
8694 over and over for the same text.
8695
8696 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
8697
8698 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
8699 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
8700
8701 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
8702 ;; $HEADER: text $
8703
8704 in addition to the normal
8705
8706 ;; HEADER: text
8707
8708 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
8709 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
8710 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
8711
8712
8713 \f
8714 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
8715
8716 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
8717 Copyright information:
8718
8719 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8720
8721 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
8722 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
8723 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
8724 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
8725
8726 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
8727 of this document, or of portions of it,
8728 under the above conditions, provided also that they
8729 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
8730 \f
8731 Local variables:
8732 mode: outline
8733 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
8734 end: