Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
For older news, see the file ONEWS
+You can narrow news to the specific version by calling
+`view-emacs-news' with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
Temporary note:
+++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
\f
* Installation Changes in Emacs 21.4
+** Emacs includes now support for loading image libraries on demand.
+(Currently this feature is only used on MS Windows.) You can configure
+the supported image types and their associated dynamic libraries by
+setting the variable `image-library-alist'.
+
---
-** A Bulgarian translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
+** New translations of the Emacs Tutorial are available in the following
+ languages: Brasilian, Bulgarian, Chinese (both with simplified and
+ traditional characters), French, and Italian. Type `C-u C-h t' to
+ choose one of them in case your language setup doesn't automatically
+ select the right one.
** You can build Emacs with Gtk+ widgets by specifying `--with-x-toolkit=gtk'
when you run configure. This requires Gtk+ 2.0 or newer. This port
** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
---
-** A French translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
** Building with -DENABLE_CHECKING does not automatically build with union
types any more. Add -DUSE_LISP_UNION_TYPE if you want union types.
\f
* Changes in Emacs 21.4
-** M-x compile has been completely overhauled
+** global-whitespace-mode is a new alias for whitespace-global-mode.
+
++++
+** There are now two new regular expression operators, \_< and \_>,
+for matching the beginning and end of a symbol. A symbol is a
+non-empty sequence of either word or symbol constituent characters, as
+specified by the syntax table.
+
+** Passing resources on the command line now works on MS Windows.
+You can use --xrm to pass resource settings to Emacs, overriding any
+existing values. For example:
+
+ emacs --xrm "Emacs.Background:red" --xrm "Emacs.Geometry:100x20"
+
+will start up Emacs on an initial frame of 100x20 with red background,
+irrespective of geometry or background setting on the Windows registry.
+
+** New features in evaluation commands
+
++++
+*** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) called on defface reinitializes
+the face to the value specified in the defface expression.
+
+*** Typing C-x C-e twice prints the value of the integer result
+in additional formats (octal, hexadecimal, character) specified
+by the new function `eval-expression-print-format'. The same
+function also defines the result format for `eval-expression' (M-:),
+`eval-print-last-sexp' (C-j) and some edebug evaluation functions.
+
+** New input method chinese-sisheng for inputting Chinese Pinyin
+characters.
-It now uses font-lock for turning compiler output into hypertext. Quite a few
-more kinds of messages are recognized. Messages that are recognized as
-warnings or informational come in orange or green, instead of red.
-Informational messages are by default skipped with `next-error'.
+** New command quail-show-key shows what key (or key sequence) to type
+in the current input method to input a character at point.
+
+** Convenient commands to switch buffers in a cyclic order are C-x <left>
+(prev-buffer) and C-x <right> (next-buffer).
+
+** Commands winner-redo and winner-undo, from winner.el, are now bound to
+C-c <left> and C-c <right>, respectively. This is an incompatible change.
+
+** Help commands `describe-function' and `describe-key' now show function
+arguments in lowercase italics on displays that support it. To change the
+default, customize face `help-argument-name' or redefine the function
+`help-default-arg-highlight'.
+
+---
+** The comint prompt can now be made read-only, using the new user
+option `comint-prompt-read-only'. This is not enabled by default,
+except in IELM buffers. The read-only status of IELM prompts can be
+controlled with the new user option `ielm-prompt-read-only', which
+overrides `comint-prompt-read-only'.
+
+The new commands `comint-kill-whole-line' and `comint-kill-region'
+support editing comint buffers with read-only prompts.
+
+`comint-kill-whole-line' is like `kill-whole-line', but ignores both
+read-only and field properties. Hence, it always kill entire
+lines, including any prompts.
+
+`comint-kill-region' is like `kill-region', except that it ignores
+read-only properties, if it is safe to do so. This means that if any
+part of a prompt is deleted, then the entire prompt must be deleted
+and that all prompts must stay at the beginning of a line. If this is
+not the case, then `comint-kill-region' behaves just like
+`kill-region' if read-only are involved: it copies the text to the
+kill-ring, but does not delete it.
+
+** You can now use next-error (C-x `) and previous-error to advance to
+the next/previous matching line found by M-x occur.
+
+** Telnet now prompts you for a port number with C-u M-x telnet.
+
++++
+** New command line option -Q.
+
+This is like using -q --no-site-file, but in addition it also disables
+the menu-bar, the tool-bar, the scroll-bars, tool tips, the blinking
+cursor, and the fancy startup screen.
+
+** C-h v and C-h f commands now include a hyperlink to the C source for
+variables and functions defined in C (if the C source is available).
+
+** When used interactively, `format-write-file' now asks for confirmation
+before overwriting an existing file, unless a prefix argument is
+supplied. This behavior is analogous to `write-file'.
+
+** You can now use Auto Revert mode to `tail' a file.
+If point is at the end of a file buffer before reverting, Auto Revert
+mode keeps it at the end after reverting. Similarly if point is
+displayed at the end of a file buffer in any window, it stays at
+the end of the buffer in that window. This allows to tail a file:
+just put point at the end of the buffer and it stays there. This
+rule applies to file buffers. For non-file buffers, the behavior may
+be mode dependent.
+
+** Auto Revert mode is now more careful to avoid excessive reverts and
+other potential problems when deciding which non-file buffers to
+revert. This matters especially if Global Auto Revert mode is enabled
+and `global-auto-revert-non-file-buffers' is non-nil. Auto Revert
+mode only reverts a non-file buffer if the buffer has a non-nil
+`revert-buffer-function' and a non-nil `buffer-stale-function', which
+decides whether the buffer should be reverted. Currently, this means
+that auto reverting works for Dired buffers (although this may not
+work properly on all operating systems) and for the Buffer Menu.
+
+** If the new user option `auto-revert-check-vc-info' is non-nil, Auto
+Revert mode reliably updates version control info (such as the version
+control number in the mode line), in all version controlled buffers in
+which it is active. If the option is nil, the default, then this info
+only gets updated whenever the buffer gets reverted.
+
+** New command `Buffer-menu-toggle-files-only' toggles display of file
+buffers only in the Buffer Menu. It is bound to `T' in Buffer Menu
+mode.
+
+** M-x compile has become more robust and reliable
+
+Quite a few more kinds of messages are recognized. Messages that are
+recognized as warnings or informational come in orange or green, instead of
+red. Informational messages are by default skipped with `next-error'
+(controlled by `compilation-skip-threshold').
+
+Location data is collected on the fly as the *compilation* buffer changes.
+This means you could modify messages to make them point to different files.
+This also means you can not go to locations of messages you may have deleted.
+
+The variable `compilation-error-regexp-alist' has now become customizable. If
+you had added your own regexps to this, you'll probably need to include a
+leading `^', otherwise they'll match anywhere on a line. There is now also a
+`compilation-mode-font-lock-keywords' and it nicely handles all the checks
+that configure outputs and -o options so you see at a glance where you are.
The new file etc/compilation.txt gives examples of each type of message.
** M-x grep has been adapted to new compile
Hits are fontified in green, and hits in binary files in orange. Grep buffers
-can be saved and will again be loaded with the new `grep-mode'.
+can be saved and automatically revisited with the new Grep mode.
** M-x diff uses diff-mode instead of compilation-mode.
+** M-x compare-windows now can automatically skip non-matching text to
+resync points in both windows.
+
** New command `strokes-global-set-stroke-string'.
This is like `strokes-global-set-stroke', but it allows you to bind
the stroke directly to a string to insert. This is convenient for
using strokes as an input method.
++++
+** Desktop package
+
+*** Desktop saving is now a minor mode, desktop-save-mode. Variable
+desktop-enable is obsolete. Customize desktop-save-mode to enable desktop
+saving.
+
+*** Buffers are saved in the desktop file in the same order as that in the
+buffer list.
+
+*** New commands:
+ - desktop-revert reverts to the last loaded desktop.
+ - desktop-change-dir kills current desktop and loads a new.
+ - desktop-save-in-desktop-dir saves desktop in the directory from which
+ it was loaded.
+
+*** New customizable variables:
+ - desktop-save. Determins whether the desktop should be saved when it is
+ killed.
+ - desktop-file-name-format.
+ - desktop-path. List of directories in which to lookup the desktop file.
+ - desktop-locals-to-save.
+ - desktop-globals-to-clear.
+ - desktop-clear-preserve-buffers-regexp.
+
+*** New command line option --no-desktop
+
+*** New hooks:
+ - desktop-after-read-hook run after a desktop is loaded.
+ - desktop-no-desktop-file-hook run when no desktop file is found.
+
---
** The saveplace.el package now filters out unreadable files.
When you exit Emacs, the saved positions in visited files no longer
your .emacs will no longer establish the default highlighting -- Use
`sql-product' to accomplish this.
+ANSI keywords are always highlighted.
+
*** The function `sql-add-product-keywords' can be used to add
font-lock rules to the product specific rules. For example, to have
all identifiers ending in "_t" under MS SQLServer treated as a type,
you would use the following line in your .emacs file:
(sql-add-product-keywords 'ms
- '("\\<\\w+_t\\>" . font-lock-type-face))
+ '(("\\<\\w+_t\\>" . font-lock-type-face)))
*** Oracle support includes keyword highlighting for Oracle 9i. Most
SQL and PL/SQL keywords are implemented. SQL*Plus commands are
called with the -E command line argument to use the operating system
credentials to authenticate the user.
+*** Postgres support is enhanced.
+Keyword highlighting of Postgres 7.3 is implemented. Prompting for
+the username and the pgsql `-U' option is added.
+
+*** MySQL support is enhanced.
+Keyword higlighting of MySql 4.0 is implemented.
+
*** Imenu support has been enhanced to locate tables, views, indexes,
packages, procedures, functions, triggers, sequences, rules, and
defaults.
** Enhancements to apropos commands:
-*** The apropos commands will now accept a list of words to match.
+*** The apropos commands now accept a list of words to match.
When more than one word is specified, at least two of those words must
be present for an item to match. Regular expression matching is still
available.
** New command `kill-whole-line' kills an entire line at once.
By default, it is bound to C-S-<backspace>.
+** New commands to operate on pairs of open and close characters:
+`insert-pair', `delete-pair', `raise-sexp'.
+
+** A prefix argument of C-M-q in Emacs Lisp mode pretty-printifies the
+list starting after point.
+
+** Dired mode:
+
+*** New faces dired-header, dired-mark, dired-marked, dired-flagged,
+dired-ignored, dired-directory, dired-symlink, dired-warning
+introduced for Dired mode instead of font-lock faces.
+
+*** New Dired command `dired-compare-directories' marks files
+with different file attributes in two dired buffers.
+
+++
-** Info now hides node names in menus and cross references by default.
+*** New Dired command `dired-do-touch' (bound to T) changes timestamps
+of marked files with the value entered in the minibuffer.
+
++++
+*** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
+control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
+by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
+too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
+doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
+special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
+
++++
+*** Dired's v command now runs external viewers to view certain
+types of files. The variable `dired-view-command-alist' controls
+what external viewers to use and when.
+
+*** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
+into the kill ring. With a zero prefix arg, copies absolute file names.
+
++++
+** Dired-x:
+
+*** Omitting files is now a minor mode, dired-omit-mode. The mode toggling
+command is bound to M-o. A new command dired-mark-omitted, bound to M-O,
+marks omitted files. The variable dired-omit-files-p is obsoleted, use the
+mode toggling function instead.
+
+** Info mode:
+
+*** A numeric prefix argument of `info' selects an Info buffer
+with the number appended to the *info* buffer name.
+
+*** New command `Info-history' (bound to L) displays a menu of visited nodes.
+
+*** New command `Info-toc' (bound to T) creates a node with table of contents
+from the tree structure of menus of the current Info file.
+
+*** New command `info-apropos' searches the indices of the known
+Info files on your system for a string, and builds a menu of the
+possible matches.
+
+*** New command `Info-copy-current-node-name' (bound to w) copies
+the current Info node name into the kill ring. With a zero prefix
+arg, puts the node name inside the `info' function call.
+
+*** New command `Info-search-case-sensitively' (bound to S).
+
+*** New command `Info-search-next' (unbound) repeats the last search
+without prompting for a new search string.
+
+*** New face `info-xref-visited' distinguishes visited nodes from unvisited
+and a new option `Info-fontify-visited-nodes' to control this.
+
+*** http and ftp links in Info are now operational: they look like cross
+references and following them calls `browse-url'.
+
++++
+*** Info now hides node names in menus and cross references by default.
If you prefer the old behavior, you can set the new user option
`Info-hide-note-references' to nil.
+*** Images in Info pages are supported.
+Info pages show embedded images, in Emacs frames with image support.
+Info documentation that includes images, processed with makeinfo
+version 4.7 or newer, compiles to Info pages with embedded images.
+
++++
+*** The default value for `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' is now nil.
+
+---
+*** Info-index offers completion.
+
** Support for the SQLite interpreter has been added to sql.el by calling
'sql-sqlite'.
** BibTeX mode:
+*** The new command bibtex-entry-update (bound to C-c C-u) updates
+an existing BibTeX entry.
*** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `required-fields', enabled by default.
*** bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries can take values `plain',
`crossref', and `entry-class' which control the sorting scheme used
`file|dir1' and `file|dir2' to `file|dir1/subdir' and `file|dir2/subdir'.
** If the user visits a file larger than `large-file-warning-threshold',
-Emacs will prompt her for confirmation.
+Emacs prompts her for confirmation.
** A UTF-7 coding system is available in the library `utf-7'.
** MH-E changes.
-Upgraded to MH-E version 7.3. There have been major changes since
+Upgraded to MH-E version 7.82. There have been major changes since
version 5.0.2; see MH-E-NEWS for details.
+++
+++
** When you are root, and you visit a file whose modes specify
read-only, the Emacs buffer is now read-only too. Type C-x C-q if you
-want to make the buffer writable. (As root, you will in fact be able
-to alter the file.)
+want to make the buffer writable. (As root, you can in fact alter the
+file.)
** The new command `revert-buffer-with-coding-system' (C-x RET r)
revisits the current file using a coding system that you specify.
`buffers-menu-show-directories' controls whether the menu displays
leading directories as part of the file name visited by the buffer.
-If its value is `unless-uniquify', the default, directories will be
+If its value is `unless-uniquify', the default, directories are
shown unless uniquify-buffer-name-style' is non-nil. The value of nil
and t turn the display of directories off and on, respectively.
latter is used by GNU locales.
** The utf-8/16 coding systems have been enhanced.
-By default, untranslatable utf-8 sequences (mostly representing CJK
-characters) are simply composed into single quasi-characters. User
-option `utf-translate-cjk' arranges to translate many utf-8 CJK
-character sequences into real Emacs characters in a similar way to the
-Mule-UCS system. This uses significant space, so is not the default.
+By default, untranslatable utf-8 sequences are simply composed into
+single quasi-characters. User option `utf-translate-cjk-mode' (it is
+turned on by default) arranges to translate many utf-8 CJK character
+sequences into real Emacs characters in a similar way to the Mule-UCS
+system. As this loads a fairly big data on demand, people who are not
+interested in CJK characters may want to customize it to nil.
You can augment/amend the CJK translation via hash tables
`ucs-mule-cjk-to-unicode' and `ucs-unicode-to-mule-cjk'. The utf-8
coding system now also encodes characters from most of Emacs's
translation works amongst the Emacs ...-iso8859-... charsets and the
mule-unicode-... ones.
-By default this translation will happen automatically on encoding.
+By default this translation happens automatically on encoding.
Self-inserting characters are translated to make the input conformant
with the encoding of the buffer in which it's being used, where
possible.
will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
-hscrolling will scroll the window when point gets too close to the
+hscrolling scrolls the window when point gets too close to the
window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
be selected only when it is active). The default is nil, so that this
feature is not enabled.
+** On X, when the window manager requires that you click on a frame to
+select it (give it focus), the selected window and cursor position
+normally changes according to the mouse click position. If you set
+the variable x-mouse-click-focus-ignore-position to t, the selected
+window and cursor position do not change when you click on a frame
+to give it focus.
+
+++
** The new command `describe-char' (C-u C-x =) pops up a buffer with
description various information about a character, including its
-encodings and syntax, its text properties, overlays, and widgets at
-point. You can get more information about some of them, by clicking
-on mouse-sensitive areas or moving there and pressing RET.
+encodings and syntax, its text properties, how to input, overlays, and
+widgets at point. You can get more information about some of them, by
+clicking on mouse-sensitive areas or moving there and pressing RET.
+++
** The new command `multi-occur' is just like `occur', except it can
buffers to search by their filename. Internally, Occur mode has been
rewritten, and now uses font-lock, among other changes.
+** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
+been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
+in Indented-Text mode.
+
+** New user option `query-replace-skip-read-only': when non-nil,
+`query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
+a match if part of it has a read-only property.
+
+** When used interactively, the commands `query-replace-regexp' and
+`replace-regexp' allow \,expr to be used in a replacement string,
+where expr is an arbitrary Lisp expression evaluated at replacement
+time. In many cases, this will be more convenient than using
+`query-replace-regexp-eval'. `\#' in a replacement string now refers
+to the count of replacements already made by the replacement command.
+All regular expression replacement commands now allow `\?' in the
+replacement string to specify a position where the replacement string
+can be edited for each replacement.
+
+++
** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
also disable mouse highlighting.
+** You can now customize if selecting a region by dragging the mouse
+shall not copy the selected text to the kill-ring by setting the new
+variable mouse-drag-copy-region to nil.
+
+++
** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
in a directory or in a file. See the documentation of the user option
`display-time-mail-directory'.
-+++
-** The default value for `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' is now nil.
-
---
** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
screen size. (For now, this does not work with some window managers.)
----
-** Info-index offers completion.
-
---
** Emacs now tries to set up buffer coding systems for HTML/XML files
automatically.
command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
++++
+** C-M-w deletes and C-M-y grabs a character in isearch mode.
+Another method to grab a character is to enter the minibuffer by `M-e'
+and to type `C-f' at the end of the search string in the minibuffer.
+
++++
+** M-% and C-M-% typed in isearch mode invoke `query-replace' and
+`query-replace-regexp' with the current search string inserted
+in the minibuffer as initial input for the string to replace.
+
+++
** Yanking text now discards certain text properties that can
be inconvenient when you did not expect them. The variable
+++
** M-x grep now tries to avoid appending `/dev/null' to the command line
-by using GNU grep `-H' option instead. M-x grep will automatically
-detect whether this is possible or not the first time it is invoked.
+by using GNU grep `-H' option instead. M-x grep automatically
+detects whether this is possible or not the first time it is invoked.
When `-H' is used, the grep command line supplied by the user is passed
unchanged to the system to execute, which allows more complicated
command lines to be used than was possible before.
Minor Improvements
+*** The STARTTLS elisp wrapper (starttls.el) can now use GNUTLS
+instead of the OpenSSL based "starttls" tool. For backwards
+compatibility, it prefers "starttls", but you can toggle
+`starttls-use-gnutls' to switch to GNUTLS (or simply remove the
+"starttls" tool).
+
*** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
+++
to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
changes the behavior of motion commands like C-e and C-p.
-+++
-** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
-control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
-by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
-too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
-doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
-special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
-
-+++
-** Dired's v command now runs external viewers to view certain
-types of files. The variable `dired-view-command-alist' controls
-what external viewers to use and when.
-
+++
** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
+++
** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times. If
you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h (mark-paragraph), or
-C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region will now be extended
-each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC M-C-SPC,
-for example. This feature also works for mark-end-of-sentence, if you
-bind that to a key.
+C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region extends each time, so
+you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC M-C-SPC, for example.
+This feature also works for mark-end-of-sentence, if you bind that to
+a key.
+++
** Some commands do something special in Transient Mark mode when the
+++
** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
-previous mark, i.e. C-u C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... will cycle through the
+previous mark, i.e. C-u C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... cycles through the
mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC to set the mark immediately after a jump.
+++
if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
paragraphs.
-** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
-into the kill ring.
-
+++
** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
`appt-display-format' controls how reminders are displayed, replacing
appt-issue-message, appt-visible, and appt-msg-window.
+** The new functions `diary-from-outlook', `diary-from-outlook-gnus',
+and `diary-from-outlook-rmail' can be used to import diary entries
+from Outlook-format appointments in mail messages. The variable
+`diary-outlook-formats' can be customized to recognize additional
+formats.
+
+
** VC Changes
*** The key C-x C-q no longer checks files in or out, it only changes
*** New option --parse-stdin=FILE.
This option is mostly useful when calling etags from programs. It can
be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line. Etags
-will read from standard input and mark the produced tags as belonging to
+reads from standard input and mark the produced tags as belonging to
the file FILE.
+++
+++
** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
-When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry will always
-start a new record regardless of when the last record is.
+When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry always
+starts a new record regardless of when the last record is.
+++
** SGML mode has indentation and supports XML syntax.
** F90 mode has new navigation commands `f90-end-of-block',
`f90-beginning-of-block', `f90-next-block', `f90-previous-block'.
+** F90 mode now has support for hs-minor-mode (hideshow).
+It cannot deal with every code format, but ought to handle a sizeable
+majority.
+
---
** Prolog mode has a new variable `prolog-font-lock-keywords'
to support use of font-lock.
to the text before point. If there is text in the buffer after point,
it remains unchanged.
+** Enhanced visual feedback in *Completions* buffer.
+
+Completions lists use faces to highlight what all completions
+have in common and where they begin to differ.
+
+The common prefix shared by all possible completions uses the face
+`completions-common-part', while the first character that isn't the
+same uses the face `completions-first-difference'. By default,
+`completions-common-part' inherits from `default', and
+`completions-first-difference' inherits from `bold'. The idea of
+`completions-common-part' is that you can use it to make the common
+parts less visible than normal, so that the rest of the differing
+parts is, by contrast, slightly highlighted.
+
+++
** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
** Grep has been decoupled from compilation mode setup.
+*** There's a new separate package grep.el.
+
*** Grep commands now have their own submenu and customization group.
*** The new variables `grep-window-height', `grep-auto-highlight', and
to Windows, and can be found in both source and binary form at
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/. Note that libpng also depends on
zlib, and tiff depends on the version of jpeg that it was compiled
-against.
+against. For additional information, see nt/INSTALL.
---
** Sound is now supported on MS Windows.
---
** Emacs takes note of colors defined in Control Panel on MS-Windows.
-The Control Panel defines some default colors for applications in
-much the same way as wildcard X Resources do on X. Emacs now
-adds these colors to the colormap prefixed by System (eg SystemMenu
-for the default Menu background, SystemMenuText for the foreground),
-and uses some of them to initialize some of the default faces.
-`list-colors-display' will show the list of System color names if you
-wish to use them in other faces.
+The Control Panel defines some default colors for applications in much
+the same way as wildcard X Resources do on X. Emacs now adds these
+colors to the colormap prefixed by System (eg SystemMenu for the
+default Menu background, SystemMenuText for the foreground), and uses
+some of them to initialize some of the default faces.
+`list-colors-display' shows the list of System color names, in case
+you wish to use them in other faces.
+++
** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
D: shows the diff of the revision at line with its previous revision
L: shows the log of the revision at line
W: annotates the workfile (most up to date) version
+
++++
+** In pcl-cvs mode, there is a new `d y' command to view the diffs
+between the local version of the file and yesterday's head revision
+in the repository.
+
++++
+** In pcl-cvs mode, there is a new `d r' command to view the changes
+anyone has committed to the repository since you last executed
+"checkout", "update" or "commit". That means using cvs diff options
+-rBASE -rHEAD.
+
\f
* New modes and packages in Emacs 21.4
+** The new package flymake.el does on-the-fly syntax checking of program
+source files. See the Flymake's Info manual for more details.
+
+** The library tree-widget.el provides a new widget to display a set
+of hierarchical data as an outline. For example, the tree-widget is
+well suited to display a hierarchy of directories and files.
+
+** The wdired.el package allows you to use normal editing commands on Dired
+buffers to change filenames, permissions, etc...
+
+** The thumbs.el package allows you to preview image files as thumbnails
+and can be invoked from a Dired buffer.
+
+** The new python.el package is used to edit Python and Jython programs.
+
+** The URL package (which had been part of W3) is now part of Emacs.
+
+++
** The new global minor mode `size-indication-mode' (off by default)
shows the size of accessible part of the buffer on the mode line.
are left unspecified and can be bound individually through the global
or local keymaps.
++++
** The new kmacro package provides a simpler user interface to
emacs' keyboard macro facilities.
kmacro-call-repeat-with-arg.
Keyboard macros can now be debugged and edited interactively.
-C-x C-k SPC will step through the last keyboard macro one key sequence
+C-x C-k SPC steps through the last keyboard macro one key sequence
at a time, prompting for the actions to take.
---
** New package benchmark.el contains simple support for convenient
timing measurements of code (including the garbage collection component).
-** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
-been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
-in Indented-Text mode.
-
-** If you set `query-replace-skip-read-only' non-nil,
-`query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
-a match if part of it has a read-only property.
-
-** The new Lisp library fringe.el controls the apperance of fringes.
+** The new Lisp library fringe.el controls the appearance of fringes.
** `cfengine-mode' is a major mode for editing GNU Cfengine
configuration files.
\f
* Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.4
++++
+** Both the variable and the function `disabled-command-hook' have
+been renamed to `disabled-command-function'. The variable
+`disabled-command-hook' has been kept as an obsolete alias.
+
+** Function `compute-motion' now calculates the usable window
+width if the WIDTH argument is nil. If the TOPOS argument is nil,
+the usable window height and width is used.
+
++++
+** `visited-file-modtime' and `calendar-time-from-absolute' now return
+a list of two integers, instead of a cons.
+
+** If a command sets transient-mark-mode to `only', that
+enables Transient Mark mode for the following command only.
+During that following command, the value of transient-mark-mode
+is `identity'. If it is still `identity' at the end of the command,
+it changes to nil.
+
++++
+** Cleaner way to enter key sequences.
+
+You can enter a constant key sequence in a more natural format, the
+same one used for saving keyboard macros, using the macro `kbd'. For
+example,
+
+(kbd "C-x C-f") => "\^x\^f"
+
+** The sentinel is now called when a network process is deleted with
+delete-process. The status message passed to the sentinel for a
+deleted network process is "deleted". The message passed to the
+sentinel when the connection is closed by the remote peer has been
+changed to "connection broken by remote peer".
+
+** If the buffer's undo list for the current command gets longer than
+undo-outer-limit, garbage collection empties it. This is to prevent
+it from using up the available memory and choking Emacs.
+
+---
+** New function quail-find-key returns a list of keys to type in the
+current input method to input a character.
+
++++
+** New functions posn-at-point and posn-at-x-y return
+click-event-style position information for a given visible buffer
+position or for a given window pixel coordinate.
+
+** skip-chars-forward and skip-chars-backward now handle
+character classes such as [:alpha:], along with individual characters
+and ranges.
+
+** Function pos-visible-in-window-p now returns the pixel coordinates
+and partial visiblity state of the corresponding row, if the PARTIALLY
+arg is non-nil.
+
+** The function `eql' is now available without requiring the CL package.
+
++++
+** The new primitive `set-file-times' sets a file's access and
+modification times. Magic file name handlers can handle this
+operation.
+
+** file-remote-p now returns an identifier for the remote system,
+if the file is indeed remote. (Before, the return value was t in
+this case.)
+
** The display space :width and :align-to text properties are now
supported on text terminals.
+** Support for displaying image slices
+
+*** New display property (slice X Y WIDTH HEIGHT) may be used with
+an image property to display only a specific slice of the image.
+
+*** Function insert-image has new optional fourth arg to
+specify image slice (X Y WIDTH HEIGHT).
+
+*** New function insert-sliced-image inserts a given image as a
+specified number of evenly sized slices (rows x columns).
+
+** New line-height and line-spacing properties for newline characters
+
+A newline may now have line-height and line-spacing text or overlay
+properties that control the height of the corresponding display row.
+
+If the line-height property value is 0, the newline does not
+contribute to the height of the display row; instead the height of the
+newline glyph is reduced. Also, a line-spacing property on this
+newline is ignored. This can be used to tile small images or image
+slices without adding blank areas between the images.
+
+If the line-height property value is a positive integer, the value
+specifies the minimum line height in pixels. If necessary, the line
+height it increased by increasing the line's ascent.
+
+If the line-height property value is a float, the minimum line height
+is calculated by multiplying the default frame line height by the
+given value.
+
+If the line-height property value is a cons (RATIO . FACE), the
+minimum line height is calculated as RATIO * height of named FACE.
+RATIO is int or float. If FACE is t, it specifies the current face.
+
+If the line-spacing property value is an positive integer, the value
+is used as additional pixels to insert after the display line; this
+overrides the default frame line-spacing and any buffer local value of
+the line-spacing variable.
+
+If the line-spacing property may be a float or cons, the line spacing
+is calculated as specified above for the line-height property.
+
+If the line-spacing value is a cons (total . SPACING) where SPACING is
+any of the forms described above, the value of SPACING is used as the
+total height of the line, i.e. a varying number of pixels are inserted
+after each line to make each line exactly that many pixels high.
+
+
+** The buffer local line-spacing variable may now have a float value,
+which is used as a height relative to the default frame line height.
+
** Enhancements to stretch display properties
The display property stretch specification form `(space PROPS)', where
variable `sentence-end-without-space' which contains such characters
that end a sentence without following spaces.
+** The function `sentence-end' should be used to obtain the value of
+the variable `sentence-end'. If the variable `sentence-end' is nil,
+then this function returns the regexp constructed from the variables
+`sentence-end-without-period', `sentence-end-double-space' and
+`sentence-end-without-space'.
+
+++
** The flags, width, and precision options for %-specifications in function
`format' are now documented. Some flags that were accepted but not
implemented (such as "*") are no longer accepted.
+** New function `macroexpand-all' expands all macros in a form.
+It is similar to the Common-Lisp function of the same name.
+One difference is that it guarantees to return the original argument
+if no expansion is done, which may be tested using `eq'.
+
+++
** New function `delete-dups' destructively removes `equal' duplicates
from a list. Of several `equal' occurrences of an element in the list,
** The new function `merge-coding-systems' fills in unspecified aspects
of one coding system from another coding system.
----
++++
** The variable `safe-local-eval-forms' specifies a list of forms that
are ok to evaluate when they appear in an `eval' local variables
specification. Normally Emacs asks for confirmation before evaluating
** The new variable `read-file-name-function' can be used by lisp code
to override the internal read-file-name function.
+
+** The new variable `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' specifies
+whether completion ignores case when reading a file name with the
+`read-file-name' function.
+
+++
** The new function `read-directory-name' can be used instead of
`read-file-name' to read a directory name; when used, completion
specification language, which can be used to do this test for faces
defined with defface.
+** The function face-differs-from-default-p now truly checks whether the
+given face displays differently from the default face or not (previously
+it did only a very cursory check).
+
+++
** face-attribute, face-foreground, face-background, and face-stipple now
accept a new optional argument, INHERIT, which controls how face
** New functions face-attribute-relative-p and merge-face-attribute
help with handling relative face attributes.
+** The priority of faces in an :inherit attribute face-list is reversed.
+If a face contains an :inherit attribute with a list of faces, earlier
+faces in the list override later faces in the list; in previous releases
+of Emacs, the order was the opposite. This change was made so that
+:inherit face-lists operate identically to face-lists in text `face'
+properties.
+
+++
** Enhancements to process support
The new low-level functions process-plist and set-process-plist are
used to access and replace the entire property list of a process.
-???
+*** Function accept-process-output now has an optional fourth arg
+`just-this-one'. If non-nil, only output from the specified process
+is handled, suspending output from other processes. If value is an
+integer, also inhibit running timers. This feature is generally not
+recommended, but may be necessary for specific applications, such as
+speech synthesis.
+
*** Adaptive read buffering of subprocess output.
On some systems, when emacs reads the output from a subprocess, the
** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
properties from surrounding text.
++++
+** The list returned by `(match-data t)' now has the buffer as a final
+element, if the last match was on a buffer. `set-match-data'
+accepts such a list for restoring the match state.
+
+++
** New function `buffer-local-value'.
** New function x-send-client-message sends a client message when
running under X.
+** Arguments for remove-overlays are now optional, so that you can remove
+all overlays in the buffer by just calling (remove-overlay).
+
** New packages:
*** The new package gdb-ui.el provides an enhanced graphical interface to
with Custom.
** UTF-16 coding systems are available, encoding the same characters
-as mule-utf-8. Coding system `utf-16-le-dos' is useful as the value
-of `selection-coding-system' in MS Windows, allowing you to paste
-multilingual text from the clipboard. Set it interactively with
-C-x RET x or in .emacs with `(set-selection-coding-system 'utf-16-le-dos)'.
+as mule-utf-8.
** There is a new language environment for UTF-8 (set up automatically
in UTF-8 locales).