X-Git-Url: https://code.delx.au/gnu-emacs/blobdiff_plain/78df1fb1d46d556bfc2698ca1802972b13613ba8..0695108b9e2d5ed6d424f241af35947f87578975:/doc/emacs/anti.texi diff --git a/doc/emacs/anti.texi b/doc/emacs/anti.texi index d9f17c91f5..68a65a7c0c 100644 --- a/doc/emacs/anti.texi +++ b/doc/emacs/anti.texi @@ -1,21 +1,218 @@ +@c -*- coding: utf-8 -*- @c This is part of the Emacs manual. -@c Copyright (C) 2005-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc. +@c Copyright (C) 2005-2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc. @c See file emacs.texi for copying conditions. -@node Antinews, Mac OS / GNUstep, X Resources, Top -@appendix Emacs 23 Antinews +@node Antinews +@appendix Emacs 24 Antinews @c Update the emacs.texi Antinews menu entry with the above version number. For those users who live backwards in time, here is information -about downgrading to Emacs version 23.4. We hope you will enjoy the +about downgrading to Emacs version 24.5. We hope you will enjoy the greater simplicity that results from the absence of many Emacs @value{EMACSVER} features. @itemize @bullet @item -FIXME +Support for Cairo drawing has been removed. On GNU and Unix systems, +you now have only one drawing engine---the venerable X Window system. +No need to procrastinate on the dilemma whether you do or don't want +the new shiny Cairo thing. Hail, simplicity! + +@item +Emacs still works on SGI IRIX systems. If you live backwards in time, +this is actually a bonus, as IRIX systems will become more and more +popular as you move farther back in time. + +@item +Support for dynamically loaded modules has been removed. You get to +use only the trusted Emacs codebase, with no additions. Those +external modules written by some J.R. Hacker cannot be trusted anyway. +Good riddance! + +@item +We have greatly simplified the Emacs features which access the network +by removing the Network Security Manager. No more annoying prompts +about trusting this or that site or page---you asked for it, you get +it, no questions asked! You, the user, are now in charge of any +security issues related to sites whose certificates expired or didn't +exist in the first place. Giving the user the utmost freedom was and +always will be the most important goal of Emacs development. We keep +that goal even as we develop Emacs back in time. + +@item +We made the output of @kbd{C-h l} much simpler and easier to grasp by +removing the names of commands run by the recorded keystrokes. True +Emacs lovers know their bindings by heart anyway, so why waste +precious screen estate on that which is well known? + +@item +Selection- and clipboard-related commands and variables got their +historical names back. It's now the definitive +@code{x-select-enable-clipboard} again instead of the vague +@code{select-enable-clipboard}, and all those @code{gui-select-text}, +@code{gui-get-primary-selection}, etc.@: got their @code{x-*} names +back. (What's a ``GUI'', anyway?) The only true window system with +selections is the X Window system, so we stopped pretending that other +platforms have anything similar to that. You now know when you invoke +a command that accesses X. + +@item +Passwords are no longer hidden when typed in @code{-batch} mode. It +was a misfeature to have it not shown in the first place: who can type +without seeing what they type? We couldn't convince the users of GUI +sessions to give up hiding the password, so we at least made it +visible in batch mode, which is something every veteran Emacs user +uses all the time. Stay tuned for un-hiding the password in GUI +sessions as well as we downgrade progressively to previous Emacs +versions. + +@item +The nuisance with Unicode characters popping up all over the place has +been amply dealt with. We've removed @kbd{C-x 8} shorthands for +characters such as ‘, ’, “, ”, €, ≤, and many others; as a nice +benefit, this removes many useless entries at the beginning of the +@kbd{C-h b} output. The @code{electric-quote-mode} has been deleted, +so there's only the one true quoting method now---using the +plain-@acronym{ASCII} quote characters. And if that's not enough, the +doc strings and other messages show text quoted @t{`like this'} +as they were written, instead of arbitrarily replacing them +with Unicode ``curved quote'' characters @t{‘like this’}. The +@code{text-quoting-style} variable becomes therefore unneeded and was +removed. As result, text produced by Emacs can be sent to those +venerable teletypes again, yeah! + +For the same reasons, the character classes @code{[:alpha:]} and +@code{[:alnum:]} again match any word-constituent character, and +@code{[:graph:]} and @code{[:print:]} match every multibyte character. +Confusing use of Unicode character properties is gone. + +@item +I-search and query-replace no longer try to confuse you by using the +``character-folding'' magic. They will no longer find any characters +you didn't actually type, like find @kbd{ⓐ} when you actually typed +@kbd{a}. Users who want to find some fancy character will have to +type it explicitly. + +@item +The @file{desktop.el} package no longer records window and frame +configuration, and doesn't attempt to restore them. You now have back +your freedom of re-arranging your windows and frames anew each time +you restore a session. This made the new backward-incompatible format +of the @file{.emacs.desktop} file unnecessary, so the format was +reverted back to what it was before Emacs 25. You can now again use +the desktop file with all the previous versions of Emacs. + +@item +We have reworked the Prettify Symbols mode to support only the default +@code{prettify-symbols-compose-predicate}. No need to consider +whether your major or minor mode needs its own prettifications; just +use what came with Emacs. We also removed the +@code{prettify-symbols-unprettify-at-point} option: once prettified, +always prettified! These changes make the Prettify Symbols mode quite +a lot simpler and easier to use. + +@item +Support for nifty new features of xterm, such as access to the X +selection and the clipboard, the ``bracketed paste mode'', and other +advanced capabilities has been removed. When you kill text in an +xterm Emacs session, that text is only saved in the Emacs kill ring, +without letting other applications have any way of accessing it. An +xterm is just a text terminal, nothing more, nothing less. There +should be no feature we support on xterm that isn't supported on bare +console terminals. For the same reasons, support for mouse-tracking +on xterm was removed. We will continue this line of simplifications +as we downgrade to previous versions of Emacs; stay tuned. + +@item +Various features in @file{package.el} have been simplified. The +``external'' package status is no longer available. A package present +on multiple archives will now be listed as many times as it is found: +we don't believe in concealing any information from the users. This +and other similar simplifications made +@code{package-menu-toggle-hiding} unnecessary, since there's nothing +to unhide now. + +@item +The @kbd{@key{UP}} and @kbd{@key{DOWN}} keys in the minibuffer have +been simplified to move by history items. No need to wonder whether +you have moved to the next/previous item or to another line within the +same item. Well-written commands shouldn't allow too long history +entries anyway; be sure to report any that do as bugs, so that we +could fix them in past versions of Emacs. + +@item +The VC mode was simplified by removing the support for ``push'' +commands. Moving back in time means you will have less and less need +to use modern version control systems such as Git, Bazaar, and +Mercurial, so the necessity of using ``push'' commands will gradually +disappear. We removed it from Emacs in advance, so that you won't +need to un-learn it when this command disappears, as it should. + +@item +The support for full C/C++ expressions in macros has been removed from +Hide-Ifdef mode. It now supports only the basic literal macros. As +result, the user interface was simplified, and a number of useless +commands have been removed from Hide-Ifdef mode. Further +simplifications were made possible by removing support for some fancy +new preprocessor directives, such as @code{#if defined}, @code{#elif}, +etc. + +@item +We have reverted to Etags for looking up definitions of functions, +variables, etc. Commands such as @kbd{M-.} use tags tables, as they +always have. This allowed the removal of the entire @file{xref.el} +package and its many metastases in the other Emacs packages and +commands, significantly simplifying those. No more complexities with +the various ``backends'' that provide incoherent behavior that is hard +to explain and remember; either the symbol is in TAGS or it isn't. No +more new user interfaces we never before saw in Emacs, either; if you +want the next definition for the symbol you typed, just invoke +@kbd{C-u M-.}---what could be simpler? As a nice side effect, you get +to use your beloved @code{tags-loop-continue} and @code{pop-tag-mark} +commands and their memorable bindings. The @file{package.el} package +has been removed for similar reasons. + +@item +@code{(/ @var{n})} once again yields just @var{n}. Emacs Lisp is not +Common Lisp, so compatibility with CL just complicates Emacs here. + +@item +The functions @code{filepos-to-bufferpos} and +@code{bufferpos-to-filepos} have been removed. Code that needs to +find a file position by a buffer position or vice versa should adapt +by reading the file with no conversions and counting bytes while +comparing text. How hard can that be? + +@item +We saw no need for the @code{make-process} primitive, so we removed +it. The @code{start-process} primitive provides all the functionality +one needs, so adding more APIs just confuses users. + +@item +The functions @code{bidi-find-overridden-directionality} and +@code{buffer-substring-with-bidi-context} were removed, in preparation +for removing the whole bidi support when downgrading to Emacs 23. + +@item +Horizontal scroll bars are no longer supported. Enlarge your windows +and frames instead, or use @code{truncate-lines} and the automatic +horizontal scrolling of text that Emacs had since time immemorial. + +@item +Emacs is again counting the height of a frame's menu and its tool bar +in the frame's text height calculations. This makes Emacs invocation +on different platforms and with different toolkits less predictable +when frame geometry parameters are given on the Emacs command line, +thus making Emacs more adventurous and less boring to use. + +@item +The @command{etags} program no longer supports Ruby and Go languages. +You won't need that as you progressively travel back in time towards +the time before these languages were invented. We removed support for +them in anticipation for that time. @item To keep up with decreasing computer memory capacity and disk space, many -other functions and files have been eliminated in Emacs 23.4. +other functions and files have been eliminated in Emacs 24.5. @end itemize