Merge from emacs-23.
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS.19
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 1992.
2
3 Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 2001, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
4 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6
7
8 This file is about changes in emacs versions 19.
9
10
11 \f
12 * Emacs 19.34 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
13
14
15 \f
16 * Changes in Emacs 19.33.
17
18 ** Bibtex mode no longer turns on Auto Fill automatically. (No major
19 mode should do that--it is the user's choice.)
20
21 ** The variable normal-auto-fill-function specifies the function to
22 use for auto-fill-function, if and when Auto Fill is turned on.
23 Major modes can set this locally to alter how Auto Fill works.
24
25
26 \f
27 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.32
28
29 ** C-x f with no argument now signals an error.
30 To set the fill column at the current column, use C-u C-x f.
31
32 ** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
33 conversion. If you type the abbreviation with mixed case, and it
34 matches the beginning of the expansion including case, then the
35 expansion is copied verbatim. Using SPC M-/ to copy an additional
36 word always copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is
37 all caps.
38
39 ** On a non-windowing terminal, which can display only one Emacs frame
40 at a time, creating a new frame with C-x 5 2 also selects that frame.
41
42 When using a display that can show multiple frames at once, C-x 5 2
43 does make the frame visible, but does not select it. This is the same
44 as in previous Emacs versions.
45
46 ** You can use C-x 5 2 to create multiple frames on MSDOS, just as on a
47 non-X terminal on Unix. Of course, only one frame is visible at any
48 time, since your terminal doesn't have the ability to display multiple
49 frames.
50
51 ** On Windows, set win32-pass-alt-to-system to a non-nil value
52 if you would like tapping the Alt key to invoke the Windows menu.
53 This feature is not enabled by default; since the Alt key is also the
54 Meta key, it is too easy and painful to activate this feature by
55 accident.
56
57 ** The command apply-macro-to-region-lines repeats the last defined
58 keyboard macro once for each complete line within the current region.
59 It does this line by line, by moving point to the beginning of that
60 line and then executing the macro.
61
62 This command is not new, but was never documented before.
63
64 ** You can now use Mouse-1 to place the region around a string constant
65 (something surrounded by doublequote characters or other delimiter
66 characters of like syntax) by double-clicking on one of the delimiting
67 characters.
68
69 ** Font Lock mode
70
71 *** Font Lock support modes
72
73 Font Lock can be configured to use Fast Lock mode and Lazy Lock mode (see
74 below) in a flexible way. Rather than adding the appropriate function to the
75 hook font-lock-mode-hook, you can use the new variable font-lock-support-mode
76 to control which modes have Fast Lock mode or Lazy Lock mode turned on when
77 Font Lock mode is enabled.
78
79 For example, to use Fast Lock mode when Font Lock mode is turned on, put:
80
81 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'fast-lock-mode)
82
83 in your ~/.emacs.
84
85 *** lazy-lock
86
87 The lazy-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by making fontification occur
88 only when necessary, such as when a previously unfontified part of the buffer
89 becomes visible in a window. When you create a buffer with Font Lock mode and
90 Lazy Lock mode turned on, the buffer is not fontified. When certain events
91 occur (such as scrolling), Lazy Lock makes sure that the visible parts of the
92 buffer are fontified. Lazy Lock also defers on-the-fly fontification until
93 Emacs has been idle for a given amount of time.
94
95 To use this package, put in your ~/.emacs:
96
97 (setq font-lock-support-mode 'lazy-lock-mode)
98
99 To control the package behavior, see the documentation for `lazy-lock-mode'.
100
101 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
102
103 *** For all entries allow spaces and tabs between opening brace or
104 paren and key.
105
106 *** Non-escaped double-quoted characters (as in `Sch"of') are now
107 supported.
108
109 ** Gnus changes.
110
111 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has undergone further rewriting. Many new
112 commands and variables have been added. There should be no
113 significant incompatibilities between this Gnus version and the
114 previously released version, except in the message composition area.
115
116 Below is a list of the more user-visible changes. Coding changes
117 between Gnus 5.1 and 5.2 are more extensive.
118
119 *** A new message composition mode is used. All old customization
120 variables for mail-mode, rnews-reply-mode and gnus-msg are now
121 obsolete.
122
123 *** Gnus is now able to generate "sparse" threads -- threads where
124 missing articles are represented by empty nodes.
125
126 (setq gnus-build-sparse-threads 'some)
127
128 *** Outgoing articles are stored on a special archive server.
129
130 To disable this: (setq gnus-message-archive-group nil)
131
132 *** Partial thread regeneration now happens when articles are
133 referred.
134
135 *** Gnus can make use of GroupLens predictions:
136
137 (setq gnus-use-grouplens t)
138
139 *** A trn-line tree buffer can be displayed.
140
141 (setq gnus-use-trees t)
142
143 *** An nn-like pick-and-read minor mode is available for the summary
144 buffers.
145
146 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'gnus-pick-mode)
147
148 *** In binary groups you can use a special binary minor mode:
149
150 `M-x gnus-binary-mode'
151
152 *** Groups can be grouped in a folding topic hierarchy.
153
154 (add-hook 'gnus-group-mode-hook 'gnus-topic-mode)
155
156 *** Gnus can re-send and bounce mail.
157
158 Use the `S D r' and `S D b'.
159
160 *** Groups can now have a score, and bubbling based on entry frequency
161 is possible.
162
163 (add-hook 'gnus-summary-exit-hook 'gnus-summary-bubble-group)
164
165 *** Groups can be process-marked, and commands can be performed on
166 groups of groups.
167
168 *** Caching is possible in virtual groups.
169
170 *** nndoc now understands all kinds of digests, mail boxes, rnews news
171 batches, ClariNet briefs collections, and just about everything else.
172
173 *** Gnus has a new backend (nnsoup) to create/read SOUP packets.
174
175 *** The Gnus cache is much faster.
176
177 *** Groups can be sorted according to many criteria.
178
179 For instance: (setq gnus-group-sort-function 'gnus-group-sort-by-rank)
180
181 *** New group parameters have been introduced to set list-address and
182 expiration times.
183
184 *** All formatting specs allow specifying faces to be used.
185
186 *** There are several more commands for setting/removing/acting on
187 process marked articles on the `M P' submap.
188
189 *** The summary buffer can be limited to show parts of the available
190 articles based on a wide range of criteria. These commands have been
191 bound to keys on the `/' submap.
192
193 *** Articles can be made persistent -- as an alternative to saving
194 articles with the `*' command.
195
196 *** All functions for hiding article elements are now toggles.
197
198 *** Article headers can be buttonized.
199
200 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-add-buttons-to-head)
201
202 *** All mail backends support fetching articles by Message-ID.
203
204 *** Duplicate mail can now be treated properly. See the
205 `nnmail-treat-duplicates' variable.
206
207 *** All summary mode commands are available directly from the article
208 buffer.
209
210 *** Frames can be part of `gnus-buffer-configuration'.
211
212 *** Mail can be re-scanned by a daemonic process.
213
214 *** Gnus can make use of NoCeM files to filter spam.
215
216 (setq gnus-use-nocem t)
217
218 *** Groups can be made permanently visible.
219
220 (setq gnus-permanently-visible-groups "^nnml:")
221
222 *** Many new hooks have been introduced to make customizing easier.
223
224 *** Gnus respects the Mail-Copies-To header.
225
226 *** Threads can be gathered by looking at the References header.
227
228 (setq gnus-summary-thread-gathering-function
229 'gnus-gather-threads-by-references)
230
231 *** Read articles can be stored in a special backlog buffer to avoid
232 refetching.
233
234 (setq gnus-keep-backlog 50)
235
236 *** A clean copy of the current article is always stored in a separate
237 buffer to allow easier treatment.
238
239 *** Gnus can suggest where to save articles. See `gnus-split-methods'.
240
241 *** Gnus doesn't have to do as much prompting when saving.
242
243 (setq gnus-prompt-before-saving t)
244
245 *** gnus-uu can view decoded files asynchronously while fetching
246 articles.
247
248 (setq gnus-uu-grabbed-file-functions 'gnus-uu-grab-view)
249
250 *** Filling in the article buffer now works properly on cited text.
251
252 *** Hiding cited text adds buttons to toggle hiding, and how much
253 cited text to hide is now customizable.
254
255 (setq gnus-cited-lines-visible 2)
256
257 *** Boring headers can be hidden.
258
259 (add-hook 'gnus-article-display-hook 'gnus-article-hide-boring-headers)
260
261 *** Default scoring values can now be set from the menu bar.
262
263 *** Further syntax checking of outgoing articles have been added.
264
265 The Gnus manual has been expanded. It explains all these new features
266 in greater detail.
267
268 \f
269 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 19.32
270
271 ** The function set-visited-file-name now accepts an optional
272 second argument NO-QUERY. If it is non-nil, then the user is not
273 asked for confirmation in the case where the specified file already
274 exists.
275
276 ** The variable print-length applies to printing vectors and bitvectors,
277 as well as lists.
278
279 ** The new function keymap-parent returns the parent keymap
280 of a given keymap.
281
282 ** The new function set-keymap-parent specifies a new parent for a
283 given keymap. The arguments are KEYMAP and PARENT. PARENT must be a
284 keymap or nil.
285
286 ** Sometimes menu keymaps use a command name, a symbol, which is really
287 an automatically generated alias for some other command, the "real"
288 name. In such a case, you should give that alias symbol a non-nil
289 menu-alias property. That property tells the menu system to look for
290 equivalent keys for the real name instead of equivalent keys for the
291 alias.
292
293
294 \f
295 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.31
296
297 ** Freedom of the press restricted in the United States.
298
299 Emacs has been censored in accord with the Communications Decency Act.
300 This includes removing some features of the doctor program. That law
301 was described by its supporters as a ban on pornography, but it bans
302 far more than that. The Emacs distribution has never contained any
303 pornography, but parts of it were nonetheless prohibited.
304
305 For information on US government censorship of the Internet, and what
306 you can do to bring back freedom of the press, see the web site
307 `http://www.vtw.org/'.
308
309 ** A note about C mode indentation customization.
310
311 The old (Emacs 19.29) ways of specifying a C indentation style
312 do not normally work in the new implementation of C mode.
313 It has its own methods of customizing indentation, which are
314 much more powerful than the old C mode. See the Editing Programs
315 chapter of the manual for details.
316
317 However, you can load the library cc-compat to make the old
318 customization variables take effect.
319
320 ** Marking with the mouse.
321
322 When you mark a region with the mouse, the region now remains
323 highlighted until the next input event, regardless of whether you are
324 using M-x transient-mark-mode.
325
326 ** Improved Windows NT/95 support.
327
328 *** Emacs now supports scroll bars on Windows NT and Windows 95.
329
330 *** Emacs now supports subprocesses on Windows 95. (Subprocesses used
331 to work on NT only and not on 95.)
332
333 *** There are difficulties with subprocesses, though, due to problems
334 in Windows, beyond the control of Emacs. They work fine as long as
335 you run Windows applications. The problems arise when you run a DOS
336 application in a subprocesses. Since current shells run as DOS
337 applications, these problems are significant.
338
339 If you run a DOS application in a subprocess, then the application is
340 likely to busy-wait, which means that your machine will be 100% busy.
341 However, if you don't mind the temporary heavy load, the subprocess
342 will work OK as long as you tell it to terminate before you start any
343 other DOS application as a subprocess.
344
345 Emacs is unable to terminate or interrupt a DOS subprocess.
346 You have to do this by providing input directly to the subprocess.
347
348 If you run two DOS applications at the same time in two separate
349 subprocesses, even if one of them is asynchronous, you will probably
350 have to reboot your machine--until then, it will remain 100% busy.
351 Windows simply does not cope when one Windows process tries to run two
352 separate DOS subprocesses. Typing CTL-ALT-DEL and then choosing
353 Shutdown seems to work although it may take a few minutes.
354
355 ** M-x resize-minibuffer-mode.
356
357 This command, not previously mentioned in NEWS, toggles a mode in
358 which the minibuffer window expands to show as many lines as the
359 minibuffer contains.
360
361 ** `title' frame parameter and resource.
362
363 The `title' X resource now specifies just the frame title, nothing else.
364 It does not affect the name used for looking up other X resources.
365 It works by setting the new `title' frame parameter, which likewise
366 affects just the displayed title of the frame.
367
368 The `name' parameter continues to do what it used to do:
369 it specifies the frame name for looking up X resources,
370 and also serves as the default for the displayed title
371 when the `title' parameter is unspecified or nil.
372
373 ** Emacs now uses the X toolkit by default, if you have a new
374 enough version of X installed (X11R5 or newer).
375
376 ** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
377 F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual
378 Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.
379
380 If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif
381 menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add
382 something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds
383 the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:
384
385 Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : Shift<Key>F12
386
387 ** In overwrite mode, DEL now inserts spaces in most cases
388 to replace the characters it "deletes".
389
390 ** The Rmail summary now shows the number of lines in each message.
391
392 ** Rmail has a new command M-x unforward-rmail-message, which extracts
393 a forwarded message from the message that forwarded it. To use it,
394 select a message which contains a forwarded message and then type the command.
395 It inserts the forwarded message as a separate Rmail message
396 immediately after the selected one.
397
398 This command also undoes the textual modifications that are standardly
399 made, as part of forwarding, by Rmail and other mail reader programs.
400
401 ** Turning off saving of .saves-... files in your home directory.
402
403 Each Emacs session writes a file named .saves-... in your home
404 directory to record which files M-x recover-session should recover.
405 If you exit Emacs normally with C-x C-c, it deletes that file. If
406 Emacs or the operating system crashes, the file remains for M-x
407 recover-session.
408
409 You can turn off the writing of these files by setting
410 auto-save-list-file-name to nil. If you do this, M-x recover-session
411 will not work.
412
413 Some previous Emacs versions failed to delete these files even on
414 normal exit. This is fixed now. If you are thinking of turning off
415 this feature because of past experiences with versions that had this
416 bug, it would make sense to check whether you still want to do so
417 now that the bug is fixed.
418
419 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
420
421 There is a new variable, vc-follow-symlinks. It indicates what to do
422 when you visit a link to a file that is under version control.
423 Editing the file through the link bypasses the version control system,
424 which is dangerous and probably not what you want.
425
426 If this variable is t, VC follows the link and visits the real file,
427 telling you about it in the echo area. If it is `ask' (the default),
428 VC asks for confirmation whether it should follow the link. If nil,
429 the link is visited and a warning displayed.
430
431 ** iso-acc.el now lets you specify a choice of language.
432 Languages include "latin-1" (the default) and "latin-2" (which
433 is designed for entering ISO Latin-2 characters).
434
435 There are also choices for specific human languages such as French and
436 Portuguese. These are subsets of Latin-1, which differ in that they
437 enable only the accent characters needed for particular language.
438 The other accent characters, not needed for the chosen language,
439 remain normal.
440
441 ** Posting articles and sending mail now has M-TAB completion on various
442 header fields (Newsgroups, To, CC, ...).
443
444 Completion in the Newsgroups header depends on the list of groups
445 known to your news reader. Completion in the Followup-To header
446 offers those groups which are in the Newsgroups header, since
447 Followup-To usually just holds one of those.
448
449 Completion in fields that hold mail addresses works based on the list
450 of local users plus your aliases. Additionally, if your site provides
451 a mail directory or a specific host to use for any unrecognized user
452 name, you can arrange to query that host for completion also. (See the
453 documentation of variables `mail-directory-process' and
454 `mail-directory-stream'.)
455
456 ** A greatly extended sgml-mode offers new features such as (to be configured)
457 skeletons with completing read for tags and attributes, typing named
458 characters including optionally all 8bit characters, making tags invisible
459 with optional alternate display text, skipping and deleting tag(pair)s.
460
461 Note: since Emacs' syntax feature cannot limit the special meaning of ', " and
462 - to inside <>, for some texts the result, especially of font locking, may be
463 wrong (see `sgml-specials' if you get wrong results).
464
465 The derived html-mode configures this with tags and attributes more or
466 less HTML3ish. It also offers optional quick keys like C-c 1 for
467 headline or C-c u for unordered list (see `html-quick-keys'). Edit /
468 Text Properties / Face or M-g combinations create tags as applicable.
469 Outline minor mode is supported and level 1 font-locking tries to
470 fontify tag contents (which only works when they fit on one line, due
471 to a limitation in font-lock).
472
473 External viewing via browse-url can occur automatically upon saving.
474
475 ** M-x imenu-add-to-menubar now adds to the menu bar for the current
476 buffer only. If you want to put an Imenu item in the menu bar for all
477 buffers that use a particular major mode, use the mode hook, as in
478 this example:
479
480 (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook
481 '(lambda () (imenu-add-to-menubar "Index")))
482
483 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
484
485 *** Field names may now contain digits, hyphens, and underscores.
486
487 *** Font Lock mode is now supported.
488
489 *** bibtex-make-optional-field is no longer interactive.
490
491 *** If bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil, inserting new
492 entries is now done with a faster algorithm. However, inserting
493 will fail in this case if the buffer contains invalid entries or
494 isn't in sorted order, so you should finish each entry with C-c C-c
495 (bibtex-close-entry) after you have inserted or modified it.
496 The default value of bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is nil.
497
498 *** Function `show-all' is no longer bound to a key, since C-u C-c C-q
499 does the same job.
500
501 *** Entries with quotes inside quote-delimited fields (as `author =
502 "Stefan Sch{\"o}f"') are now supported.
503
504 *** Case in field names doesn't matter anymore when searching for help
505 text.
506
507 ** Font Lock mode
508
509 *** Global Font Lock mode
510
511 Font Lock mode can be turned on globally, in buffers that support it, by the
512 new command global-font-lock-mode. You can use the new variable
513 font-lock-global-modes to control which modes have Font Lock mode automagically
514 turned on. By default, this variable is set so that Font Lock mode is turned
515 on globally where the buffer mode supports it.
516
517 For example, to automagically turn on Font Lock mode where supported, put:
518
519 (global-font-lock-mode t)
520
521 in your ~/.emacs.
522
523 *** Local Refontification
524
525 In Font Lock mode, editing a line automatically refontifies that line only.
526 However, if your change alters the syntactic context for following lines,
527 those lines remain incorrectly fontified. To refontify them, use the new
528 command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block).
529
530 In certain major modes, M-g M-g refontifies the entire current function.
531 (The variable font-lock-mark-block-function controls how to find the
532 current function.) In other major modes, M-g M-g refontifies 16 lines
533 above and below point.
534
535 With a prefix argument N, M-g M-g refontifies N lines above and below point.
536
537 ** Follow mode
538
539 Follow mode is a new minor mode combining windows showing the same
540 buffer into one tall "virtual window". The windows are typically two
541 side-by-side windows. Follow mode makes them scroll together as if
542 they were a unit. To use it, go to a frame with just one window,
543 split it into two side-by-side windows using C-x 3, and then type M-x
544 follow-mode.
545
546 M-x follow-mode turns off Follow mode if it is already enabled.
547
548 To display two side-by-side windows and activate Follow mode, use the
549 command M-x follow-delete-other-windows-and-split.
550
551 ** hide-show changes.
552
553 The hooks hs-hide-hooks and hs-show-hooks have been renamed
554 to hs-hide-hook and hs-show-hook, to follow the convention for
555 normal hooks.
556
557 ** Simula mode now has a menu containing the most important commands.
558 The new command simula-indent-exp is bound to C-M-q.
559
560 ** etags can now handle programs written in Erlang. Files are
561 recognized by the extensions .erl and .hrl. The tagged lines are
562 those that begin a function, record, or macro.
563
564 ** MSDOS Changes
565
566 *** It is now possible to compile Emacs with the version 2 of DJGPP.
567 Compilation with DJGPP version 1 also still works.
568
569 *** The documentation of DOS-specific aspects of Emacs was rewritten
570 and expanded; see the ``MS-DOS'' node in the on-line docs.
571
572 *** Emacs now uses ~ for backup file names, not .bak.
573
574 *** You can simulate mouse-3 on two-button mice by simultaneously
575 pressing both mouse buttons.
576
577 *** A number of packages and commands which previously failed or had
578 restricted functionality on MS-DOS, now work. The most important ones
579 are:
580
581 **** Printing (both with `M-x lpr-buffer' and with `ps-print' package)
582 now works.
583
584 **** `Ediff' works (in a single-frame mode).
585
586 **** `M-x display-time' can be used on MS-DOS (due to the new
587 implementation of Emacs timers, see below).
588
589 **** `Dired' supports Unix-style shell wildcards.
590
591 **** The `c-macro-expand' command now works as on other platforms.
592
593 **** `M-x recover-session' works.
594
595 **** `M-x list-colors-display' displays all the available colors.
596
597 **** The `TPU-EDT' package works.
598
599 \f
600 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.31.
601
602 ** The function using-unix-filesystems on Windows NT and Windows 95
603 tells Emacs to read and write files assuming that they reside on a
604 remote Unix filesystem. No CR/LF translation is done on any files in
605 this case. Invoking using-unix-filesystems with t activates this
606 behavior, and invoking it with any other value deactivates it.
607
608 ** Change in system-type and system-configuration values.
609
610 The value of system-type on a Linux-based GNU system is now `lignux',
611 not `linux'. This means that some programs which use `system-type'
612 need to be changed. The value of `system-configuration' will also
613 be different.
614
615 It is generally recommended to use `system-configuration' rather
616 than `system-type'.
617
618 See the file LINUX-GNU in this directory for more about this.
619
620 ** The functions shell-command and dired-call-process
621 now run file name handlers for default-directory, if it has them.
622
623 ** Undoing the deletion of text now restores the positions of markers
624 that pointed into or next to the deleted text.
625
626 ** Timers created with run-at-time now work internally to Emacs, and
627 no longer use a separate process. Therefore, they now work more
628 reliably and can be used for shorter time delays.
629
630 The new function run-with-timer is a convenient way to set up a timer
631 to run a specified amount of time after the present. A call looks
632 like this:
633
634 (run-with-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
635
636 SECS says how many seconds should elapse before the timer happens.
637 It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the timer
638 becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.
639
640 REPEAT gives the interval for repeating the timer (measured in
641 seconds). It may be an integer or a floating point number. nil or 0
642 means don't repeat at all--call FUNCTION just once.
643
644 *** with-timeout provides an easy way to do something but give
645 up if too much time passes.
646
647 (with-timeout (SECONDS TIMEOUT-FORMS...) BODY...)
648
649 This executes BODY, but gives up after SECONDS seconds.
650 If it gives up, it runs the TIMEOUT-FORMS and returns the value
651 of the last one of them. Normally it returns the value of the last
652 form in BODY.
653
654 *** You can now arrange to call a function whenever Emacs is idle for
655 a certain length of time. To do this, call run-with-idle-timer. A
656 call looks like this:
657
658 (run-with-idle-timer SECS REPEAT FUNCTION ARGS...)
659
660 SECS says how many seconds of idleness should elapse before the timer
661 runs. It may be an integer or a floating point number. When the
662 timer becomes ripe, the action is to call FUNCTION with arguments
663 ARGS.
664
665 Emacs becomes idle whenever it finishes executing a keyboard or mouse
666 command. It remains idle until it receives another keyboard or mouse
667 command.
668
669 REPEAT, if non-nil, means this timer should be activated again each
670 time Emacs becomes idle and remains idle for SECS seconds The timer
671 does not repeat if Emacs *remains* idle; it runs at most once after
672 each time Emacs becomes idle.
673
674 If REPEAT is nil, the timer runs just once, the first time Emacs is
675 idle for SECS seconds.
676
677 *** post-command-idle-hook is now obsolete; you shouldn't use it at
678 all, because it interferes with the idle timer mechanism. If your
679 programs use post-command-idle-hook, convert them to use idle timers
680 instead.
681
682 *** y-or-n-p-with-timeout lets you ask a question but give up if
683 there is no answer within a certain time.
684
685 (y-or-n-p-with-timeout PROMPT SECONDS DEFAULT-VALUE)
686
687 asks the question PROMPT (just like y-or-n-p). If the user answers
688 within SECONDS seconds, it returns the answer that the user gave.
689 Otherwise it gives up after SECONDS seconds, and returns DEFAULT-VALUE.
690
691 ** Minor change to `encode-time': you can now pass more than seven
692 arguments. If you do that, the first six arguments have the usual
693 meaning, the last argument is interpreted as the time zone, and the
694 arguments in between are ignored.
695
696 This means that it works to use the list returned by `decode-time' as
697 the list of arguments for `encode-time'.
698
699 ** The default value of load-path now includes the directory
700 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp In addition to
701 /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp. You can use this new directory for
702 site-specific Lisp packages that belong with a particular Emacs
703 version.
704
705 It is not unusual for a Lisp package that works well in one Emacs
706 version to cause trouble in another. Sometimes packages need updating
707 for incompatible changes; sometimes they look at internal data that
708 has changed; sometimes the package has been installed in Emacs itself
709 and the installed version should be used. Whatever the reason for the
710 problem, this new feature makes it easier to solve.
711
712 ** When your program contains a fixed file name (like .completions or
713 .abbrev.defs), the file name usually needs to be different on operating
714 systems with limited file name syntax.
715
716 Now you can avoid ad-hoc conditionals by using the function
717 convert-standard-filename to convert the file name to a proper form
718 for each operating system. Here is an example of use, from the file
719 completions.el:
720
721 (defvar save-completions-file-name
722 (convert-standard-filename "~/.completions")
723 "*The filename to save completions to.")
724
725 This sets the variable save-completions-file-name to a value that
726 depends on the operating system, because the definition of
727 convert-standard-filename depends on the operating system. On
728 Unix-like systems, it returns the specified file name unchanged. On
729 MS-DOS, it adapts the name to fit the limitations of that system.
730
731 ** The interactive spec N now returns the numeric prefix argument
732 rather than the raw prefix argument. (It still reads a number using the
733 minibuffer if there is no prefix argument at all.)
734
735 ** When a process is deleted, this no longer disconnects the process
736 marker from its buffer position.
737
738 ** The variable garbage-collection-messages now controls whether
739 Emacs displays a message at the beginning and end of garbage collection.
740 The default is nil, meaning there are no messages.
741
742 ** The variable debug-ignored-errors specifies certain kinds of errors
743 that should not enter the debugger. Its value is a list of error
744 condition symbols and/or regular expressions. If the error has any
745 of the condition symbols listed, or if any of the regular expressions
746 matches the error message, then that error does not enter the debugger,
747 regardless of the value of debug-on-error.
748
749 This variable is initialized to match certain common but uninteresting
750 errors that happen often during editing.
751
752 ** The new function error-message-string converts an error datum
753 into its error message. The error datum is what condition-case
754 puts into the variable, to describe the error that happened.
755
756 ** Anything that changes which buffer appears in a given window
757 now runs the window-scroll-functions for that window.
758
759 ** The new function get-buffer-window-list returns a list of windows displaying
760 a buffer. The function is called with the buffer (a buffer object or a buffer
761 name) and two optional arguments specifying the minibuffer windows and frames
762 to search. Therefore this function takes optional args like next-window etc.,
763 and not get-buffer-window.
764
765 ** buffer-substring now runs the hook buffer-access-fontify-functions,
766 calling each function with two arguments--the range of the buffer
767 being accessed. buffer-substring-no-properties does not call them.
768
769 If you use this feature, you should set the variable
770 buffer-access-fontified-property to a non-nil symbol, which is a
771 property name. Then, if all the characters in the buffer range have a
772 non-nil value for that property, the buffer-access-fontify-functions
773 are not called. When called, these functions should put a non-nil
774 property on the text that they fontify, so that they won't get called
775 over and over for the same text.
776
777 ** Changes in lisp-mnt.el
778
779 *** The lisp-mnt package can now recognize file headers that are written
780 in the formats used by the `what' command and the RCS `ident' command:
781
782 ;; @(#) HEADER: text
783 ;; $HEADER: text $
784
785 in addition to the normal
786
787 ;; HEADER: text
788
789 *** The commands lm-verify and lm-synopsis are now interactive. lm-verify
790 checks that the library file has proper sections and headers, and
791 lm-synopsis extracts first line "synopsis'"information.
792
793
794 \f
795 * Editing Changes in Emacs 19.30.
796
797 ** Be sure to recompile your byte-compiled Emacs Lisp files
798 if you last compiled them with Emacs 19.28 or earlier.
799 You can use M-x byte-force-recompile to recompile all the .elc files
800 in a specified directory.
801
802 ** Emacs now provides multiple-frame support on Windows NT
803 and Windows 95.
804
805 ** M-x column-number-mode toggles a minor mode which displays
806 the current column number in the mode line.
807
808 ** Line Number mode is now enabled by default.
809
810 ** M-x what-line now displays the line number in the accessible
811 portion of the buffer as well as the line number in the full buffer,
812 when narrowing is in effect.
813
814 ** If you type a M-x command that has an equivalent key binding,
815 the equivalent is shown in the minibuffer before the command executes.
816 This feature is enabled by default for the sake of beginning users.
817 You can turn the feature off by setting suggest-key-bindings to nil.
818
819 ** The menu bar is now visible on text-only terminals. To choose a
820 command from the menu bar when you have no mouse, type M-`
821 (Meta-Backquote) or F10. To turn off menu bar display,
822 do (menu-bar-mode -1).
823
824 ** Whenever you invoke a minibuffer, it appears in the minibuffer
825 window that the current frame uses.
826
827 Emacs can only use one minibuffer window at a time. If you activate
828 the minibuffer while a minibuffer window is active in some other
829 frame, the outer minibuffer window disappears while the inner one is
830 active.
831
832 ** Echo area messages always appear in the minibuffer window that the
833 current frame uses. If a minibuffer is active in some other frame,
834 the echo area message does not hide it even temporarily.
835
836 ** The minibuffer now has a menu-bar menu. You can use it to exit or
837 abort the minibuffer, or to ask for completion.
838
839 ** Dead-key and composite character processing is done in the standard
840 X11R6 manner (through the default "input method" using the
841 /usr/lib/X11/locale/*/Compose databases of key combinations). I.e. if
842 it works in xterm, it should also work in emacs now.
843
844 ** Mouse changes
845
846 *** You can now use the mouse when running Emacs in an xterm.
847 Use M-x xterm-mouse-mode to let emacs take control over the mouse.
848
849 *** C-mouse-1 now once again provides a menu of buffers to select.
850 S-mouse-1 is now the way to select a default font for the frame.
851
852 *** There is a new mouse-scroll-min-lines variable to control the
853 minimum number of lines scrolled by dragging the mouse outside a
854 window's edge.
855
856 *** Dragging mouse-1 on a vertical line that separates windows
857 now moves the line, thus changing the widths of the two windows.
858 (This feature is available only if you don't have vertical scroll bars.
859 If you do use them, a scroll bar separates two side-by-side windows.)
860
861 *** Double-click mouse-1 on a character with "symbol" syntax (such as
862 underscore, in C mode) selects the entire symbol surrounding that
863 character. (Double-click mouse-1 on a letter selects a whole word.)
864
865 ** When incremental search wraps around to the beginning (or end) of
866 the buffer, if you keep on searching until you go past the original
867 starting point of the search, the echo area changes from "Wrapped" to
868 "Overwrapped". That tells you that you are revisiting matches that
869 you have already seen.
870
871 ** Filling changes.
872
873 *** If the variable colon-double-space is non-nil, the explicit fill
874 commands put two spaces after a colon.
875
876 *** Auto-Fill mode now supports Adaptive Fill mode just as the
877 explicit fill commands do. The variable adaptive-fill-regexp
878 specifies a regular expression to match text at the beginning of
879 a line that should be the fill prefix.
880
881 *** Adaptive Fill mode can take a fill prefix from the first line of a
882 paragraph, *provided* that line is not a paragraph-starter line.
883
884 Paragraph-starter lines are indented lines that start a new
885 paragraph because they are indented. This indentation shouldn't
886 be copied to additional lines.
887
888 Whether indented lines are paragraph lines depends on the value of the
889 variable paragraph-start. Some major modes set this; you can set it
890 by hand or in mode hooks as well. For editing text in which paragraph
891 first lines are not indented, and which contains paragraphs in which
892 all lines are indented, you should use Indented Text mode or arrange
893 for paragraph-start not to match these lines.
894
895 *** You can specify more complex ways of choosing a fill prefix
896 automatically by setting `adaptive-fill-function'. This function
897 is called with point after the left margin of a line, and it should
898 return the appropriate fill prefix based on that line.
899 If it returns nil, that means it sees no fill prefix in that line.
900
901 ** Gnus changes.
902
903 Gnus, the Emacs news reader, has been rewritten and expanded. Most
904 things that worked with the old version should still work with the new
905 version. Code that relies heavily on Gnus internals is likely to
906 fail, though.
907
908 *** Incompatibilities with the old GNUS.
909
910 **** All interactive commands have kept their names, but many internal
911 functions have changed names.
912
913 **** The summary mode gnus-uu commands have been moved from the `C-c
914 C-v' keymap to the `X' keymap.
915
916 **** There can now be several summary buffers active at once.
917 Variables that are relevant to each summary buffer are buffer-local to
918 that buffer.
919
920 **** Old hilit code doesn't work at all. Gnus performs its own
921 highlighting based not only on what's visible in the buffer, but on
922 other data structures.
923
924 **** Old packages like `expire-kill' will no longer work.
925
926 **** `C-c C-l' in the group buffer no longer switches to a different
927 buffer, but instead lists killed groups in the group buffer.
928
929 *** New features.
930
931 **** The look of all buffers can be changed by setting format-like
932 variables.
933
934 **** Local spool and several NNTP servers can be used at once.
935
936 **** Groups can be combined into virtual groups.
937
938 **** Different mail formats can be read much the same way as one would
939 read newsgroups. All the mail backends implement mail expiry schemes.
940
941 **** Gnus can use various strategies for gathering threads that have
942 lost their roots (thereby gathering loose sub-threads into one thread)
943 or it can go back and retrieve enough headers to build a complete
944 thread.
945
946 **** Killed groups can be read.
947
948 **** Gnus can do partial group updates - you do not have to retrieve
949 the entire active file just to check for new articles in a few groups.
950
951 **** Gnus implements a sliding scale of subscribedness to groups.
952
953 **** You can score articles according to any number of criteria. You
954 can get Gnus to score articles for you using adaptive scoring.
955
956 **** Gnus maintains a dribble buffer that is auto-saved the normal
957 Emacs manner, so it should be difficult to lose much data on what you
958 have read if your machine should go down.
959
960 **** Gnus now has its own startup file (`.gnus.el') to avoid
961 cluttering up the `.emacs' file.
962
963 **** You can set the process mark on both groups and articles and
964 perform operations on all the marked items.
965
966 **** You can grep through a subset of groups and create a group from
967 the results.
968
969 **** You can list subsets of groups using matches on group names or
970 group descriptions.
971
972 **** You can browse foreign servers and subscribe to groups from those
973 servers.
974
975 **** Gnus can pre-fetch articles asynchronously on a second connection
976 to the servers.
977
978 **** You can cache articles locally.
979
980 **** Gnus can fetch FAQs to and descriptions of groups.
981
982 **** Digests (and other files) can be used as the basis for groups.
983
984 **** Articles can be highlighted and customized.
985
986 ** Changes to Version Control (VC)
987
988 *** General changes (all backends).
989
990 VC directory listings (C-x v d) are now kept up to date when you do a
991 vc-next-action (C-x v v) on the marked files. The `g' command updates
992 the buffer properly. `=' in a VC dired buffer produces a version
993 control diff, not an ordinary diff.
994
995 *** CVS changes.
996
997 Under CVS, you no longer need to type C-x C-q before you can edit a
998 file. VC doesn't write-protect unmodified buffers anymore; you can
999 freely change them at any time. The mode line keeps track of the
1000 file status.
1001
1002 If you do want unmodified files to be write-protected, set your
1003 CVSREAD environment variable. VC sees this and behaves accordingly;
1004 that will give you the behavior of Emacs 19.29, similar to that under
1005 RCS and SCCS. In this mode, if the variable vc-mistrust-permissions
1006 is nil, VC learns the modification state from the file permissions.
1007 When setting CVSREAD for the first time, you should check out the
1008 whole module anew, so that the file permissions are set correctly.
1009
1010 VC also works with remote repositories now. When you visit a file, it
1011 doesn't run "cvs status" anymore, so there shouldn't be any long delays.
1012
1013 Directory listings under VC/CVS have been enhanced. Type C-x v d, and
1014 you get a list of all files in or below the current directory that are
1015 not up-to-date. The actual status (modified, merge, conflict, ...) is
1016 displayed for each file. If you give a prefix argument (C-u C-x v d),
1017 up-to-date files are also listed. You can mark any number of files,
1018 and execute the next logical version control command on them (C-x v v).
1019
1020 *** Starting a new branch.
1021
1022 If you try to lock a version that is not the latest on its branch,
1023 VC asks for confirmation in the minibuffer. If you say no, it offers
1024 to lock the latest version instead.
1025
1026 *** RCS non-strict locking.
1027
1028 VC can now handle RCS non-strict locking, too. In this mode, working
1029 files are always writable and you needn't lock the file before making
1030 changes, similar to the default mode under CVS. To enable non-strict
1031 locking for a file, use the "rcs -U" command.
1032
1033 *** Sharing RCS master files.
1034
1035 If you share RCS subdirs with other users (through symbolic links),
1036 and you always want to work on the latest version, set
1037 vc-consult-headers to nil and vc-mistrust-permissions to `t'.
1038 Then you see the state of the *latest* version on the mode line, not
1039 that of your working file. When you do a check out, VC overwrites
1040 your working file with the latest version from the master.
1041
1042 *** RCS customization.
1043
1044 There is a new variable vc-consult-headers. If it is t (the default),
1045 VC searches for RCS headers in working files (like `$Id$') and
1046 determines the state of the file from them, not from the master file.
1047 This is fast and more reliable when you use branches. (The variable
1048 was already present in Emacs 19.29, but didn't get mentioned in the
1049 NEWS.)
1050
1051 ** Calendar changes.
1052
1053 *** New calendars supported: Chinese, Coptic, Ethiopic
1054
1055 Here are the commands for converting to and from these calendars:
1056
1057 gC: calendar-goto-chinese-date
1058 gk: calendar-goto-coptic-date
1059 ge: calendar-goto-ethiopic-date
1060
1061 pC: calendar-print-chinese-date
1062 pk: calendar-print-coptic-date
1063 pe: calendar-print-ethiopic-date
1064
1065 *** Printed calendars
1066
1067 Calendar mode now has commands to produce fancy printed calendars via
1068 LaTeX. You can ask for a calendar for one or more days, weeks, months
1069 or years. The commands all start with `t'; see the manual for a list
1070 of them.
1071
1072 *** New sexp diary entry type
1073
1074 Reminders that apply in the days leading up to an event.
1075
1076 ** The CC-mode package now provides the default C and C++ modes.
1077 See the manual for documentation of its features.
1078
1079 ** The uniquify package chooses buffer names differently when you
1080 visit multiple files with the same name (in different directories).
1081
1082 ** RMAIL now always uses the movemail program when it renames an
1083 inbox file, so that it can interlock properly with the mailer
1084 no matter where it is delivering mail.
1085
1086 ** tex-start-of-header and tex-end-of-header are now regular expressions,
1087 not strings.
1088
1089 ** To enable automatic uncompression of compressed files,
1090 type M-x auto-compression-mode. (This command used to be called
1091 toggle-auto-compression, but was not documented before.) In Lisp,
1092 you can do
1093
1094 (auto-compression-mode 1)
1095
1096 to turn the mode on.
1097
1098 ** The new pc-select package emulates the key bindings for cutting and
1099 pasting, and selection of regions, found in Windows, Motif, and the
1100 Macintosh.
1101
1102 ** Help buffers now use a special major mode, Help mode. This mode
1103 normally turns on View mode; it also provides a hook, help-mode-hook,
1104 which you can use for other customization.
1105
1106 ** Apropos now uses faces for enhanced legibility. It now describes
1107 symbol properties as well as their function definitions and variable
1108 values. You can use Mouse-2 or RET to get more information about a
1109 function definition, variable, or property.
1110
1111 ** Font Lock mode
1112
1113 *** Supports Scheme, TCL and Help modes
1114
1115 For example, to automatically turn on Font Lock mode in the *Help*
1116 buffer, put:
1117
1118 (add-hook 'help-mode-hook 'turn-on-font-lock)
1119
1120 in your ~/.emacs.
1121
1122 *** Enhanced fontification
1123
1124 The structure of font-lock-keywords is extended to allow "anchored" keywords.
1125 Typically, a keyword item of font-lock-keywords comprises a regexp to search
1126 for and information to specify how the regexp should be highlighted. However,
1127 the highlighting information is extended so that it can be another keyword
1128 item. This keyword item, its regexp and highlighting information, is processed
1129 before resuming with the keyword item of which it is part.
1130
1131 For example, a typical keyword item might be:
1132
1133 ("\\<anchor\\>" (0 anchor-face))
1134
1135 which fontifies each occurrence of the discrete word "anchor" in the value of
1136 the variable anchor-face. However, the highlighting information can be used to
1137 fontify text that is anchored to the word "anchor". For example:
1138
1139 ("\\<anchor\\>" (0 anchor-face) ("\\=[ ,]*\\(item\\)" nil nil (1 item-face)))
1140
1141 which fontifies each occurrence of "anchor" as above, but for each occurrence
1142 of "anchor", each occurrence of "item", in any following comma separated list,
1143 is fontified in the value of the variable item-face. Thus the "item" text is
1144 anchored to the "anchor" text. See the variable documentation for further
1145 information.
1146
1147 This feature is used to extend the level and quality of fontification in a
1148 number of modes. For example, C/C++ modes now have level 3 decoration that
1149 includes the fontification of variable and function names in declaration lists.
1150 In this instance, the "anchor" described in the above example is a type or
1151 class name, and an "item" is a variable or function name.
1152
1153 *** Fontification levels
1154
1155 The variables font-lock-maximum-decoration and font-lock-maximum-size are
1156 extended to specify levels and sizes for specific modes. The variable
1157 font-lock-maximum-decoration specifies the preferred level of fontification for
1158 modes that provide multiple levels (typically from "subdued" to "gaudy"). The
1159 variable font-lock-maximum-size specifies the buffer size for which buffer
1160 fontification is suppressed when Font Lock mode is turned on (typically because
1161 it would take too long).
1162
1163 These variables can now specify values for individual modes, by supplying
1164 lists of mode names and values. For example, to use the above mentioned level
1165 3 decoration for buffers in C/C++ modes, and default decoration otherwise, put:
1166
1167 (setq font-lock-maximum-decoration '((c-mode . 3) (c++-mode . 3)))
1168
1169 in your ~/.emacs. Maximum buffer size values for individual modes are
1170 specified in the same way with the variable font-lock-maximum-size.
1171
1172 *** Font Lock configuration
1173
1174 The mechanism to provide default settings for Font Lock mode are the variables
1175 font-lock-defaults and font-lock-maximum-decoration. Typically, you should
1176 only need to change the value of font-lock-maximum-decoration. However, to
1177 support Font Lock mode for buffers in modes that currently do not support Font
1178 Lock mode, you should set a buffer local value of font-lock-defaults for that
1179 mode, typically via its mode hook.
1180
1181 These variables are used by Font Lock mode to set the values of the variables
1182 font-lock-keywords, font-lock-keywords-only, font-lock-syntax-table,
1183 font-lock-beginning-of-syntax-function and font-lock-keywords-case-fold-search.
1184
1185 You need not set these variables directly, and should not set them yourself
1186 since the underlining mechanism may change in future.
1187
1188 ** Archive mode is now the default mode for various sorts of
1189 archive files (files whose names end with .arc, .lzh, .zip, and .zoo).
1190
1191 ** You can automatically update the years in copyright notice by
1192 means of (add-hook 'write-file-hooks 'copyright-update).
1193 Optionally it can update the GPL version as well.
1194
1195 ** Scripts of various languages (Shell, AWK, Perl, makefiles ...) can
1196 be automatically provided with a magic number and be made executable
1197 by their respective modes under control of various user variables.
1198 The mode must call (executable-set-magic "perl") or
1199 (executable-set-magic "make" "-f"). The latter for example has no
1200 effect on [Mm]akefile.
1201
1202 ** Shell script mode now supports over 15 different shells. The new
1203 command C-c ! executes the region, and optionally beginning of script
1204 as well, by passing them to the shell.
1205
1206 Cases such as `sh' being a `bash' are now accounted for.
1207 Fontification now also does variables, the magic number and all
1208 builtin commands. Shell script mode no longer mingles `tab-width' and
1209 indentation style. The variable `sh-tab-width' has been renamed to
1210 `sh-indentation'. Empty lines are now indented like previous
1211 non-empty line, rather than just previous line.
1212
1213 The annoying $ variable prompting has been eliminated. Instead, shell
1214 script mode uses `comint-dynamic-completion' for commands, variables
1215 and filenames.
1216
1217 ** Two-column mode now automatically scrolls both buffers together,
1218 which makes it possible to eliminate the special scrolling commands
1219 that used to do so.
1220
1221 The commands that operate in two-column mode are no longer bound to
1222 keys outside that mode. f2 o will now position at the same point in
1223 associated buffer.
1224
1225 the new command f2 RET inserts a newline in both buffers, at point and
1226 at the corresponding position in the associated buffer.
1227
1228 ** Skeleton commands now work smoothly as abbrev definitions. The
1229 element < no longer exists, ' is a new element.
1230
1231 ** The autoinsert insert facility for prefilling empty files as soon
1232 as they are found has been extended to accommodate skeletons or calling
1233 functions. See the function auto-insert.
1234
1235 ** TPU-edt Changes
1236
1237 Loading tpu-edt no longer turns on tpu-edt mode. In fact, it is no
1238 longer necessary to explicitly load tpu-edt. All you need to do to
1239 turn on tpu-edt is run the tpu-edt function. Here's how to run
1240 tpu-edt instead of loading the file:
1241
1242 Running Emacs: Type emacs -f tpu-edt
1243 not emacs -l tpu-edt
1244
1245 Within Emacs: Type M-x tpu-edt <ret>
1246 not M-x load-library <ret> tpu-edt <ret>
1247
1248 In .emacs: Use (tpu-edt)
1249 not (load "tpu-edt")
1250
1251 The default name of the tpu-edt X key definition file has changed from
1252 ~/.tpu-gnu-keys to ~/.tpu-keys. If you don't rename the file yourself,
1253 tpu-edt will offer to rename it the first time you invoke it under
1254 x-windows.
1255
1256 ** MS-DOS Enhancements:
1257
1258 *** Better mouse control by adding the following functions [in dosfns.c]
1259 msdos-mouse-enable, msdos-mouse-disable, msdos-mouse-init.
1260
1261 *** If another foreground/background color than the default is setup in
1262 your ~/_emacs, then the screen briefly flickers with the default
1263 colors before changing to the colors you have specified. To avoid
1264 this, the EMACSCOLORS environment variable exists. It shall be
1265 defined as a string with the following elements:
1266
1267 set EMACSCOLORS=fb;fb
1268
1269 The first set of "fb" defines the initial foreground and background
1270 colors using standard dos color numbers (0=black,.., 7=white).
1271 If specified, the second set of "fb" defines the colors which are
1272 restored when you leave emacs.
1273
1274 *** The new SUSPEND environment variable can now be set as the shell to
1275 use when suspending emacs. This can be used to override the stupid
1276 limitation on the environment of sub-shells in MS-DOS (they are just
1277 large enough to hold the currently defined variables, not leaving
1278 room for more); to overcome this limitation, add this to autoexec.bat:
1279
1280 set SUSPEND=%COMSPEC% /E:2000
1281
1282 ** The escape character can now be displayed on X frames. Try
1283 this:
1284 (aset standard-display-table 27 (vector 27))
1285 after first creating a display table (you can do that by loading
1286 the disp-table library).
1287
1288 ** The new command-line option --eval specifies an expression to evaluate
1289 from the command line.
1290
1291 ** etags has now the ability to tag Perl files. They are recognized
1292 either by the .pm and .pl suffixes or by a first line which starts
1293 with `#!' and specifies a Perl interpreter. The tagged lines are
1294 those beginning with the `sub' keyword.
1295
1296 New suffixes recognized are .hpp for C++; .f90 for Fortran; .bib,
1297 .ltx, .TeX for TeX (.bbl, .dtx removed); .ml for Lisp; .prolog for
1298 prolog (.pl is now Perl).
1299
1300 ** The files etc/termcap.dat and etc/termcap.ucb have been replaced
1301 with a new, merged, and much more comprehensive termcap file. The
1302 new file should include all the special entries from the old one.
1303 This new file is under active development as part of the ncurses
1304 project. If you have any questions about this file, or problems with
1305 an entry in it, email terminfo@ccil.org.
1306
1307 \f
1308 * Lisp changes in Emacs 19.30.
1309
1310 ** New Data Types
1311
1312 *** There is a new data type called a char-table which is an array
1313 indexed by a character. Currently this is mostly equivalent to a
1314 vector of length 256, but in the future, when a wider character set is
1315 in use, it will be different. To create one, call
1316 (make-char-table SUBTYPE INITIAL-VALUE)
1317
1318 SUBTYPE is a symbol that identifies the specific use of this
1319 character table. It can be any of these values:
1320
1321 syntax-table
1322 display-table
1323 keyboard-translate-table
1324 case-table
1325
1326 The function `char-table-subtype' returns the subtype of a char-table.
1327 You cannot alter the subtype of an existing char-table.
1328
1329 A char-table has an element for each character code. It also has some
1330 "extra slots". The number of extra slots depends on the subtype and
1331 their use depends on the subtype. (Each subtype symbol has a
1332 `char-table-extra-slots' property that says how many extra slots to
1333 make.) Use (char-table-extra-slot TABLE N) to access extra slot N and
1334 (set-char-table-extra-slot TABLE N VALUE) to store VALUE in slot N.
1335
1336 A char-table T can have a parent, which should be another char-table
1337 P. If you look for the value in T for character C, and the table T
1338 actually holds nil, P's element for character C is used instead.
1339 The functions `char-table-parent' and `set-char-table-parent'
1340 let you read or set the parent of a char-table.
1341
1342 To scan all the values in a char-table, do not try to loop through all
1343 possible character codes. That would work for now, but will not work
1344 in the future. Instead, call map-char-table. (map-char-table
1345 FUNCTION TABLE) calls FUNCTION once for each character or character
1346 set that has a distinct value in TABLE. FUNCTION gets two arguments,
1347 RANGE and VALUE. RANGE specifies a range of TABLE that has one
1348 uniform value, and VALUE is the value in TABLE for that range.
1349
1350 Currently, RANGE is always a vector containing a single character
1351 and it refers to that character alone. In the future, other kinds
1352 of ranges will occur. You can set the value for a given range
1353 with (set-char-table-range TABLE RANGE VALUE) and examine the value
1354 for a range with (char-table-range TABLE RANGE).
1355
1356 *** Syntax tables are now represented as char-tables.
1357 All syntax tables other than the standard syntax table
1358 normally have the standard syntax table as their parent.
1359 Their subtype is `syntax-table'.
1360
1361 *** Display tables are now represented as char-tables.
1362 Their subtype is `display-table'.
1363
1364 *** Case tables are now represented as char-tables.
1365 Their subtype is `case-table'.
1366
1367 *** The value of keyboard-translate-table may now be a char-table
1368 instead of a string. Normally the char-tables used for this purpose
1369 have the subtype `keyboard-translate-table', but that is not required.
1370
1371 *** A new data type called a bool-vector is a vector of values
1372 that are either t or nil. To create one, do
1373 (make-bool-vector LENGTH INITIAL-VALUE)
1374
1375 ** You can now specify, for each marker, how it should relocate when
1376 text is inserted at the place where the marker points. This is called
1377 the "insertion type" of the marker.
1378
1379 To set the insertion type, do (set-marker-insertion-type MARKER TYPE).
1380 If TYPE is t, it means the marker advances when text is inserted. If
1381 TYPE is nil, it means the marker does not advance. (In Emacs 19.29,
1382 markers did not advance.)
1383
1384 The function marker-insertion-type reports the insertion type of a
1385 given marker. The function copy-marker takes a second argument TYPE
1386 which specifies the insertion type of the new copied marker.
1387
1388 ** When you create an overlay, you can specify the insertion type of
1389 the beginning and of the end. To do this, you can use two new
1390 arguments to make-overlay: front-advance and rear-advance.
1391
1392 ** The new function overlays-in returns a list of the overlays that
1393 overlap a specified range of the buffer. The returned list includes
1394 empty overlays at the beginning of this range, as well as within the
1395 range.
1396
1397 ** The new hook window-scroll-functions is run when a window has been
1398 scrolled. The functions in this list are called just before
1399 redisplay, after the new window-start has been computed. Each function
1400 is called with two arguments--the window that has been scrolled, and its
1401 new window-start position.
1402
1403 This hook is useful for on-the-fly fontification and other features
1404 that affect how the redisplayed text will look when it is displayed.
1405
1406 The window-end value of the window is not valid when these functions
1407 are called. The computation of window-end is byproduct of actual
1408 redisplay of the window contents, which means it has not yet happened
1409 when the hook is run. Computing window-end specially in advance for
1410 the sake of these functions would cause a slowdown.
1411
1412 The hook functions can determine where the text on the window will end
1413 by calling vertical-motion starting with the window-start position.
1414
1415 ** The new hook redisplay-end-trigger-functions is run whenever
1416 redisplay in window uses text that extends past a specified end
1417 trigger position. You set the end trigger position with the function
1418 set-window-redisplay-end-trigger. The functions are called with two
1419 arguments: the window, and the end trigger position. Storing nil for
1420 the end trigger position turns off the feature, and the trigger value
1421 is automatically reset to nil just after the hook is run.
1422
1423 You can use the function window-redisplay-end-trigger to read a
1424 window's current end trigger value.
1425
1426 ** The new function insert-file-contents-literally inserts the
1427 contents of a file without any character set translation or decoding.
1428
1429 ** The new function safe-length computes the length of a list.
1430 It never gets an error--it treats any non-list like nil.
1431 If given a circular list, it returns an upper bound for the number
1432 of elements before the circularity.
1433
1434 ** replace-match now takes a fifth argument, SUBEXP. If SUBEXP is
1435 non-nil, that says to replace just subexpression number SUBEXP of the
1436 regexp that was matched, not the entire match. For example, after
1437 matching `foo \(ba*r\)' calling replace-match with 1 as SUBEXP means
1438 to replace just the text that matched `\(ba*r\)'.
1439
1440 ** The new keymap special-event-map defines bindings for certain
1441 events that should be handled at a very low level--as soon as they
1442 are read. The read-event function processes these events itself,
1443 and never returns them.
1444
1445 Events that are handled in this way do not echo, they are never
1446 grouped into key sequences, and they never appear in the value of
1447 last-command-event or (this-command-keys). They do not discard a
1448 numeric argument, they cannot be unread with unread-command-events,
1449 they may not appear in a keyboard macro, and they are not recorded
1450 in a keyboard macro while you are defining one.
1451
1452 These events do, however, appear in last-input-event immediately after
1453 they are read, and this is the way for the event's definition to find
1454 the actual event.
1455
1456 The events types iconify-frame, make-frame-visible and delete-frame
1457 are normally handled in this way.
1458
1459 ** encode-time now supports simple date arithmetic by means of
1460 out-of-range values for its SEC, MINUTE, HOUR, DAY, and MONTH
1461 arguments; for example, day 0 means the day preceding the given month.
1462 Also, the ZONE argument can now be a TZ-style string.
1463
1464 ** command-execute and call-interactively now accept an optional third
1465 argument KEYS. If specified and non-nil, this specifies the key
1466 sequence containing the events that were used to invoke the command.
1467
1468 ** The environment variable NAME, if set, now specifies the value of
1469 (user-full-name), when Emacs starts up.
1470
1471
1472 \f
1473 * User Editing Changes in Emacs 19.29
1474
1475 ** If you run out of memory.
1476
1477 If you get the error message "Virtual memory exhausted", type C-x s.
1478 That way of saving files has the least additional memory needs. Emacs
1479 19.29 keeps a reserve of memory which it makes available when this
1480 error happens; that is to ensure that C-x s can complete its work.
1481
1482 Once you have saved your data, you can exit and restart Emacs, or use
1483 M-x kill-some-buffers to free up space. If you kill buffers
1484 containing a substantial amount of text, you can go on editing.
1485
1486 Do not use M-x buffer-menu to save or kill buffers when you are out of
1487 memory, because that needs a fair amount memory itself and you may not
1488 have enough to get it started.
1489
1490 ** The format of compiled files has changed incompatibly.
1491
1492 Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19.29 normally use a new format
1493 that will not work in older Emacs versions. You can compile files
1494 in the old format if you wish; see "Changes in compilation," below.
1495
1496 ** Emacs 19.29 supports the DEC Alpha.
1497
1498 ** Emacs runs on Windows NT.
1499
1500 This port does not yet support windowing features. It works like a
1501 text-only terminal, but it does support a mouse.
1502
1503 In general, support for non-GNU-like operating systems is not a high
1504 priority for the GNU project. We merged in the support for Windows NT
1505 because that system is expected to be very widely used.
1506
1507 ** Emacs supports Motif widgets.
1508
1509 You can build Emacs with Motif widgets by specifying --with-x-toolkit=motif
1510 when you run configure.
1511
1512 Motif defines collections of windows called "tab groups", and uses the
1513 tab key and the cursor keys to move between windows in a tab group.
1514 Emacs naturally does not support this--it has other uses for the tab
1515 key and cursor keys. Emacs does not support Motif accelerators either,
1516 because it uses its normal keymap event binding features.
1517
1518 We give higher priority to operation with a free widget set than to
1519 operation with a proprietary one.
1520
1521 ** If Emacs or the computer crashes, you can recover all the files you
1522 were editing from their auto save files by typing M-x recover-session.
1523 This first shows you a list of recorded interrupted sessions. Move
1524 point to the one you choose, and type C-c C-c.
1525
1526 Then recover-session asks about each of the files that were being
1527 edited during that session, asking whether to recover that file. If
1528 you answer y, it calls recover-file, which works in its normal
1529 fashion. It shows the dates of the original file and its auto-save
1530 file and asks once again whether to recover that file.
1531
1532 When recover-session is done, the files you've chosen to recover
1533 are present in Emacs buffers. You should then save them.
1534 Only this--saving them--updates the files themselves.
1535
1536 ** Menu bar menus now stay up if you click on the menu bar item and
1537 release the mouse button within a certain amount of time. This is in
1538 the X Toolkit version.
1539
1540 ** The menu bar menus have been rearranged and split up to make for a
1541 better organization. Two new menu bar menus, Tools and Search,
1542 contain items that were formerly in the Files and Edit menus, as well
1543 as some that did not exist in the menu bar menus before.
1544
1545 ** Emacs can now display on more than one X display at the same time.
1546 Use the command make-frame-on-display to create a frame, specifying
1547 which display to use.
1548
1549 ** M-x talk-connect sets up a multi-user talk connection
1550 via Emacs. Specify the X display of the person you want to talk to.
1551 You can talk to any number of people (within reason) by using
1552 this command repeatedly to specify different people.
1553
1554 Emacs does not make a fuss about security; the people who you talk to
1555 can use all Emacs features, including visiting and editing files. If
1556 this frightens you, don't use M-x talk-connect.
1557
1558 ** The range of integer values is now at least 2**28 on all machines.
1559 This means the maximum size of a buffer is at least 2**27-1,
1560 or 134,217,727.
1561
1562 ** When you start Emacs, you can now specify option names in
1563 long GNU form (starting with `--') and you can abbreviate the names.
1564
1565 You can now specify the options in any order.
1566 The previous requirements about the order of options
1567 have been eliminated.
1568
1569 The -L or --directory option lets you specify an additional
1570 directory to search for Lisp libraries (including libraries
1571 that you specify with the -l or --load options).
1572
1573 ** Incremental search in Transient Mark mode, if the mark is already
1574 active, now leaves the mark active and does not change its position.
1575 You can make incremental search deactivate the mark once again with
1576 this expression.
1577
1578 (add-hook 'isearch-mode-hook 'deactivate-mark)
1579
1580 ** C-delete now deletes a word backwards. This is for compatibility
1581 with some editors in the PC world. (This key is not available on
1582 ordinary ASCII terminals, because C-delete is not a distinct character
1583 on those terminals.)
1584
1585 ** ESC ESC ESC is now a command to escape from various temporary modes
1586 and states.
1587
1588 ** M-x pc-bindings-mode sets up bindings compatible with many PC editors.
1589 In particular, Delete and its variants delete forward instead of backward.
1590 Use Backspace to delete backward.
1591
1592 C-Backspace kills backward a word (as C-Delete normally would).
1593 M-Backspace does undo.
1594 Home and End move to beginning and end of line
1595 C-Home and C-End move to beginning and end of buffer.
1596
1597 ** The key sequence for evaluating a Lisp expression using the minibuffer
1598 is now ESC :. It used to be ESC ESC, but we moved it to make way for
1599 the ESC ESC ESC feature, on the grounds that people who evaluate Lisp
1600 expressions are experienced users and can cope with a change.
1601 If you prefer the old ESC ESC binding, put in your `~/.emacs':
1602
1603 (global-set-key "\e\e" 'eval-expression)
1604
1605 ** The f1 function key is now equivalent to the help key. This is
1606 done with key-translation-map; delete the binding for f1 in that map
1607 if you want to use f1 for something else.
1608
1609 ** Mouse-3, in the simplest case, still sets the region. But now, it
1610 places the mark where point was, and sets point where you click.
1611 (It used to set the mark where you click and leave point alone.)
1612
1613 If you position point with Mouse-1, then scroll with the scroll bar
1614 and use Mouse-3, Mouse-3 uses the position you specified with Mouse-1
1615 even if it has scrolled off the screen (and point is no longer there).
1616 This makes it easier to select a region with the mouse which is bigger
1617 than a screenful.
1618
1619 Any editing of the buffer, and any cursor motion or scrolling for any
1620 reason other than the scroll bar, cancels the special state set up by
1621 Mouse-1--so that a subsequent Mouse-3 click will use the actual value
1622 of point.
1623
1624 ** C-mouse-3 now pops up a mode-specific menu of commands--normally
1625 the same ones available in the mode's own menu bar menus.
1626
1627 ** C-mouse-2 now pops up a menu of faces, indentation, justification,
1628 and certain other text properties. This menu is also available
1629 through the menu-bar Edit menu. It is meant for use with Enriched
1630 mode.
1631
1632 *** You can use this menu to change the face of the region.
1633 You can also set the face of the region with the new M-g command.
1634
1635 *** The menu also includes commands for indenting the region,
1636 which locally changes the values of left-margin and fill-column that
1637 are used.
1638
1639 *** All fill functions now indent every line to the left-margin. If
1640 there is also a fill-prefix, that goes after the margin indentation.
1641
1642 *** Open-line and newline also make sure that the lines they create
1643 are indented to the left margin.
1644
1645 *** It also allows you to set the "justification" of the region:
1646 whether it should be centered, flush right, and so forth. The fill
1647 functions (including auto-fill-mode) will maintain the justification
1648 and indentation that you request.
1649
1650 *** The new function `list-colors-display' shows you what colors are
1651 available. This is also accessible from the C-mouse-2 menu.
1652
1653 ** You can now save and load files including their faces and other
1654 text-properties by using Enriched-mode. Files are saved in an
1655 extended version of the MIME text/enriched format. You can use the
1656 menus described above, or M-g and other keyboard commands, to
1657 alter the formatting information.
1658
1659 ** C-mouse-1 now pops up the menu for changing the frame's default font.
1660
1661 ** You can input Hyper, Super, Meta, and Alt characters, as well as
1662 non-ASCII control characters, on an ASCII-only terminal.
1663 To do this, use
1664
1665 C-x @ h -- hyper
1666 C-x @ s -- super
1667 C-x @ m -- meta
1668 C-x @ a -- alt
1669 C-x @ S -- shift
1670 C-x @ c -- control
1671
1672 These are not ordinary key sequences; they operate through
1673 function-key-map, which means they can be used even in the
1674 middle of an ordinary key sequence.
1675
1676 ** Outline minor mode and Hideif mode now use C-c @ as their prefix
1677 character.
1678
1679 ** Echo area messages are now logged in the "*Messages*" buffer. The
1680 size of this buffer is limited to message-log-max lines.
1681
1682 ** RET in various special modes for read-only buffers that contain
1683 lists of items now selects the item point is on. These modes include
1684 Dired, Compilation buffers, Buffer-menu, Tar mode, and Occur mode.
1685 (In Info, RET follows the reference near point; in completion list
1686 buffers, RET chooses the completion around point.)
1687
1688 ** set-background-color now updates the modeline face in a special
1689 way. If that face was previously set up to be reverse video, the
1690 reverse of the default face, then set-background-color updates it so
1691 that it remains the reverse of the default face.
1692
1693 ** The functions raise-frame and lower-frame are now commands.
1694 When used interactively, they apply to the selected frame.
1695
1696 ** M-x buffer-menu now displays the buffer list in the selected window.
1697 Use M-x buffer-menu-other-window to display it in another window.
1698
1699 ** M-w followed by a kill command now *does not* append the text in
1700 the kill ring. In consequence, M-w followed by C-w works as you would
1701 expect: it leaves the top of the kill ring matching the region that
1702 you killed.
1703
1704 ** In Lisp mode, the C-M-x command now executes defvar forms in a
1705 special way: it unconditionally sets the variable to the specified
1706 default value, if there is one. Normal execution of defvar does not
1707 alter the variable if it already has a non-void value.
1708
1709 ** In completion list buffers, the left and right arrow keys run the
1710 new commands previous-completion and next-completion. They move one
1711 completion at a time.
1712
1713 ** While doing completion in the minibuffer, the `prior' or `pageup'
1714 key switches to the completion list window.
1715
1716 ** When you exit the minibuffer with empty contents, the empty string
1717 is not put in the minibuffer history.
1718
1719 ** The default buffer for insert-buffer is now the "first" buffer
1720 other than the current one. If you have more than one window, this
1721 is a buffer visible in another window. (Usually it is the buffer
1722 that C-M-v would scroll.)
1723
1724 ** The etags program is now capable of recording tags based on regular
1725 expressions provided on the command line.
1726
1727 This new feature allows easy support for constructs not normally
1728 handled by etags, such as the macros frequently used in big C/C++
1729 projects to define project-specific structures. It also enables the
1730 use of etags and TAGS files for languages not supported by etags.
1731
1732 The Emacs manual section on Tags contains explanations and examples
1733 for Emacs's DEFVAR, VHDL, Cobol, Postscript and TCL.
1734
1735 ** Various mode-specific commands that used to be bound to C-c LETTER
1736 have been moved.
1737
1738 *** In gnus-uu mode, gnus-uu-interactive-scan-directory is now on C-c C-d,
1739 and gnus-uu-interactive-save-current-file is on C-c C-z.
1740
1741 *** In Scribe mode, scribe-insert-environment is now on C-c C-v,
1742 scribe-chapter is on C-c C-c, scribe-subsection is on C-c C-s,
1743 scribe-section is on C-c C-t, scribe-bracket-region-be is on C-c C-e,
1744 scribe-italicize-word is on C-c C-i, scribe-bold-word is on C-c C-b,
1745 and scribe-underline-word is on C-c C-u.
1746
1747 *** In Gomoku mode, gomoku-human-takes-back is now on C-c C-b,
1748 gomoku-human-plays is on C-c C-p, gomoku-human-resigns is on C-c C-r,
1749 and gomoku-emacs-plays is on C-c C-e.
1750
1751 *** In the Outline mode defined in allout.el,
1752 outline-rebullet-current-heading is now on C-c *.
1753
1754 ** M-s in Info now searches through the nodes of the Info file,
1755 just like s. The alias M-s was added so that you can use the same
1756 command for searches in both Info and Rmail.
1757
1758 ** iso-acc.el now lets you enter inverted-! and inverted-?
1759 with the sequences ~! and ~?.
1760
1761 ** M-x compare-windows now pushes mark in both windows before
1762 it starts moving point.
1763
1764 ** There are two new commands in Dired, A (dired-do-search)
1765 and Q (dired-do-query-replace). These are similar to tags-search and
1766 tags-query-replace, but instead of searching the list of files that
1767 appears in a tags table, they search all the files marked in Dired.
1768
1769 ** Changes to dabbrev.
1770
1771 A new function, `dabbrev-completion' (bound to M-C-/), expands the
1772 unique part of an abbreviation.
1773
1774 Dabbrev now looks for expansions in other buffers, looks for symbols
1775 instead of words and it works in the minibuffer.
1776
1777 Dabbrev can be customized to work for shell scripts, with variables
1778 that sometimes have and sometimes haven't a leading "$". See the
1779 variable 'dabbrev-abbrev-skip-leading-regexp'.
1780
1781 ** In Rmail, the command rmail-input-menu has been eliminated. The
1782 feature of selecting an Rmail file from a menu is now implemented in
1783 another way.
1784
1785 ** Bookmarks changes.
1786
1787 *** It now works to set bookmarks in Info nodes.
1788
1789 *** Bookmarks can have annotations; type "C-h m" after doing
1790 "M-x list-bookmarks", for more information on annotations.
1791
1792 *** The bookmark-jump popup menu function is now `bookmark-menu-jump', for
1793 those who bind it to a mouse click.
1794
1795 *** The default bookmarks file name is now "~/.emacs.bmk". If you
1796 already have a bookmarks file, it will be renamed automagically when
1797 you next load it.
1798
1799 ** New package, ps-print.
1800
1801 The ps-print package generates PostScript printouts of buffers or
1802 regions, and includes face attributes such as color, underlining,
1803 boldface and italics in the printed output.
1804
1805 ** New package, msb.
1806
1807 The msb package provides a buffer-menu in the menubar with separate
1808 menus for different types of buffers.
1809
1810 ** `cpp.el' is a new library that can highlight or hide parts of a C
1811 file according to C preprocessor conditionals. To try it, run the
1812 command M-x cpp-highlight-buffer.
1813
1814 ** Changes in CC mode.
1815
1816 *** c-set-offset and related functions and variables can now accept
1817 variable symbols. Also ++ and -- which mean 2* positive and negative
1818 c-basic-offset respectively.
1819
1820 *** New variable, c-recognize-knr-p, which controls whether K&R C
1821 constructs will be recognized. Trying to recognize K&R constructs is a
1822 time hog so if you're programming strictly in ANSI C, set this
1823 variable to nil (it should already be nil in c++-mode).
1824
1825 *** New variable, c-hanging-comment-ender-p for controlling
1826 c-fill-paragraph's behavior.
1827
1828 *** New syntactic symbol: statement-case-open. This is assigned to lines
1829 containing an open brace just after a case/default label.
1830
1831 *** New variable, c-progress-interval, which controls minibuffer update
1832 message displays during long re-indention. This is a new feature
1833 which prints percentage complete messages at specified intervals.
1834
1835 ** Makefile mode changes.
1836
1837 *** The electric keys are not enabled by default.
1838
1839 *** There is now a mode-specific menu bar menu.
1840
1841 *** The mode supports font-lock, add-log, and imenu.
1842
1843 *** The command M-TAB does completion of target names and variable names.
1844
1845 ** icomplete.el now works more like a minor mode. Use M-x icomplete-mode
1846 to turn it on and off.
1847
1848 Icomplete now supports an `icomplete-minibuffer-setup-hook', which is
1849 run on minibuffer setup whenever icompletion will be occurring. This
1850 hook can be used to customize interoperation of icomplete with other
1851 minibuffer-specific packages, eg rsz-mini. See the doc string for
1852 more info.
1853
1854 ** Ediff change.
1855
1856 Use ediff-revision instead of vc-ediff. It also replaces rcs-ediff,
1857 for those who use that; if you want to use a version control package
1858 other than vc.el, you must set the variable
1859 ediff-version-control-package to specify which package.
1860
1861 ** VC now supports branches with RCS.
1862
1863 You can use C-u C-x C-q to select any branch or version by number.
1864 It reads the version number or branch number with the minibuffer,
1865 then checks out the file unlocked.
1866
1867 Type C-x C-q again to lock the selected branch or version.
1868 When you check in changes to that branch or version, there are two
1869 possibilities:
1870
1871 -- If you've selected a branch, or a version at the tip of a branch,
1872 then the new version adds to that branch. If you wish to create a
1873 new branch, use C-u C-x C-q to specify a version number when you check
1874 in the new version.
1875
1876 -- If you've selected an inner version which is not the latest in its
1877 branch, then the new version automatically creates a new branch.
1878
1879 ** VC now supports CVS as well as RCS and SCCS.
1880
1881 Since there are no locks in CVS, some things behave slightly
1882 different when the backend is CVS. When vc-next-action is invoked
1883 in a directory handled by CVS, it does the following:
1884
1885 If the file is not already registered, this registers it for version
1886 control. This does a "cvs add", but no "cvs commit".
1887 If the file is added but not committed, it is committed.
1888 If the file has not been changed, neither in your working area or
1889 in the repository, a message is printed and nothing is done.
1890 If your working file is changed, but the repository file is
1891 unchanged, this pops up a buffer for entry of a log message; when you
1892 finish the log message with C-c C-c, that checks in the resulting
1893 changes along with the log message as change commentary. A writable
1894 file remains in existence.
1895
1896 If vc-next-action changes the repository file, it asks you
1897 whether to merge in the changes into your working copy.
1898
1899 vc-directory, when started in a CVS file hierarchy, reports
1900 all files that are modified (and thus need to be committed).
1901 (When the backend is RCS or SCCS vc-directory reports all
1902 locked files).
1903
1904 VC has no support for running the initial "cvs checkout" to get a
1905 working copy of a module. You can only use VC in a working copy of
1906 a module.
1907
1908 You can disable the CVS support as follows:
1909
1910 (setq vc-master-templates (delq 'vc-find-cvs-master vc-master-templates))
1911
1912 or by setting vc-handle-cvs to nil.
1913
1914 This may be desirable if you run a non-standard version of CVS, or
1915 if CVS was compiled with FORCE_USE_EDITOR or (possibly)
1916 RELATIVE_REPOS.
1917
1918 ** Comint and shell mode changes:
1919
1920 *** Completion works with file names containing quoted characters.
1921
1922 File names containing special characters (such as " ", "!", etc.) that are
1923 quoted with a "\" character are recognized during completion. Special
1924 characters are quoted when they are inserted during completion.
1925
1926 *** You can use M-x comint-truncate-buffer to truncate the buffer.
1927
1928 When this command is run, the buffer is truncated to a maximum number
1929 of lines, specified by the variable comint-buffer-maximum-size. Just
1930 like the command comint-strip-ctrl-m, this can be run automatically
1931 during process output by doing this:
1932
1933 (add-hook 'comint-output-filter-functions
1934 'comint-truncate-buffer)
1935
1936 ** Telnet mode buffer name changed.
1937
1938 The buffer name for a Telnet buffer is now *telnet-HOST*, not
1939 *HOST-telnet*. This is for consistency with other Emacs packages.
1940
1941 ** M-x man (man) is now faster and more robust. On systems where the
1942 entire man page is indented, the indentation is removed.
1943
1944 The user option names that used to end in -p now end in -flag. The
1945 new names are: Man-reuse-okay-flag, Man-downcase-section-letters-flag,
1946 Man-circular-pages-flag. The Man-notify user option has been renamed to
1947 Man-notify-method and accepts one more value, `pushy', that just
1948 switches the current buffer to the manpage buffer, without switching
1949 frames nor changing your windows configuration.
1950
1951 A new user option Man-fontify-manpage-flag disables fontification
1952 (thus speeding up man) when set to nil. Default is to fontify if a
1953 window system is used. Two new user options Man-overstrike-face
1954 (default 'bold) and Man-underline-face (default 'underline) can be set
1955 to the preferred faces to be used for the words that man overstrikes
1956 and underlines. Useful for those who like colored man pages.
1957
1958 Two new interactive functions are provided: Man-cleanup-manpage and
1959 Man-fontify-manpage. Both can be used on a buffer that contains the
1960 output of a `rsh host man manpage' command, or the output of an
1961 `nroff -man -Tman manpage' command to make them readable.
1962 Man-cleanup-manpage is faster, but does not fontify.
1963
1964 ** The new function modify-face makes it easy to specify
1965 all the attributes of a face, all at once.
1966
1967 ** Faces now support background stippling.
1968
1969 Use the command set-face-stipple to specify the stipple-pattern for a
1970 face. Use face-stipple to access the specified stipple pattern. The
1971 existing face functions now handle the stipple pattern when
1972 appropriate.
1973
1974 If you specify one of the standard gray colors as a face background
1975 color, and your display doesn't handle gray, Emacs automatically uses
1976 stipple instead to get the same effect.
1977
1978 ** Changes in Font Lock mode.
1979
1980 *** Fontification
1981
1982 Two new default faces are provided; `font-lock-variable-name-face' and
1983 `font-lock-reference-face'. The face `font-lock-doc-string-face' has
1984 been removed since it is the same as the existing
1985 `font-lock-string-face'. Where appropriate, fontification
1986 automatically uses these new faces.
1987
1988 Fontification via commands `font-lock-mode' and
1989 `font-lock-fontify-buffer' is now cleanly interruptible (i.e., with
1990 C-g). If you interrupt during the fontification process, the buffer
1991 remains in its previous modified state and all highlighting is removed
1992 from the buffer.
1993
1994 For C/C++ modes, Font Lock mode is much faster but highlights much
1995 more. Other modes are faster/more extensive/more discriminatory, or a
1996 combination of these.
1997
1998 To enable Font Lock mode, add the new function `turn-on-font-lock' in
1999 one of the following ways:
2000
2001 (add-hook 'c-mode-hook 'turn-on-font-lock)
2002
2003 Or for any visited file with:
2004
2005 (add-hook 'find-file-hooks 'turn-on-font-lock)
2006
2007 *** Supports color and grayscale displays
2008
2009 Font Lock mode supports different ways of highlighting, depending on
2010 the type of display and background shade. Attributes (face color,
2011 bold, italic and underline, and display type and background mode) can
2012 be controlled either from Emacs Lisp or X resources.
2013
2014 See the new variables `font-lock-display-type' and
2015 `font-lock-face-attributes'.
2016
2017 *** Supports more modes
2018
2019 The following modes are directly supported:
2020
2021 ada-mode, asm-mode, bibtex-mode, c++-c-mode, c++-mode, c-mode,
2022 change-log-mode, compilation-mode, dired-mode, emacs-lisp-mode,
2023 fortran-mode, latex-mode, lisp-mode, mail-mode, makefile-mode,
2024 outline-mode, pascal-mode, perl-mode, plain-tex-mode, rmail-mode,
2025 rmail-summary-mode, scheme-mode, shell-mode, slitex-mode, tex-mode,
2026 texinfo-mode.
2027
2028 See the new variables `font-lock-defaults-alist' and
2029 `font-lock-defaults'.
2030
2031 Some modes support different levels of fontification. You can choose
2032 to use the minimum or maximum available decoration by changing the
2033 value of the new variable `font-lock-maximum-decoration'.
2034
2035 Programmers are urged to make available to the community their own
2036 keywords for modes not yet supported. See font-lock.el for
2037 information about efficiency.
2038
2039 *** fast-lock
2040
2041 The fast-lock package speeds up Font Lock mode by saving font choices
2042 in associated cache files. When you visit a file with Font Lock mode
2043 and Fast Lock mode turned on for the first time, the file's buffer is
2044 fontified as normal. When certain events occur (such as exiting
2045 Emacs), Fast Lock saves the highlighting in a cache file. When you
2046 subsequently visit this file, its cache is used to restore the
2047 highlighting.
2048
2049 To use this package, put in your `~/.emacs':
2050
2051 (add-hook 'font-lock-mode-hook 'turn-on-fast-lock)
2052
2053 To control the use of caches, see the documentation for `fast-lock-mode'.
2054
2055 ** You can tell pop-to-buffer to display certain buffers in the selected
2056 window rather than finding some other window to display them in.
2057 There are two variables you can use to specify these buffers.
2058
2059 same-window-buffer-names holds a list of buffer names; if a buffer's
2060 name appears in this list, pop-to-buffer puts it in the selected window.
2061
2062 same-window-regexps holds a list of regexps--if any one of them
2063 matches a buffer's name, then pop-to-buffer puts that buffer in the
2064 selected window.
2065
2066 The default values of these variables are not nil: they list various
2067 buffers that normally appear, when you as for them, in the selected
2068 window. These include shell buffers, mail buffers, telnet buffers,
2069 and others. By removing elements from these variables, you can ask
2070 Emacs to display those buffers in separate windows.
2071
2072 ** The special-display-buffer-names and special-display-regexps lists
2073 have been generalized. An element may now be a list. The car of the list
2074 is the buffer name or regular expression for matching buffer names.
2075
2076 The cdr of the list can be an alist specifying additional frame
2077 parameters for use in constructing the special display frame.
2078
2079 Alternatively, the cdr can have this form:
2080
2081 (FUNCTION ARGS...)
2082
2083 where FUNCTION is a symbol. Then the frame is constructed by calling
2084 FUNCTION; its first argument is the buffer, and its remaining
2085 arguments are ARGS.
2086
2087 ** If the environment variable REPLYTO is set, its value is the default
2088 for mail-default-reply-to.
2089
2090 ** When you send a message in Emacs, if you specify an Rmail file with
2091 the FCC: header field, Emacs converts the message to Rmail format
2092 before writing it. Thus, the file never contains anything but Rmail
2093 format messages.
2094
2095 ** The new variable mail-from-style controls whether the From: header
2096 should include the sender's full name, and if so, which format to use.
2097
2098 ** The new variable mail-personal-alias-file specifies the name of the
2099 user's personal aliases. This defaults to the file ~/.mailrc.
2100 mailabbrev.el used to have its own variable for this purpose
2101 (mail-abbrev-mailrc-file). That variable is no longer used.
2102
2103 ** In Buffer-Menu mode, the d and C-d commands (which mark buffers for
2104 deletion) now accept a prefix argument which serves as a repeat count.
2105
2106 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
2107
2108 *** Reference keys can now be entered with TAB completion. All
2109 reference keys defined in that buffer and all labels that appear in
2110 crossreference entries are object to completion.
2111
2112 *** Braces are supported as field delimiters in addition to quotes.
2113 BibTeX entries may have brace-delimited and quote-delimited fields
2114 intermixed. The delimiters generated for new entries are specified by
2115 the variables bibtex-field-left-delimiter and
2116 bibtex-field-right-delimiter on a buffer-local basis. Those variables
2117 default to braces, since it is easier to put quote accented characters
2118 (as the german umlauts) into a brace-delimited entry.
2119
2120 *** The function bibtex-clean-entry can now be invoked with a prefix
2121 argument. In this case, a label is automatically generated from
2122 various fields in the record. If bibtex-clean-entry is invoked on a
2123 record without label, a label is also generated automatically.
2124 Various variables (all beginning with `bibtex-autokey-') control the
2125 creation of that key. The variable bibtex-autokey-edit-before-use
2126 determines, if the user is allowed to edit auto-generated reference
2127 keys before they are used.
2128
2129 *** A New function bibtex-complete-string completes strings with
2130 respect to the strings defined in this buffer and a set of predefined
2131 strings (initialized to the string macros defined in the standard
2132 BibTeX style files) in the same way in which ispell-complete-word
2133 works with respect to words in a dictionary. Candidates for
2134 bibtex-complete-string are initialized from variable
2135 bibtex-predefined-strings and by parsing the files found in
2136 bibtex-string-files for @String definitions.
2137
2138 *** Every reference/field pair has now attached a comment which
2139 appears in the echo area when this field is edited. These comments
2140 should provide useful hints for BibTeX usage, especially for BibTeX
2141 beginners. New variable bibtex-help-message determines if these help
2142 messages are to appear in the minibuffer when moving to a text entry.
2143
2144 *** Inscriptions of menu bar changed from "Entry Types" to
2145 "Entry-Types" and "Bibtex Edit" to "BibTeX-Edit".
2146
2147 *** The variable bibtex-include-OPTcrossref is now not longer a binary
2148 switch but a list of reference names which should contain a crossref
2149 field. E.g., you can tell bibtex-mode you want a crossref field for
2150 @InProceedings and @InBook entries but for no other.
2151
2152 *** The function validate-bibtex-buffer was completely rewritten to
2153 validate if a buffer is syntactically correct. find-bibtex-duplicates
2154 is no longer a function itself but was moved into
2155 validate-bibtex-buffer.
2156
2157 *** Cleaning a BibTeX entry tests, if necessary fields are there.
2158 E.g., if you tell bibtex-mode to include a crossref entry, some fields
2159 are optional which would be required without the crossref entry. If
2160 you now leave the crossref entry empty and do a bibtex-clean-entry
2161 with some now required fields left empty, version 2.0 of bibtex.el
2162 complains about the absence of these fields, whereas version 1.3
2163 didn't.
2164
2165 *** Default value for variables bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries and
2166 bibtex-sort-ignore-string-entries is now t.
2167
2168 *** All interactive functions are renamed to begin with `bibtex-'.
2169
2170 *** Keybindings with \C-c\C-e entry changed for unification. Often
2171 used reference types are now on control-modified keys, mediocre used
2172 types are on unmodified keys, seldom used types are on shift-modified
2173 keys and almost never used types on meta-modified keys.
2174
2175 \f
2176 * Configuration Changes in Emacs 19.29
2177
2178 ** Emacs now uses directory /usr/local/share for most of its installed
2179 files. This follows a GNU convention for directory usage.
2180
2181 ** The option --with-x11 is no longer supported.
2182 X11 is the only version of X that Emacs 19.29 supports;
2183 use --with-x if you need to request X support explicitly.
2184 (Normally this should not be necessary, since configure should
2185 automatically enable X support if X is installed on your machine.)
2186
2187 ** If you use the site-init.el file to set the variable
2188 mail-host-address to a string in the dumped Emacs, that string becomes
2189 the default host address for initializing user-mail-address.
2190 It is used instead of the value of (system-name).
2191
2192 \f
2193 * Lisp-Level Changes in Emacs 19.29
2194
2195 ** Basic Lisp
2196
2197 *** The range of integer values is now at least 2**28 on all machines.
2198 This means the maximum size of a buffer is at least 2**27-1,
2199 or 134,217,727.
2200
2201 *** You can now use Common Lisp syntax for the backquote and comma
2202 macros. Thus, you can now write `(x ,y z) instead of (` (x (, y) z)).
2203
2204 The old syntax is still accepted.
2205
2206 *** The new function rassoc is like assoc, except that it compares the
2207 key against the cdr of each alist element, where assoc would compare
2208 it against the car of each alist element.
2209
2210 *** The new function unintern deletes a symbol from an obarray. The
2211 first argument can be the symbol to delete, or a string giving its
2212 name. The second argument specifies the obarray (nil means the
2213 current default obarray).
2214
2215 If the specified symbol is not in the obarray, or if there's no symbol
2216 in the obarray matching the specified string, unintern does nothing
2217 and returns nil. If it does delete a symbol, it returns t.
2218
2219 *** You can specify an alternative read function for use by load and
2220 eval-region by binding the variable load-read-function to some other
2221 function. This function should accept one argument just like read.
2222 If load-read-function is nil, load and eval-region use ordinary read.
2223
2224 *** The new function `type-of' takes any object as argument, and
2225 returns a symbol identifying the type of that object--one of `symbol',
2226 `integer', `float', `string', `cons', `vector', `marker', `overlay',
2227 `window', `buffer', `subr', `compiled-function',
2228 `window-configuration', `process'.
2229
2230 *** When you use eval-after-load for a file that is already loaded, it
2231 executes the FORM right away. As before, if the file is not yet
2232 loaded, it arranges to execute FORM if and when the file is loaded
2233 later. The result is: if you have called eval-after-load for a file,
2234 and if that file has been loaded, then regardless of the order of
2235 these two events, the specified form has been evaluated.
2236
2237 *** The Lisp construct #@NUMBER now skips the next NUMBER characters,
2238 treating them as a comment.
2239
2240 You would not want to use this in a file you edit by hand, but it is
2241 useful for commenting out parts of machine-generated files.
2242
2243 *** Two new functions, `plist-get' and `plist-put',
2244 allow you to modify and retrieve values from lists formatted as property-lists.
2245 They work like `get' and `put', but operate on any list.
2246 `plist-put' returns the modified property-list; you must store it
2247 back where you got it.
2248
2249 *** The new function add-to-list is called with two elements,
2250 a variable that holds a list and a new element.
2251 It adds the element to the list unless it is already present.
2252 It compares elements using `equal'. Here is an example:
2253
2254 (setq foo '(a b)) => (a b)
2255
2256 (add-to-list 'foo 'c) => (c a b)
2257
2258 (add-to-list 'foo 'b) => (c a b)
2259
2260 foo => (c a b)
2261
2262 ** Changes in compilation.
2263
2264 Functions and variables loaded from a byte-compiled file
2265 now refer to the file for their doc strings.
2266
2267 This has a few consequences:
2268
2269 -- Loading the file is faster and uses less memory.
2270 -- Reference to doc strings is a little slower (the same speed
2271 as reference to the doc strings of primitive and preloaded functions).
2272 -- The compiled files will not work in old versions of Emacs.
2273 -- If you move the compiled file after loading it, Emacs can no longer
2274 find these doc strings.
2275 -- If you alter the compiled file (such as by compiling a new
2276 version), then further access to documentation strings will get
2277 nonsense results.
2278
2279 The byte compiler now optionally supports lazy loading of compiled
2280 functions' definitions. If you enable this feature when you compile,
2281 loading the compiled file does not actually bring the function
2282 definitions into core. Instead it creates references to the compiled
2283 file, and brings each function's definition into core the first time
2284 you call that function, or when you force it with the new function
2285 `fetch-bytecode'.
2286
2287 Using the lazy loading feature has a few consequences:
2288
2289 -- Loading the file is faster and uses less memory.
2290 -- Calling any function in the file for the first time is slower.
2291 -- If you move the compiled file after loading it, Emacs can no longer
2292 find the function definitions.
2293 -- If you alter the compiled file (such as by compiling a new
2294 version), then further access to functions not already loaded
2295 will get nonsense results.
2296
2297 To enable the lazy loading feature, set up a non-nil file local
2298 variable binding for the variable `byte-compile-dynamic' in the Lisp
2299 source file. For example, put this on the first line:
2300
2301 -*-byte-compile-dynamic: t;-*-
2302
2303 It's a good idea to use the lazy loading feature for a file that
2304 contains many functions, most of which are not actually used by a
2305 given user in a given session.
2306
2307 To turn off the basic feature of referring to the file for doc
2308 strings, set byte-compile-dynamic-docstrings to nil. You can do this
2309 globally, or for one source file by adding this to the first line:
2310
2311 -*-byte-compile-dynamic-docstrings: nil;-*-
2312
2313 ** Strings
2314
2315 *** Do not pass integer arguments to `concat' (or `vconcat' or
2316 `append'). We are phasing out the old unrecommended support for
2317 integers as arguments to these functions, in preparation for treating
2318 numbers as single characters in a future release. To concatenate
2319 numbers in string form, use `number-to-string' first, or rewrite the
2320 call to use `format' instead of `concat'.
2321
2322 *** The new function match-string returns the string of text matched at
2323 the given parenthesized expression by the last regexp search, or nil
2324 if there was no match. If the last match was by `string-match' on a
2325 string, the string must be given. Therefore, this function can be
2326 used in place of `buffer-substring' and `substring', when using
2327 `match-beginning' and `match-end' to find match positions.
2328
2329 (match-string N) or (match-string N STRING)
2330
2331 *** The function replace-match now accepts an optional fourth argument,
2332 STRING. Use this after performing string-match on STRING, to replace
2333 the portion of STRING that was matched. When used in this way,
2334 replace-match returns a newly created string which is the same as
2335 STRING except for the matched portion.
2336
2337 *** The new function buffer-substring-no-properties
2338 is like buffer-substring except that the string it returns
2339 has no text properties.
2340
2341 *** The function `equal' now considers two strings to be different
2342 if they don't have the same text properties.
2343
2344 ** Completion
2345
2346 *** all-completions now takes an optional fourth argument.
2347 If that argument is non-nil, completions that start with a space
2348 are ignored unless the initial string also starts with a space.
2349 (This used to happen unconditionally.)
2350
2351 ** Local Variables
2352
2353 *** Local hook variables.
2354
2355 There is now a clean way to give a hook variable a buffer-local value.
2356 Call the function `make-local-hook' to do this.
2357
2358 Once a hook variable is buffer-local, you can add hooks to it either
2359 globally or locally. run-hooks runs the local hook functions
2360 of the current buffer, then all the global hook functions.
2361
2362 The functions add-hook and remove-hook take an additional optional
2363 argument LOCAL which says whether to add (or remove) a local hook
2364 function or a global one.
2365
2366 Local hooks use t as an element of the (local) value of the hook
2367 variable as a flag meaning to use the global value also.
2368
2369 *** The new function local-variable-p tells you whether a particular
2370 variable is buffer-local in the current buffer or a specified buffer.
2371
2372 ** Editing Facilities
2373
2374 *** The function copy-region-as-kill no longer sets this-command;
2375 as a result, a following kill command will not normally append
2376 to the text saved by copy-region-as-kill.
2377
2378 *** Regular expression searching and matching no longer performs full
2379 Posix backtracking by default. They now stop with the first match found
2380 instead of looking for the longest match--just as they did in Emacs 18.
2381 The reason for this change is to get higher speed.
2382
2383 There are new functions you can use if you really want to search or
2384 match with Posix behavior: posix-search-forward,
2385 posix-search-backward, posix-looking-at, and posix-string-match. Call
2386 these just like re-search-forward, re-search-backward, looking-at, and
2387 string-match.
2388
2389 ** Files
2390
2391 *** The new variable `format-alist' defines file formats,
2392 which are ways of translating between the data in a file and things
2393 (text, text-properties, and possibly other information) in a buffer.
2394
2395 `format-alist' has one element for each format. Each element is a
2396 list like this:
2397 (NAME DOC-STRING REGEXP FROM-FN TO-FN MODIFY MODE-FN)
2398 containing the name of the format, a documentation string, a regular
2399 expression which is used to recognize files in that format, a decoding
2400 function, an encoding function, a flag that indicates whether the
2401 encoding function modifies the buffer, and a mode function.
2402
2403 FROM-FN is called to decode files in that format; it gets two args, BEGIN
2404 and END, and can make any modifications it likes, returning the new
2405 end position. It must make sure that the beginning of the file no
2406 longer matches REGEXP, or else it will get called again.
2407 TO-FN is called to encode a region into that format; it is also passed BEGIN
2408 and END, and either returns a list of annotations as in
2409 `write-region-annotate-functions', or modifies the region and returns
2410 the new end position.
2411 MODIFY, if non-nil, means the TO-FN modifies the region. If nil, TO-FN may
2412 not make any changes and should return a list of annotations.
2413
2414 `insert-file-contents' checks the beginning of the file that it is
2415 inserting to see if it matches one of the regexps. If so, then it
2416 calls the decoding function, and then looks for another match. When
2417 visiting a file, it also calls the mode function, and sets the
2418 variable `buffer-file-format' to the list of formats that the file
2419 used.
2420
2421 `write-region' calls the encoding functions for each format in
2422 `buffer-file-format' before it writes the file. To save a file in a
2423 different format, either set `buffer-file-format' to a different
2424 value, or call the new function `format-write-file'.
2425
2426 Since some encoding functions may be slow, you can request that
2427 auto-save use a format different from the buffer's default by setting
2428 the variable `auto-save-file-format' to the desired format. This will
2429 determine the format of all auto-save files.
2430
2431 *** The new function file-ownership-preserved-p tells you whether
2432 deleting a file and recreating it would keep the file's owner
2433 unchanged.
2434
2435 *** The new function file-regular-p returns t if a file
2436 is a "regular" file (not a directory, symlink, named pipe,
2437 terminal, or other I/O device).
2438
2439 *** The new function file-name-sans-extension discards the extension
2440 of a file name. You call it with a file name, and returns a string
2441 lacking the extension.
2442
2443 *** The variable path-separator is a string which says which
2444 character separates directories in a search path. It is ":"
2445 for Unix and GNU systems, ";" for MSDOG and Windows NT.
2446
2447 ** Commands and Key Sequences
2448
2449 *** Key sequences consisting of C-c followed by {, }, <, >, : or ; are
2450 now reserved for major modes. Sequences consisting of C-c followed by
2451 any other punctuation character are now meant for minor modes. We don't
2452 plan to convert all existing major modes to stop using those sequences,
2453 but we hope to keep them to a minimum.
2454
2455 *** When the post-command-hook or the pre-command-hook gets an error, the error
2456 is silently ignored. Emacs no longer sets the hook variable to nil when this
2457 happens. Meanwhile, the hook functions can now alter the hook variable in
2458 a normal fashion; there is no need to do anything special.
2459
2460 *** define-key, lookup-key, and various other functions for changing or
2461 looking up key bindings now let you write an event type with a list
2462 like (ctrl meta newline) or (meta ?d), as in XEmacs. (ctrl meta newline)
2463 is equivalent to the event type symbol C-M-newline, and (meta ?d)
2464 is equivalent to the character ?\M-d.
2465
2466 *** The function event-convert-list converts a list such as
2467 (meta ?d) into the corresponding event type (a symbol or integer).
2468
2469 *** In an interactive spec, `k' means to read a key sequence. In this
2470 key sequence, upper case characters and shifted function keys which
2471 have no bindings are converted to lower case if that makes them
2472 defined.
2473
2474 The new interactive code `K' reads a key sequence similarly, but does
2475 not convert the last event. `K' is useful for reading a key sequence
2476 to be given a binding.
2477
2478 *** The variable overriding-local-map now has no effect on the menu bar
2479 display unless overriding-local-map-menu-flag is non-nil. This is why
2480 incremental search no longer temporarily changes the menu bars.
2481
2482 Note that overriding-local-map does still affect the execution of key
2483 sequences entered using the menu bar. So if you use
2484 overriding-local-map, and a menu bar key sequence comes in, you should
2485 make sure to clear overriding-local-map before that key sequence gets
2486 looked up and executed. But this is what you'd normally do anyway:
2487 programs that use overriding-local-map normally exit and "put back"
2488 any event such as menu-bar that they do not handle specially.
2489
2490 *** The new variable `overriding-terminal-local-map' is like
2491 overriding-local-map, but is specific to a single terminal.
2492
2493 *** delete-frame events.
2494
2495 When you use the X window manager's "delete window" command, this now
2496 generates a delete-frame event. The standard definition of this event
2497 is a command that deletes the frame that received the event, and kills
2498 Emacs when the last visible or iconified frame is deleted. You can
2499 rebind the event to some other command if you wish.
2500
2501 *** Two new types of events, iconify-frame and make-frame-visible,
2502 indicate that the user iconified or deiconified a frame with the
2503 window manager. Since the window manager has already done the work,
2504 the default definition for both event types in Emacs is to do nothing.
2505
2506 ** Frames and X
2507
2508 *** Certain Lisp variables are now local to an X terminal (in other
2509 words, all the screens of a single X server). The value in effect, at
2510 any given time, is the one that belongs to the terminal of the
2511 selected frame. The terminal-local variables are
2512 default-minibuffer-frame, system-key-alist, defining-kbd-macro, and
2513 last-kbd-macro. There is no way for Lisp programs to create others.
2514
2515 The terminal-local variables cannot be buffer-local.
2516
2517 *** When you create an X frame, for the `top' and `left' frame
2518 parameters, you can now use values of the form (+ N) or (- N), where N
2519 is an integer. (+ N) means N pixels to the right of the left edge of
2520 the screen and (- N) means N pixels to the left of the right edge. In
2521 both cases, N may be zero (exactly at the edge) or negative (putting
2522 the window partly off the screen).
2523
2524 The function x-parse-geometry can return values of these forms
2525 for certain inputs.
2526
2527 *** The variable menu-bar-file-menu has been renamed to
2528 menu-bar-files-menu to match the actual item that appears in the menu.
2529 (All the other such variable names do match.)
2530
2531 *** The new function active-minibuffer-window returns the minibuffer window
2532 currently active, or nil if none is now active.
2533
2534 *** In the functions next-window, previous-window, next-frame,
2535 previous-frame, get-buffer-window, get-lru-window, get-largest-window
2536 and delete-windows-on, if you specify 0 for the last argument,
2537 it means to consider all visible and iconified frames.
2538
2539 *** When you set a frame's cursor type with modify-frame-parameters,
2540 you can now specify (bar . INTEGER) as the cursor type. This stands
2541 for a bar cursor of width INTEGER.
2542
2543 *** The new function facep returns t if its argument is a face name
2544 (or if it is a vector such as is used internally by the Lisp code
2545 to represent a face).
2546
2547 *** Each frame can now have a buffer-predicate function,
2548 which is the `buffer-predicate' frame parameter.
2549 When `other-buffer' looks for an alternative buffer, it considers
2550 only the buffers that fit the selected frame's buffer predicate (if it
2551 has one). This is useful for applications that make their own frames.
2552
2553 *** When you create an X frame, you can now specify the frame parameter
2554 `display'. This says which display to put the frame on. The value
2555 should be a display name--a string of the form
2556 "HOST:DPYNUMBER.SCREENNUMBER".
2557
2558 The functions x-server-... and x-display-... now take an optional
2559 argument which specifies the display to ask about. You can use either
2560 a display name string or a frame. A value of nil stands for the
2561 selected frame.
2562
2563 To close the connection to an X display, use the function
2564 x-close-connection. Specify which display with a display name. You
2565 cannot close the connection if Emacs still has frames open on that
2566 display.
2567
2568 x-display-list returns a list indicating which displays Emacs has
2569 connections to. Its elements are display names (strings).
2570
2571 *** The icon-type frame parameter may now be a file name.
2572 Then the contents of that file specify the icon bitmap to use
2573 for that frame.
2574
2575 *** The title of an Emacs frame, displayed by most window managers, is
2576 set from frame-title-format or icon-title-format. These have the same
2577 structure as mode-line-format.
2578
2579 *** x-display-grayscale-p is a new function that returns non-nil if
2580 your X server can display shades of gray. Currently it returns
2581 non-nil for color displays (because they can display shades of gray);
2582 we may change it in the next version to return nil for color displays.
2583
2584 *** The frame parameter scroll-bar-width specifies the width of the
2585 scrollbar in pixels.
2586
2587 ** Buffers
2588
2589 *** Creating a buffer with get-buffer-create does not obey
2590 default-major-mode. That variable is now handled in a separate
2591 function, set-buffer-major-mode. get-buffer-create and generate-new-buffer
2592 always leave the newly created buffer in Fundamental mode.
2593
2594 Creating a new buffer by visiting a file or with switch-to-buffer,
2595 pop-to-buffer, and similar functions does call set-buffer-major-mode
2596 to select the default major mode specified with default-major-mode.
2597
2598 *** You can now create an "indirect buffer". An indirect buffer shares
2599 its text, including text properties, with another buffer (the "base
2600 buffer"), but has its own major mode, local variables, overlays, and
2601 narrowing. An indirect buffer has a name of its own, distinct from
2602 those of the base buffer and all other buffers. An indirect buffer
2603 cannot itself be visiting a file (though its base buffer can be).
2604 The base buffer cannot itself be indirect.
2605
2606 Use (make-indirect-buffer BASE-BUFFER NAME) to make an indirect buffer
2607 named NAME whose base is BASE-BUFFER. If BASE-BUFFER is an indirect
2608 buffer, its base buffer is used as the base for the new buffer.
2609
2610 You can make an indirect buffer current, or switch to it in a window,
2611 just as you would a non-indirect buffer.
2612
2613 The function buffer-base-buffer, given an indirect buffer, returns its
2614 base buffer. It returns nil when given an ordinary buffer (not
2615 indirect).
2616
2617 The library `noutline' has versions of Outline mode and Outline minor
2618 mode which let you display different parts of the outline in different
2619 indirect buffers.
2620
2621 ** Subprocesses
2622
2623 *** The functions call-process and call-process-region now allow
2624 you to direct error message output from the subprocess into a
2625 separate destination, instead of mixing it with ordinary output.
2626 To do this, specify for the third argument, BUFFER, a list of the form
2627 (BUFFER-OR-NAME ERROR-DESTINATION)
2628 BUFFER-OR-NAME specifies where to put ordinary output; it should
2629 be a buffer or buffer name, or t, nil or 0. This is what would
2630 have been the BUFFER argument, ordinarily.
2631
2632 ERROR-DESTINATION specifies where to put the error output.
2633 nil means discard it, t means mix it with the ordinary output,
2634 and a string specifies a file name to write this output into.
2635
2636 You can't specify a buffer to put the error output in; that is not
2637 easy to implement directly. You can put the error output into a
2638 buffer by sending it to a temporary file and then inserting the file
2639 into a buffer.
2640
2641 *** Comint mode changes:
2642
2643 **** The variable comint-completion-addsuffix can also be a cons pair
2644 of the form (DIRSUFFIX . FILESUFFIX), where DIRSUFFIX and FILESUFFIX are
2645 strings added on unambiguous or exact completion of directories and file
2646 names, respectively.
2647
2648 ** Text properties
2649
2650 *** You can now specify which values of the `invisible' property
2651 make text invisible in a given buffer. The variable
2652 `buffer-invisibility-spec', which is always local in all buffers,
2653 controls this.
2654
2655 If its value is t, then any non-nil `invisible' property makes
2656 a character invisible.
2657
2658 If its value is a list, then a character is invisible if its
2659 `invisible' property value appears as a member of the list, or if it
2660 appears as the car of a member of the list.
2661
2662 When the `invisible' property value appears as the car of a member of
2663 the `buffer-invisibility-spec' list, then the cdr of that member has
2664 an effect. If it is non-nil, then an ellipsis appears in place of the
2665 character. (This happens only for the *last* invisible character in a
2666 series of consecutive invisible characters, and only at the end of a
2667 line.)
2668
2669 If a character's `invisible' property is a list, then Emacs checks each
2670 element of the list against `buffer-invisibility-spec'. If any element
2671 matches, the character is invisible.
2672
2673 *** The command `list-text-properties-at' shows what text properties
2674 are in effect at point.
2675
2676 *** Frame objects now exist in Emacs even on systems that don't support
2677 X Windows. You can create multiple frames, and switch between them
2678 using select-frame. The selected frame is actually displayed on your
2679 terminal; other frames are not displayed at all. The selected frame
2680 number appears in the mode line after `Emacs', except for frame 1.
2681
2682 Switching frames on ASCII terminals is therefore more or less
2683 equivalent to switching between different window configurations.
2684
2685 *** The new variable window-size-change-functions holds a list of
2686 functions to be called if window sizes change (or if windows are
2687 created or deleted). The functions are called once for each frame on
2688 which changes have occurred, with the frame as the sole argument.
2689 This takes place shortly before redisplay.
2690
2691 *** The modification hook functions of overlays now work differently.
2692 They are called both before and after each change. This makes it
2693 possible for the functions to determine exactly what the change was.
2694
2695 This change affects three overlay properties: the modification-hooks
2696 property, a list of functions called for deletions overlapping the
2697 overlay's range and for insertions inside it; the
2698 insert-in-front-hooks, a list of functions called for insertions at
2699 the beginning of the overlay; and the insert-behind-hooks, a list of
2700 functions called for insertions at the end of the overlay.
2701
2702 Each function is called both before and after each change that it
2703 applies to. Before the change, it is called with four arguments:
2704 (funcall FUNCTION OVERLAY nil START END)
2705 START and END are the same arguments that the before-change-functions
2706 receive.
2707
2708 After the change, each function is called with five arguments:
2709 (funcall FUNCTION OVERLAY t START END OLDSIZE)
2710 The last arguments, START and END and OLDSIZE,
2711 are the same arguments that the after-change-functions receive.
2712
2713 This means the function must accept either four or five arguments.
2714
2715 *** You can set defaults for text-properties with the new variable
2716 `default-text-properties'. Its value is a property list; the values
2717 specified there are used whenever a character (or its category) does
2718 not specify a value.
2719
2720 *** The `face' property of a character or an overlay can now be a list
2721 of face names. Formerly it had to be just one face name.
2722
2723 *** Changes in handling the `intangible' text property.
2724
2725 **** If inhibit-point-motion-hooks is non-nil, then `intangible' properties
2726 are ignored.
2727
2728 **** Moving to just before a stretch of intangible text
2729 is no longer special in any way. Point stays at that place.
2730
2731 **** When you move point backwards into the midst of intangible text,
2732 point moves back to the beginning of that text. (It used to move
2733 forward to the end of that text, which was not very useful.)
2734
2735 **** When moving across intangible text, Emacs stops wherever the
2736 property value changes. So if you have two stretches of intangible
2737 text, with different non-nil intangible properties, it is possible to
2738 place point between them.
2739
2740 ** Overlays
2741
2742 *** Overlay changes.
2743
2744 **** The new function previous-overlay-change returns the position of
2745 the previous overlay start or end, before a specified position. This
2746 is the backwards-moving counterpart of next-overlay-change.
2747
2748 **** overlay-get now supports category properties on an overlay
2749 the same way get-text-property supports them as text properties.
2750
2751 Specifically, if an overlay does not have the property PROP that you
2752 ask for, but it does have a `category' property which is a symbol,
2753 then that symbol's PROP property is used.
2754
2755 **** If an overlay has a non-nil `evaporate' property, it will be
2756 deleted if it ever becomes empty (i.e., when it spans no characters).
2757
2758 **** If an overlay has a `before-string' and/or `after-string' property,
2759 these strings are displayed at the overlay's endpoints.
2760
2761 ** Filling
2762
2763 *** The new variable fill-paragraph-function provides a way for major
2764 modes to override the filling of paragraphs. If this is non-nil,
2765 fill-paragraph calls it as a function, passing along its sole
2766 argument. If the function returns non-nil, fill-paragraph assumes it
2767 has done the job and simply passes on whatever value it returned.
2768
2769 The usual use of this feature is to fill comments in programming
2770 language modes.
2771
2772 *** Text filling and justification changes:
2773
2774 **** The new variable use-hard-newlines can be used to make a
2775 distinction between "hard" and "soft" newlines; the fill functions
2776 will then never remove a newline that was manually inserted. Hard
2777 newlines are marked with a non-nil `hard' text-property.
2778
2779 **** The fill-column and left-margin can now be modified by text-properties.
2780 Most lisp programs should use the new functions (current-fill-column) and
2781 (current-left-margin), which return the proper values to use for the
2782 current line.
2783
2784 **** There are new functions for dealing with margins:
2785
2786 ***** Set-left-margin and set-right-margin (set the value for a region
2787 and re-fill). These functions take three arguments: two to specify
2788 a region, and the desired margin value.
2789
2790 ***** Increase-left-margin, decrease-left-margin, increase-right-margin, and
2791 decrease-right-margin (change settings relative to current values, and
2792 re-fill).
2793
2794 ***** move-to-left-margin moves point there, optionally adding
2795 indentation or changing tabs to spaces in order to make that possible.
2796 beginning-of-line-text also moves past the fill-prefix and any
2797 indentation added to center or right-justify a line, to the beginning
2798 of the text that the user actually typed.
2799
2800 ***** delete-to-left-margin removes any left-margin indentation, but
2801 does not change the property.
2802
2803 **** The paragraph-movement functions look for the paragraph-start and
2804 paragraph-separate regexps at the current left margin, not at the
2805 beginning of the line. This means that those regexps should NOT use ^
2806 to anchor the search. However, for backwards compatibility, a ^ at
2807 the beginning of the regexp will be ignored, so most packages won't break.
2808
2809 **** justify-current-line is now capable of doing left, center, or
2810 right justification as well as full justification.
2811
2812 **** The fill functions can do any kind of justification based on the new
2813 `justification' text-property and `default-justification' variable,
2814 or arguments to the functions. They also have a new option which
2815 defeats the normal removal of extra whitespace.
2816
2817 **** The new function `current-justification' returns the kind of
2818 justification used for the current line. The new function
2819 `set-justification' can be used to change it, including re-justifying
2820 the text of the region according to the new value.
2821
2822 **** Filling and auto-fill are disabled if justification is `none'.
2823
2824 **** The auto-fill-function is now called regardless of whether
2825 the fill-column has been exceeded; the function can determine on its
2826 own whether filling (or justification) is necessary.
2827
2828 ** Processes
2829
2830 *** process-tty-name is a new function that returns the name of the
2831 terminal that the process itself reads and writes on (not the name of
2832 the pty that Emacs uses to talk with that terminal).
2833
2834 *** Errors in process filters and sentinels are now normally caught
2835 automatically, so that they don't abort other Lisp programs.
2836
2837 Setting debug-on-error non-nil turns off this feature; then errors in
2838 filters and sentinels are not caught. As a result, they can invoke
2839 the debugger, under the control of debug-on-error.
2840
2841 *** Emacs now preserves the match data around the execution of process
2842 filters and sentinels. You can use search and match functions freely
2843 in filters and sentinels without explicitly bothering to save the
2844 match data.
2845
2846 ** Display
2847
2848 *** The variable message-log-max controls how messages are logged in the
2849 "*Messages*" buffer. An integer value means to keep that many lines;
2850 t means to log with no limit; nil means disable message logging. Lisp
2851 code that calls `message' excessively (e.g. isearch.el) should probably
2852 bind this variable to nil.
2853
2854 *** Display tables now have a new element, at index 261, specifying the
2855 glyph to use for the separator between two side-by-side windows. By
2856 default, this is the vertical bar character `|'. Probably the only
2857 other useful character to store for this element is a space, to make
2858 less visual separation between two side-by-side windows displaying
2859 related information.
2860
2861 *** The new mode-line-format spec %c displays the current column number.
2862
2863 *** The new variable blink-matching-delay specifies how long to keep
2864 the cursor at the matching open-paren, after you insert a close-paren.
2865 This is useful mainly on systems which can wait for a fraction of a
2866 second--you can then specify fractional values such as 0.5.
2867
2868 *** Faster processing of buffers with long lines
2869
2870 The new variable cache-long-line-scans determines whether Emacs
2871 should use caches to handle long lines more quickly. This variable is
2872 buffer-local, in all buffers.
2873
2874 Normally, the line-motion functions work by scanning the buffer for
2875 newlines. Columnar operations (like `move-to-column' and
2876 `compute-motion') also work by scanning the buffer, summing character
2877 widths as they go. This works well for ordinary text, but if the
2878 buffer's lines are very long (say, more than 500 characters), these
2879 motion functions will take longer to execute. Emacs may also take
2880 longer to update the display.
2881
2882 If cache-long-line-scans is non-nil, these motion functions cache
2883 the results of their scans, and consult the cache to avoid rescanning
2884 regions of the buffer until the text is modified. The caches are most
2885 beneficial when they prevent the most searching---that is, when the
2886 buffer contains long lines and large regions of characters with the
2887 same, fixed screen width.
2888
2889 When cache-long-line-scans is non-nil, processing short lines will
2890 become slightly slower (because of the overhead of consulting the
2891 cache), and the caches will use memory roughly proportional to the
2892 number of newlines and characters whose screen width varies.
2893
2894 The caches require no explicit maintenance; their accuracy is
2895 maintained internally by the Emacs primitives. Enabling or disabling
2896 the cache should not affect the behavior of any of the motion functions;
2897 it should only affect their performance.
2898
2899 ** System Interface
2900
2901 *** The function user-login-name now accepts an optional
2902 argument uid. If the argument is non-nil, user-login-name
2903 returns the login name for that user id.
2904
2905 *** system-name, user-name, user-full-name and user-real-name are now
2906 variables as well as functions. The variables hold the same values
2907 that the functions would return. The new variable multiple-frames
2908 is non-nil if at least two non-minibuffer frames are visible. These
2909 variables may be useful in constructing the value of frame-title-format
2910 or icon-title-format.
2911
2912 *** Changes in time-conversion functions.
2913
2914 **** The new function format-time-string takes a format string and a
2915 time value. It converts the time to a string, according to the format
2916 specified. You can specify what kind of conversion to use with
2917 %-specifications.
2918
2919 **** The new function decode-time converts a time value into a list of
2920 specific items of information: the year, month, day of week, day of
2921 month, hour, minute and second. (A time value is a list of two or
2922 three integers.)
2923
2924 **** The new function encode-time converts specific items of time
2925 information--the second, minute, hour, day, month, year, and time
2926 zone--into a time value.
2927
2928
2929 \f
2930 * Changes in Emacs 19.27
2931
2932 There are no changes; however, here is one bug fix made in 19.26 that users
2933 think should be documented here.
2934
2935 ** SPC and DEL in Info now handle menus consistently.
2936
2937 SPC and DEL scroll through an entire subtree an Info manual. Once you
2938 scroll through a node far enough to reach a menu, SPC begins moving
2939 into the subnodes of the menu, starting with the first one. When you
2940 reach the end of a subnode, SPC moves into the next subnode, and so
2941 on.
2942
2943 DEL more or less scrolls through the same text in reverse order.
2944
2945
2946 \f
2947 * User Editing Changes in Emacs 19.26
2948
2949 ** In the X toolkit version, if you click on a menu bar item and
2950 release the button quickly outside the menu, the menu remains visible
2951 until you click or type something else. If you click on the menu, you
2952 select from the menu. Any other mouse click makes the menu disappear.
2953 Keyboard input gets rid of the menu and then is processed normally.
2954
2955 "Quickly" means within double-click-time milliseconds.
2956
2957 ** The C-x 5 commands to select a buffer in "another frame" now use an
2958 existing iconified frame, if any, deiconifying it. They also raise
2959 the frame.
2960
2961 ** Region highlighting on a black-and-white-only display now uses
2962 underlining. Inverse-video had the problem that you couldn't see
2963 the cursor.
2964
2965 ** You can now change the height of a window by pressing mouse-1 on
2966 the mode line and dragging it up and down.
2967
2968 ** If you set the environment variable LC_CTYPE to iso_8859_1 or
2969 iso-8859-1, Emacs automatically sets up for display and syntactic
2970 handling of the ISO Latin-1 character set.
2971
2972 This does not automatically load any of the packages for input of
2973 these characters, because it's not yet clear what is right to do.
2974 You must still explicitly load either iso-transl or iso-acc.
2975
2976 ** For a read-only buffer that is also modified, the mode line now displays
2977 %* instead of %%.
2978
2979 ** M-prior (scroll-other-window-down) is a new command that works like
2980 M-next (and C-M-v) but scrolls in the opposite direction.
2981
2982 M-home moves to the beginning of the buffer, in the other window.
2983 M-end moves to the end of the buffer, in the other window. These two
2984 commands, along with M-next and M-prior, form a series of commands for
2985 moving around in the other window.
2986
2987 ** In change logs, the mail address is now delimited with <...> instead
2988 of (...).
2989
2990 This makes it a little more convenient to extract the mail address for
2991 use in mailing a message.
2992
2993 ** In Shell mode and other comint modes, C-a has now returned to
2994 its ordinary meaning: move to the beginning of the line.
2995 Use C-c C-a to move to the end of the prompt.
2996
2997 ** If you set mail-signature to t to cause automatic insertion of
2998 your .signature file, you now get a -- before the signature.
2999
3000 ** Setting rmail-highlighted-headers to nil entirely turns off
3001 highlighting in Rmail. However, if your motivation for doing this is
3002 that the highlighted text doesn't look good on your display, it might
3003 be better to change the appearance of the `highlight' face. Once
3004 you've done that, you may find Rmail highlighting is useful.
3005
3006 ** In the calendar, mouse-2 is now used only for commands that apply to a date.
3007 If you click it when not on a date, it gives an immediate error.
3008
3009 Mouse-3 in the calendar now gives a menu of commands that do not apply
3010 to a particular date.
3011
3012 The D command displays diary entries from a specified diary file (not
3013 your standard diary file).
3014
3015 ** In the gnus-uu package, the binding for gnus-uu-threaded-decode-and-view
3016 is now C-c C-v C-d, not C-c C-v C-h. Thus, C-c C-v C-h is now available
3017 for asking for a list of the subcommands of C-c C-v.
3018
3019 ** You can now specify "who you are" for various Emacs packages by
3020 setting just one variable, user-mail-address. This currently applies
3021 to posting news with GNUS and to making change log entries. It may
3022 apply to additional Emacs features in the future.
3023
3024 \f
3025 * Lisp-Level Changes in Emacs 19.26:
3026
3027 ** The function insert-char now takes an optional third argument
3028 which, if non-nil, says the inserted characters should inherit sticky
3029 text properties from the surrounding text.
3030
3031 ** The `diary' library has been renamed to `diary-lib'. If you refer
3032 to this library in your Lisp code, you must update the references.
3033
3034 ** Sending text to a subprocess can read input from subprocesses if it
3035 has to wait because the destination subprocess's terminal input buffer
3036 is full.
3037
3038 It was already possible in unusual occasions for this operation to
3039 read subprocess input, but it did not happen very often. It is now
3040 more likely to happen.
3041
3042 ** last-nonmenu-event is now bound to t around filter functions and sentinels.
3043 This is to ensure that y-or-n-p and yes-or-no-p use the keyboard by default.
3044
3045 ** In mode lines, %+ now displays as % for unmodified read-only
3046 buffers. It is now the same as %* except in the case of a modified
3047 read-only buffer; in that case, %+ displays as *.
3048
3049 The old meaning of %+ is now available on %&.
3050 It displays * for a modified buffer and - for an unmodified buffer,
3051 regardless of read-only status.
3052
3053 ** You can now use `underline' in the color list of a face.
3054 It serves as a last resort, and says to underline the face
3055 (if previous color list elements can't be used).
3056
3057 ** The new function x-color-values returns the list of color values
3058 for a given color name (a string). The list contains three integers
3059 which give the amounts of red, green and blue in the color: (R G B).
3060
3061 ** In run-at-time, 0 as the repeat interval means "don't repeat".
3062
3063 ** The variable trim-versions-without-asking has been renamed to
3064 delete-old-versions.
3065
3066 ** The new function other-window-for-scrolling returns the choice of
3067 other window for C-M-v to scroll.
3068
3069 ** Note that the function fceiling was mistakenly documented as fceil before.
3070
3071 \f
3072 * Changes in cc-mode.el in Emacs 19.26:
3073
3074 ** A new syntactic symbol has been added: substatement-open. It
3075 defines the open brace of a substatement block. These used to get:
3076 ((block-open ...) (substatement . ...)).
3077
3078 Non-block substatement lines still get just ((substatement . ...))
3079
3080 Note that the custom indent function c-adaptive-block-open has been
3081 removed as obsolete.
3082
3083 ** You can now specify the `hanginess' of closing braces. See
3084 c-hanging-braces-alist.
3085
3086 ** Recognizes try and catch blocks in C++. They are given the
3087 substatement syntactic symbol.
3088
3089 ** should be generally more forgiving about non-GNU standard top-level
3090 construct definition styles (i.e. where the function/class/struct
3091 opening brace does not start in column zero).
3092
3093 If you hang the braces that open a top-level construct on the right
3094 edge, and you find you still need to define defun-open-prompt (Emacs
3095 19) please let me know. Note that there may still be performance
3096 issues related to non-column zero opening braces.
3097
3098 ** c-macro-expand is put on C-c C-e
3099
3100 ** New style: "Default". Resets indentation to those shipped with
3101 cc-mode.el.
3102
3103 ** internal defun c-indent-via-language-element has been renamed
3104 c-indent-line for compatibility with c-mode.el and awk-mode.
3105
3106 ** new buffer-local variable c-comment-start-regexp for (potential)
3107 flexibility in adding new modes based on cc-mode.el
3108
3109
3110 \f
3111 * Changes in Emacs 19.25
3112
3113 The variable x-cross-pointer-shape (which didn't really exist) has
3114 been renamed to x-sensitive-text-pointer-shape, and now does exist.
3115
3116
3117 \f
3118 * Changes in Emacs 19.24
3119
3120 Here is a list of new Lisp packages introduced since 19.22.
3121
3122 derived.el Define new major modes based on old ones.
3123 dired-x.el Extra Dired features.
3124 double.el New mode for conveniently inputting non-beyond chars.
3125 easymenu.el Create menus easily.
3126 ediff.el Snazzy diff interface.
3127 foldout.el A kind of outline mode designed for editing programs.
3128 gnus-uu.el UUdecode in GNUS buffers.
3129 ielm.el Interactively evaluate Lisp.
3130 This is a replacement for Lisp Interaction Mode.
3131 iso-cvt.el Conversion of beyond-ASCII characters between
3132 various different representations.
3133 jka-compr.el Automatic compression/decompression.
3134 mldrag.el Drag modeline to change heights of windows.
3135 mail-hist.el Provides history for headers of outgoing mail.
3136 rsz-mini.el Automatically resizing minibuffers.
3137 s-region.el Set region by holding shift.
3138 skeleton.el Templates for statement insertion.
3139 soundex.el Classifying words by how they sound.
3140 tempo.el Template insertion with hotspots.
3141
3142
3143 \f
3144 * User Editing Changes in 19.23.
3145
3146 ** Emacs 19.23 uses Ispell version 3.
3147
3148 Previous Emacs 19 versions used Ispell version 4. That version had
3149 improvements in storing the dictionary compactly, but these are not
3150 very important nowadays. Meanwhile, in parallel to the work on Ispell
3151 4, many useful features were added to Ispell 3. Until a few months
3152 ago, the terms on Ispell 3 did not let us use it; but they have now
3153 been changed, so now we are using it. We are dropping Ispell 4.
3154
3155 ** Emacs 19.23 can run on MS-DOG. See the file MSDOS in the same
3156 directory as this file.
3157
3158 ** Emacs 19.23 can work with an X toolkit. You must specify toolkit
3159 operation when you configure Emacs: use the option
3160 --with-x-toolkit=yes. (This option uses code developed by Lucid;
3161 thanks to Frederic Pierresteguy for helping to adapt it.)
3162
3163 ** Emacs now has dialog boxes; yes/no and y/n questions automatically
3164 use them in commands invoked with the mouse. For more information,
3165 see below under "Lisp programming changes".
3166
3167 ** Menus now display the keyboard equivalents (if any) of the menu
3168 commands in parentheses after the menu item.
3169
3170 ** Kill commands, used in a read-only buffer, now move point across
3171 the text they would otherwise have killed. This way, you can use
3172 repeated kill commands to transfer text into the kill ring.
3173
3174 ** There is now a global mark ring in addition to the mark ring that is local
3175 to each buffer. The global mark ring stores positions in any buffer. Any
3176 time the mark is set and the current buffer is different from the last time
3177 the mark was set, the new mark is pushed on the global mark ring as well.
3178 The new command C-x C-SPC (pop-global-mark) pops the global mark ring and
3179 jumps to the last mark pushed, first switching to that buffer.
3180
3181 ** Query Replace is now available in the Edit menu.
3182
3183 ** ESC no longer simply exits a Query Replace. It now exits the Query
3184 Replace and remains pending. Thus, ESC A and M-A are now equivalent
3185 in Query Replace.
3186
3187 To simply exit a Query Replace, type RET or Period.
3188
3189 ** M-mouse-2 now puts point at the end of the yanked secondary selection.
3190
3191 ** Mouse-1 in the mode line now simply selects the window above that
3192 mode line. Mouse-2 in the mode line selects that window and expands
3193 it to fill the frame it is in.
3194
3195 ** You can now use mouse-2 in a Dired buffer or Tar mode buffer to find
3196 a file you click on, in a compilation buffer to go to a particular
3197 error message, and in a *Occur* buffer to go to a particular
3198 occurrence.
3199
3200 (It was already possible to do likewise in Info and in completion list
3201 buffers.)
3202
3203 What's more, the sensitive areas of the buffer now highlight when you
3204 move the mouse over them.
3205
3206 ** In a completion list buffer, the command RET now chooses the completion
3207 that is around or next to point.
3208
3209 ** If you specify the foreground color for the `mode-line' face, and
3210 mode-line-inverse-video is non-nil, then the default background color
3211 is the usual foreground color.
3212
3213 ** revert-buffer now preserves markers pointing within the unchanged
3214 text (if any) at the beginning and end of the file.
3215
3216 ** Version control checkin and checkout preserve all markers if the
3217 file does not contain any of the magic version header sequences that
3218 are updated automatically by RCS and SCCS. If such version headers
3219 are present, checkin and checkout preserve a marker unless it comes
3220 between two such sequences. (So it's a good idea to put all the
3221 header sequences close together.)
3222
3223 ** When a large deletion shuts off auto save temporarily in a buffer,
3224 you can now turn it on again by saving the buffer with C-x C-s (as was
3225 possible in Emacs 18). You can also turn it on again with M-1 M-x
3226 auto-save (as has been possible in Emacs 19).
3227
3228 ** C-x r d now runs the command delete-rectangle.
3229
3230 ** The new command imenu shows you a menu of interesting places in the
3231 current buffer and lets you select one; then it moves point there.
3232 The definition of interesting places depends on the major mode, but
3233 typically this includes function definitions and such. Normally,
3234 imenu displays the menu in a buffer; but if you bind it to a mouse
3235 event, it shows a mouse popup menu.
3236
3237 ** You can make certain chosen buffers, that normally appear in a
3238 separate window, appear in special frames of their own. To do this,
3239 set special-display-buffer-names to a list of buffer names; any buffer
3240 whose name is in that list automatically gets a special frame when it
3241 is to be displayed in another window.
3242
3243 A good value to try is ("*compilation*" "*grep*" "*TeX Shell*").
3244
3245 More generally, you can set special-display-regexps to a list of regular
3246 expressions; then each buffer whose name matches any of those regular
3247 expressions gets its own frame.
3248
3249 The variable special-display-frame-alist specifies the frame
3250 parameters for these frames. It has a default value, so you don't
3251 need to set it.
3252
3253 ** If you set sentence-end-double-space to nil, the fill commands
3254 expect just one space at the end of a sentence. (If you want the
3255 sentence commands to accept single spaces, you must modify the regexp
3256 sentence-end also.)
3257
3258 ** You can suppress the startup echo area message by adding text like
3259 this to your .emacs file:
3260
3261 (setq inhibit-startup-echo-area-message "YOUR-LOGIN-NAME")
3262
3263 Simply setting inhibit-startup-echo-area-message to your login name is
3264 not sufficient to inhibit the message; Emacs explicitly checks whether
3265 .emacs contains an expression as shown above. Your login name must
3266 appear in the expression as a Lisp string constant.
3267
3268 This way, you can easily inhibit the message for yourself if you wish,
3269 but thoughtless copying of your .emacs file will not inhibit the
3270 message for someone else.
3271
3272 ** Outline minor mode now uses C-c C-o as a prefix instead of just C-c.
3273
3274 ** In Outline mode, hide-subtree is now C-c C-d. (It was C-c C-h; but
3275 that is now a conventional way to ask for help about C-c commands.)
3276
3277 ** There are two additional commands in Outline mode.
3278 M-x hide-sublevels
3279 hides all headers except the topmost N levels.
3280 M-x hide-other
3281 hides everything about the body that point is in
3282 plus the headers leading up from there to the top of the tree.
3283
3284 ** In iso-transl and iso-insert, the sequences for entering A-ring and
3285 the AE ligature are now just A and E (plus the initial C-x 8 or Alt).
3286 You used to have to enter AA or AE, after the C-x 8 prefix of course.
3287 Likewise for lower case a-ring and ae.
3288
3289 ** iso-transl now defines convenient Alt keys as well as the C-x 8 prefix.
3290 Instead of prefixing a sequence with C-x 8, you can add Alt to the
3291 first character of the sequence. For example, Alt-" a is now a way
3292 to enter an a-umlaut.
3293
3294 ** CC mode is a greatly improved mode for C and C++.
3295 See the following page.
3296
3297 ** tcl mode is a new major mode. It provides features for
3298 editing, indenting and running tcl programs.
3299
3300 ** Compilation minor mode lets you parse error messages in any buffer,
3301 not just a normal compilation output buffer. Type M-x
3302 compilation-minor-mode to enable the minor mode; then C-c C-c jumps to
3303 the source location for the error at point, as in the `*compilation*'
3304 buffer. If you use compilation-minor-mode in an Rlogin buffer, it
3305 automatically accesses remote source files by ftp.
3306
3307 ** Comint and shell mode changes:
3308
3309 *** Comint modes (including Shell mode, GUD modes, etc.) now bind
3310 C-M-l to the command comint-show-output. This command scrolls the
3311 buffer to show the last batch of output from the subprogram.
3312
3313 *** Completion in Comint modes now truly operates on the string before
3314 point, rather than the word that point is within.
3315
3316 *** Comint mode file name completion ignores those files that end with a
3317 string in the new variable comint-completion-fignore. This variable's
3318 default value is nil.
3319
3320 *** Shell mode uses the variable shell-completion-fignore to set
3321 comint-completion-fignore. The default value is nil, but some
3322 people prefer ("~" "#" "%").
3323
3324 *** The function `comint-watch-for-password-prompt' can be used to
3325 suppress echoing when a subprocess asks for a password. To use it,
3326 do this:
3327
3328 (add-hook 'comint-output-filter-functions
3329 'comint-watch-for-password-prompt)
3330
3331 *** You can use M-x shell-strip-ctrl-m to strip ^M characters from
3332 process output.
3333
3334 *** In Shell mode, TAB now completes environment variables, if possible,
3335 and expands directory references.
3336
3337 *** You can use M-x comint-run to execute any program of your choice in
3338 a comint mode. Some programs such as shells, rlogin, and debuggers
3339 have their own specialized modes; this command is one way to use
3340 comint to run programs for which no such specialized mode exits. (You
3341 can also run a shell with M-x shell and run the program of your choice
3342 under the shell--but that gives you the specializations of Shell
3343 mode.)
3344
3345 ** When you run GUD (M-x gdb, M-x dbx, and so on), you can use TAB
3346 to do file name completion in the minibuffer.
3347
3348 The "Complete" menu includes an item for directory expansion.
3349
3350 ** GUD working with future versions of GDB will permit TAB for
3351 GDB-style symbol completion. This will work with GDB 4.13.
3352
3353 ** Rmail no longer gets new mail automatically when you visit an Rmail
3354 file specified by name--not even if it is your primary Rmail file. To
3355 get new mail, type `g'. This feature is an advantage because you now
3356 have a choice of whether to get new mail. (This change actually
3357 occurred in an earlier version, but wasn't listed here then, since it
3358 made the code do what the documentation already said.)
3359
3360 ** Rmail now highlights certain fields automatically, when you use X
3361 windows. The variable rmail-highlighted-headers controls which
3362 fields.
3363
3364 ** If you set rmail-summary-window-size to an integer, Rmail uses
3365 a window that many lines high for the summary buffer.
3366
3367 ** rmail-input-menu is a new command that visits an Rmail file letting
3368 you choose which file with a mouse menu. rmail-output-menu is
3369 similar; it outputs the current message, using a mouse menu to choose
3370 which Rmail file. These commands use the variables
3371 rmail-secondary-file-directory and rmail-secondary-file-regexp.
3372
3373 ** The mh-e package has been changed substantially.
3374 See the file ./MH-E-NEWS for details.
3375
3376 ** The calendar and diary have new features.
3377
3378 The menu bar for the calendar contains most of the calendar commands,
3379 arranged into logical categories.
3380
3381 Mouse-2 now performs specific-date-related commands when clicked on a
3382 date in the calendar window and common three-month-related commands
3383 when clicked elsewhere in the calendar window.
3384
3385 You can set up colored/shaded highlighting of holidays, diary entry
3386 dates, and today's date, by setting calendar-holiday-marker,
3387 diary-entry-marker, and calendar-today-marker to a face instead of a
3388 character. Using a special face is now the default if you are using a
3389 window system.
3390
3391 ** The appt package for displaying appointment reminders has new
3392 features.
3393
3394 *** The appt alarm window stays for the full duration of
3395 appt-display-duration. It no longer disappears when you start typing
3396 text.
3397
3398 *** You can change the way the appointment window is created/deleted by
3399 setting the variables appt-disp-window-function and
3400 appt-delete-window-function.
3401
3402 For instance, these variables can be set to functions that display
3403 appointments in pop-up frames, which are lowered or iconified after
3404 appt-display-duration seconds.
3405
3406 ** desktop.el can now save a list of buffer-local variables,
3407 and saves more global ones.
3408
3409 ** Pascal mode has been completely rewritten. It now features
3410 completing of function names, variables and type definitions around
3411 current point (like M-TAB does with lisp-symbols). There's also an
3412 outline mode (M-x pascal-outline) that hides the bodies of all
3413 functions you're not working with.
3414
3415 ** Edebug has a number of changes:
3416
3417 *** Edebug syntax error reporting is improved.
3418
3419 *** Top-level forms and defining forms other than defun and defmacro may
3420 now be debugged with Edebug.
3421
3422 *** Edebug specifications may now contain body, &define, name, arg or
3423 arglist, def-body, and def-form, to support definitions.
3424
3425 *** edebug-all-defuns is renamed to edebug-all-defs.
3426 def-edebug-form-spec is replaced by def-edebug-form whose arguments
3427 are unevaluated. The old names are still available for now.
3428
3429 *** Frequency counts and coverage data may be displayed for functions being
3430 debugged.
3431
3432 *** A global break condition is now checked at every stop point.
3433
3434 *** The previous condition at a breakpoint may now be edited.
3435
3436 *** A new "next" mode stops only after expression evaluation.
3437
3438 *** A new command, top-level-nonstop, does not even stop for unwind-protect,
3439 as top-level would.
3440
3441 \f
3442 * Changes in CC mode in Emacs 19.23.
3443
3444 `cc-mode' provides ANSI C, K&R C, and ARM C++ language editing. It
3445 represents the merge of c++-mode.el and c-mode.el. cc-mode provides a
3446 new, more flexible indentation engine so that indentation
3447 customization is more intuitive. There are two steps to calculating
3448 indentation: first, CC mode analyzes the line for syntactic content,
3449 then based on this content it applies user defined offsets and adds
3450 this offset to the indentation of some previous line.
3451
3452 The syntactic analysis determines if the line describes a `statement',
3453 `substatement', `class-open', `member-init-intro', etc. These are
3454 described in detail with C-h v c-offsets-alist. You can change the
3455 offsets interactively with C-c C-o (c-set-offsets), or
3456 programmatically in your c-mode-common-hook, which is run both by
3457 c-mode and c++-mode. You can also set up "styles" in the same way
3458 that you could with c-mode.el. The variable c-basic-offset controls
3459 the basic offset given to a level of indentation.
3460
3461 If, for example, you wanted to change this style:
3462
3463 int foo (int i)
3464 {
3465 switch (i) {
3466 case 1:
3467 printf ("its a foo\n");
3468 break;
3469 default:
3470 printf ("don't know what it is\n");
3471 break;
3472 }
3473 }
3474
3475 into this:
3476
3477 int foo (int i)
3478 {
3479 switch (i) {
3480 case 1:
3481 printf ("its a foo\n");
3482 break;
3483 default:
3484 printf ("don't know what it is\n");
3485 break;
3486 }
3487 }
3488
3489 you could add the following to your .emacs file:
3490
3491 (defun my-c-mode-common-hook ()
3492 (c-set-offset 'case-label 2)
3493 (c-set-offset 'statement-case-intro 2))
3494 (add-hook 'c-mode-common-hook 'my-c-mode-common-hook)
3495
3496 ** New variables:
3497
3498 c-offsets-alist contains an association list of syntactic symbols and
3499 their relative offsets. Do a "C-h v c-offsets-alist" to get a list of
3500 all syntactic symbols currently defined, and their meanings. You
3501 should not change this variable directly; use the supplied interface
3502 commands c-set-offset and c-set-style.
3503
3504 c-mode-common-hook is run by both c-mode and c++-mode during their
3505 common initializations. You should put any customizations that are
3506 the same for both C and C++ into this hook.
3507
3508 The variable c-strict-semantics-p is used mainly for debugging. When
3509 non-nil, CC mode signals an error if it returns a syntactic symbol
3510 that can't be found in c-offsets-alist.
3511
3512 If you want CC mode to echo the syntactic analysis for a particular
3513 line when you hit the TAB key, set c-echo-semantic-information-p to
3514 non-nil.
3515
3516 c-basic-offset controls the standard amount of offset for a level of
3517 indentation. You can set a syntactic symbol's offset to + or - as a
3518 short-hand for positive or negative c-basic-offset.
3519
3520 c-comment-only-line-offset lets you control indentation given to lines
3521 which contain only a comment, in the case of C++ line style comments,
3522 or the introduction to a C block comment. Comment-only lines at
3523 column zero can be anchored there independent of the indentation given
3524 to other comment-only lines.
3525
3526 c-block-comments-indent-p controls the style of C block comment
3527 re-indentation. If you put leading stars in front of comment
3528 continuation lines, you should set this variable to nil.
3529
3530 c-cleanup-list is a list describing certain C and C++ constructs to be
3531 "cleaned up" as they are typed, but only when the auto-newline feature
3532 is turned on. In C++, make sure this variable contains at least
3533 'scope-operator so that double colons will not be separated by a
3534 newline.
3535
3536 Colons (`:') and braces (`{` and `}') are special in C and C++. For
3537 certain constructs, you may like them to hang on the right edge of the
3538 code, or you may like them to start a new line of code. You can use
3539 the two variables c-hanging-braces-alist and c-hanging-colons-alist
3540 to control whether newlines are placed before and/or after colons and
3541 braces when certain C and C++ constructs are entered. For example,
3542 you can control whether the colon that introduces a C++ member
3543 initialization list hangs on the right edge, starts a new line, or has
3544 no newlines either before or after it.
3545
3546 c-special-indent-hook is run after a line is indented by CC mode. You
3547 can perform any custom indentations here.
3548
3549 c-delete-function is the function that is called when a single
3550 character is deleted with the c-electric-delete command (DEL).
3551
3552 c-electric-pound-behavior describes what happens when you enter the
3553 `#' that introduces a cpp macro.
3554
3555 If c-tab-always-indent is neither t nor nil, then TAB inserts a tab
3556 when within strings, comments, and cpp directives, but it reindents
3557 the line unconditionally.
3558
3559 c-inhibit-startup-warnings-p inhibits warnings about any old
3560 version of Emacs you might be running, which could be incompatible
3561 with cc-mode.
3562
3563 ** There are two new minor-mode features in CC mode: auto-newline and
3564 hungry-delete. Auto-newline inserts newlines automatically as you
3565 type certain constructs. Hungry-delete consumes all preceding
3566 whitespace (spaces, tabs, and newlines) when the delete key is hit.
3567 You can toggle auto-newline on and off on a per-buffer basis by
3568 hitting C-c C-a. You can toggle hungry-delete on and off by hitting
3569 C-c C-d. You can toggle them both on and off together with C-c C-t.
3570
3571 ** Slash (`/') and star (`*') are now both electric characters.
3572
3573 ** New commands:
3574
3575 The new C-c C-o (c-set-offset) command can be used to interactively change
3576 the offset for a particular syntactic symbol.
3577
3578 The new command C-c : (c-scope-operator) inserts the C++ scope operator in
3579 c++-mode only.
3580
3581 The new command C-c C-q (c-indent-defun) indents the entire enclosing
3582 top-level function or class.
3583
3584 The new command C-c C-s (c-show-semantic-information) echos the current
3585 syntactic analysis without re-indenting the current line.
3586
3587 The new commands M-x c-forward-into-nomenclature and M-x
3588 c-backward-into-nomenclature (currently otherwise unbound to a key
3589 sequence), make movement easier when using the C++ variable naming
3590 convention of VariableNamesWithoutUnderscoresButEachWordCapitalized.
3591
3592 ** Command from c-mode.el that have been renamed in cc-mode.el:
3593
3594 electric-c-brace => c-electric-brace
3595 electric-c-semi => c-electric-semi&comma
3596 electric-c-sharp-sign => c-electric-pound
3597 mark-c-function => c-mark-function
3598 electric-c-terminator => c-electric-colon
3599 indent-c-exp => c-indent-exp
3600 set-c-style => c-set-style
3601
3602 ** Variables from c-mode.el that are obsolete with cc-mode.el:
3603
3604 c-indent-level
3605 c-brace-imaginary-offset
3606 c-brace-offset
3607 c-argdecl-indent
3608 c-label-offset
3609 c-continued-statement-offset
3610 c-continued-brace-offset
3611
3612 \f
3613 * Lisp programming changes in Emacs 19.23.
3614
3615 ** To pop up a dialog box, call x-popup-dialog.
3616 It takes two arguments, POSITION and CONTENTS.
3617
3618 POSITION specifies which frame to place the dialog box over;
3619 the dialog box always goes on the center of the frame.
3620 POSITION may be a mouse event, a window, a frame,
3621 or t meaning use the frame that the mouse is in.
3622
3623 CONTENTS specifies the contents of the dialog box.
3624 It looks like a single pane of a popup menu:
3625 (TITLE ITEM1 ITEM2 ...), where each ITEM has the form (STRING . VALUE).
3626 The return value is VALUE from the chosen item.
3627
3628 An ITEM may also be just a string--that makes a nonselectable item.
3629 An ITEM may also be nil--that means to put all preceding items
3630 on the left of the dialog box and all following items on the right.
3631 (By default, approximately half appear on each side.)
3632
3633 If your Emacs is not using an X toolkit, then it cannot display a
3634 real dialog box; so instead it displays a pop-up menu in the center
3635 of the frame.
3636
3637 ** y-or-n-p, yes-or-no-p and map-y-or-n-p now use menus or dialog boxes
3638 to ask their question(s) if the command that is running was reached by
3639 a mouse event.
3640
3641 If you want to control which way these functions work, bind the
3642 variable last-nonmenu-event around the call. These functions use the
3643 keyboard if that variable holds a keyboard event (actually, any
3644 non-list); they use the mouse if that variable holds a mouse event
3645 (actually, any list).
3646
3647 ** The mouse-face property is now implemented, both in overlays and as
3648 a text property. It specifies a face to use when the mouse is in the
3649 range of text for which the property is specified.
3650
3651 ** When text has a non-nil `intangible' property, you cannot move point
3652 within it or right before it. If you try, point actually moves to the
3653 end of the intangible text. Note that this means that backward-char
3654 is a no-op when there is an intangible character to the left of point.
3655
3656 ** minibuffer-exit-hook is a new normal hook that is run when you
3657 exit the minibuffer.
3658
3659 ** The variable x-cross-pointer-shape specifies the cursor shape to use
3660 when the mouse is over text that has a mouse-face property.
3661
3662 ** The new variable interpreter-mode-alist specifies major modes to use
3663 for shell scripts that specify a command interpreter. Its elements
3664 look like (INTERPRETER . MODE); for example, ("perl" . perl-mode) is
3665 one element present by default. This feature applies only when the
3666 file name doesn't indicate which mode to use.
3667
3668 ** If you use a minibuffer-only frame, set the variable
3669 minibuffer-auto-raise to t, and entering the minibuffer will then
3670 raise the minibuffer frame.
3671
3672 ** If pop-up-frames is t, display-buffer now looks for an existing
3673 window in any visible frame, showing the specified buffer, and uses
3674 such a window in preference to making a new frame.
3675
3676 ** In the functions next-window, previous-window, next-frame,
3677 previous-frame, get-buffer-window, get-lru-window, get-largest-window
3678 and delete-windows-on, if you specify `visible' for the last argument,
3679 it means to consider all visible frames.
3680
3681 ** Mouse events now give the X and Y coordinates in pixels, rather than
3682 in characters. You can convert these values to characters by dividing by
3683 the values of (frame-char-width) and (frame-char-height).
3684
3685 ** The new functions mouse-pixel-position and set-mouse-pixel-position
3686 read and set the mouse position in units of pixels. The existing
3687 functions mouse-position and set-mouse-position continue to work with
3688 units of characters.
3689
3690 ** The new function compute-motion is useful for computing the width
3691 of certain text when it is displayed.
3692
3693 ** The function vertical-motion now takes an option second argument WINDOW
3694 which says which window to use for the display calculations.
3695
3696 vertical-motion always operates on the current buffer.
3697 It is ok to specify a window displaying some other buffer.
3698 Then vertical-motion uses the width, hscroll and display-table of
3699 the specified window, but still scans the current buffer.
3700
3701 ** An error no longer sets last-command to t; the value of last-command
3702 does reflect the previous command (the one that got an error).
3703
3704 If you do not want a particular command to be recognized as the
3705 previous command in the case where it got an error, you must code that
3706 command to prevent this. Set this-command to t at the beginning of
3707 the command, and set this-command back to its proper value at the end,
3708 like this:
3709
3710 (defun foo (args...)
3711 (interactive ...)
3712 (setq this-command t)
3713 ...do the work...
3714 (setq this-command 'foo))
3715
3716 or like this:
3717
3718 (defun foo (args...)
3719 (interactive ...)
3720 (let ((old-this-command this-command))
3721 (setq this-command t)
3722 ...do the work...
3723 (setq this-command old-this-command)))
3724
3725 The undo and yank commands do this.
3726
3727 ** If you specify an explicit title for a new frame when you create it,
3728 the title is used as the resource name when looking up X resources to
3729 control the shape of that frame. If you don't specify the frame title,
3730 the value of x-resource-name is used, as before.
3731
3732 ** The frame parameter user-position, if non-nil, says that the user
3733 has specified the frame position. Emacs reports this to the window
3734 manager, to tell it not to override the position that the user
3735 specified.
3736
3737 ** Major modes can now set change-major-mode-hook to arrange for state
3738 to be cleaned up when the user switches to a new major mode. The function
3739 kill-all-local-variables runs this hook. For best results, make the hook a
3740 buffer-local variable so that it will disappear after doing its job and will
3741 not interfere with the subsequent major mode.
3742
3743 ** The new variable overriding-local-map, if non-nil, specifies a keymap
3744 that overrides the current local map, all minor mode keymaps, and all
3745 text property keymaps. Incremental search uses this feature to override
3746 all other keymaps temporarily.
3747
3748 ** A key definition in a menu keymap can now have additional structure:
3749 in addition to (ITEMNAME [HELPSTRING] . COMMAND) which was allowed
3750 before, the form (ITEMNAME [HELPSTRING] (...) . COMMAND) is
3751 allowed. (HELPSTRING is optional, and is not currently used.)
3752
3753 Here (...) represents a sublist containing information about keyboard
3754 key sequences that run the same command COMMAND. Displaying the menu
3755 automatically creates and updates the sublist when appropriate; you
3756 need never set these up yourself.
3757
3758 lookup-key, key-binding, and similar functions return just COMMAND,
3759 not the whole binding.
3760
3761 To precompute this information for a given keymap, you can do
3762 (x-popup-menu nil KEYMAP).
3763
3764 ** When you specify coordinates for x-popup-menu as a list ((XOFFSET
3765 YOFFSET) WINDOW), the coordinates are now measured in pixels.
3766
3767 ** where-is-internal now takes just four arguments:
3768 DEFINITION KEYMAP FIRSTONLY NOINDIRECT.
3769 The single argument KEYMAP replaces two arguments KEYMAP and KEYMAP1.
3770
3771 If KEYMAP is non-nil, where-is-internal searches only KEYMAP and the
3772 global keymap.
3773
3774 If KEYMAP is nil, where-is-internal searches all the currently active
3775 keymaps, but finds the active keymaps as if overriding-local-map were
3776 nil.
3777
3778 If you pass a list of the form (keymap) as KEYMAP, where-is-internal
3779 searches only the global map. (This is not a special case--it follows
3780 from the specifications above.)
3781
3782 If you pass the value of overriding-local-map as KEYMAP, where-is-internal
3783 searches in exactly the same was as command execution does.
3784
3785 ** Use the macro define-derived-mode to define a new major mode that
3786 inherits the definition of another major mode. Here's how to define a
3787 command named hypertext-mode that inherits from the command text-mode:
3788
3789 (define-derived-mode hypertext-mode text-mode "Hypertext"
3790 "Major mode for hypertext.\n\n\\{hypertext-mode-map}"
3791 (setq case-fold-search nil))
3792
3793 (define-key hypertext-mode-map [down-mouse-3] 'do-hyper-link)
3794
3795 The new mode has its own keymap, which inherits from that of the
3796 original mode. It also has its own syntax and abbrev tables, which
3797 are initialized by copying those of the original mode. It also has
3798 its own mode hook. All are given names made by appending a suffix
3799 to the name of the new mode.
3800
3801 ** A syntax table can now inherit the data for some characters from
3802 standard-syntax-table, while specifying other characters itself.
3803 Syntax code 13 means "inherit this character from the standard syntax
3804 table." In modify-syntax-entry, the character `@' represents this code.
3805
3806 The function `make-syntax-table' now creates a syntax table which
3807 inherits all letters and control characters (0 to 31 and 128 to 255)
3808 from the standard syntax table, while copying the other characters
3809 from the standard syntax table. Most syntax tables in Emacs are set
3810 up this way.
3811
3812 This sort of inheritance is useful for people who set up character
3813 sets with additional alphabetic characters in the range 128 to 255.
3814 Just changing the standard syntax for these characters affects all
3815 major modes.
3816
3817 ** The new function transpose-regions swaps two regions of the buffer.
3818 It preserves the markers in those two regions, so that they stay with
3819 the surrounding text as it is swapped.
3820
3821 ** revert-buffer now runs before-revert-hook at the beginning and
3822 after-revert-hook at the end. These can be used by minor modes
3823 that need to clean up state variables.
3824
3825 ** The new function get-char-property is like get-text-property, but
3826 checks for overlays with properties as well as for text properties.
3827 It checks for overlays first, in order of descending priority, and
3828 text properties last.
3829
3830 get-char-property allows windows as the OBJECT argument, as well
3831 as buffers and strings. If you specify a window, then only overlays
3832 active on that window are considered.
3833
3834 ** Overlays can have the `invisible' property.
3835
3836 ** The function insert-file-contents now takes an optional fifth
3837 argument called REPLACE. If this is t, it means to replace the
3838 contents of the buffer (actually, just the accessible portion)
3839 with the contents of the file.
3840
3841 This is better than simply deleting and inserting the whole thing
3842 because (1) it preserves some marker positions and (2) it puts less
3843 data in the undo list.
3844
3845 ** The variable inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps specifies classes of
3846 file names for which -*- on the first line should not be looked for.
3847
3848 ** The variables before-change-functions and after-change-functions
3849 hold lists of functions to call before and after a change in the
3850 buffer's text. They work much like before-change-function and
3851 after-change-function, except that they hold a list of functions
3852 instead of just one.
3853
3854 These variables will eventually make before-change-function and
3855 after-change-function obsolete.
3856
3857 ** The variable kill-buffer-query-functions holds a list of functions
3858 to be called with no arguments when a buffer is about to be killed.
3859 (That buffer is the current buffer when the function is called.)
3860 If any of the functions returns nil, the buffer is not killed
3861 (and the remaining functions in the list are not called).
3862
3863 ** The variable kill-emacs-query-functions holds a list of functions
3864 to be called with no arguments when you ask to exit Emacs.
3865 If any of the functions returns nil, the exit is canceled
3866 (and the remaining functions in the list are not called).
3867
3868 ** The argument for buffer-disable-undo is now optional,
3869 like the argument for buffer-enable-undo.
3870
3871 ** The new variable system-configuration holds the canonical three-part
3872 GNU configuration name for which Emacs was built.
3873
3874 ** The function system-name now tries harder to return a fully qualified
3875 domain name.
3876
3877 ** The variable emacs-major-version holds the major version number
3878 of Emacs. (Currently 19.)
3879
3880 ** The variable emacs-minor-version holds the minor version number
3881 of Emacs. (Currently 23.)
3882
3883 ** The default value of comint-input-autoexpand is now nil.
3884 However, Shell mode sets it from the value of shell-input-autoexpand,
3885 whose default value is `history'.
3886
3887 ** The new function set-process-window-size specifies the terminal window
3888 size for a subprocess. On some systems it sends the subprocess a signal
3889 to let it know that the size has changed.
3890
3891 ** %P is a new way to display a percentage in the mode line. It
3892 displays the percentage of the buffer text that is above the *bottom*
3893 of the window (which includes the text visible, in the window as well
3894 as the text above the top). It displays `Top' as well as the
3895 percentage if the top of the buffer is visible on screen.
3896
3897 ** %+ in the mode line specs displays `*' if the buffer is modified,
3898 and otherwise `-'. It never displays `%', as `%*' would do; whether the
3899 buffer is read-only has no effect on %+.
3900
3901 ** The new functions ffloor, fceiling, fround and ftruncate take a
3902 floating point argument and return a floating point result whose value
3903 is a nearby integer. ffloor returns the nearest integer below; fceiling,
3904 the nearest integer above; ftruncate, the nearest integer in the
3905 direction towards zero; fround, the nearest integer.
3906
3907 ** Setting `print-escape-newlines' to a non-nil value now also makes
3908 formfeeds print as ``\f''.
3909
3910 ** auto-mode-alist now has a new feature. If an element has the form
3911 (REGEXP FUNCTION t), and REGEXP matches the file name, then after calling
3912 FUNCTION, Emacs deletes the part of the file name that matched REGEXP
3913 and then searches auto-mode-alist again for a new match.
3914
3915 This is useful for uncompression packages. An entry of this sort for
3916 .gz can uncompress the file and then put the uncompressed file in the
3917 proper mode according to the name sans .gz.
3918
3919 ** The new function emacs-pid returns the process ID number of Emacs.
3920
3921 ** user-login-name now consistently checks the LOGNAME environment
3922 variable before USER. user-original-login-name is obsolete, since it
3923 provides the same functionality. To ignore the environment variables,
3924 use user-real-login-name.
3925
3926 ** There is a more general way of handling the system-specific X
3927 keysyms. Set the variable system-key-alist to an alist containing
3928 elements of the form (CODE . SYMBOL), where CODE is the numeric keysym
3929 code minus the "vendor specific" bit, and symbol is the name for the
3930 function key.
3931
3932 ** You can use the variable command-line-functions to set up functions
3933 to process unrecognized command line arguments. The variable's value
3934 should be a list of functions of no arguments. The functions are
3935 called successively until one of them returns non-nil.
3936
3937 Each function should access the free variables argi (the current
3938 argument) and command-line-args-left (the remaining arguments). The
3939 function should return non-nil only if it recognizes and processes the
3940 argument in argi. If it does so, it may consume following arguments
3941 as well by removing them from command-line-args-left.
3942
3943 ** There's a new way for a magic file name handler to run a primitive
3944 and inhibit handling of the file name. Here is how to do it:
3945
3946 (let ((inhibit-file-name-handlers
3947 (cons 'ange-ftp-file-handler
3948 (and (eq inhibit-file-name-operation operation)
3949 inhibit-file-name-handlers)))
3950 (inhibit-file-name-operation operation))
3951 (apply this-operation args))
3952
3953 The function find-file-name-handler now takes two arguments. The
3954 second argument is OPERATION, the operation for which the handler is
3955 being sought.
3956
3957 People have suggested that the second argument should be optional, for
3958 backward compatibility. It would be nice if that were possible, but
3959 it is not. There is simply no way for find-file-name-handler to do
3960 the right thing without receiving the proper value for its second
3961 argument.
3962
3963 ** The variable completion-regexp-list affects the completion
3964 primitives try-completion and all-completions. They consider
3965 only the possible completions that match each regexp in the list.
3966
3967 ** Case conversion in the function replace-match has been changed.
3968
3969 The old behavior was this: if any word in the old text was
3970 capitalized, replace-match capitalized each word of the replacement
3971 text.
3972
3973 The new behavior is this: if the first word in the old text is capitalized,
3974 replace-match capitalizes the first word of the replacement text.
3975
3976 ** You can now specify a case table with CANON non-nil and EQV nil.
3977 Then the EQV part of the case table is deduced from CANON.
3978
3979 ** The new function minibuffer-prompt takes no arguments and returns
3980 the current minibuffer prompt string.
3981
3982 The new function minibuffer-prompt-width takes no arguments and
3983 returns the display width of the minibuffer prompt string.
3984
3985 ** The new function frame-first-window returns the window at the
3986 upper left corner of a given frame.
3987
3988 ** wholenump is a new alias for natnump.
3989
3990 ** The variable installation-directory, if non-@code{nil}, names a
3991 directory within which to look for the `lib-src' and `etc'
3992 subdirectories. This is non-nil when Emacs can't find those
3993 directories in their standard installed locations, but can find them
3994 near where the Emacs executable was found.
3995
3996 ** invocation-name and invocation-directory are now variables as well
3997 as functions. The variable values are the same values that the
3998 functions return: the Emacs program name sans directories, and the
3999 directory it was found in. (invocation-directory may be nil, if Emacs
4000 can't determine which directory it should be.)
4001
4002 ** Installation change regarding version number counting.
4003
4004 The version number of an Emacs executable contains three numbers.
4005 The first two describe the Emacs release and the third increments
4006 each time you build Emacs.
4007
4008 Now the file version.el contains only the first two version numbers.
4009 The third component is now determined on the basis of the names of the
4010 existing executable files. This means that version.el is not altered
4011 by building Emacs.
4012
4013
4014 \f
4015 * Changes in 19.22.
4016
4017 ** The mouse click M-mouse-2 now inserts the current secondary
4018 selection (from Emacs or any other X client) where you click.
4019 It does not move point.
4020 This command is called mouse-yank-secondary.
4021
4022 mouse-kill-secondary no longer has a key binding by default.
4023 Clicking M-mouse-3 (mouse-secondary-save-then-kill) twice
4024 may be a convenient enough way of killing the secondary selection.
4025 Or perhaps there should be a keyboard binding for killing the
4026 secondary selection. Any suggestions?
4027
4028 ** New packages:
4029
4030 *** `icomplete' provides character-by-character information
4031 about what you could complete if you type TAB.
4032
4033 *** `avoid' moves the mouse away from point so that it doesn't hide
4034 your typing.
4035
4036 *** `shadowfile' helps you update files that are supposed to be stored
4037 identically in different places (perhaps on different machines).
4038
4039 ** C-h p now knows about four additional keywords: data, faces, mouse,
4040 and matching.
4041
4042 ** The key for starting an inferior Lisp process, in Lisp mode,
4043 is now C-c C-z instead of C-c C-l.
4044
4045 ** When the VC commands ask whether to save the buffer, if you say no,
4046 they signal an error. This is so that you won't operate on the wrong
4047 data.
4048
4049 ** ISO Accents mode now supports `"s' as a way of typing German sharp s.
4050
4051 ** By default, comint buffers (including Shell mode and debuggers)
4052 no longer try to scroll to keep the cursor on the bottom line.
4053 This feature was added in 19.21 but did not work smoothly enough.
4054
4055 ** Emacs now handles the window manager "delete window" operation.
4056
4057 ** Display of buffers with text properties is much faster now.
4058
4059 ** The feature previously announced whereby `insert' does not inherit
4060 text properties from surrounding text was not fully implemented
4061 before; but now it is. use `insert-and-inherit' if you wish to
4062 inherit sticky properties from the surrounding text.
4063
4064 ** The functions next-property-change, previous-property-change,
4065 next-single-property-change, and previous-single-property-change
4066 now take one additional optional argument LIMIT that is a position at
4067 which to stop scanning. If scan ends without finding the property
4068 change sought, these functions return the specified limit.
4069
4070 The value returned by previous-single-property-change and
4071 previous-property-change, when they do find a change, is now one
4072 greater than what it used to be. It is the position between the two
4073 characters whose properties differ, which is one greater than the
4074 position of the first character found (while scanning back) with
4075 different properties.
4076
4077
4078 \f
4079 * User editing changes in version 19.21.
4080
4081 ** ISO Accents mode supports four additional characters:
4082 A-with-ring (entered as /A), AE ligature (entered as /E),
4083 and their lower-case equivalents.
4084
4085
4086 \f
4087 * User editing changes in version 19.20.
4088 (See following page for Lisp programming changes.)
4089
4090 Note that some of these changes were made subsequent to the Emacs 19.20
4091 editions of the Emacs manual and Emacs Lisp manual; therefore, if you
4092 have those editions, do read this page.
4093
4094 ** Dragging with mouse button 1 now puts the selected region
4095 in the kill ring so you can paste it into other X applications.
4096
4097 ** Double and triple clicks with button 1 now behave as in xterm,
4098 selecting the word or line surrounding where you click. If you drag
4099 after the last click, you can select a range of words or lines.
4100
4101 ** You can use button 3 to extend a mouse-selected region, as in xterm.
4102 This works for regions selected either by dragging Mouse-1 or by
4103 multiple-clicking Mouse-1. Clicking Mouse-3 moves the end of the
4104 region that is (initially) nearer to where you click.
4105
4106 If the selection was first made by multiple-clicking Mouse-1, and thus
4107 consists of entire words or lines, Mouse-3 preserves that state.
4108
4109 As before, clicking Mouse-3 again in the same place kills the region
4110 thus selected.
4111
4112 ** The secondary selection commands, M-Mouse-1 and M-Mouse-3, have been
4113 likewise modified.
4114
4115 ** You can now search for strings and regexps using the Edit menu bar menu.
4116
4117 ** You can now access bookmarks using the Bookmark submenu in the File
4118 menu in the menu bar.
4119
4120 ** ISO Accents mode, a buffer-local minor mode, provides a convenient
4121 way to type certain non-ASCII characters. It makes the characters `,
4122 ', ", ^, ~ and / serve as modifiers for the following letter. ` and '
4123 add accents, " adds an umlaut or dieresis, ^ adds a circumflex, ~
4124 adds a tilde, and / adds a slash to the following letter.
4125
4126 If the following character is not a letter, or cannot be modified as
4127 requested, then both characters stand for themselves. If you
4128 duplicate the modifier accent character, that enters the corresponding
4129 ISO non-spacing accent character (thus, '' enters the ISO acute-accent
4130 character). To enter a modifier character itself, type it followed by
4131 a space.
4132
4133 This feature can be used whenever a key sequence is expected: for
4134 ordinary insertion, for searching, and for certain command arguments.
4135
4136 A few special combinations:
4137
4138 ~c => c with cedilla
4139 ~d => d with stroke
4140 ~< => left guillemot
4141 ~> => right guillemot
4142
4143 ** iso-transl.el is a new library that replaces iso-insert.el.
4144 It defines C-x 8 as an insertion prefix for the ISO characters
4145 between 128 and 255, much like iso-insert, except that iso-transl
4146 works even in searches and help commands--wherever a key sequence
4147 is expected.
4148
4149 To define case-conversion for these characters for ISO 8859/1,
4150 load the library iso-syntax. (This is not new.)
4151
4152 ** M-TAB in Text mode now runs the command ispell-complete-word
4153 which performs completion using the spelling dictionary.
4154
4155 The spelling correction submenu now includes this command
4156 and another command which completes a word fragment (that is,
4157 it doesn't assume that the text to be completed starts at the
4158 beginning of a word.
4159
4160 ** In incremental search, you can use M-y to yank the most recent kill
4161 into the search string.
4162
4163 ** The new function ispell-message checks the spelling of a message
4164 you are about to send or post. It ignores text cited from other
4165 messages.
4166
4167 To automatically check all your outgoing messages, include the
4168 following line in your .emacs file:
4169 (setq news-inews-hook (setq mail-send-hook 'ispell-message))
4170
4171 ** There is now a separate minibuffer history list for the names of
4172 extended commands. This history list is used by M-x when reading
4173 the command name. The motivation for this is to prevent command
4174 names from appearing in the history used for other minibuffer
4175 arguments.
4176
4177 Note that the history list for entire commands that use the minibuffer
4178 is a separate feature. That history list records a command with all
4179 its arguments, and you must use C-x ESC ESC to access it.
4180
4181 ** You can use the new command C-x v ~ VERSION RET to examine a
4182 specified version of a file that is maintained with version control.
4183
4184 ** In Indented Text mode, only blank lines now separate paragraphs.
4185 Indented lines continue the paragraph that is in progress. This makes
4186 the user option variable adaptive-fill-mode have its intended effect.
4187
4188 ** Local variable specifications in files for variables whose names end
4189 in `-hook' and `-function' are now controlled by the variable
4190 `enable-local-eval', just like the `eval' variable.
4191
4192 ** C-x r j (jump-to-register) when restoring a frame configuration now
4193 makes all unwanted frames (existing frames not mentioned in the
4194 configuration) invisible.
4195
4196 If you want to delete these unwanted frames, use a prefix argument for
4197 C-x r j.
4198
4199 ** You can customize the calendar to display weeks beginning on
4200 Monday: set the variable `calendar-week-start-day' to 1.
4201
4202 ** Rmail changes.
4203
4204 If you save messages to a file in Unix format while viewing a message
4205 with its whole header, this now copies to the file the entire header
4206 of each message copied.
4207
4208 ** Comint mode changes.
4209
4210 C-c C-e shows as much output as possible in the window.
4211 C-c RET copies an old input (the one at point)
4212 and places the copy after the latest prompt.
4213 C-c C-p and C-c C-n move through the buffer, stopping at places
4214 where the subshell prompted for input.
4215 C-c C-h lists the input history in a `*Help*' buffer.
4216
4217 There are new menu bar items for completion/input/output/signal commands.
4218
4219 Input behavior is configurable. Variables control whether some windows
4220 showing the buffer scroll to the bottom before insertion. These are
4221 `comint-scroll-to-bottom-on-input' and `before-change-function'. By default,
4222 insertion causes the selected window to scroll to the bottom before insertion
4223 occurs.
4224
4225 Subprocess output now keeps point at the end of the buffer in each
4226 window individually if point was already at the end of the buffer in
4227 that window.
4228
4229 If `comint-scroll-show-maximum-output' is non-nil (which is the
4230 default), then scrolling due to arrival of output tries to place the
4231 last line of text at the bottom line of the window, so as to show as
4232 much useful text as possible. (This mimics the scrolling behavior of
4233 many terminals.)
4234
4235 By setting `comint-scroll-to-bottom-on-output', you can opt for having
4236 point jump to the end of the buffer whenever output arrives--no matter
4237 where in the buffer point was before. If the value is `this', point
4238 jumps in the selected window. If the value is `all', point jumps in
4239 each window that shows the comint buffer. If the value is `other',
4240 point jumps in all nonselected windows that show the current buffer.
4241 The default value is nil, which means point does not jump to the end.
4242
4243 Input history insertion is configurable. A variable controls whether only the
4244 first instance of successive identical inputs is stored in the input history.
4245 This is `comint-input-ignoredups'.
4246
4247 Completion (bound to TAB) is now more general. Depending on context,
4248 completion now operates on the input history, on command names, or (as
4249 before) on filenames.
4250
4251 Filename completion is configurable. Variables control whether
4252 file/directory suffix characters are added (`comint-completion-addsuffix'),
4253 whether shortest completion is acceptable when no further unambiguous
4254 completion is possible (`comint-completion-recexact'), and the timing of
4255 completion candidate listing (`comint-completion-autolist').
4256
4257 Comint mode now provides history expansion. Insert input using `!'
4258 and `^', in the same syntax that typical shells use; then type TAB.
4259 This searches the comint input history for a matching element,
4260 performs substitution if necessary, and places the result in the
4261 comint buffer in place of the original input.
4262
4263 History references in the input may be expanded before insertion into
4264 the input ring, or on input to the interpreter (and therefore
4265 visibly). The variable `comint-input-autoexpand' specifies which.
4266
4267 You can make the SPC key perform history expansion by binding
4268 SPC to the command `comint-magic-space'.
4269
4270 The command `comint-dynamic-complete-variable' does variable name
4271 completion using the environment variables as set within Emacs. The
4272 variables controlling filename completion apply to variable name
4273 completion too. This command is normally available through the menu
4274 bar.
4275
4276 ** Shell mode
4277
4278 Paragraph motion and marking commands (default bindings M-{, M-}, M-h) operate
4279 on output groups (i.e., shell prompt plus associated shell output).
4280
4281 TAB now completes commands, as well as file names and expand history.
4282 Commands are searched for along the path that Emacs has on startup.
4283
4284 C-c C-f now moves forward a command (`shell-forward-command') and
4285 C-c C-b now moves backward a command (`shell-backward-command').
4286
4287 Command completion is configurable. The variables controlling
4288 filename completion in comint mode apply, together with a variable
4289 controlling whether to restrict possible completions to only files
4290 that are executable (`shell-command-execonly').
4291
4292 The input history is initialised from the file name given in the
4293 variable `shell-input-ring-file-name'--normally `.history' in your
4294 home directory.
4295
4296 Directory tracking is more robust. It can cope with command sequences
4297 and forked commands, and can detect the failure of directory changing
4298 commands in most circumstances. It's still not infallible, of course.
4299
4300 You can now configure the behavior of `pushd'. Variables control
4301 whether `pushd' behaves like `cd' if no argument is given
4302 (`shell-pushd-tohome'), pop rather than rotate with a numeric argument
4303 (`shell-pushd-dextract'), and only add directories to the directory
4304 stack if they are not already on it (`shell-pushd-dunique'). The
4305 configuration you choose should match the underlying shell, of course.
4306
4307 \f
4308 * Emacs Lisp programming changes in Emacs 19.20.
4309
4310 ** A new function `remove-hook' is now used to remove a hook that you might
4311 have added with `add-hook'.
4312
4313 ** There is now a Lisp pretty-printer in the library `pp'.
4314
4315 ** The partial Common Lisp support has been entirely reimplemented.
4316
4317 ** When you insert text using `insert', `insert-before-markers' or
4318 `insert-buffer-substring', text properties are no longer inherited
4319 from the surrounding text.
4320
4321 When you want to inherit text properties, use the new functions
4322 `insert-and-inherit' or `insert-before-markers-and-inherit'.
4323
4324 The self-inserting character command does do inheritance.
4325
4326 ** Frame creation hooks.
4327
4328 The function make-frame now runs the normal hooks
4329 before-make-frame-hook and after-make-frame-hook.
4330
4331 ** You can now use function-key-map to make a key an alias for other
4332 key sequences that can vary depending on circumstances. To do this,
4333 give the key a definition in function-key-map which is a function
4334 rather than a specific expansion key sequence.
4335
4336 If the function reads input itself, it can have the effect of altering
4337 the event that follows. For example, here's how to define C-c h to
4338 turn the character that follows into a hyper character:
4339
4340 (define-key function-key-map "\C-ch" 'hyperify)
4341
4342 (defun hyperify (prompt)
4343 (let ((e (read-event)))
4344 (vector (if (numberp e)
4345 (logior (lsh 1 20) e)
4346 (if (memq 'hyper (event-modifiers e))
4347 e
4348 (add-event-modifier "H-" e))))))
4349
4350 (defun add-event-modifier (string e)
4351 (let ((symbol (if (symbolp e) e (car e))))
4352 (setq symbol (intern (concat string (symbol-name symbol))))
4353 (if (symbolp e)
4354 symbol
4355 (cons symbol (cdr e)))))
4356
4357 The character translation function gets one argument, which is the
4358 prompt that was specified in read-key-sequence--or nil if the key
4359 sequence is being read by the editor command loop. In most cases
4360 you can just ignore the prompt value.
4361
4362 ** Changes for reading and writing text properties.
4363
4364 New low-level Lisp features make it possible to write Lisp programs to
4365 save text properties in files, and read text properties from files.
4366 You can program any file format you like.
4367
4368 The variable `write-region-annotation-functions' should contain a list
4369 of functions to be run by `write-region' to encode text properties in
4370 some fashion as annotations to the text that is written.
4371
4372 Each function in the list is called with two arguments: the start and
4373 end of the region to be written. These functions should not alter the
4374 contents of the buffer. Instead, they should return lists indicating
4375 annotations to write in the file in addition to the text in the
4376 buffer.
4377
4378 Each function should return a list of elements of the form (POSITION
4379 . STRING), where POSITION is an integer specifying the relative
4380 position in the text to be written, and STRING is the annotation to
4381 add there.
4382
4383 Each list returned by one of these functions must be already sorted in
4384 increasing order by POSITION. If there is more than one function,
4385 `write-region' merges the lists destructively into one sorted list.
4386
4387 When `write-region' actually writes the text from the buffer to the
4388 file, it intermixes the specified annotations at the corresponding
4389 positions. All this takes place without modifying the buffer.
4390
4391 The variable `after-insert-file-functions' should contain a list of
4392 functions to be run each time a file's contents have been inserted into
4393 a buffer. Each function receives one argument, the length of the
4394 inserted text; point indicates the start of that text. The function
4395 should make whatever changes it wants to make, then return the updated
4396 length of the inserted text, as it stands after those changes. The
4397 value returned by one function is used as the argument to the next.
4398 These functions should always return with point at the beginning of
4399 the inserted text.
4400
4401 The intended use of `after-insert-file-functions' is for converting
4402 some sort of textual annotations into actual text properties. But many
4403 other uses may be possible.
4404
4405 We now invite users to begin implementing Lisp programs to store and
4406 retrieve text properties in files, using these new primitive features,
4407 and thus to experiment with various data formats and find good ones.
4408
4409 We suggest not trying to handle arbitrary Lisp objects as property
4410 names or property values--because a program that general is probably
4411 difficult to write, and slow. Instead, choose a set of possible data
4412 types that are reasonably flexible, and not too hard to encode.
4413
4414 ** Comint completion.
4415
4416 Currently comint-dynamic-complete-command (and associated variable
4417 comint-after-partial-pathname-command) are set by default to complete a
4418 filename. Other comint-mode users should have their own functions to achieve
4419 this. For example, gud-mode could complete debugger commands. A completion
4420 function is provided solely for this reason (comint-dynamic-simple-complete).
4421
4422 Other comint-mode users should bind comint-dynamic-complete (shell-mode does
4423 already).
4424
4425 ** Comint history reference expansion
4426
4427 Currently comint-input-autoexpand is 'history, which means only expand
4428 history on insertion to comint-input-ring. For non-shell modes, this is
4429 a strange default, since non-shells will not understand history references.
4430 Perhaps it would be better for the variable to be 'input, which means expand
4431 on RET.
4432
4433 The value 'history might possibly be wrong even for shells, since the
4434 expansion will be done both by comint and the underlying shell (except sh, of
4435 course). It would be better for expansion to be done by one or the other,
4436 not both since they may (ahem) disagree. Since it is silly to put a literal
4437 history reference into comint-input-ring, perhaps it would be better for the
4438 variable to be 'input too.
4439
4440 The reason the variable is not 'input by default is that I was attempting to
4441 adhere to The Principle of Least Astonishment. I didn't want to shock users
4442 by having their input change in front of their eyes.
4443
4444 ** Argument delimiters and Comint mode.
4445
4446 Currently comint-delimiter-argument-list is '(), which means no strings are
4447 to be treated as delimiters and arguments. In shell-mode, this variable is
4448 set to shell-delimiter-argument-list, '("|" "&" "<" ">" "(" ")" ";"). Other
4449 comint-mode users should set this variable too. For example, a lisp-type
4450 mode might want to set this to '("." "(" ")") or some such.
4451
4452 ** Comint output hook.
4453
4454 There is now a hook, comint-output-filter-hook, that is run-hooks'ed by the
4455 output filter, comint-output-filter. This is useful for scrolling (see
4456 below), but also things like processing output for specific text, output
4457 highlighting, etc.
4458
4459 So that such output processing may be done efficiently, there is a new
4460 variable, comint-last-output-start, that records the position of the start of
4461 the lastest output inserted into the buffer (effectively the previous value
4462 of process-mark). Output processing functions should process the text
4463 between comint-last-output-start (or perhaps the beginning of the line that
4464 the position lies on) and process-mark.
4465
4466 ** Comint scrolling.
4467
4468 There is now automatic scrolling of process windows.
4469
4470 Currently comint-scroll-show-maximum-output is t, which means when scrolling
4471 output put process-mark at the bottom of the window. There is a good case
4472 for it to be t, since the user is likely to want to see as much output as
4473 possible. But, then again, there is a comint-show-maximum-output command.
4474
4475 ** Comint history retrieval.
4476
4477 The input following point is not deleted when moving around the input history
4478 (with M-p etc.). Emacs maintainers may not like this. However, I feel this
4479 is a useful feature. The simple remedy is to put end-of-line in before
4480 delete-region in comint-previous-matching-input.
4481
4482 The input history retrieval commands still wrap-around the input ring, unlike
4483 Emacs command history.
4484
4485
4486 \f
4487 * Changes in version 19.19.
4488
4489 ** The new package bookmark.el records named bookmarks: positions that
4490 you can jump to. Bookmarks are saved automatically between Emacs
4491 sessions.
4492
4493 ** Another simpler package saveplace.el records your position in each
4494 file when you kill its buffer (or kill Emacs), and jumps to the same
4495 position when you visit the file again (even in another Emacs
4496 session). Use `toggle-save-place' to turn on place-saving in a given file;
4497 use (setq-default save-place t) to turn it on for all files.
4498
4499 ** In Outline mode, you can now customize how to compute the level of a
4500 heading line. Set `outline-level' to a function of no arguments which
4501 returns the level, assuming point is at the beginning of a heading
4502 line.
4503
4504 ** You can now specify the prefix key to use for Outline minor mode.
4505 (The default is C-c.) Set the variable outline-minor-mode-prefix to
4506 the key sequence you want to use (as a string or vector).
4507
4508 ** In Bibtex mode, C-c e has been changed to C-c C-b. This is because
4509 C-c followed by a letter is reserved for users.
4510
4511 ** The `mod' function is no longer an alias for `%', but is a separate function
4512 that yields a result with the same sign as the divisor. `floor' now takes an
4513 optional second argument, which divides the first argument before the floor is
4514 taken.
4515
4516 ** `%' no longer allows floating point arguments, since the results were often
4517 inconsistent with integer `%'.
4518
4519
4520 \f
4521 * Changes in version 19.18.
4522
4523 ** Typing C-z in an iconified Emacs frame now deiconifies it.
4524
4525 ** hilit19 is a new library for automatic highlighting of parts of the
4526 text in the buffer, based on its meaning and context.
4527
4528 ** Killing no longer sends the killed text to the X clipboard.
4529 And large strings are not put in the cut buffer either.
4530 The variable x-cut-buffer-max specifies the maximum number of characters
4531 to put in the cut buffer.
4532
4533 ** The new command C-x 5 o (other-frame) selects different frames,
4534 successively, in cyclic order. It does for frames what C-x o
4535 does for windows.
4536
4537 ** The command M-ESC (eval-expression) has its own command history.
4538
4539 ** The commands M-! and M-| for running shell commands have their own
4540 command history.
4541
4542 ** If the directory containing the Emacs executable has a sibling named
4543 `lisp', that `lisp' directory is added to the end of `load-path'
4544 (provided you don't override the normal value with the EMACSLOADPATH
4545 environment variable). This feature may make it easier to move
4546 an installed Emacs from place to place.
4547
4548 ** M-x validate-tex-buffer now records the locations of mismatches
4549 found in the `*Occur*' buffer. You can go to that buffer and type C-c
4550 C-c to visit a particular mismatch.
4551
4552 ** There are new commands in Shell mode.
4553
4554 C-c C-n and C-c C-p move point to the next or previous shell input line.
4555
4556 C-c C-d is now another way to send an end-of-file to the subshell.
4557
4558 ** Changes to calendar/diary.
4559
4560 Time zone data is now determined automatically, including the
4561 start/stop days and times of daylight saving time. The code now
4562 works correctly almost anywhere in the world.
4563
4564 The format of the holiday specifications has changed and IS NO LONGER
4565 COMPATIBLE with the old (version 18) format. See the documentation of
4566 the variable calendar-holidays for details of the new, improved
4567 format.
4568
4569 The hook `diary-display-hook' has been split into two:
4570 diary-display-hook which should be used ONLY for the display and
4571 `diary-hook' which should be used for appointment notification. If
4572 diary-display-hook is nil (the default), simple-diary-display is
4573 used. This allows the diary hooks to be correctly set with add-hook.
4574
4575 The forms used for dates in diary entries and general display are no
4576 longer autoloaded, but set at load time; this means they will be set
4577 correctly based on values you assign to various variables.
4578
4579 ** The functions x-rebind-key and x-rebind-keys have been deleted,
4580 because you can accomplish the same job by binding keys to keyboard
4581 macros.
4582
4583 ** Emacs now distinguishes double and triple drag events and double and
4584 triple button-down events. These work analogously to double and
4585 triple click events.
4586
4587 Double drag events, if not defined, convert to ordinary click events.
4588 Double down events, if not defined, convert first to ordinary down
4589 events, which are then discarded if not defined. Triple events that
4590 are not defined convert to the corresponding double event; if that is
4591 also not defined, it may convert further.
4592
4593 ** The new function event-click-count returns the number of clicks,
4594 from an event which is a list. It is 1 for an ordinary click, drag,
4595 or button-down event, 2 for a double event, and 3 or more for a triple
4596 event.
4597
4598 ** The new function previous-frame is like next-frame, but moves
4599 around through the set of existing frames in the opposite order.
4600
4601 ** The post-command-hook now runs even after commands that get an error
4602 and return to top level. As a consequence of the same change, this
4603 hook also runs before Emacs reads the first command. That might sound
4604 paradoxical, as if this hook were the same as the pre-command-hook.
4605 Actually, they are not similar; the latter runs before *execution* of
4606 a command, but after it has been read.
4607
4608 ** You can turn off the text property hooks that run when point moves
4609 to certain places in the buffer, by binding inhibit-point-motion-hooks
4610 to a non-nil value.
4611
4612 ** Inserting a string with no text properties into the buffer normally
4613 inherits the properties of the preceding character. You can now
4614 control this inheritance by setting the front-sticky and
4615 rear-nonsticky properties of a character.
4616
4617 If you make a character's front-sticky property t, then insertion
4618 before the character inherits its properties. If you make the
4619 rear-nonsticky property t, then insertion after the character does not
4620 inherit its properties. You can regard characters as normally being
4621 rear-sticky and not front-sticky, and this is why insertion normally
4622 inherits from the previous character.
4623
4624 If neither side of an insertion is suitably sticky, then the inserted
4625 text gets no properties. If both sides are sticky, then the inserted
4626 text gets the properties of both sides, with the previous character's
4627 properties taking precedence when both sides have a property in
4628 common.
4629
4630 You can also specify stickiness for individual properties. To do so,
4631 use a list of property names as the value of the front-sticky property
4632 or the rear-nonsticky property. For example, if a character has a
4633 rear-nonsticky property whose value is (face read-only), then
4634 insertion after the character will not inherit its face property or
4635 read-only property (if any), but will inherit any other properties.
4636
4637 The merging of properties when both sides of the insertion are sticky
4638 takes place one property at a time. If the preceding character is
4639 rear-sticky for the property, and the property is non-nil, it
4640 dominates. Otherwise, the following character's property value is
4641 used if it is front-sticky for that property.
4642
4643 ** If you give a character a non-nil `invisible' text property, the
4644 character does not appear on the screen. This works much like
4645 selective display.
4646
4647 The details of this feature are likely to change in future Emacs
4648 versions.
4649
4650 ** In Info, when you go to a node, it runs the normal hook
4651 Info-selection-hook.
4652
4653 ** You can use the new function `invocation-directory' to get the name
4654 of the directory containing the Emacs executable that was run.
4655
4656 ** Entry to the minibuffer runs the normal hook minibuffer-setup-hook.
4657
4658 ** The new function minibuffer-window-active-p takes one argument, a
4659 minibuffer window, and returns t if the window is currently active.
4660
4661
4662 \f
4663 * Changes in version 19.17.
4664
4665 ** When Emacs displays a list of completions in a buffer,
4666 you can select a completion by clicking mouse button 2
4667 on that completion.
4668
4669 ** Use the command `list-faces-display' to display a list of
4670 all the currently defined faces, showing what they look like.
4671
4672 ** Menu bar items from local maps now come after the usual items.
4673
4674 ** The Help menu bar item always comes last in the menu bar.
4675
4676 ** If you enable Font-Lock mode on a buffer containing a program
4677 (certain languages such as C and Lisp are supported), everything you
4678 type is automatically given a face property appropriate to its
4679 syntactic role. For example, there are faces for comments, string
4680 constants, names of functions being defined, and so on.
4681
4682 ** Dunnet, an adventure game, is now available.
4683
4684 ** Several major modes now have their own menu bar items,
4685 including Dired, Rmail, and Sendmail. We would like to add
4686 suitable menu bar items to other major modes.
4687
4688 ** The key binding C-x a C-h has been eliminated.
4689 This is because it got in the way of the general feature of typing
4690 C-h after a prefix character. If you want to run
4691 inverse-add-global-abbrev, you can use C-x a - or C-x a i g instead.
4692
4693 ** If you set the variable `rmail-mail-new-frame' to a non-nil value,
4694 all the Rmail commands to send mail make a new frame to do it in.
4695 When you send the message, or use the menu bar command not to send it,
4696 that frame is deleted.
4697
4698 ** In Rmail, the o and C-o commands are now almost interchangeable.
4699 Both commands check the format of the file you specify, and append
4700 the message to it in Rmail format if it is an Rmail file, and in
4701 inbox file format otherwise. C-o and o are different only when you
4702 specify a new file.
4703
4704 ** The function `copy-face' now takes an optional fourth argument
4705 NEW-FRAME. If you specify this, it copies the definition of face
4706 OLD-FACE on frame FRAME to face NEW-NAME on frame NEW-FRAME.
4707
4708 ** A local map can now cancel out one of the global map's menu items.
4709 Just define that subcommand of the menu item with `undefined'
4710 as the definition. For example, this cancels out the `Buffers' item
4711 for the current major mode:
4712
4713 (local-set-key [menu-bar buffer] 'undefined)
4714
4715 ** To put global items at the end of the menu bar, use the new variable
4716 `menu-bar-final-items'. It should be a list of symbols--event types
4717 bound in the menu bar. The menu bar items for these symbols are
4718 moved to the end.
4719
4720 ** The list returned by `buffer-local-variables' now contains cons-cell
4721 elements of the form (SYMBOL . VALUE) only for buffer-local variables
4722 that have values. For unbound buffer-local variables, the variable
4723 name (symbol) appears directly as an element of the list.
4724
4725 ** The `modification-hooks' property of a character no longer affects
4726 insertion; it runs only for deletion and modification of the character.
4727
4728 To detect insertion, use `insert-in-front-hooks' and
4729 `insert-behind-hooks' properties. The former runs when text is
4730 inserted immediately preceding the character that has the property;
4731 the latter runs when text is inserted immediately following the
4732 character.
4733
4734 ** Buffer modification now runs hooks belonging to overlays as well as
4735 hooks belonging to characters. If an overlay has a
4736 `modification-hooks' property, it applies to any change to text in the
4737 overlay, and any insertion within the overlay. If the overlay has a
4738 `insert-in-front-hooks' property, it runs for insertion at the
4739 beginning boundary of the overlay. If the overlay has an
4740 `insert-behind-hooks' property, it runs for insertion at the end
4741 boundary of the overlay.
4742
4743 The values of these properties should be lists of functions. Each
4744 function is called, receiving as arguments the overlay in question,
4745 followed by the bounds of the range being modified.
4746
4747 ** The new `-name NAME' option directs Emacs to search for its X
4748 resources using the name `NAME', and sets the title of the initial
4749 frame. This argument was added for consistency with other X clients.
4750
4751 ** The new `-xrm DATABASE' option tells Emacs to treat the string
4752 DATABASE as the text of an X resource database. Emacs searches
4753 DATABASE for resource values, in addition to the usual places. This
4754 argument was added for consistency with other X clients.
4755
4756 ** Emacs now searches for X resources in the files specified by the
4757 XFILESEARCHPATH, XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, and XAPPLRESDIR environment
4758 variables, emulating the functionality provided by programs written
4759 using Xt. Because of this change, Emacs will now notice system-wide
4760 application defaults files, as other X clients do.
4761
4762 XFILESEARCHPATH and XUSERFILESEARCHPATH should be a list of file names
4763 separated by colons; XAPPLRESDIR should be a list of directory names
4764 separated by colons.
4765
4766 Emacs searches for X resources
4767 + specified on the command line, with the `-xrm RESOURCESTRING'
4768 option,
4769 + then in the value of the XENVIRONMENT environment variable,
4770 - or if that is unset, in the file named ~/.Xdefaults-HOSTNAME if it exists
4771 (where HOSTNAME is the hostname of the machine Emacs is running on),
4772 + then in the screen-specific and server-wide resource properties
4773 provided by the server,
4774 - or if those properties are unset, in the file named ~/.Xdefaults
4775 if it exists,
4776 + then in the files listed in XUSERFILESEARCHPATH,
4777 - or in files named LANG/Emacs in directories listed in XAPPLRESDIR
4778 (where LANG is the value of the LANG environment variable), if
4779 the LANG environment variable is set,
4780 - or in files named Emacs in the directories listed in XAPPLRESDIR
4781 - or in ~/LANG/Emacs (if the LANG environment variable is set),
4782 - or in ~/Emacs,
4783 + then in the files listed in XFILESEARCHPATH.
4784
4785 The paths in the variables XFILESEARCHPATH, XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, and
4786 XAPPLRESDIR may contain %-escapes (like the control strings passed to
4787 the Emacs lisp `format' function or C printf function), which Emacs expands.
4788
4789 %N is replaced by the string "Emacs" wherever it occurs.
4790 %T is replaced by "app-defaults" wherever it occurs.
4791 %S is replaced by the empty string wherever it occurs.
4792 %L and %l are replaced by the value of the LANG environment variable; if LANG
4793 is not set, Emacs does not use that directory or file name at all.
4794 %C is replaced by the value of the resource named "customization"
4795 (class "Customization"), as retrieved from the server's resource
4796 properties or the user's ~/.Xdefaults file, or the empty string if
4797 that resource doesn't exist.
4798
4799 So, for example,
4800 if XFILESEARCHPATH is set to the value
4801 "/usr/lib/X11/%L/%T/%N%C:/usr/lib/X11/%T/%N%C:/usr/lib/X11/%T/%N",
4802 and the LANG environment variable is set to
4803 "english",
4804 and the customization resource is the string
4805 "-color",
4806 then, in the last step of the process described above, Emacs checks
4807 for resources in the first of the following files that is present and
4808 readable:
4809 /usr/lib/X11/english/app-defaults/Emacs-color
4810 /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Emacs-color
4811 /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Emacs
4812 If the LANG environment variable is not set, then Emacs never uses the
4813 first element of the path, "/usr/lib/X11/%L/%T/%N%C", because it
4814 contains the %L escape.
4815
4816 If XFILESEARCHPATH is unset, Emacs uses the default value
4817 "/usr/lib/X11/%L/app-defaults/Emacs%C:\
4818 /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Emacs%C:\
4819 /usr/lib/X11/%L/app-defaults/Emacs:\
4820 /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Emacs"
4821
4822 This feature was added for consistency with other X applications.
4823
4824 ** The new function `text-property-any' scans the region of text from
4825 START to END to see if any character's property PROP is `eq' to
4826 VALUE. If so, it returns the position of the first such character.
4827 Otherwise, it returns nil.
4828
4829 The optional fifth argument, OBJECT, specifies the string or buffer to
4830 be examined.
4831
4832 ** The new function `text-property-not-all' scans the region of text from
4833 START to END to see if any character's property PROP is not `eq' to
4834 VALUE. If so, it returns the position of the first such character.
4835 Otherwise, it returns nil.
4836
4837 The optional fifth argument, OBJECT, specifies the string or buffer to
4838 be examined.
4839
4840 ** The function `delete-windows-on' now takes an optional second
4841 argument FRAME, which specifies which frames it should affect.
4842 + If FRAME is nil or omitted, then `delete-windows-on' deletes windows
4843 showing BUFFER (its first argument) on all frames.
4844 + If FRAME is t, then `delete-windows-on' only deletes windows on the
4845 selected frame; other frames are unaffected.
4846 + If FRAME is a frame, then `delete-windows-on' only deletes windows on
4847 the given frame; other frames are unaffected.
4848
4849
4850 \f
4851 * Changes in version 19.16.
4852
4853 ** When dragging the mouse to select a region, Emacs now highlights the
4854 region as you drag (if Transient Mark mode is enabled). If you
4855 continue the drag beyond the boundaries of the window, Emacs scrolls
4856 the window at a steady rate until you either move the mouse back into
4857 the window or release the button.
4858
4859 ** RET now exits `query-replace' and `query-replace-regexp'; this makes it
4860 more consistent with the incremental search facility, which uses RET
4861 to end the search.
4862
4863 ** In C mode, C-c C-u now runs c-up-conditional.
4864 C-c C-n and C-c C-p now run new commands that move forward
4865 and back over balanced sets of C conditionals (c-forward-conditional
4866 and c-backward-conditional).
4867
4868 ** The Edit entry in the menu bar has a new alternative:
4869 "Choose Next Paste". It gives you a menu showing the various
4870 strings in the kill ring; click on one to select it as the text
4871 to be yanked ("pasted") the next time you yank.
4872
4873 ** If you enable Transient Mark mode and set `mark-even-if-inactive' to
4874 non-nil, then the region is highlighted in a transient fashion just as
4875 normally in Transient Mark mode, but the mark really remains active
4876 all the time; commands that use the region can be used even if the
4877 region highlighting turns off.
4878
4879 ** If you type C-h after a prefix key, it displays the bindings
4880 that start with that prefix.
4881
4882 ** The VC package now searches for version control commands in the
4883 directories named by the variable `vc-path'; its value should be a
4884 list of strings.
4885
4886 ** If you are visiting a file that has locks registered under RCS,
4887 VC now displays each lock's owner and version number in the mode line
4888 after the string `RCS'. If there are no locks, VC displays the head
4889 version number.
4890
4891 ** When using X, if you load the `paren' library, Emacs automatically
4892 underlines or highlights the matching paren whenever point is
4893 next to the outside of a paren. When point is before an open-paren,
4894 this shows the matching close; when point is after a close-paren,
4895 this shows the matching open.
4896
4897 ** The new function `define-key-after' is like `define-key',
4898 but takes an extra argument AFTER. It places the newly defined
4899 binding after the binding for the event AFTER.
4900
4901 ** `accessible-keymaps' now takes an optional second argument, PREFIX.
4902 If PREFIX is non-nil, it means the value should include only maps for
4903 keys that start with PREFIX.
4904
4905 `describe-bindings' also accepts an optional argument PREFIX which
4906 means to describe only the keys that start with PREFIX.
4907
4908 ** The variable `prefix-help-command' hold a command to run to display help
4909 whenever the character `help-char' follows a prefix key and does not have
4910 a key binding in that context.
4911
4912 ** Emacs now detects double- and triple-mouse clicks. A single mouse
4913 click produces a pair events of the form:
4914 (down-mouse-N POSITION)
4915 (mouse-N POSITION)
4916 Clicking the same mouse button again, soon thereafter and at the same
4917 location, produces another pair of events of the form:
4918 (down-mouse-N POSITION)
4919 (double-mouse-N POSITION 2)
4920 Another click will produce an event pair of the form:
4921 (down-mouse-N POSITION)
4922 (triple-mouse-N POSITION 3)
4923 All the POSITIONs in such a sequence would be identical, except for
4924 their timestamps.
4925
4926 To count as double- and triple-clicks, mouse clicks must be at the
4927 same location as the first click, and the number of milliseconds
4928 between the first release and the second must be less than the value
4929 of the lisp variable `double-click-time'. Setting `double-click-time'
4930 to nil disables multi-click detection. Setting it to t removes the
4931 time limit; Emacs then detects multi-clicks by position only.
4932
4933 If `read-key-sequence' finds no binding for a double-click event, but
4934 the corresponding single-click event would be bound,
4935 `read-key-sequence' demotes it to a single-click. Similarly, it
4936 demotes unbound triple-clicks to double- or single-clicks. This means
4937 you don't have to distinguish between single- and multi-clicks if you
4938 don't want to.
4939
4940 Emacs reports all clicks after the third as `triple-mouse-N' clicks,
4941 but increments the click count after POSITION. For example, a fourth
4942 click, soon after the third and at the same location, produces a pair
4943 of events of the form:
4944 (down-mouse-N POSITION)
4945 (triple-mouse-N POSITION 4)
4946
4947 ** The way Emacs reports positions of mouse events has changed
4948 slightly. If a mouse event includes a position list of the form:
4949 (WINDOW (PLACE-SYMBOL) (COLUMN . ROW) TIMESTAMP)
4950 this denotes exactly the same position as the list:
4951 (WINDOW PLACE-SYMBOL (COLUMN . ROW) TIMESTAMP)
4952 That is, the event occurred over a non-textual area of the frame,
4953 specified by PLACE-SYMBOL, a symbol like `mode-line' or
4954 `vertical-scroll-bar'.
4955
4956 Enclosing PLACE-SYMBOL in a singleton list does not change the
4957 position denoted, but the `read-key-sequence' function uses the
4958 presence or absence of the singleton list to tell whether or not it
4959 should prefix the event with its place symbol.
4960
4961 Normally, `read-key-sequence' prefixes mouse events occurring over
4962 non-textual areas with their PLACE-SYMBOLs, to select the sub-keymap
4963 appropriate for the event; for example, clicking on the mode line
4964 produces a sequence like
4965 [mode-line (mouse-1 POSN)]
4966 However, if lisp code elects to unread the resulting key sequence by
4967 placing it in the `unread-command-events' variable, it is important
4968 that `read-key-sequence' not insert the prefix symbol again; that
4969 would produce a malformed key sequence like
4970 [mode-line mode-line (mouse-1 POSN)]
4971 For this reason, `read-key-sequence' encloses the event's PLACE-SYMBOL
4972 in a singleton list when it first inserts the prefix, but doesn't
4973 insert the prefix when processing events whose PLACE-SYMBOLs are
4974 already thus enclosed.
4975
4976
4977 \f
4978 * Changes in version 19.15.
4979
4980 ** `make-frame-visible', which uniconified frames, is now a command,
4981 and thus may be bound to a key. This makes sense because frames
4982 respond to user input while iconified.
4983
4984 ** You can now use Meta mouse clicks to set and use the "secondary
4985 selection". You can drag M-Mouse-1 across the region you want to
4986 select. Or you can press M-Mouse-1 at one end and M-Mouse-3 at the
4987 other (this also copies the text to the kill ring). Repeating M-Mouse-3
4988 again at the same place kills that text.
4989
4990 M-Mouse-2 kills the secondary selection.
4991
4992 Setting the secondary selection does not move point or the mark. It
4993 is possible to make a secondary selection that does not all fit on the
4994 screen, by using M-Mouse-1 at one end, scrolling, then using M-Mouse-3
4995 at the other end.
4996
4997 Emacs has only one secondary selection at any time. Starting to set
4998 a new one cancels any previous one. The secondary selection displays
4999 using a face named `secondary-selection'.
5000
5001 ** There's a new way to request use of Supercite (sc.el). Do this:
5002
5003 (add-hook 'mail-citation-hook 'sc-cite-original)
5004
5005 Currently this works with Rmail. In the future, other Emacs based
5006 mail-readers should be modified to understand this hook also.
5007 In the mean time, you should keep doing what you have done in the past
5008 for those other mail readers.
5009
5010 ** When a regular expression contains `\(...\)' inside a repetition
5011 operator such as `*' or `+', and you ask about the range that was matched
5012 using `match-beginning' and `match-end', the range you get corresponds
5013 to the *last* repetition *only*. In Emacs 18, you would get a range
5014 corresponding to all the repetitions.
5015
5016 If you want to get a range corresponding to all the repetitions,
5017 put a `\(...\)' grouping *outside* the repetition operator. This
5018 is the syntax that corresponds logically to the desired result, and
5019 it works the same in Emacs 18 and Emacs 19.
5020
5021 (This change actually took place earlier, but we didn't know about it
5022 and thus didn't document it.)
5023
5024
5025 \f
5026 * Changes in version 19.14.
5027
5028 ** To modify read-only text, bind the variable `inhibit-read-only'
5029 to a non-nil value. If the value is t, then all reasons that might
5030 make text read-only are inhibited (including `read-only' text properties).
5031 If the value is a list, then a `read-only' property is inhibited
5032 if it is `memq' in the list.
5033
5034 ** If you call `get-buffer-window' passing t as its second argument, it
5035 will only search for windows on visible frames. Previously, passing t
5036 as the secord argument caused `get-buffer-window' to search all
5037 frames, visible or not.
5038
5039 ** If you call `other-buffer' with a nil or omitted second argument, it
5040 will ignore buffers displayed windows on any visible frame, not just
5041 the selected frame.
5042
5043 ** You can specify a window or a frame for C-x # to use when
5044 selects a server buffer. Set the variable server-window
5045 to the window or frame that you want.
5046
5047 ** The command M-( now inserts spaces outside the open-parentheses in
5048 some cases--depending on the syntax classes of the surrounding
5049 characters. If the variable `parens-dont-require-spaces' is non-nil,
5050 it inhibits insertion of these spaces.
5051
5052 ** The GUD package now supports the debugger known as xdb on HP/UX
5053 systems. Use M-x xdb. The variable `gud-xdb-directories' lets you
5054 specify a list of directories to search for source code.
5055
5056 ** If you are using the mailabbrev package, you should note that its
5057 function for defining an alias is now called `define-mail-abbrev'.
5058 This package no longer contains a definition for `define-mail-alias';
5059 that name is used only in mailaliases.
5060
5061 ** Inserted characters now inherit the properties of the text before
5062 them, by default, rather than those of the following text.
5063
5064 ** The function `insert-file-contents' now takes optional arguments BEG
5065 and END that specify which part of the file to insert. BEG defaults to
5066 0 (the beginning of the file), and END defaults to the end of the file.
5067
5068 If you specify BEG or END, then the argument VISIT must be nil.
5069
5070
5071 \f
5072 * Changes in version 19.13.
5073
5074 ** Magic file names can now handle the `load' operation.
5075
5076 ** Bibtex mode now sets up special entries in the menu bar.
5077
5078 ** The incremental search commands C-w and C-y, which copy text from
5079 the buffer into the search string, now convert it to lower case
5080 if you are in a case-insensitive search. This is to avoid making
5081 the search a case-sensitive one.
5082
5083 ** GNUS now knows your time zone automatically if Emacs does.
5084
5085 ** Hide-ifdef mode no longer defines keys of the form
5086 C-c LETTER, since those keys are reserved for users.
5087 Those commands have been moved to C-c M-LETTER.
5088 We may move them again for greater consistency with other modes.
5089
5090
5091 \f
5092 * Changes in version 19.12.
5093
5094 ** You can now make many of the sort commands ignore case by setting
5095 `sort-fold-case' to a non-nil value.
5096
5097
5098 \f
5099 * Changes in version 19.11.
5100
5101 ** Supercite is installed.
5102
5103 ** `write-file-hooks' functions that return non-nil are responsible
5104 for making a backup file if you want that to be done.
5105 To do so, execute the following code:
5106
5107 (or buffer-backed-up (backup-buffer))
5108
5109 You might wish to save the file modes value returned by
5110 `backup-buffer' and use that to set the mode bits of the file
5111 that you write. This is what `basic-save-buffer' does when
5112 it writes a file in the usual way.
5113
5114 (This is not actually new, but wasn't documented before.)
5115
5116
5117 \f
5118 * Changes in version 19.10.
5119
5120 ** The command `repeat-complex-command' is now on C-x ESC ESC.
5121 It used to be bound to C-x ESC.
5122
5123 The reason for this change is to make function keys work after C-x.
5124
5125 ** The variable `highlight-nonselected-windows' now controls whether
5126 the region is highlighted in windows other than the selected window
5127 (in Transient Mark mode only, of course, and currently only when
5128 using X).
5129
5130
5131 \f
5132 * Changes in version 19.8.
5133
5134 ** It is now simpler to tell Emacs to display accented characters under
5135 X windows. M-x standard-display-european toggles the display of
5136 buffer text according to the ISO Latin-1 standard. With a prefix
5137 argument, this command enables European character display if and only
5138 if the argument is positive.
5139
5140 ** The `-i' command-line argument tells Emacs to use a picture of the
5141 GNU gnu as its icon, instead of letting the window manager choose an
5142 icon for it. This option used to insert a file into the current
5143 buffer; use `-insert' to do that now.
5144
5145 ** The `configure' script now supports `--prefix' and `--exec-prefix'
5146 options.
5147
5148 The `--prefix=PREFIXDIR' option specifies where the installation process
5149 should put emacs and its data files. This defaults to `/usr/local'.
5150 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in PREFIXDIR/bin
5151 (unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise).
5152 - The architecture-independent files go in PREFIXDIR/lib/emacs/VERSION
5153 (where VERSION is the version number of Emacs, like `19.7').
5154 - The architecture-dependent files go in
5155 PREFIXDIR/lib/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION
5156 (where CONFIGURATION is the configuration name, like mips-dec-ultrix4.2),
5157 unless the `--exec-prefix' option says otherwise.
5158
5159 The `--exec-prefix=EXECDIR' option allows you to specify a separate
5160 portion of the directory tree for installing architecture-specific
5161 files, like executables and utility programs. If specified,
5162 - Emacs (and the other utilities users run) go in EXECDIR/bin, and
5163 - The architecture-dependent files go in
5164 EXECDIR/lib/emacs/VERSION/CONFIGURATION.
5165 EXECDIR/bin should be a directory that is normally in users' PATHs.
5166
5167 ** When running under X, the new lisp function `x-list-fonts'
5168 allows code to find out which fonts are available from the X server.
5169 The first argument PATTERN is a string, perhaps with wildcard characters;
5170 the * character matches any substring, and
5171 the ? character matches any single character.
5172 PATTERN is case-insensitive.
5173 If the optional arguments FACE and FRAME are specified, then
5174 `x-list-fonts' returns only fonts the same size as FACE on FRAME.
5175
5176
5177 \f
5178 * Changes in version 19.
5179
5180 ** When you kill buffers, Emacs now returns memory to the operating system,
5181 thus reducing the size of the Emacs process. All the space that you free
5182 up by killing buffers can now be reused for other buffers no matter what
5183 their sizes, or reused by other processes if Emacs doesn't need it.
5184
5185 ** Emacs now does garbage collection and auto saving while it is waiting
5186 for input, which often avoids the need to do these things while you
5187 are typing.
5188
5189 The variable `auto-save-timeout' says how many seconds Emacs should
5190 wait, after you stop typing, before it does an auto save and a garbage
5191 collection.
5192
5193 ** If auto saving detects that a buffer has shrunk greatly, it refrains
5194 from auto saving that buffer and displays a warning. Now it also turns
5195 off Auto Save mode in that buffer, so that you won't get the same
5196 warning again.
5197
5198 If you reenable Auto Save mode in that buffer, Emacs will start saving
5199 it again with no further warnings.
5200
5201 ** A new minor mode called Line Number mode displays the current line
5202 number in the mode line, updating it as necessary when you move
5203 point.
5204
5205 However, if the buffer is very large (larger than the value of
5206 `line-number-display-limit'), then the line number doesn't appear.
5207 This is because computing the line number can be painfully slow if the
5208 buffer is very large.
5209
5210 ** You can quit while Emacs is waiting to read or write files.
5211
5212 ** The arrow keys now have default bindings to move in the appropriate
5213 directions.
5214
5215 ** You can suppress next-line's habit of inserting a newline when
5216 called at the end of a buffer by setting next-line-add-newlines to nil
5217 (it defaults to t).
5218
5219 ** You can now get back recent minibuffer inputs conveniently. While
5220 in the minibuffer, type M-p to fetch the next earlier minibuffer
5221 input, and use M-n to fetch the next later input.
5222
5223 There are also commands to search forward or backward through the
5224 history for history elements that match a regular expression. M-r
5225 searches older elements in the history, while M-s searches newer
5226 elements. By special dispensation, these commands can always use the
5227 minibuffer to read their arguments even though you are already in the
5228 minibuffer when you issue them.
5229
5230 The history feature is available for all uses of the minibuffer, but
5231 there are separate history lists for different kinds of input. For
5232 example, there is a list for file names, used by all the commands that
5233 read file names. There is a list for arguments of commands like
5234 `query-replace'. There are also very specific history lists, such
5235 as the one that `compile' uses for compilation commands.
5236
5237 ** You can now display text in a mixture of fonts and colors, using the
5238 "face" feature, together with the overlay and text property features.
5239 See the Emacs Lisp manual for details. The Emacs Users Manual describes
5240 how to change the colors and font of standard predefined faces.
5241
5242 ** You can refer to files on other machines using special file name syntax:
5243
5244 /HOST:FILENAME
5245 /USER@HOST:FILENAME
5246
5247 When you do this, Emacs uses the FTP program to read and write files on
5248 the specified host. It logs in through FTP using your user name or the
5249 name USER. It may ask you for a password from time to time; this
5250 is used for logging in on HOST.
5251
5252 ** Some C-x key bindings have been moved onto new prefix keys.
5253
5254 C-x r is a prefix for registers and rectangles.
5255 C-x n is a prefix for narrowing.
5256 C-x a is a prefix for abbrev commands.
5257
5258 C-x r C-SPC
5259 C-x r SPC point-to-register (Was C-x /)
5260 C-x r j jump-to-register (Was C-x j)
5261 C-x r s copy-to-register (Was C-x x)
5262 C-x r i insert-register (Was C-x g)
5263 C-x r r copy-rectangle-to-register (Was C-x r)
5264 C-x r k kill-rectangle
5265 C-x r y yank-rectangle
5266 C-x r o open-rectangle
5267 C-x r f frame-configuration-to-register
5268 (This saves the state of all windows in all frames.)
5269 C-x r w window-configuration-to-register
5270 (This saves the state of all windows in the selected frame.)
5271
5272 (Use C-x r j to restore a configuration saved with C-x r f or C-x r w.)
5273
5274 C-x n n narrow-to-region (Was C-x n)
5275 C-x n p narrow-to-page (Was C-x p)
5276 C-x n w widen (Was C-x w)
5277
5278 C-x a l add-mode-abbrev (Was C-x C-a)
5279 C-x a g add-global-abbrev (Was C-x +)
5280 C-x a i l inverse-add-mode-abbrev (Was C-x C-h)
5281 C-x a i g inverse-add-global-abbrev (Was C-x -)
5282 C-x a e expand-abbrev (Was C-x ')
5283
5284 (The old key bindings C-x /, C-x j, C-x x and C-x g
5285 have not yet been removed.)
5286
5287 ** You can put a file name in a register to be able to visit the file
5288 quickly. Do this:
5289
5290 (set-register ?CHAR '(file . NAME))
5291
5292 where NAME is the file name as a string. Then C-x r j CHAR finds that
5293 file.
5294
5295 This is useful for files that you need to visit frequently,
5296 but that you don't want to keep in buffers all the time.
5297
5298 ** The keys M-g (fill-region) and C-x a (append-to-buffer)
5299 have been eliminated.
5300
5301 ** The new command `string-rectangle' inserts a specified string on
5302 each line of the region-rectangle.
5303
5304 ** C-x 4 r is now `find-file-read-only-other-window'.
5305
5306 ** C-x 4 C-o is now `display-buffer', which displays a specified buffer
5307 in another window without selecting it.
5308
5309 ** Picture mode has been substantially improved. The picture editing commands
5310 now arrange for automatic horizontal scrolling to keep point visible
5311 when editing a wide buffer with truncate-lines on. Picture-mode
5312 initialization now does a better job of rebinding standard commands;
5313 it finds not just their normal keybindings, but any function keys
5314 attached to them.
5315
5316 ** If you enable Transient Mark mode, then the mark becomes "inactive"
5317 after every command that modifies the buffer. While the mark is
5318 active, the region is highlighted (under X, at least). Most commands
5319 that use the mark give an error if the mark is inactive, but you can
5320 use C-x C-x to make it active again. This feature is also sometimes
5321 known as "Zmacs mode".
5322
5323 ** Outline mode is now available as a minor mode. This minor mode can
5324 combine with any major mode; it substitutes the C-c commands of
5325 Outline mode for those of the major mode. Use M-x outline-minor-mode
5326 to enable and disable the new mode.
5327
5328 M-x outline-mode is unchanged; it still switches to Outline mode as a
5329 major mode.
5330
5331 ** The default setting of `version-control' comes from the environment
5332 variable VERSION_CONTROL.
5333
5334 ** The user option for controlling whether files can set local
5335 variables is now called `enable-local-variables'. A value of t means
5336 local-variables lists are obeyed; nil means they are ignored; anything
5337 else means query the user.
5338
5339 The user option for controlling use of the `eval' local variable is
5340 now called is `enable-local-eval'; its values are interpreted like
5341 those of `enable-local-variables'.
5342
5343 ** X Window System changes:
5344
5345 C-x 5 C-f and C-x 5 b switch to a specified file or buffer in a new
5346 frame. Likewise, C-x 5 m starts outgoing mail in another frame, and
5347 C-x 5 . finds a tag in another frame.
5348
5349 When you are using X, C-z now iconifies the selected frame.
5350
5351 Emacs can now exchange text with other X applications. Killing or
5352 copying text in Emacs now makes that text available for pasting into
5353 other X applications. The Emacs yanking commands now insert the
5354 latest selection set by other applications, and add the text to the
5355 kill ring. The Emacs commands for selecting and inserting text with
5356 the mouse now use the kill ring in the same way the keyboard killing
5357 and yanking commands do.
5358
5359 The option to specify the title for the initial frame is now `-name NAME'.
5360 There is currently no way to specify an icon title; perhaps we will add
5361 one in the future.
5362
5363 ** Undoing a deletion now puts point back where it was before the
5364 deletion.
5365
5366 ** The variables that control how much undo information to save have
5367 been renamed to `undo-limit' and `undo-strong-limit'. They used to be
5368 called `undo-threshold' and `undo-high-threshold'.
5369
5370 ** You can now use kill commands in read-only buffers. They don't
5371 actually change the buffer, and Emacs will beep and warn you that the
5372 buffer is read-only, but they do copy the text you tried to kill into
5373 the kill ring, so you can yank it into other buffers.
5374
5375 ** C-o inserts the fill-prefix on the newly created line. The command
5376 M-^ deletes the prefix (if it occurs) after the newline that it
5377 deletes.
5378
5379 ** C-M-l now runs the command `reposition-window'. It scrolls the
5380 window heuristically in a way designed to get useful information onto
5381 the screen.
5382
5383 ** C-M-r is now reverse incremental regexp search.
5384
5385 ** M-z now kills through the target character. In version 18, it
5386 killed up to but not including the target character.
5387
5388 ** M-! now runs the specified shell command asynchronously if it
5389 ends in `&' (just as the shell does).
5390
5391 ** C-h C-f and C-h C-k are new help commands that display the Info
5392 node for a given Emacs function name or key sequence, respectively.
5393
5394 ** The C-h p command system lets you find Emacs Lisp packages by
5395 topic keywords. Here is a partial list of package categories:
5396
5397 abbrev abbreviation handling, typing shortcuts, macros
5398 bib code related to the bib bibliography processor
5399 c C and C++ language support
5400 calendar calendar and time management support
5401 comm communications, networking, remote access to files
5402 docs support for Emacs documentation
5403 emulations emulations of other editors
5404 extensions Emacs Lisp language extensions
5405 games games, jokes and amusements
5406 hardware support for interfacing with exotic hardware
5407 help support for on-line help systems
5408 i14n internationalization and alternate character-set support
5409 internal code for Emacs internals, build process, defaults
5410 languages specialized modes for editing programming languages
5411 lisp Lisp support, including Emacs Lisp
5412 local code local to your site
5413 maint maintenance aids for the Emacs development group
5414 mail modes for electronic-mail handling
5415 news support for netnews reading and posting
5416 processes process, subshell, compilation, and job control support
5417 terminals support for terminal types
5418 tex code related to the TeX formatter
5419 tools programming tools
5420 unix front-ends/assistants for, or emulators of, UNIX features
5421 vms support code for vms
5422 wp word processing
5423
5424 More will be added soon.
5425
5426 ** The command to split a window into two side-by-side windows is now
5427 C-x 3. It was C-x 5.
5428
5429 ** M-. (find-tag) no longer has any effect on what M-, will do
5430 subsequently. You can no longer use M-, to find the next similar tag;
5431 you must use M-. with a prefix argument, instead.
5432
5433 The motive for this change is so that you can more reliably use
5434 M-, to resume a suspended `tags-search' or `tags-query-replace'.
5435
5436 ** C-x s (`save-some-buffers') now gives you more options when it asks
5437 whether to save a particular buffer. In addition to `y' or `n', you
5438 can answer `!' to save all the remaining buffers, `.' to save this
5439 buffer but not save any others, ESC to stop saving and exit the
5440 command, and C-h to get help. These options are analogous to those
5441 of `query-replace'.
5442
5443 ** M-x make-symbolic-link does not expand its first argument.
5444 This lets you make a link with a target that is a relative file name.
5445
5446 ** M-x add-change-log-entry and C-x 4 a now automatically insert the
5447 name of the file and often the name of the function that you changed.
5448 They also handle grouping of entries.
5449
5450 There is now a special major mode for editing ChangeLog files. It
5451 makes filling work conveniently. Each bunch of grouped entries is one
5452 paragraph, and each collection of entries from one person on one day
5453 is considered a page.
5454
5455 ** The `comment-region' command adds comment delimiters to the lines that
5456 start in the region, thus commenting them out. With a negative argument,
5457 it deletes comment delimiters from the lines in the region--this cancels
5458 the effect of `comment-region' without an argument.
5459
5460 With a positive argument, `comment-region' adds comment delimiters
5461 but duplicates the last character of the comment start sequence as many
5462 times as the argument specifies. This is a way of calling attention to
5463 the comment. In Lisp, you should use an argument at least two, because
5464 the indentation convention for single semicolon comments does not leave
5465 them at the beginning of a line.
5466
5467 ** If `split-window-keep-point' is non-nil, C-x 2 tries to avoid
5468 shifting any text on the screen by putting point in whichever window
5469 happens to contain the screen line the cursor is already on.
5470 The default is that `split-window-keep-point' is non-nil on slow
5471 terminals.
5472
5473 ** M-x super-apropos is like M-x apropos except that it searches both
5474 Lisp symbol names and documentation strings for matches. It describes
5475 every symbol that has a match in either the symbol's name or its
5476 documentation.
5477
5478 Both M-x apropos and M-x super-apropos take an optional second
5479 argument DO-ALL which controls the more expensive part of the job.
5480 This includes looking up and printing the key bindings of all
5481 commands. It also includes checking documentation strings in
5482 super-apropos. DO-ALL is nil by default; use a prefix arg to make it
5483 non-nil.
5484
5485 ** M-x revert-buffer no longer offers to revert from a recent auto-save
5486 file unless you give it a prefix argument. Otherwise it always
5487 reverts from the real file regardless of whether there has been an
5488 auto-save since thenm. (Reverting from the auto-save file is no longer
5489 very useful now that the undo capacity is larger.)
5490
5491 ** M-x recover-file no longer turns off Auto Save mode when it reads
5492 the last Auto Save file.
5493
5494 ** M-x rename-buffer, if you give it a prefix argument,
5495 avoids errors by modifying the new name to make it unique.
5496
5497 ** M-x rename-uniquely renames the current buffer to a similar name
5498 with a numeric suffix added to make it both different and unique.
5499
5500 One use of this command is for creating multiple shell buffers.
5501 If you rename your shell buffer, and then do M-x shell again, it
5502 makes a new shell buffer. This method is also good for mail buffers,
5503 compilation buffers, and any Emacs feature which creates a special
5504 buffer with a particular name.
5505
5506 ** M-x compare-windows with a prefix argument ignores changes in whitespace.
5507 If `compare-ignore-case' is non-nil, then differences in case are also
5508 ignored.
5509
5510 ** `backward-paragraph' is now bound to M-{ by default, and `forward-paragraph'
5511 to M-}. Originally, these commands were bound to M-[ and M-], but they were
5512 running into conflicts with the use of function keys. On many terminals,
5513 function keys send a sequence beginning ESC-[, so many users have defined this
5514 as a prefix key.
5515
5516 ** C-x C-u (upcase-region) and C-x C-l (downcase-region) are now disabled by
5517 default; these commands seem to be often hit by accident, and can be
5518 quite destructive if their effects are not noticed immediately.
5519
5520 ** The function `erase-buffer' is now interactive, but disabled by default.
5521
5522 ** When visiting a new file, Emacs attempts to abbreviate the file's
5523 path using the symlinks listed in `directory-abbrev-alist'.
5524
5525 ** When you visit the same file in under two names that translate into
5526 the same name once symbolic links are handled, Emacs warns you that
5527 you have two buffers for the same file.
5528
5529 ** If you wish to avoid visiting the same file in two buffers under
5530 different names, set the variable `find-file-existing-other-name'
5531 non-nil. Then `find-file' uses the existing buffer visiting the file,
5532 no matter which of the file's names you specify.
5533
5534 ** If you set `find-file-visit-truename' non-nil, then the file name
5535 recorded for a buffer is the file's truename (in which all symbolic
5536 links have been removed), rather than the name you specify. Setting
5537 `find-file-visit-truename' also implies the effect of
5538 `find-file-existing-other-name'.
5539
5540 ** C-x C-v now inserts the entire current file name in the minibuffer.
5541 This is convenient if you made a small mistake in typing it. Point
5542 goes after the last slash, before the last file name component, so if
5543 you want to replace it entirely, you can use C-k right away to delete
5544 it.
5545
5546 ** Commands such as C-M-f in Lisp mode now ignore parentheses within comments.
5547
5548 ** C-x q now uses ESC to terminate all iterations of the keyboard
5549 macro, rather than C-d as before.
5550
5551 ** Use the command `setenv' to set an individual environment variable
5552 for Emacs subprocesses. Specify a variable name and a value, both as
5553 strings. This command applies only to subprocesses yet to be
5554 started.
5555
5556 ** Use `rot13-other-window' to examine a buffer with rot13.
5557
5558 This command does not change the text in the buffer. Instead, it
5559 creates a window with a funny display table that applies the code when
5560 displaying the text.
5561
5562 ** The command `M-x version' now prints the current Emacs version; The
5563 `version' command is an alias for the `emacs-version' command.
5564
5565 ** More complex changes in existing packages.
5566
5567 *** `fill-nonuniform-paragraphs' is a new command, much like
5568 `fill-individual-paragraphs' except that only separator lines separate
5569 paragraphs. Since this means that the lines of one paragraph may have
5570 different amounts of indentation, the fill prefix used is the smallest
5571 amount of indentation of any of the lines of the paragraph.
5572
5573 *** Filling is now partially controlled by a new minor mode, Adaptive
5574 Fill mode. When this mode is enabled (and it is enabled by default),
5575 if you use M-x fill-region-as-paragraph on an indented paragraph and
5576 you don't have a fill prefix, it uses the indentation of the second
5577 line of the paragraph as the fill prefix.
5578
5579 Adaptive Fill mode doesn't have much effect on M-q in most major
5580 modes, because an indented line will probably count as a paragraph
5581 starter and thus each line of an indented paragraph will be considered
5582 a paragraph of its own.
5583
5584 *** M-q in C mode now runs `c-fill-paragraph', which is designed
5585 for filling C comments. (We assume you don't want to fill
5586 the code in a C program.)
5587
5588 *** M-$ now runs the Ispell program instead of the Unix spell program.
5589
5590 M-$ starts an Ispell process the first time you use it. But the process
5591 stays alive, so that subsequent uses of M-$ run very fast.
5592 If you want to get rid of the process, use M-x kill-ispell.
5593
5594 To check the entire current buffer, use M-x ispell-buffer.
5595 Use M-x ispell-region to check just the current region.
5596
5597 Ispell commands often involve interactive replacement of words.
5598 You can interrupt the interactive replacement with C-g.
5599 You can restart it again afterward with C-u M-$.
5600
5601 During interactive replacement, you can type the following characters:
5602
5603 a Accept this word this time.
5604 DIGIT Replace the word (this time) with one of the displayed near-misses.
5605 The digit you use says which near-miss to use.
5606 i Insert this word in your private dictionary
5607 so that Ispell will consider it correct it from now on.
5608 r Replace the word this time with a string typed by you.
5609
5610 When the Ispell process starts, it reads your private dictionary which
5611 is the file `~/ispell.words'. If you "insert" words with the `i' command,
5612 these words are added to that file, but not right away--only at the end
5613 of the interactive replacement process.
5614
5615 Use M-x reload-ispell to reload your private dictionary from
5616 `~/ispell.words' if you edit it outside of Ispell.
5617
5618 ** Changes in existing modes.
5619
5620 *** gdb-mode has been replaced by gud-mode.
5621
5622 The package gud.el (Grand Unified Debugger) replaces gdb.el in Emacs
5623 19. It provides a gdb.el-like interface to any of three debuggers;
5624 gdb itself, the sdb debugger supported on some Unix systems, or the
5625 dbx debugger on Berkeley systems.
5626
5627 You start it up with one of the commands M-x gdb, M-x sdb, or
5628 M-x dbx. Each entry point finishes by executing a hook; gdb-mode-hook,
5629 sdb-mode-hook or dbx-mode-hook respectively.
5630
5631 These bindings have changed:
5632 C-x C-a > gud-down (was M-d)
5633 C-x C-a < gud-up (was M-u)
5634 C-x C-a C-r gud-cont (was M-c)
5635 C-x C-a C-n gud-next (was M-n)
5636 C-x C-a C-s gud-step (was M-s)
5637 C-x C-a C-i gud-stepi (was M-i)
5638 C-x C-a C-l gud-recenter (was C-l)
5639 C-d comint-delchar-or-maybe-eof (was C-c C-d)
5640
5641 These bindings have been removed:
5642 C-c C-r (was comint-show-output; now gud-cont)
5643
5644 Since GUD mode uses comint, it uses comint's input history commands,
5645 superseding C-c C-y (copy-last-shell-input):
5646 M-p comint-next-input
5647 M-n comint-previous-input
5648 M-r comint-previous-similar-input
5649 M-s comint-next-similar-input
5650 M-C-r comint-previous-input-matching
5651
5652 The C-x C-a bindings are also active in source files.
5653
5654 *** The old TeX mode bindings of M-{ and M-} have been moved to C-c {
5655 and C-c }. (These commands are `up-list' and `tex-insert-braces';
5656 they are the TeX equivalents of M-( and M-).) This is because M-{
5657 and M-} are now globally defined commands.
5658
5659 *** Changes in Mail mode.
5660
5661 `%' is now a word-separator character in Mail mode.
5662
5663 `mail-signature', if non-nil, tells M-x mail to insert your
5664 `.signature' file automatically. If you don't want your signature in
5665 a particular message, just delete it before you send the message.
5666
5667 You can specify the text to insert at the beginning of each line when
5668 you use C-c C-y to yank the message you are replying to. Set
5669 `mail-yank-prefix' to the desired string. A value of `nil' (the
5670 default) means to use indentation, as in Emacs 18. If you use just
5671 C-u as the prefix argument to C-c C-y, then it does not insert
5672 anything at the beginning of the lines, regardless of the value of
5673 `mail-yank-prefix'.
5674
5675 If you like, you can expand mail aliases as abbrevs, as soon as you
5676 type them in. To enable this feature, execute the following:
5677
5678 (add-hook 'mail-setup-hook 'mail-abbrevs-setup)
5679
5680 This can go in your .emacs file.
5681
5682 Word abbrevs don't expand unless you insert a word-separator character
5683 afterward. Any mail aliases that you didn't expand at insertion time
5684 are expanded subsequently when you send the message.
5685
5686 *** Changes in Rmail.
5687
5688 Rmail by default gets new mail only from the system inbox file,
5689 not from `~/mbox'.
5690
5691 In Rmail, you can retry sending a message that failed
5692 by typing `M-m' on the failure message.
5693
5694 By contrast, another new command M-x rmail-resend is used for
5695 forwarding a message and marking it as "resent from" you
5696 with header fields "Resent-From:" and "Resent-To:".
5697
5698 `e' is now the command to edit a message.
5699 To expunge, type `x'. We know this will surprise people
5700 some of the time, but the surprise will not be disastrous--if
5701 you type `e' meaning to expunge, just turn off editing with C-c C-c
5702 and then type `x'.
5703
5704 Another new Rmail command is `<', which moves to the first message.
5705 This is for symmetry with `>'.
5706
5707 Use the `b' command to bury the Rmail buffer and its summary buffer,
5708 if any, removing both of them from display on the screen.
5709
5710 The variable `rmail-output-file-alist' now controls the default
5711 for the file to output a message to.
5712
5713 In the Rmail summary buffer, all cursor motion commands select
5714 the message you move to. It's really neat when you use
5715 incremental search.
5716
5717 You can now issue most Rmail commands from an Rmail summary buffer.
5718 The commands do the same thing in that buffer that they do in the
5719 Rmail buffer. They apply to the message that is selected in the Rmail
5720 buffer, which is always the one described by the current summary
5721 line.
5722
5723 Conversely, motion and deletion commands in the Rmail buffer also
5724 update the summary buffer. If you set the variable
5725 `rmail-redisplay-summary' to a non-nil value, then they bring the
5726 summary buffer (if one exists) back onto the screen.
5727
5728 C-M-t is a new command to make a summary by topic. It uses regexp
5729 matching against just the subjects of the messages to decide which
5730 messages to show in the summary.
5731
5732 You can easily convert an Rmail file to system mailbox format with the
5733 command `unrmail'. This command reads two arguments, the name of
5734 the Rmail file to convert, and the name of the new mailbox file.
5735 (This command does not change the Rmail file itself.)
5736
5737 Rmail now handles Content Length fields in messages.
5738
5739 *** `mail-extract-address-components' unpacks mail addresses.
5740 It takes an address as a string (the contents of the From field, for
5741 example) and returns a list of the form (FULL-NAME
5742 CANONICAL-ADDRESS).
5743
5744 *** Changes in C mode and C-related commands.
5745
5746 **** M-x c-up-conditional
5747
5748 In C mode, `c-up-conditional' moves back to the containing
5749 preprocessor conditional, setting the mark where point was
5750 previously.
5751
5752 A prefix argument acts as a repeat count. With a negative argument,
5753 this command moves forward to the end of the containing preprocessor
5754 conditional. When going backwards, `#elif' acts like `#else' followed
5755 by `#if'. When going forwards, `#elif' is ignored.
5756
5757 **** In C mode, M-a and M-e are now defined as
5758 `c-beginning-of-statement' and `c-end-of-statement'.
5759
5760 **** In C mode, M-x c-backslash-region is a new command to insert or
5761 align `\' characters at the ends of the lines of the region, except
5762 for the last such line. This is useful after writing or editing a C
5763 macro definition.
5764
5765 If a line already ends in `\', this command adjusts the amount of
5766 whitespace before it. Otherwise, it inserts a new `\'.
5767
5768 *** New features in info.
5769
5770 When Info looks for an Info file, it searches the directories
5771 in `Info-directory-list'. This makes it easy to install the Info files
5772 that come with various packages. You can specify the path with
5773 the environment variable INFOPATH.
5774
5775 There are new commands in Info mode.
5776
5777 `]' now moves forward a node, going up and down levels as needed.
5778 `[' is similar but moves backward. These two commands try to traverse
5779 the entire Info tree, node by node. They are the equivalent of reading
5780 a printed manual sequentially.
5781
5782 `<' moves to the top node of the current Info file.
5783 `>' moves to the last node of the file.
5784
5785 SPC scrolls through the current node; at the end, it advances to the
5786 next node in depth-first order (like `]').
5787
5788 DEL scrolls backwards in the current node; at the end, it moves to the
5789 previous node in depth-first order (like `[').
5790
5791 After a menu select, the info `up' command now restores point in the
5792 menu. The combination of this and the previous two changes means that
5793 repeated SPC keystrokes do the right (depth-first traverse forward) thing.
5794
5795 `i STRING RET' moves to the node associated with STRING in the index
5796 or indices of this manual. If there is more than one match for
5797 STRING, the `i' command finds the first match.
5798
5799 `,' finds the next match for the string in the previous `i' command
5800
5801 If you click the middle mouse button near a cross-reference,
5802 menu item or node pointer while in Info, you will go to the node
5803 which is referenced.
5804
5805 *** Changes in M-x compile.
5806
5807 You can repeat any previous compilation command conveniently using the
5808 minibuffer history commands, while in the minibuffer entering the
5809 compilation command.
5810
5811 While a compilation is going on, the string `Compiling' appears in
5812 the mode line. When this string disappears, that tells you the
5813 compilation is finished.
5814
5815 The buffer of compiler messages is in Compilation mode. This mode
5816 provides the keys SPC and DEL to scroll by screenfuls, and M-n and M-p
5817 to move to the next or previous error message. You can also use C-c
5818 C-c on any error message to find the corresponding source code.
5819
5820 Emacs 19 has a more general parser for compiler messages. For example, it
5821 can understand messages from lint, and from certain C compilers whose error
5822 message format is unusual. Also, it only parses until it sees the error
5823 message you want; you never have to wait a long time to see the first
5824 error, no matter how big the buffer is.
5825
5826 *** M-x diff and M-x diff-backup.
5827
5828 This new command compares two files, displaying the differences in an
5829 Emacs buffer. The options for the `diff' program come from the
5830 variable `diff-switches', whose value should be a string.
5831
5832 The buffer of differences has Compilation mode as its major mode, so you
5833 can use C-x ` to visit successive changed locations in the two
5834 source files, or you can move to a particular hunk of changes and type
5835 C-c C-c to move to the corresponding source. You can also use the
5836 other special commands of Compilation mode: SPC and DEL for
5837 scrolling, and M-n and M-p for cursor motion.
5838
5839 M-x diff-backup compares a file with its most recent backup.
5840 If you specify the name of a backup file, `diff-backup' compares it
5841 with the source file that it is a backup of.
5842
5843 *** The View commands (such as M-x view-buffer and M-x view-file) no
5844 longer use recursive edits; instead, they switch temporarily to a
5845 different major mode (View mode) specifically designed for moving
5846 around through a buffer without editing it.
5847
5848 *** Changes in incremental search.
5849
5850 **** The character to terminate an incremental search is now RET.
5851 This is for compatibility with the way most other arguments are read.
5852
5853 To search for a newline in an incremental search, type LFD (also known
5854 as C-j).
5855
5856 **** Incremental search now maintains a ring of previous search
5857 strings. Use M-p and M-n to move through the ring to pick a search
5858 string to reuse. These commands leave the selected search ring
5859 element in the minibuffer, where you can edit it. Type C-s or C-r to
5860 finish editing and search for the chosen string.
5861
5862 **** If you type an upper case letter in incremental search, that turns
5863 off case-folding, so that you get a case-sensitive search.
5864
5865 **** If you type a space during regexp incremental search, it matches
5866 any sequence of whitespace characters. If you want to match just a space,
5867 type C-q SPC.
5868
5869 **** Incremental search is now implemented as a major mode. When you
5870 type C-s, it switches temporarily to a different keymap which defines
5871 each key to do what it ought to do for incremental search. This has
5872 next to no effect on the user-visible behavior of searching, but makes
5873 it easier to customize that behavior.
5874
5875 Emacs 19 eliminates the old variables `search-...-char' that used to
5876 be the way to specify the characters to use for various special
5877 purposes in incremental search. Instead, you can define the meaning
5878 of a character in incremental search by modifying `isearch-mode-map'.
5879
5880 *** New commands in Buffer Menu mode.
5881
5882 The command C-o now displays the current line's buffer in another
5883 window but does not select it. This is like the existing command `o'
5884 which selects the current line's buffer in another window.
5885
5886 The command % toggles the read-only flag of the current line's buffer.
5887
5888 The way to switch to a set of several buffers, including those marked
5889 with m, is now v. The q command simply quits, replacing the buffer
5890 menu buffer with the buffer that was displayed previously.
5891
5892 ** New major modes and packages.
5893
5894 *** The news reader GNUS is now installed.
5895
5896 *** There is a new interface for version control systems, called VC.
5897 It works with both RCS and SCCS; in fact, you don't really have to
5898 know which one of them is being used, because it automatically deals
5899 with either one.
5900
5901 Most of the time, the only command you have to know about is C-x C-q.
5902 This command normally toggles the read-only flag of the current
5903 buffer. If the buffer is visiting a file that is maintained with a
5904 version control system, the command still toggles read-only, but does
5905 so by checking the file in or checking it out.
5906
5907 When you check a file in, VC asks you for a log entry by popping up a
5908 buffer. Edit the entry there, then type C-c C-c when it is ready.
5909 That's when the actual checkin happens. If you change your mind about
5910 the checkin, simply switch buffers and don't ever go back to the log
5911 buffer.
5912
5913 To start using version control for a file, use the command C-x v v.
5914 This works like C-x C-q (performing the next logical version-control
5915 operation needed to change the file's writability) but it will also
5916 perform initial checkin on an unregistered file.
5917
5918 By default, VC uses RCS if RCS is installed on your machine;
5919 otherwise, SCCS. If you want to make the choice explicitly, you can do
5920 it by setting `vc-default-back-end' to the symbol `RCS' or the symbol
5921 `SCCS'.
5922
5923 You can tell when a file you visit is maintained with version control
5924 because either `RCS' or `SCCS' appears in the mode line.
5925
5926 *** A new Calendar mode has been added, the work of Edward M. Reingold.
5927 The mode can display the Gregorian calendar and a variety of other
5928 calendars at any date, and interacts with a diary facility similar to
5929 the UNIX `calendar' utility.
5930
5931 *** There is a new major mode for editing binary files: Hexl mode.
5932 To use it, use M-x hexl-find-file instead of C-x C-f to visit the file.
5933 This command converts the file's contents to hexadecimal and lets you
5934 edit the translation. When you save the file, it is converted
5935 automatically back to binary.
5936
5937 You can also use M-x hexl-mode to translate an existing buffer into hex.
5938 Do this if you have already visited a binary file.
5939
5940 Hexl mode has a few other commands:
5941
5942 C-M-d insert a byte with a code typed in decimal.
5943 C-M-o insert a byte with a code typed in octal.
5944 C-M-x insert a byte with a code typed in hex.
5945
5946 C-x [ move to the beginning of a 1k-byte "page".
5947 C-x ] move to the end of a 1k-byte "page".
5948
5949 M-g go to an address specified in hex.
5950 M-j go to an address specified in decimal.
5951
5952 C-c C-c leave hexl mode and go back to the previous major mode.
5953
5954 *** Miscellaneous new major modes include Awk mode, Icon mode, Makefile
5955 mode, Perl mode and SGML mode.
5956
5957 *** Edebug, a new source-level debugger for Emacs Lisp functions.
5958
5959 To use Edebug, use the command M-x edebug-defun to "evaluate" a
5960 function definition in an Emacs Lisp file. We put "evaluate" in
5961 quotation marks because it doesn't just evaluate the function, it also
5962 inserts additional information to support source-level debugging.
5963
5964 You must also do
5965
5966 (setq debugger 'edebug-debug)
5967
5968 to cause errors and single-stepping to use Edebug instead of the usual
5969 Emacs Lisp debugger.
5970
5971 For more information, see the Edebug manual, which should be included
5972 in the Emacs distribution.
5973
5974 *** C++ mode is like C mode, except that it understands C++ comment syntax
5975 and certain other differences between C and C++. It also has a command
5976 `fill-c++-comment' which fills a paragraph made of comment lines.
5977
5978 The command `comment-region' is useful in C++ mode for commenting out
5979 several consecutive lines, or removing the commenting out of such lines.
5980
5981 *** A new package for merging two variants of the same text.
5982
5983 It's not unusual for programmers to get their signals crossed and
5984 modify the same program in two different directions. Then somebody
5985 has to merge the two versions. The command `emerge-files' makes this
5986 easier.
5987
5988 `emerge-files' reads two file names and compares them. Then it
5989 displays three buffers: one for each file, and one for the
5990 differences.
5991
5992 If the original version of the file is available, you can make things
5993 even easier using `emerge-files-with-ancestor'. It reads three file
5994 names--variant 1, variant 2, and the common ancestor--and uses diff3
5995 to compare them.
5996
5997 You control the merging interactively. The main loop of Emerge
5998 consists of showing you one set of differences, asking you what to do
5999 about them, and doing it. You have a choice of two modes for giving
6000 directions to Emerge: "fast" mode and "edit" mode.
6001
6002 In Fast mode, Emerge commands are single characters, and ordinary
6003 Emacs commands are disabled. This makes Emerge operations fast, but
6004 prevents you from doing more than selecting the A or the B version of
6005 differences. In Edit mode, all emerge commands use the C-c prefix,
6006 and the usual Emacs commands are available. This allows editing the
6007 merge buffer, but slows down Emerge operations. Edit and fast modes
6008 are indicated by `F' and `E' in the minor modes in the mode line.
6009
6010 The Emerge commands are:
6011
6012 p go to the previous difference
6013 n go to the next difference
6014 a select the A version of this difference
6015 b select the B version of this difference
6016 j go to a particular difference (prefix argument
6017 specifies which difference) (0j suppresses display of
6018 the flags)
6019 q quit - finish the merge*
6020 f go into fast mode
6021 e go into edit mode
6022 l recenter (C-l) all three windows*
6023 - and 0 through 9
6024 prefix numeric arguments
6025 d a select the A version as the default from here down in
6026 the merge buffer*
6027 d b select the B version as the default from here down in
6028 the merge buffer*
6029 c a copy the A version of the difference into the kill
6030 ring
6031 c b copy the B version of the difference into the kill
6032 ring
6033 i a insert the A version of the difference at the point
6034 i b insert the B version of the difference at the point
6035 m put the point and mark around the difference region
6036 ^ scroll-down (like M-v) the three windows*
6037 v scroll-up (like C-v) the three windows*
6038 < scroll-left (like C-x <) the three windows*
6039 > scroll-right (like C-x >) the three windows*
6040 | reset horizontal scroll on the three windows*
6041 x 1 shrink the merge window to one line (use C-u l to restore it
6042 to full size)
6043 x a find the difference containing a location in the A buffer*
6044 x b find the difference containing a location in the B buffer*
6045 x c combine the two versions of this difference*
6046 x C combine the two versions of this difference, using a
6047 register's value as the template*
6048 x d find the difference containing a location in the merge buffer*
6049 x f show the files/buffers Emerge is operating on in Help window
6050 (use C-u l to restore windows)
6051 x j join this difference with the following one
6052 (C-u x j joins this difference with the previous one)
6053 x l show line numbers of points in A, B, and merge buffers
6054 x m change major mode of merge buffer*
6055 x s split this difference into two differences
6056 (first position the point in all three buffers to the places
6057 to split the difference)
6058 x t trim identical lines off top and bottom of difference
6059 (such lines occur when the A and B versions are
6060 identical but differ from the ancestor version)
6061 x x set the template for the x c command*
6062
6063 Normally, the merged output goes back in the first file specified.
6064 If you use a prefix argument, Emerge reads another file name to use
6065 for the output file.
6066
6067 Once Emerge has prepared the buffer of differences, it runs the hooks
6068 in `emerge-startup-hooks'.
6069
6070 *** Asm mode is a new major mode for editing files of assembler code.
6071 It defines these commands:
6072
6073 TAB tab-to-tab-stop.
6074 LFD Insert a newline and then indent using tab-to-tab-stop.
6075 : Insert a colon and then remove the indentation
6076 from before the label preceding colon. Then tab-to-tab-stop.
6077 ; Insert or align a comment.
6078
6079 *** Two-column mode lets you conveniently edit two side-by-side columns
6080 of text. It works using two side-by-side windows, each showing its
6081 own buffer.
6082
6083 Here are three ways to enter two-column mode:
6084
6085 C-x 6 2 makes the current buffer into the left-hand buffer. In the
6086 right-hand window it puts a buffer whose name is based on the current
6087 buffer's name.
6088
6089 C-x 6 b BUFFER RET makes the current buffer into the left-hand buffer,
6090 and uses buffer BUFFER as the right-hand buffer.
6091
6092 C-x 6 s splits the current buffer, which contains two-column text,
6093 into two side-by-side buffers. The old current buffer becomes the
6094 left-hand buffer, but the text in the right column is moved into the
6095 right-hand buffer. The current column specifies the split point.
6096 Splitting starts with the current line and continues to the end of the
6097 buffer.
6098
6099 C-x 6 s takes a prefix argument which specifies how many characters
6100 before point constitute the column separator. (The default argument
6101 is 1, as usual, so by default the column separator is the character
6102 before point.) Lines that don't have the column separator at the
6103 proper place remain unsplit; they stay in the left-hand buffer, and
6104 the right-hand buffer gets an empty line to correspond.
6105
6106 You can scroll both buffers together using C-x 6 SPC (scroll up), C-x
6107 6 DEL (scroll down), and C-x 6 RET (scroll up one line). C-x 6 C-l
6108 recenters both buffers together.
6109
6110 If you want to make a line which will span both columns, put it in
6111 the left-hand buffer, with an empty line in the corresponding place in
6112 the right-hand buffer.
6113
6114 When you have edited both buffers as you wish, merge them with C-x 6
6115 1. This copies the text from the right-hand buffer as a second column
6116 in the other buffer. To go back to two-column editing, use C-x 6 s.
6117
6118 Use C-x 6 d to disassociate the two buffers, leaving each as it
6119 stands. (If the other buffer, the one that was not current when you
6120 type C-x 6 d, is empty, C-x 6 d kills it.)
6121
6122 *** You can supply command arguments such as files to visit to an Emacs
6123 that is already running. To do this, you must do this in your .emacs
6124 file:
6125 (add-hook 'suspend-hook 'resume-suspend-hook)
6126 Also you must use the shellscript emacs.csh or emacs.sh, found in the
6127 etc subdirectory.
6128
6129 *** Shell mode has been completely replaced.
6130 The basic idea is the same, but there are new commands available in
6131 this mode.
6132
6133 TAB now completes the file name before point in the shell buffer.
6134 To get a list of all possible completions, type M-?.
6135
6136 There is a new convenient history mechanism for repeating previous
6137 commands. Use the command M-p to recall the last command; it copies
6138 the text of that command to the place where you are editing. If you
6139 repeat M-p, it replaces the copied command with the previous command.
6140 M-n is similar but goes in the opposite direction towards the present.
6141 When you find the command you wanted, you can edit it, or just
6142 resubmit it by typing RET.
6143
6144 You can also use M-r and M-s to search for (respectively) earlier or
6145 later inputs starting with a given string. First type the string,
6146 then type M-r to yank a previous input from the history which starts
6147 with that string. You can repeat M-r to find successively earlier
6148 inputs starting with the same string. You can start moving in the
6149 opposite direction (toward more recent inputs) by typing M-s instead
6150 of M-r. As long as you don't use any commands except M-r and M-s,
6151 they keep using the same string that you had entered initially.
6152
6153 C-c C-o kills the last batch of output from a shell command. This is
6154 useful if a shell command spews out lots of output that just gets in
6155 the way.
6156
6157 C-c C-r scrolls to display the beginning of the last batch of output
6158 at the top of the window; it also moves the cursor there.
6159
6160 C-a on a line that starts with a shell prompt moves to the end of the
6161 prompt, not to the very beginning of the line.
6162
6163 C-d typed at the end of the shell buffer sends EOF to the subshell.
6164 At any other position in the buffer, it deletes a character as usual.
6165
6166 If Emacs gets confused while trying to track changes in the shell's
6167 current directory, type M-x dirs to re-synchronize.
6168
6169 M-x send-invisible reads a line of text without echoing it, and
6170 sends it to the shell.
6171
6172 If you accidentally suspend your process, use M-x comint-continue-subjob
6173 to continue it.
6174
6175 *** There is now a convenient way to enable flow control on terminals
6176 where you can't win without it. Suppose you want to do this on
6177 VT-100 and H19 terminals; put the following in your `.emacs' file:
6178
6179 (enable-flow-control-on "vt100" "h19")
6180
6181 When flow control is enabled, you must type C-\ to get the effect of a
6182 C-s, and type C-^ to get the effect of a C-q.
6183
6184 The function `enable-flow-control' enables flow control unconditionally.
6185 \f
6186 ** Changes in Dired
6187
6188 Dired has many new features which allow you to do these things:
6189
6190 - Rename, copy, or make links to many files at once.
6191
6192 - Make distinguishable types of marks for different operations.
6193
6194 - Display contents of subdirectories in the same Dired buffer as the
6195 parent directory.
6196
6197 *** Setting and Clearing Marks
6198
6199 There are now two kinds of marker that you can put on a file in Dired:
6200 `D' for deletion, and `*' for any other kind of operation.
6201 The `x' command deletes only files marked with `D', and most
6202 other Dired commands operate only on the files marked with `*'.
6203
6204 To mark files with `D' (also called "flagging" the files), you
6205 can use `d' as usual. Here are some commands for marking with
6206 `*' (and also for unmarking):
6207
6208 **** `m' marks the current file with `*', for an operation other than
6209 deletion.
6210
6211 **** `*' marks all executable files. With a prefix argument, it
6212 unmarks all those files.
6213
6214 **** `@' marks all symbolic links. With a prefix argument, it unmarks
6215 all those files.
6216
6217 **** `/' marks all directory files except `.' and `..'. With a prefix
6218 argument, it unmarks all those files.
6219
6220 **** M-DEL removes a specific or all marks from every file. With an
6221 argument, queries for each marked file. Type your help character,
6222 usually C-h, at that time for help.
6223
6224 **** `c' replaces all marks that use the character OLD with marks that
6225 use the character NEW. You can use almost any character as a mark
6226 character by means of this command, to distinguish various classes of
6227 files. If OLD is ` ', then the command operates on all unmarked
6228 files; if NEW is ` ', then the command unmarks the files it acts on.
6229
6230 *** Operating on Multiple Files
6231
6232 The Dired commands to operate directly on files (rename them, copy
6233 them, and so on) have been generalized to work on multiple files.
6234 There are also some additional commands in this series.
6235
6236 All of these commands use the same convention to decide which files to
6237 manipulate:
6238
6239 - If you give the command a numeric prefix argument @var{n}, it operates
6240 on the next @var{n} files, starting with the current file.
6241
6242 - Otherwise, if there are marked files, the commands operate on all the
6243 marked files.
6244
6245 - Otherwise, the command operates on the current file only.
6246
6247 These are the commands:
6248
6249 **** `C' copies the specified files. You must specify a directory to
6250 copy into, or (if copying a single file) a new name.
6251
6252 If `dired-copy-preserve-time' is non-`nil', then copying sets
6253 the modification time of the new file to be the same as that of the old
6254 file.
6255
6256 **** `R' renames the specified files. You must specify a directory to
6257 rename into, or (if renaming a single file) a new name.
6258
6259 Dired automatically changes the visited file name of buffers associated
6260 with renamed files so that they refer to the new names.
6261
6262 **** `H' makes hard links to the specified files. You must specify a
6263 directory to make the links in, or (if making just one link) the name
6264 to give the link.
6265
6266 **** `S' makes symbolic links to the specified files. You must specify
6267 a directory to make the links in, or (if making just one link) the
6268 name to give the link.
6269
6270 **** `M' changes the mode of the specified files. This calls the
6271 `chmod' program, so you can describe the desired mode change with any
6272 argument that `chmod' would handle.
6273
6274 **** `G' changes the group of the specified files.
6275
6276 **** `O' changes the owner of the specified files. (On normal systems,
6277 only the superuser can do this.)
6278
6279 The variable `dired-chown-program' specifies the name of the
6280 program to use to do the work (different systems put `chown' in
6281 different places.
6282
6283 **** `Z' compresses or uncompresses the specified files.
6284
6285 **** `L' loads the specified Emacs Lisp files.
6286
6287 **** `B' byte compiles the specified Emacs Lisp files.
6288
6289 **** `P' prints the specified files. It uses the variables
6290 `lpr-command' and `lpr-switches' just as `lpr-file' does.
6291
6292 *** Shell Commands in Dired
6293
6294 `!' reads a shell command string in the minibuffer and runs the shell
6295 command on all the specified files. There are two ways of applying a
6296 shell command to multiple files:
6297
6298 - If you use `*' in the command, then the shell command runs just
6299 once, with the list of file names substituted for the `*'.
6300
6301 Thus, `! tar cf foo.tar * RET' runs `tar' on the entire list of file
6302 names, putting them into one tar file `foo.tar'. The file names are
6303 inserted in the order that they appear in the Dired buffer.
6304
6305 - If the command string doesn't contain `*', then it runs once for
6306 each file, with the file name attached at the end. For example, `!
6307 uudecode RET' runs `uudecode' on each file.
6308
6309 To run the shell command once for each file but without being limited
6310 to putting the file name inserted in the middle, use a shell loop.
6311 For example, this shell command would run `uuencode' on each of the
6312 specified files, writing the output into a corresponding `.uu' file:
6313
6314 for file in *; uuencode $file $file >$file.uu; done
6315
6316 The working directory for the shell command is the top level directory
6317 of the Dired buffer.
6318
6319 *** Regular Expression File Name Substitution
6320
6321 **** `% m REGEXP RET' marks all files whose names match the regular
6322 expression REGEXP.
6323
6324 Only the non-directory part of the file name is used in matching. Use
6325 `^' and `$' to anchor matches. Exclude subdirs by hiding them.
6326
6327 **** `% d REGEXP RET' flags for deletion all files whose names match
6328 the regular expression REGEXP.
6329
6330 **** `% R', `% C', `% H', `% S'
6331
6332 These four commands rename, copy, make hard links and make soft links,
6333 in each case computing the new name by regular expression substitution
6334 from the name of the old file. They effectively perform
6335 `query-replace-regexp' on the selected file names in the Dired buffer.
6336
6337 The commands read two arguments: a regular expression, and a
6338 substitution pattern. Each selected file name is matched against the
6339 regular expression, and then the part which matched is replaced with
6340 the substitution pattern. You can use `\&' and `\DIGIT' in the
6341 substitution pattern to refer to all or part of the old file name.
6342
6343 If the regular expression matches more than once in a file name,
6344 only the first match is replaced.
6345
6346 Normally, the replacement process does not consider the directory names;
6347 it operates on the file name within the directory. If you specify a
6348 prefix argument of zero, then replacement affects entire file name.
6349
6350 To apply the command to all files matching the same regexp that you
6351 use in the command, mark those files with `% m REGEXP RET', then use
6352 the same regular expression in `% R'. To make this easier, `% R' uses
6353 as a default the last regular expression specified in a `%' command.
6354
6355 *** Dired Case Conversion
6356
6357 **** `% u' renames each of the selected files to an upper case name.
6358
6359 **** `% l' renames each of the selected files to a lower case name.
6360
6361 *** File Comparison with Dired
6362
6363 **** `=' compares the current file with another file (the file at the
6364 mark), by running the `diff' program. The file at the mark is given
6365 to `diff' first.
6366
6367 **** `M-=' compares the current file with its backup file. If there
6368 are several numerical backups, it uses the most recent one. If this
6369 file is a backup, it is compared with its original.
6370
6371 The backup file is the first file given to `diff'.
6372
6373 *** Subdirectories in Dired
6374
6375 You can display more than one directory in one Dired buffer.
6376 The simplest way to do this is to specify the options `-lR' for
6377 running `ls'. That produces a recursive directory listing showing
6378 all subdirectories, all within the same Dired buffer.
6379
6380 You can also insert the contents of a particular subdirectory with the
6381 `i' command. Use this command on the line that describes a file which
6382 is a directory. Inserted subdirectory contents follow the top-level
6383 directory of the Dired buffer, just as they do in `ls -lR' output.
6384
6385 If the subdirectory's contents are already present in the buffer, the
6386 `i' command just moves to it (type `l' to refresh it). It sets the
6387 Emacs mark before moving, so C-x C-x takes you back to the old
6388 position in the buffer.
6389
6390 When you have subdirectories in the Dired buffer, you can use the page
6391 motion commands C-x [ and C-x ] to move by entire directories.
6392
6393 The following commands move up and down in the tree of directories
6394 in one Dired buffer:
6395
6396 **** C-M-u Go up to the parent directory's headerline.
6397
6398 **** C-M-d Go down in the tree, to the first subdirectory's
6399 headerline.
6400
6401 **** C-M-n Go to next subdirectory headerline, regardless of level.
6402
6403 **** C-M-p Go to previous subdirectory headerline, regardless of
6404 level.
6405
6406 *** Hiding Subdirectories
6407
6408 "Hiding" a subdirectory means to make it invisible, except for its
6409 headerline. Files inside a hidden subdirectory are never considered
6410 by Dired. For example, the commands to operate on marked files ignore
6411 files in hidden directories even if they are marked.
6412
6413 **** `$' hides or unhides the current subdirectory and move to next
6414 subdirectory. A prefix argument serves as a repeat count.
6415
6416 **** `M-$' hides all subdirectories, leaving only their header lines.
6417 Or, if at least one subdirectory is currently hidden, it makes
6418 everything visible again. You can use this command to get an overview
6419 in very deep directory trees or to move quickly to subdirectories far
6420 away.
6421
6422 *** Editing the Dired Buffer
6423
6424 **** `l' updates the specified files in a Dired buffer. This means
6425 reading their current status from the file system and changing the
6426 buffer to reflect it properly.
6427
6428 If you use this command on a subdirectory header line, it updates the
6429 contents of the subdirectory.
6430
6431 **** `g' updates the entire contents of the Dired buffer. It preserves
6432 all marks except for those on files that have vanished. Hidden
6433 subdirectories are updated but remain hidden.
6434
6435 **** `k' kills all marked lines (not the files). With a prefix
6436 argument, it kills that many lines starting with the current line.
6437
6438 This command does not delete files; it just deletes text from the Dired
6439 buffer.
6440
6441 If you kill the line for a file that is a directory, then its contents
6442 are also deleted from the buffer. Typing `C-u k' on the header line
6443 for a subdirectory is another way to delete a subdirectory from the
6444 Dired buffer.
6445
6446 *** `find' and Dired.
6447
6448 To search for files with names matching a wildcard pattern use
6449 `find-name-dired'. Its arguments are DIRECTORY and
6450 PATTERN. It selects all the files in DIRECTORY or its
6451 subdirectories whose own names match PATTERN.
6452
6453 The files thus selected are displayed in a Dired buffer in which the
6454 ordinary Dired commands are available.
6455
6456 If you want to test the contents of files, rather than their names, use
6457 `find-grep-dired'. This command takes two minibuffer arguments,
6458 DIRECTORY and REGEXP; it selects all the files in
6459 DIRECTORY or its subdirectories that contain a match for
6460 REGEXP. It works by running `find' and `grep'.
6461
6462 The most general command in this series is `find-dired', which lets
6463 you specify any condition that `find' can test. It takes two
6464 minibuffer arguments, DIRECTORY and FIND-ARGS; it runs `find' in
6465 DIRECTORY with using FIND-ARGS as the arguments to `find' specifying
6466 which files to accept. To use this command, you need to know how to
6467 use `find'.
6468 \f
6469 ** New amusements and novelties.
6470
6471 *** `M-x mpuz' displays a multiplication puzzle, in which each letter
6472 stands for a digit, and you must determine which digit. The puzzles
6473 are determined randomly, so they are always different.
6474
6475 *** `M-x gomoku' plays the game Gomoku with you. It needs more work.
6476
6477 *** `M-x spook' adds a line of randomly chosen keywords to an outgoing
6478 mail message. The keywords are chosen from a list of words that
6479 suggest you are discussing something subversive.
6480
6481 The idea is that the NSA reads all messages that contain keywords
6482 suggesting they might be interested, and that adding these lines could
6483 help to overload them. I would guess that they have modified their
6484 program by now to ignore these lines of keywords; perhaps the program
6485 can be updated if some clever hacker can determine what criterion they
6486 actually use now.
6487 \f
6488 ** Installation changes
6489
6490 *** The configure script has been provided to help with the
6491 installation process. It takes the place of editing the Makefiles and
6492 src/config.h, and can often guess the appropriate operating system to
6493 use for a particular machine type. See INSTALL for a more detailed
6494 description of the steps required for installation.
6495
6496 *** If you create a Lisp file named `site-start.el', Emacs loads the file
6497 whenever it starts up.
6498
6499 *** A new Lisp variable, `data-directory', indicates the directory
6500 containing the DOC file, tutorial, copying agreement, and other
6501 familiar `etc' files. The value of `data-directory' is a simple string.
6502 The default should be set at build time, and the person installing
6503 Emacs should place all the data files in this directory. The `help.el'
6504 functions that look for docstrings and information files check this
6505 variable. All Emacs Lisp packages should also be coded so that they
6506 refer to `data-directory' to find data files.
6507
6508 *** The PURESIZE definition has been moved from config.h to its own
6509 file, puresize.h. Since almost every file of C source in the
6510 distribution depends on config.h, but only alloc.c and data.c depend
6511 on puresize.h, this means that changing the value of PURESIZE causes
6512 only those two files to be recompiled.
6513
6514 *** The makefile at the top of the Emacs source tree now supports a
6515 `dist' target, which creates a compressed tar file suitable for
6516 distribution, using the contents of the source tree. Object files,
6517 old file versions, executables, DOC files, and other
6518 architecture-specific or easy-to-recreate files are not included in
6519 the tar file.
6520
6521
6522 \f
6523 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
6524 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
6525
6526 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
6527 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
6528 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
6529 (at your option) any later version.
6530
6531 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
6532 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
6533 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
6534 GNU General Public License for more details.
6535
6536 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
6537 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
6538
6539 \f
6540 Local variables:
6541 mode: outline
6542 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
6543 end:
6544