* lisp/dired-aux.el (dired-do-chxxx, dired-do-chmod): Default file
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
10
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17 Temporary note:
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
22
23 \f
24 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.3
25
26 ** New configure option '--without-all' to disable additional features.
27 This disables most of the features that are normally enabled by default.
28
29 ** New configure option '--enable-link-time-optimization' to utilize
30 an appropriate feature provided by GCC since version 4.5.0.
31
32 ** New configure option '--enable-gcc-warnings', intended for developers.
33 If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that warn about
34 possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU system there should be
35 no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the generated warnings
36 may be useful.
37
38 ** The configure option '--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
39 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
40
41 ---
42 ** You can use `NO_BIN_LINK=t make install' to prevent the installation
43 overwriting "emacs" in the installation bin/ directory with a link
44 to emacs-VERSION.
45
46 ---
47 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
48
49 ---
50 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
51 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
52 you want them.
53
54 ---
55 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink /sw
56 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
57
58 ---
59 ** The standalone scripts rcs-checkin and vcdiff have been removed
60 (from the bin and libexec directories, respectively). The former is
61 no longer relevant, the latter is replaced by lisp (in vc-sccs.el).
62
63 ** The configuration option '--enable-use-lisp-union-type' has been
64 renamed to '--enable-check-lisp-object-type', as the resulting
65 Lisp_Object type no longer uses a union to implement the compile time
66 check that this option enables.
67
68 ---
69 ** The default toolkit has been changed to Gtk+ version 3.
70 If you don't pass --with-x-toolkit to configure or if you pass
71 --with-x-toolkit=gtk or --with-x-toolkit=yes, configure will try to build
72 with Gtk+ version 3, and if that fails, try Gtk+ version 2.
73 You can explicitly require a specific version by passing
74 --with-x-toolkit=gtk2 or --with-x-toolkit=gtk3 to configure.
75
76 \f
77 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.3
78
79 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
80 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
81 been adding them there, put them somewhere else, eg site-lisp.
82
83 ---
84 ** The `--no-site-lisp' command line option now works for Nextstep builds.
85
86 \f
87 * Changes in Emacs 24.3
88
89 ** You can now scroll the selected window in most y-or-n prompts.
90 Typing C-v or M-v at a prompt scrolls forward or backward
91 respectively, without leaving the y-or-n prompt.
92
93 ** Help changes
94
95 *** `C-h f' (describe-function) can now perform autoloading.
96 When this command is called for an autoloaded function whose docstring
97 contains a key substitution construct, that function's library is
98 automatically loaded, so that the documentation can be shown
99 correctly. To disable this, set `help-enable-auto-load' to nil.
100
101 *** `C-h f' now reports previously-autoloaded functions as "autoloaded",
102 even after their associated libraries have been loaded (and the
103 autoloads have been redefined as functions).
104
105 ** The function `current-time' now returns extended-format time stamps
106 (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC) that use picosecond resolution; the PSEC
107 component is new. PSEC is typically a multiple of 1000 on current
108 machines. Other functions that use this format, such as
109 file-attributes and format-time-string, have been changed accordingly.
110 Old-format time stamps are still accepted.
111
112 ** The format of timers in timer-list and timer-idle-list is now
113 [TRIGGERED-P HI-SECS LO-SECS USECS REPEAT-DELAY FUNCTION ARGS IDLE-DELAY PSECS].
114 The PSECS slot is new, and uses picosecond resolution. It can be
115 accessed via the new timer--psecs accessor.
116
117 ** Emacs now generates backtraces on fatal errors.
118 On encountering a fatal error, Emacs now outputs a textual description
119 of the fatal signal, and a short backtrace on platforms like glibc
120 that support backtraces.
121
122 ** New functions `system-users', `system-groups' return lists of the user
123 name, group names known to the system (where possible).
124
125 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
126 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about which bzr revision was used.
127
128 ** ImageMagick support, if available, is automatically enabled.
129 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
130 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
131 automatically at startup, or when customizing a relevant imagemagick-
132 option.
133
134 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
135 ImageMagick to view images. You must call imagemagick-register-types
136 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.
137
138 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
139 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
140 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
141 treated as images.
142
143 *** Images displayed via ImageMagick now support transparency and the
144 :background image spec property.
145
146 ** Internationalization changes
147
148 *** New language environment: Persian.
149
150 ** Face underlining can now use a wave.
151 See the "Face Attributes" section of the Elisp manual.
152
153 ** New fringe bitmap exclamation-mark.
154
155 ** String values for `initial-buffer-choice' also apply to emacsclient
156 frames, if emacsclient is only told to open a new frame without
157 specifying any file to visit or expression to evaluate.
158
159 +++
160 ** You can prevent the creation of lock files by setting `create-lockfiles'
161 to nil. Use with caution, and only if you really need to.
162
163 +++
164 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
165 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
166
167 ** Mode line changes
168
169 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
170 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
171 that does not have its own specialized help text.
172
173 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to
174 invokes `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
175
176 +++
177 ** Setting `enable-remote-dir-locals' to non-nil allows directory
178 local variables on remote hosts.
179
180 +++
181 ** `insert-char' is now a command, and `ucs-insert' an obsolete alias
182 for it.
183
184 ** The entry for PCL-CVS has been removed from the Tools menu.
185 The PCL-CVS commands are still available via the keyboard.
186
187 \f
188 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.3
189
190 ** The `z' key no longer has a binding in most special modes.
191 It used to be bound to `kill-this-buffer', but `z' is too easy to
192 accidentally type.
193
194 ** New option `yank-handled-properties' allows processing of text
195 properties on yanked text, in more ways that are more general than
196 just removing them, as done by `yank-excluded-properties'.
197
198 ** New option `delete-trailing-lines' specifies whether the M-x
199 delete-trailing-whitespace command should delete trailing lines at the
200 end of the buffer. It defaults to t.
201
202 +++
203 ** `C-x r +' is now overloaded to invoke `append-to-register.
204
205 +++
206 ** New option `register-separator' specifies the register containing
207 the text to put between collected texts for use with M-x
208 append-to-register and M-x prepend-to-register.
209
210 ** Search changes
211
212 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
213 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
214 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
215
216 *** `M-s SPC' in Isearch toggles whitespace matching mode
217 in both ordinary and regexp incremental search, so that each
218 sequence of spaces in the search string matches any combination
219 of one or more whitespace characters defined by the variable
220 `search-whitespace-regexp'. In ordinary incremental search,
221 `isearch-toggle-lax-whitespace' toggles the value of the variable
222 `isearch-lax-whitespace'. In regexp incremental search, it toggles
223 the value of the variable `isearch-regexp-lax-whitespace'.
224
225 ** query-replace changes
226
227 *** When new option `replace-lax-whitespace' is non-nil,
228 and you enter a space or spaces in the strings or regexps
229 to be replaced, `query-replace' will match any sequence matched
230 by the regexp `search-whitespace-regexp'.
231
232 ** M-x move-to-column, if called interactively with no prefix arg, now
233 prompts for a column number.
234
235 ** `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to customize
236 `mouse-avoidance-mode' further.
237
238 ** `C-u M-=' now counts lines/words/characters in the entire buffer.
239
240 ** `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' will now move to the path name separator
241 character when doing minibuffer filename prompts.
242
243 ** `goto-char' is now bound to `M-g c'.
244
245 ** New command `C-x r M-w' (copy-rectangle-as-kill).
246 It copies the region-rectangle as the last rectangle kill.
247
248 ** New input method `vietnamese-vni'.
249
250 \f
251 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
252
253 ** Compilation has a new `compilation-always-kill' configuration variable.
254
255 ** Term changes
256
257 The variables `term-default-fg-color' and `term-default-bg-color' are
258 now deprecated in favor of the `term-face' face, that you can
259 customize. Also, it is now possible to customize how are displayed the
260 ANSI terminal colors and styles by customizing the corresponding
261 `term-color-<COLOR>', `term-color-underline' and `term-color-bold'
262 faces.
263
264 ** CL
265 *** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
266 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly,
267 i.e. all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix (and internal definitions use
268 the "cl--" prefix).
269
270 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib' provides it
271 under the name `cl-foo' instead, with the exceptions of the few definitions
272 that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with pre-existing Elisp entities,
273 which have not been renamed to `cl-foo*' but just `cl-foo'.
274
275 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is just a bunch of aliases that
276 provide the old non-prefixed names.
277
278 *** `cl-flet' is not like `flet' (which is deprecated).
279 Instead it obeys the behavior of Common-Lisp's `flet'.
280
281 *** `cl-labels' is slightly different from `labels'.
282 The difference is that it relies on the `lexical-binding' machinery (as opposed
283 to the `lexical-let' machinery used previously) to capture definitions in
284 closures, so such closures will only work if `lexical-binding' is in use.
285
286 *** `progv' was rewritten to use the `let' machinery.
287 A side effect is that vars without corresponding value are bound to nil
288 rather than making them unbound.
289
290 ** Desktop
291
292 *** `desktop-path' no longer includes the "." directory. Desktop
293 files are now located in ~/.emacs.d by default.
294
295 ** Python mode
296
297 A new version of python.el, which provides several new features, including:
298 per-buffer shells, better indentation, Python 3 support, and improved
299 shell-interaction compatible with iPython (and virtually any other
300 text based shell).
301
302 *** Some user options have been replaced/renamed:
303 Old defcustom: | New defcustom:
304 python-indent | python-indent-offset
305 python-guess-indent | python-indent-guess-indent-offset
306 python-pdbtrack-do-tracking-p | python-pdbtrack-activate
307 python-use-skeletons | python-skeleton-autoinsert
308
309 *** Some user options have been removed:
310
311 **** `python-indent-string-contents': Strings are never indented.
312
313 **** `python-honour-comment-indentation':
314 Comments are never considered as indentation markers themselves.
315
316 **** `python-continuation-offset': Indentation is automatically
317 calculated in a pep8 compliant way depending on the context.
318
319 **** `python-shell-prompt-alist', `python-shell-continuation-prompt-alist':
320 Have no direct mapping as the shell interaction is completely different.
321
322 **** `python-python-command', `python-jython-command':
323 Replaced by `python-shell-interpreter'.
324
325 **** `inferior-python-filter-regexp', `python-remove-cwd-from-path',
326 `python-pdbtrack-minor-mode-string', `python-source-modes':
327 No longer relevant.
328
329 *** Some commands have been replaced:
330 Old command | New command
331 python-insert-class | python-skeleton-class
332 python-insert-def | python-skeleton-def
333 python-insert-for | python-skeleton-for
334 python-insert-if | python-skeleton-if
335 python-insert-try/except | python-skeleton-try
336 python-insert-try/finally | python-skeleton-try
337 python-insert-while | python-skeleton-while
338 python-find-function | python-nav-jump-to-defun
339 python-next-statement | python-nav-forward-sentence
340 python-previous-statement | python-nav-backward-sentence
341 python-send-buffer | python-shell-send-buffer
342 python-send-defun | python-shell-send-defun
343 python-send-region | python-shell-send-region
344 python-send-region-and-go | Emulate with python-shell-send-region and
345 python-shell-switch-to-shell
346 python-send-string | python-shell-send-string
347 python-switch-to-python | python-shell-switch-to-shell
348 python-describe-symbol | python-eldoc-at-point
349
350 ** VHDL mode
351
352 *** The free software compiler GHDL is supported (and now the default).
353
354 *** Support for the VHDL-AMS packages has been added/updated.
355
356 *** Updated to the 2002 revision of the VHDL standard.
357
358 *** Accepts \r and \f as whitespace.
359
360 ** SQL Mode
361
362 *** DB2 added `sql-db2-escape-newlines'
363
364 If non-nil, newlines sent to the command interpreter will be escaped
365 by a backslash. The default does not escape the newlines and assumes
366 that the sql statement will be terminated by a semicolon.
367
368 ** Diff mode
369
370 Faces for changes now use the same diff color scheme as in modern VCSes
371 where deletions are displayed in red (new faces `diff-refine-removed'
372 and `smerge-refined-removed' and new definition of `diff-removed'),
373 insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added' and
374 `smerge-refined-added' and new definition of `diff-added').
375 The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use
376 the face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added'
377 to highlight changes in context diffs.
378
379 *** The new command `diff-remove-trailing-whitespace' fixes trailing
380 whitespace problems introduced by the diff.
381
382 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode
383 on high color displays.
384
385 ** Flymake uses fringe bitmaps to indicate errors and warnings.
386 See flymake-fringe-indicator-position, flymake-error-bitmap and
387 flymake-warning-bitmap.
388
389 ** `sh-script'
390 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses electric-pair-mode instead of skeleton-pair.
391 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
392 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
393
394 ** reStructuredText mode
395
396 *** Rebind nearly all keys making room for more keys and complying
397 better to usage in other modes. Describe bindings with C-c C-h.
398
399 *** Major revision of indentation working very similar to other
400 modes. TAB is your friend.
401
402 *** Major revision of filling working fine with most of
403 reStructuredText syntax. Support auto-filling.
404
405 *** Major revision of comment handling.
406
407 *** Major revision of fontification working with `jit-lock-mode'.
408
409 *** Cover reStructuredText syntax more closely. Improve
410 the experience for Sphinx users.
411
412 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
413
414 *** Extend correct and improve customization.
415
416 *** Negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
417
418 *** Reset window configuration after displaying TOC.
419
420 *** Package version in `rst-version'.
421
422 ** New `derived-mode' filter for Ibuffer, bound to `/ M'.
423 `/ m' is now bound to filter by used-mode, which used to be bound to `/ M'.
424
425 ** Apropos
426
427 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
428 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
429 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
430
431 **** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
432 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
433
434 ** Buffer Menu
435 This package has been rewritten to use Tabulated List mode.
436
437 *** Option `Buffer-menu-buffer+size-width' is now obsolete.
438 Use `Buffer-menu-name-width' and `Buffer-menu-size-width' instead.
439
440 ** Calendar
441
442 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
443 Customize cal-html-holidays to change this.
444
445 ** Customize
446
447 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
448
449 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
450 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
451 these commands now).
452
453 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
454 channel keys found, if any.
455
456 ** Dired
457
458 *** `dired-do-async-shell-command' executes each file sequentially
459 if the command ends in `;' (when operating on multiple files).
460 Otherwise, it executes the command on each file in parallel.
461
462 *** Typing M-n in the minibuffer of `dired-do-chmod', `dired-do-chgrp',
463 `dired-do-chown', `dired-do-touch' pulls the file attributes of the
464 file at point.
465
466 *** The minibuffer default for `=' (`dired-diff) has changed.
467 It is now the backup file for the file at point, if one exists, rather
468 than the file at the mark.
469
470 *** `M-=' is no longer bound to `dired-backup-diff' in Dired buffers.
471 The global binding for `M-=', `count-words-region' is in effect.
472
473 ** Shell
474
475 *** New option `async-shell-command-buffer' specifies what buffer to use
476 for a new asynchronous shell command when the default output buffer
477 `*Async Shell Command*' is already taken by another running command.
478
479 ** FFAP
480
481 *** The option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
482 specifying URL types which should be converted to remote file names at
483 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
484
485 ** Follow mode
486
487 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
488
489 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
490 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
491
492 ** The `server-auth-key' variable can be used to set a permanent
493 shared key for Emacs Server.
494
495 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
496 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
497
498 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
499
500 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
501
502 ** Tramp
503
504 +++
505 *** The syntax has been extended in order to allow ad-hoc proxy
506 definitions. See the manual for details.
507
508 +++
509 *** Remote processes are now supported also on remote Windows host.
510
511 ** D-Bus
512
513 +++
514 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
515
516 +++
517 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
518
519 +++
520 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
521 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
522
523 +++
524 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
525 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
526
527 +++
528 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
529
530 +++
531 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
532 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
533 details.
534
535 +++
536 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
537
538 +++
539 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
540
541 +++
542 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
543 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
544 server properties.
545
546 ** Package Menu
547
548 *** Newly-available packages are listed in the Package Menu as "new",
549 and sorted above the other "available" packages by default.
550
551 ** Tabulated List and packages derived from it
552
553 *** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S', sorts the column
554 at point, or the Nth column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
555
556 ** URL
557
558 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
559 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
560 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
561 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components
562 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
563
564 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
565 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
566 in case that is not properly encoded.
567
568 ** Obsolete packages:
569
570 *** assoc.el
571 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
572 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
573 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
574
575 *** bruce.el
576
577 *** ledit.el
578
579 *** mailpost.el
580
581 *** mouse-sel.el
582
583 *** patcomp.el
584
585 *** cust-print.el
586
587 \f
588 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.3
589 \f
590 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.3
591
592 ** (random) by default now returns a different random sequence in
593 every Emacs run. Use (random S), where S is a string, to set the
594 random seed to a value based on S, in order to get a repeatable
595 sequence in later calls.
596
597 ** The function `x-select-font' can return a font spec, instead of a
598 font name as a string. Whether it returns a font spec or a font name
599 depends on the graphical library.
600
601 ** If the NEWTEXT arg to `replace-match' contains a substring "\?",
602 that substring is inserted literally even if the LITERAL arg is
603 non-nil, instead of causing an error to be signaled.
604
605 +++
606 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
607 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
608 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
609 `custom-variable-p'.
610
611 +++
612 ** The return values of `defalias', `defun' and `defmacro' have changed,
613 and are now undefined. For backwards compatibility, defun and
614 defmacro currently return the name of the newly defined function/macro
615 but this should not be relied upon.
616
617 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
618 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
619
620 +++
621 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
622 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
623 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
624
625 ** Spelling changes.
626 Some Lisp symbols have been renamed to avoid problems with spelling
627 that is incorrect or inconsistent with how Emacs normally spells a word.
628
629 *** Renamed functions
630
631 **** hangul-input-method-inactivate -> hangul-input-method-deactivate
632 **** inactivate-input-method -> deactivate-input-method
633 **** quail-inactivate -> quail-deactivate
634 **** robin-inactivate -> robin-deactivate
635 **** viper-inactivate-input-method -> viper-deactivate-input-method
636 **** viper-inactivate-input-method-action ->
637 viper-deactivate-input-method-action
638 **** ucs-input-inactivate -> ucs-input-deactivate
639
640 *** Renamed hooks
641 The old hooks are still supported for backward compatibility, but they
642 are deprecated and will be removed eventually.
643
644 **** input-method-inactivate-hook -> input-method-deactivate-hook
645 **** robin-inactivate-hook -> robin-deactivate-hook
646 **** quail-inactivate-hook -> quail-deactivate-hook
647
648 *** Renamed Lisp variables
649
650 **** follow-deactive-menu -> follow-inactive-menu
651 **** inactivate-current-input-method-function ->
652 deactivate-current-input-method-function
653
654 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed:
655
656 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
657 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
658 *** `last-input-char', `last-command-char', `unread-command-char'.
659
660 \f
661 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.3
662
663 ** Interpreted files get eagerly macro-expanded during load.
664 This can significantly speed up execution of non-byte-compiled code, but can
665 also bump into harmless and previously unnoticed cyclic dependencies.
666 These should not be fatal: they will simply cause the macro-calls to be left
667 for later expansion (as before), but will also result in a warning describing
668 the cycle.
669
670 ** New minor mode `read-only-mode' to replace toggle-read-only (now obsolete).
671
672 ** New functions `autoloadp' and `autoload-do-load'.
673
674 ** New function `posnp' to test if an object is a `posn'.
675
676 ** `function-get' fetches the property of a function, following aliases.
677
678 ** `toggle-read-only' accepts a second argument specifying whether to
679 print a message, if called from Lisp.
680
681 ** CL-style generalized variables are now in core Elisp.
682 `setf' is autoloaded and `push' and `pop' accept generalized variables.
683
684 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
685 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
686
687 ** `macro-declaration-function' is obsolete, use `macro-declarations-alist'.
688
689 ** New function `set-temporary-overlay-map'.
690
691 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
692
693 ** New error type and new function `user-error'. Doesn't trigger the debugger.
694
695 ** Debugger
696 *** New option `debugger-bury-or-kill'.
697
698 *** Set `debug-on-message' to enter the debugger when a certain
699 message is displayed in the echo area. This can be useful when trying
700 to work out which code is doing something.
701
702 *** New var `inhibit-debugger', automatically set to prevent accidental
703 recursive invocations.
704
705 +++
706 ** New utility function `buffer-narrowed-p'.
707
708 ** Window changes
709
710 *** The functions get-lru-window, get-mru-window and get-largest-window
711 now accept a third argument to avoid choosing the selected window.
712
713 *** New macro `with-temp-buffer-window'.
714
715 *** New option `temp-buffer-resize-frames'.
716
717 *** New function `fit-frame-to-buffer' and new option
718 `fit-frame-to-buffer-bottom-margin'.
719
720 *** New display action functions `display-buffer-below-selected' and
721 `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
722
723 *** New display action alist entry `inhibit-switch-frame', if non-nil,
724 tells display action functions to avoid changing which frame is
725 selected.
726
727 *** New display action alist entry `pop-up-frame-parameters', if
728 non-nil, specifies frame parameters to give any newly-created frame.
729
730 *** New display action alist entry `previous-window', if non-nil,
731 specifies window to reuse in `display-buffer-in-previous-window'.
732
733 *** The following variables are obsolete, as they can be replaced by
734 appropriate entries in the `display-buffer-alist' function introduced
735 in Emacs 24.1:
736 +++
737 **** `display-buffer-reuse-frames'
738 **** `special-display-regexps'
739 **** `special-display-frame-alist'
740 **** `special-display-buffer-names'
741 **** `special-display-function'
742 **** `display-buffer-function'
743
744 ** Completion
745
746 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
747 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
748
749 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
750 table, but with a different prefix.
751
752 ** Time
753
754 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
755 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
756 by the underlying C implementation.
757
758 ** Floating point
759
760 *** When floating point functions such as `log' are given invalid
761 arguments, e.g., (log -1.0), they now uniformly return special values
762 such as NaNs instead of signaling errors. Previously, these functions
763 returned NaNs on some platforms but signaled errors on others. The affected
764 functions are acos, asin, tan, exp, expt, log, log10, sqrt, and mod.
765
766 ** New function file-name-base.
767
768 ** New function `tty-top-frame' returns the topmost frame of a text terminal.
769
770 ** `automount-dir-prefix' is obsolete.
771 ** `buffer-has-markers-at' is obsolete.
772 ** `window-system-version' is obsolete.
773 \f
774 * Changes in Emacs 24.3 on non-free operating systems
775
776 ** New configure.bat options on MS-Windows:
777
778 *** --without-libxml2 omits support for libxml2, even if its presence
779 is detected.
780
781 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
782 Emacs now supports mouse highlight, help-echo (in the echo area), and
783 mouse-autoselect-window.
784
785 ** On MS-Windows Vista and later Emacs now supports symbolic links.
786 \f
787 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
788
789 ** This is mainly a bug-fix release.
790
791 \f
792 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
793
794 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
795 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
796 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
797 --without-gconf.
798
799 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
800 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
801 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
802 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
803
804 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
805 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
806 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
807 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
808
809 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
810 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
811 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
812 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
813 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
814
815 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
816 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
817 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
818 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
819
820 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
821 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
822
823 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
824 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
825 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
826 to about 2 GiB.
827
828 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
829 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
830 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
831
832 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
833 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
834 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
835
836 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
837 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
838
839 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
840 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
841
842 \f
843 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
844
845 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
846 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
847 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
848
849 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
850 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
851 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
852 Nextstep builds).
853
854 \f
855 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
856
857 ** Completion
858
859 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
860 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
861
862 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
863
864 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
865 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
866
867 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
868
869 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
870 default completion style in certain circumstances.
871
872 *** New completion style `substring'.
873
874 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
875
876 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
877
878 ** Mail changes
879
880 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
881 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
882 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
883 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
884 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
885 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
886
887 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
888 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
889 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
890
891 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
892 and Mail mode changes
893
894 ** Emacs server and client changes
895
896 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
897
898 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
899
900 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
901 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
902
903 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
904 its exit status is 1.
905
906 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
907 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
908 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
909
910 ** Internationalization changes
911
912 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
913 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
914 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
915 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
916 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
917 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
918
919 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
920 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
921
922 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
923 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
924 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
925 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
926 paragraph.
927
928 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
929 the right window edge.
930
931 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
932 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
933 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
934 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
935 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
936
937 *** New input methods for Farsi and Bulgarian
938 (farsi-isiri-9147, farsi-transliterate-banan, bulgarian-alt-phonetic).
939
940 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
941 (U+2010 and U+2011).
942
943 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
944 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
945 automatically select it.
946
947 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
948 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
949 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
950
951 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
952 selected for installation.
953
954 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
955
956 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
957 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
958 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
959
960 ** Custom theme changes
961
962 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
963 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
964
965 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
966 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
967 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
968 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
969 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
970 built-in Custom themes.
971
972 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
973 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
974 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
975 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
976
977 ** Improved GTK integration
978
979 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
980 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
981
982 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
983 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
984 the default is taken from desktop settings.
985
986 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
987 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
988 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
989 entries for this.
990
991 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
992 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
993
994 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
995 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
996
997 ** Graphical interface changes
998
999 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
1000 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
1001 displayed as a space.
1002
1003 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
1004 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
1005
1006 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
1007 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
1008 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
1009
1010 ** Exiting changes
1011
1012 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
1013 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
1014
1015 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
1016 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
1017 do the right thing in batch mode.
1018
1019 ** Scrolling changes
1020
1021 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
1022 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
1023 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
1024 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
1025
1026 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
1027
1028 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
1029 scroll a line instead of full screen.
1030
1031 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
1032 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
1033
1034 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
1035 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
1036 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
1037 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
1038 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
1039
1040 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
1041 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
1042 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
1043 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
1044 margin.
1045
1046 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
1047 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
1048
1049 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
1050 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
1051 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
1052 now includes the SELinux context.
1053
1054 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1055 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
1056
1057 ** Trash changes
1058
1059 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
1060 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
1061
1062 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
1063 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
1064
1065 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
1066
1067 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
1068 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
1069 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
1070 subdirectories.
1071
1072 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
1073 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
1074 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
1075 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
1076 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
1077
1078 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
1079 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
1080
1081 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
1082 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
1083 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
1084 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
1085 corresponding way.
1086
1087 ** Window changes
1088
1089 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
1090 in the quitted window.
1091
1092 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
1093 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
1094
1095 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
1096
1097 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
1098 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
1099 for choosing the displaying window).
1100
1101 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
1102 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
1103
1104 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
1105 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
1106
1107 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
1108 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
1109 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
1110 from which such space was obtained.
1111
1112 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
1113 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
1114 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
1115 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
1116 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
1117
1118 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
1119 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
1120 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
1121
1122 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
1123 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
1124
1125 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
1126 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
1127 been shown in a specific window.
1128
1129 ** Minibuffer changes
1130
1131 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
1132 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
1133 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
1134
1135 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
1136 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
1137 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
1138
1139 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
1140
1141 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
1142
1143 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
1144 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
1145 successful operation.
1146
1147 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
1148 for `list-colors-display'.
1149
1150 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
1151
1152 \f
1153 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
1154
1155 ** Search changes
1156
1157 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
1158 `isearch-yank-line'.
1159
1160 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
1161 `isearch-yank-kill'.
1162
1163 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
1164
1165 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
1166
1167 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
1168 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
1169 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
1170 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
1171 alias for it.
1172
1173 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
1174 also deletes newlines around point.
1175
1176 ** Deletion changes
1177
1178 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
1179 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
1180 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
1181 instead.
1182
1183 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
1184 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
1185 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
1186
1187 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
1188 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
1189 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
1190 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
1191
1192 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
1193
1194 ** Selection changes.
1195
1196 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
1197 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
1198 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
1199 mouse commands use the primary selection.
1200
1201 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
1202 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
1203
1204 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
1205 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
1206 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
1207 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
1208
1209 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
1210 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
1211 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
1212 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
1213 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
1214
1215 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
1216
1217 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
1218 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
1219 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
1220
1221 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
1222
1223 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
1224 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
1225 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
1226
1227 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
1228 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
1229
1230 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
1231 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
1232 between applications.
1233
1234 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
1235
1236 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
1237 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
1238 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
1239 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
1240 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
1241
1242 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
1243
1244 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
1245 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
1246
1247 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
1248 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
1249 number to count from and for a format string.
1250
1251 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
1252 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
1253 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
1254 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
1255 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
1256
1257 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
1258 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
1259 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
1260 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
1261 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
1262
1263 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
1264 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
1265 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
1266 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
1267 follows `replace-match'.
1268
1269 \f
1270 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1271
1272 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
1273
1274 ** BibTeX mode
1275
1276 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
1277 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
1278 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
1279 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
1280
1281 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
1282
1283 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
1284
1285 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
1286
1287 ** Browse-url
1288
1289 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
1290
1291 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
1292 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
1293
1294 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
1295
1296 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
1297 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
1298
1299 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
1300 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
1301
1302 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
1303 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
1304 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
1305
1306 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
1307
1308 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
1309 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
1310
1311 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
1312 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
1313 Use `appt-activate' instead.
1314
1315 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1316 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
1317 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
1318
1319 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
1320 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
1321
1322 ** CC Mode
1323
1324 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
1325 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
1326
1327 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
1328
1329 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
1330 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
1331 not the top level.
1332
1333 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
1334 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
1335 parsed as a statement continuation.
1336
1337 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
1338
1339 ** Compilation mode
1340
1341 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
1342 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
1343
1344 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
1345 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
1346 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
1347
1348 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
1349 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
1350 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
1351 buffer was used.
1352
1353 ** Customize
1354
1355 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
1356 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
1357 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
1358
1359 *** Options in customize group buffers start out hidden if not customized.
1360 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
1361
1362 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
1363
1364 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
1365 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
1366
1367 ** D-Bus
1368
1369 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
1370 or session bus.
1371
1372 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
1373 optionally do not register names.
1374
1375 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
1376 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
1377
1378 ** Dired-x
1379
1380 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
1381 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
1382 instead of using the current buffer.
1383
1384 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
1385 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
1386
1387 ** ERC changes
1388
1389 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
1390 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
1391
1392 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
1393 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
1394 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
1395 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
1396
1397 ** Eshell changes
1398
1399 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
1400 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
1401 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
1402
1403 ** gdb-mi
1404
1405 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
1406 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
1407 debugging of several threads.
1408
1409 ** Image mode
1410
1411 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
1412 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
1413
1414 ** Info
1415
1416 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
1417 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
1418 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
1419 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
1420 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
1421
1422 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
1423 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
1424 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
1425 by default.
1426
1427 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
1428
1429 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
1430
1431 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
1432 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
1433 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
1434
1435 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
1436 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1437
1438 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
1439
1440 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
1441
1442 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
1443 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
1444 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
1445 default), this performs tag completion.
1446
1447 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
1448 See ORG-NEWS for details.
1449
1450 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
1451 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
1452 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
1453
1454 ** Rmail
1455
1456 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
1457 in the Rmail incoming message.
1458
1459 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
1460 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
1461 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
1462
1463 ** Shell mode
1464
1465 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
1466 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
1467 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
1468
1469 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
1470 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
1471
1472 ** SMTPmail
1473
1474 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
1475 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
1476 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
1477 to change this.
1478
1479 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
1480 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
1481 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
1482 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
1483 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
1484 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
1485 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
1486 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
1487
1488 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
1489 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
1490
1491 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
1492
1493 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
1494
1495 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
1496 the credentials file.
1497
1498 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
1499 If you had that set, you need to put
1500
1501 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
1502
1503 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
1504
1505 *** SMTPmail defaults to using the address in the From: header as the
1506 SMTP MAIL FROM envelope. To override this, set `mail-envelope-from'
1507 to the address you wish to use instead.
1508
1509 ** SQL mode
1510
1511 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
1512 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
1513
1514 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
1515 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
1516 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
1517 connection is established.
1518
1519 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
1520 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
1521
1522 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
1523 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
1524 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
1525 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
1526
1527 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
1528 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
1529 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
1530 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
1531 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
1532 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
1533
1534 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
1535 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
1536
1537 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
1538 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
1539 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
1540
1541 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
1542 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
1543
1544 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
1545
1546 ** TeX modes
1547
1548 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
1549
1550 ** Tramp
1551
1552 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
1553
1554 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
1555 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
1556
1557 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
1558 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
1559
1560 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
1561 default value to "".
1562
1563 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1564 for remote machines which support SELinux.
1565
1566 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
1567 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
1568 the degree of parallelism.
1569
1570 ** VC and related modes
1571
1572 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
1573 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
1574 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
1575 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
1576 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
1577
1578 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
1579
1580 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
1581 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
1582 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
1583 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
1584 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
1585
1586 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1587 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1588
1589 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
1590 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
1591 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
1592 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1593 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1594 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1595
1596 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1597 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1598
1599 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1600 this was not advertised at the time.
1601
1602 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1603 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1604 this was not advertised at the time.
1605
1606 ** Obsolete modes
1607
1608 *** abbrevlist.el
1609
1610 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1611
1612 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
1613 You can get a comparable behavior with:
1614 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
1615 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
1616
1617 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1618
1619 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1620
1621 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1622
1623 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1624 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1625
1626 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1627
1628 ** Miscellaneous
1629
1630 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1631 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1632
1633 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1634 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1635
1636 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1637
1638 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1639
1640 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1641
1642 \f
1643 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1644
1645 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1646 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1647
1648 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1649 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1650 matching closing one.
1651
1652 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
1653 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
1654 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
1655 electric-indent-functions.
1656
1657 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
1658 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
1659 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
1660
1661 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1662 from which other modes can be derived.
1663
1664 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1665
1666 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
1667 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
1668 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
1669 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
1670 secrets.
1671
1672 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1673 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1674
1675 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1676 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1677
1678 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1679
1680 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
1681 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
1682 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
1683 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
1684 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
1685 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1686
1687 \f
1688 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1689
1690 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
1691 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
1692
1693 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1694
1695 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
1696 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
1697 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
1698 command still toggles the minor mode.
1699
1700 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1701 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
1702 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
1703 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
1704 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
1705
1706 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
1707 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
1708 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
1709 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
1710 argument `bidi-class'.
1711
1712 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1713 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1714 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1715 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1716
1717 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1718 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1719 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1720 of the header line.
1721
1722 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
1723 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
1724 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
1725 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
1726 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1727 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1728 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
1729
1730 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
1731 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
1732 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
1733 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
1734 older Emacsen too.
1735
1736 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
1737 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
1738 replaced all known uses.
1739
1740 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1741 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
1742 major mode is special).
1743
1744 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1745
1746 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1747 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1748 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1749 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1750 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1751 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1752
1753 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1754 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1755
1756 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1757 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
1758 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
1759 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
1760
1761 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
1762 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
1763 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
1764
1765 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1766
1767 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
1768 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
1769 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
1770
1771 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
1772 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
1773 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
1774 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
1775 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
1776 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
1777 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
1778 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
1779 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
1780 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
1781 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
1782 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
1783 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
1784 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
1785 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
1786 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
1787 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
1788 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
1789 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
1790 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
1791 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
1792
1793 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1794 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1795
1796 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
1797 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
1798 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
1799 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
1800 *** `e' (`float-e').
1801
1802 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1803 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1804
1805 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
1806 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
1807 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
1808 `finder-keywords-hash'.
1809
1810 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
1811 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
1812 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
1813
1814 \f
1815 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1816
1817 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1818 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
1819 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
1820 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
1821 file.
1822
1823 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1824 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1825
1826 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1827 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1828
1829 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1830
1831 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1832 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1833
1834 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1835 declared as dynamically bound.
1836
1837 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
1838
1839 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
1840 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
1841 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1842
1843 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1844
1845 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1846 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1847
1848 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1849 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
1850 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
1851 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1852 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
1853 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
1854
1855 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
1856 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
1857 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
1858
1859 ** Window changes
1860
1861 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1862 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1863 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1864 buffer) in the window tree.
1865
1866 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1867 windows.
1868
1869 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1870 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1871 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1872 act on any window including internal ones.
1873
1874 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
1875 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
1876 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
1877 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
1878 and `window-body-height' are provided.
1879
1880 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
1881 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
1882 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
1883 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
1884 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
1885
1886 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
1887 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
1888 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
1889 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
1890 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
1891 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
1892
1893 *** Window resizing functions.
1894 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
1895 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
1896 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
1897
1898 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1899 live window on that frame instead.
1900
1901 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
1902 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
1903 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
1904 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
1905 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
1906 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
1907
1908 *** Window-local buffer lists.
1909 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
1910 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
1911 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
1912 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
1913 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
1914
1915 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
1916 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1917 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1918 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1919
1920 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
1921 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
1922 The old names are kept as aliases.
1923
1924 *** Display actions
1925
1926 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
1927 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
1928 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
1929 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
1930
1931 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1932
1933 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
1934 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
1935 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
1936 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
1937 are user-customizable variables.
1938
1939 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1940
1941 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
1942 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
1943 frame or window as an Elisp object.
1944
1945 ** Completion
1946
1947 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
1948 properties of the current completion:
1949 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1950 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1951
1952 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
1953 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
1954
1955 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
1956
1957 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1958 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1959 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1960 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1961 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1962 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1963 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1964
1965 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
1966 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
1967 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
1968
1969 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
1970 behavior of `completing-read'.
1971
1972 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
1973 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
1974
1975 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
1976 Instead, the offending function is removed.
1977
1978 ** New hook types
1979
1980 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
1981 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
1982 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
1983 non-nil return value.
1984
1985 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
1986 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
1987 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
1988 advertised at the time.)
1989
1990 ** Debugger changes
1991
1992 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
1993 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
1994
1995 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
1996
1997 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
1998
1999 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
2000 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
2001 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
2002
2003 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
2004 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
2005
2006 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
2007 named Emacs server instances.
2008
2009 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
2010 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
2011
2012 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
2013 for higher-resolution time stamps.
2014
2015 ** New input reading functions
2016
2017 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
2018 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
2019
2020 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
2021 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
2022 invalid input.
2023
2024 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
2025
2026 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
2027 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
2028 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
2029 obsolete alias.
2030
2031 ** Syntax parsing changes
2032
2033 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
2034 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
2035 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
2036 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
2037 Together with this new variable come a new hook
2038 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
2039 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
2040 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
2041 syntactic rules.
2042
2043 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
2044
2045 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
2046
2047 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
2048
2049 ** Major and minor mode changes
2050
2051 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
2052 as well as those in the -*- line.
2053
2054 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
2055 should be derived.
2056
2057 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
2058 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
2059 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
2060
2061 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
2062 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
2063
2064 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
2065 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
2066 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
2067
2068 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
2069
2070 ** File-handling changes
2071
2072 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
2073 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
2074 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
2075 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
2076
2077 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
2078
2079 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
2080 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
2081 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
2082
2083 ** Image API
2084
2085 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
2086
2087 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
2088
2089 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
2090
2091 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
2092 is being animated.
2093
2094 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
2095 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
2096
2097 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
2098 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
2099
2100 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
2101 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
2102 ImageMagick installation supports.
2103
2104 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
2105 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
2106 functions.
2107
2108 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
2109 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
2110
2111 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
2112 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
2113 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
2114 `image-transform-set-scale'.
2115
2116 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
2117 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
2118 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
2119 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
2120
2121 ** XML and HTML parsing
2122 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
2123 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
2124 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
2125 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
2126
2127 ** Networking and encryption changes
2128
2129 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
2130 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
2131 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
2132 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
2133 must also be supplied.
2134
2135 *** New library gnutls.el.
2136 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
2137 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
2138 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
2139 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
2140 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
2141 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
2142 greater than 0.
2143
2144 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
2145 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
2146 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
2147
2148 ** Isearch
2149
2150 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
2151
2152 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
2153 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
2154 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
2155 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
2156 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
2157 displayed with a "spinning bar".
2158
2159 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
2160 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
2161
2162 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
2163 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
2164 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
2165 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
2166 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
2167 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
2168
2169 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
2170
2171 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
2172 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
2173 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
2174 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
2175
2176 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
2177 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
2178
2179 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
2180 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
2181 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
2182 an empty uninterned symbol.
2183
2184 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
2185
2186 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
2187
2188 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
2189 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
2190
2191 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
2192 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
2193
2194 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
2195
2196 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
2197 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
2198
2199 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
2200
2201 \f
2202 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
2203
2204 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
2205 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
2206
2207 ** New configure.bat options
2208
2209 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
2210
2211 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
2212
2213 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
2214
2215 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
2216
2217 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
2218
2219 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
2220 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
2221
2222 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
2223 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
2224
2225 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
2226 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
2227
2228 \f
2229 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
2230 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
2231
2232 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
2233 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2234 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
2235 (at your option) any later version.
2236
2237 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2238 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2239 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2240 GNU General Public License for more details.
2241
2242 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2243 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
2244
2245 \f
2246 Local variables:
2247 mode: outline
2248 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
2249 end: