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[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes. 2003-05-21
2 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 See the end for copying conditions.
4
5 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
6 For older news, see the file ONEWS
7 You can narrow news to the specific version by calling
8 `view-emacs-news' with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
9
10 Temporary note:
11 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
12 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
13 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
14 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
15
16 \f
17 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.4
18
19 ---
20 ** A Bulgarian translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
21
22 ** You can build Emacs with Gtk+ widgets by specifying `--with-x-toolkit=gtk'
23 when you run configure. This requires Gtk+ 2.0 or newer. This port
24 provides a way to display multilingual text in menus (with some caveats).
25
26 ---
27 ** Emacs can now be built without sound support.
28
29 ** The `emacsserver' program has been removed, replaced with elisp code.
30
31 ---
32 ** Emacs now supports new configure options `--program-prefix',
33 `--program-suffix' and `--program-transform-name' that affect the names of
34 installed programs.
35
36 ---
37 ** By default, Emacs now uses a setgid helper program to update game
38 scores. The directory ${localstatedir}/games/emacs is the normal
39 place for game scores to be stored. This may be controlled by the
40 configure option `--with-game-dir'. The specific user that Emacs uses
41 to own the game scores is controlled by `--with-game-user'. If access
42 to a game user is not available, then scores will be stored separately
43 in each user's home directory.
44
45 ---
46 ** Leim is now part of the Emacs distribution.
47 You no longer need to download a separate tarball in order to build
48 Emacs with Leim.
49
50 +++
51 ** The Emacs Lisp Reference Manual is now part of the distribution.
52
53 The ELisp reference manual in Info format is built as part of the
54 Emacs build procedure and installed together with the Emacs User
55 Manual. A menu item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy
56 accessible (Help->More Manuals->Emacs Lisp Reference).
57
58 ---
59 ** The Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp manual is now part of
60 the distribution.
61
62 This manual is now part of the standard distribution and is installed,
63 together with the Emacs User Manual, into the Info directory. A menu
64 item was added to the menu bar that makes it easy accessible
65 (Help->More Manuals->Introduction to Emacs Lisp).
66
67 ** Support for Cygwin was added.
68
69 ---
70 ** Support for FreeBSD/Alpha has been added.
71
72 ---
73 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on S390 machines was added.
74
75 ---
76 ** Support for MacOS X was added.
77 See the files mac/README and mac/INSTALL for build instructions.
78
79 ---
80 ** Support for GNU/Linux systems on X86-64 machines was added.
81
82 ---
83 ** A French translation of the `Emacs Survival Guide' is available.
84
85 ---
86 ** A French translation of the Emacs Tutorial is available.
87 ** Building with -DENABLE_CHECKING does not automatically build with union
88 types any more. Add -DUSE_LISP_UNION_TYPE if you want union types.
89
90 \f
91 * Changes in Emacs 21.4
92
93 ** New input method chinese-sisheng for inputting Chinese Pinyin
94 characters.
95
96 ** New command quail-show-key shows what key (or key sequence) to type
97 in the current input method to input a character at point.
98
99 ** Convenient commands to switch buffers in a cyclic order are C-x <left>
100 (prev-buffer) and C-x <right> (next-buffer).
101
102 ** Commands winner-redo and winner-undo, from winner.el, are now bound to
103 C-c <left> and C-c <right>, respectively. This is an incompatible change.
104
105 ** Help commands `describe-funcion' and `describe-key' now show function
106 arguments in lowercase italics on displays that support it. To change the
107 default, redefine the function `help-default-arg-highlight'.
108
109 ---
110 ** The comint prompt can now be made read-only, using the new user
111 option `comint-prompt-read-only'. This is not enabled by default,
112 except in IELM buffers. The read-only status of IELM prompts can be
113 controlled with the new user option `ielm-prompt-read-only', which
114 overrides `comint-prompt-read-only'.
115
116 The new commands `comint-kill-whole-line' and `comint-kill-region'
117 support editing comint buffers with read-only prompts.
118
119 `comint-kill-whole-line' is like `kill-whole-line', but ignores both
120 read-only and field properties. Hence, it will always kill entire
121 lines, including any prompts.
122
123 `comint-kill-region' is like `kill-region', except that it ignores
124 read-only properties, if it is safe to do so. This means that if any
125 part of a prompt is deleted, then the entire prompt must be deleted
126 and that all prompts must stay at the beginning of a line. If this is
127 not the case, then `comint-kill-region' behaves just like
128 `kill-region' if read-only are involved: it copies the text to the
129 kill-ring, but does not delete it.
130
131 ** You can now use next-error (C-x `) and previous-error to advance to
132 the next/previous matching line found by M-x occur.
133
134 ** Telnet will now prompt you for a port number with C-u M-x telnet.
135
136 +++
137 ** New command line option -Q.
138
139 This is like using -q --no-site-file, but in addition it also disables
140 the menu-bar, the tool-bar, the scroll-bars, tool tips, the blinking
141 cursor, and the fancy startup screen.
142
143 ** C-h v and C-h f commands now include a hyperlink to the C source for
144 variables and functions defined in C (if the C source is available).
145
146 ** When used interactively, `format-write-file' now asks for confirmation
147 before overwriting an existing file, unless a prefix argument is
148 supplied. This behavior is analogous to `write-file'.
149
150 ** You can now use Auto Revert mode to `tail' a file.
151 If point is at the end of a file buffer before reverting, Auto Revert
152 mode keeps it at the end after reverting. Similarly if point is
153 displayed at the end of a file buffer in any window, it will stay at
154 the end of the buffer in that window. This allows to tail a file:
155 just put point at the end of the buffer and it will stay there. This
156 rule applies to file buffers. For non-file buffers, the behavior may
157 be mode dependent.
158
159 ** Auto Revert mode is now more careful to avoid excessive reverts and
160 other potential problems when deciding which non-file buffers to
161 revert. This matters especially if Global Auto Revert mode is enabled
162 and `global-auto-revert-non-file-buffers' is non-nil. Auto Revert
163 mode will only revert a non-file buffer if the buffer has a non-nil
164 `revert-buffer-function' and a non-nil `buffer-stale-function', which
165 decides whether the buffer should be reverted. Currently, this means
166 that auto reverting works for Dired buffers (although this may not
167 work properly on all operating systems) and for the Buffer Menu.
168
169 ** If the new user option `auto-revert-check-vc-info' is non-nil, Auto
170 Revert mode reliably updates version control info (such as the version
171 control number in the mode line), in all version controlled buffers in
172 which it is active. If the option is nil, the default, then this info
173 only gets updated whenever the buffer gets reverted.
174
175 ** New command `Buffer-menu-toggle-files-only' toggles display of file
176 buffers only in the Buffer Menu. It is bound to `T' in Buffer Menu
177 mode.
178
179 ** M-x compile has become more robust and reliable
180
181 Quite a few more kinds of messages are recognized. Messages that are
182 recognized as warnings or informational come in orange or green, instead of
183 red. Informational messages are by default skipped with `next-error'
184 (controlled by `compilation-skip-threshold').
185
186 Location data is collected on the fly as the *compilation* buffer changes.
187 This means you could modify messages to make them point to different files.
188 This also means you can not go to locations of messages you may have deleted.
189
190 The variable `compilation-error-regexp-alist' has now become customizable. If
191 you had added your own regexps to this, you'll probably need to include a
192 leading `^', otherwise they'll match anywhere on a line. There is now also a
193 `compilation-mode-font-lock-keywords' and it nicely handles all the checks
194 that configure outputs and -o options so you see at a glance where you are.
195
196 The new file etc/compilation.txt gives examples of each type of message.
197
198 ** M-x grep has been adapted to new compile
199
200 Hits are fontified in green, and hits in binary files in orange. Grep buffers
201 can be saved and will again be loaded with the new `grep-mode'.
202
203 ** M-x diff uses diff-mode instead of compilation-mode.
204
205 ** M-x compare-windows now can automatically skip non-matching text to
206 resync points in both windows.
207
208 ** New command `strokes-global-set-stroke-string'.
209 This is like `strokes-global-set-stroke', but it allows you to bind
210 the stroke directly to a string to insert. This is convenient for
211 using strokes as an input method.
212
213 ---
214 ** The saveplace.el package now filters out unreadable files.
215 When you exit Emacs, the saved positions in visited files no longer
216 include files that aren't readable, e.g. files that don't exist.
217 Customize the new option `save-place-forget-unreadable-files' to nil
218 to get the old behavior. The new options `save-place-save-skipped'
219 and `save-place-skip-check-regexp' allow further fine-tuning of this
220 feature.
221
222 ** You can have several Emacs servers on the same machine.
223
224 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "foo")' -f server-start &
225 % emacs --eval '(setq server-name "bar")' -f server-start &
226 % emacsclient -s foo file1
227 % emacsclient -s bar file2
228
229 ** On window systems, lines which are exactly as wide as the window
230 (not counting the final newline character) are no longer broken into
231 two lines on the display (with just the newline on the second line).
232 Instead, the newline now "overflows" into the right fringe, and the
233 cursor will be displayed in the fringe when positioned on that newline.
234
235 The new user option 'overflow-newline-into-fringe' may be set to nil to
236 revert to the old behaviour of continuing such lines.
237
238 ** The buffer boundaries (i.e. first and last line in the buffer) may
239 now be marked with angle bitmaps in the fringes. In addition, up and
240 down arrow bitmaps may be shown at the top and bottom of the left or
241 right fringe if the window can be scrolled in either direction.
242
243 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
244 `indicate-buffer-boundaries' to a non-nil value. The default value of
245 this variable is found in `default-indicate-buffer-boundaries'.
246
247 If value is `left' or `right', both angle and arrow bitmaps are
248 displayed in the left or right fringe, resp. Any other non-nil value
249 causes the bitmap on the top line to be displayed in the left fringe,
250 and the bitmap on the bottom line in the right fringe.
251
252 If value is a cons (ANGLES . ARROWS), the car specifies the position
253 of the angle bitmaps, and the cdr specifies the position of the arrow
254 bitmaps.
255
256 For example, (t . right) places the top angle bitmap in left fringe,
257 the bottom angle bitmap in right fringe, and both arrow bitmaps in
258 right fringe. To show just the angle bitmaps in the left fringe, but
259 no arrow bitmaps, use (left . nil).
260
261 ** New command `display-local-help' displays any local help at point
262 in the echo area. It is bound to `C-h .'. It normally displays the
263 same string that would be displayed on mouse-over using the
264 `help-echo' property, but, in certain cases, it can display a more
265 keyboard oriented alternative.
266
267 ** New user option `help-at-pt-display-when-idle' allows to
268 automatically show the help provided by `display-local-help' on
269 point-over, after suitable idle time. The amount of idle time is
270 determined by the user option `help-at-pt-timer-delay' and defaults
271 to one second. This feature is turned off by default.
272
273 ** New commands `scan-buf-next-region' and `scan-buf-previous-region'
274 move to the start of the next (previous, respectively) region with
275 non-nil help-echo property and display any help found there in the
276 echo area, using `display-local-help'.
277
278 +++
279 ** Help mode now only makes hyperlinks for faces when the face name is
280 preceded or followed by the word `face'. It no longer makes
281 hyperlinks for variables without variable documentation, unless
282 preceded by one of the words `variable' or `option'. It now makes
283 hyperlinks to Info anchors (or nodes) if the anchor (or node) name is
284 enclosed in single quotes and preceded by `info anchor' or `Info
285 anchor' (in addition to earlier `info node' and `Info node').
286
287 ** The max size of buffers and integers has been doubled.
288 On 32bit machines, it is now 256M (i.e. 268435455).
289
290 +++
291 ** The -f option, used from the command line to call a function,
292 now reads arguments for the function interactively if it is
293 an interactively callable function.
294
295
296 ** sql changes.
297
298 *** The variable `sql-product' controls the highlightng of different
299 SQL dialects. This variable can be set globally via Customize, on a
300 buffer-specific basis via local variable settings, or for the current
301 session using the new SQL->Product submenu. (This menu replaces the
302 SQL->Highlighting submenu.)
303
304 The following values are supported:
305
306 ansi ANSI Standard (default)
307 db2 DB2
308 informix Informix
309 ingres Ingres
310 interbase Interbase
311 linter Linter
312 ms Microsoft
313 mysql MySQL
314 oracle Oracle
315 postgres Postgres
316 solid Solid
317 sqlite SQLite
318 sybase Sybase
319
320 The current product name will be shown on the mode line following the
321 SQL mode indicator.
322
323 The technique of setting `sql-mode-font-lock-defaults' directly in
324 your .emacs will no longer establish the default highlighting -- Use
325 `sql-product' to accomplish this.
326
327 ANSI keywords are always highlighted.
328
329 *** The function `sql-add-product-keywords' can be used to add
330 font-lock rules to the product specific rules. For example, to have
331 all identifiers ending in "_t" under MS SQLServer treated as a type,
332 you would use the following line in your .emacs file:
333
334 (sql-add-product-keywords 'ms
335 '(("\\<\\w+_t\\>" . font-lock-type-face)))
336
337 *** Oracle support includes keyword highlighting for Oracle 9i. Most
338 SQL and PL/SQL keywords are implemented. SQL*Plus commands are
339 highlighted in `font-lock-doc-face'.
340
341 *** Microsoft SQLServer support has been significantly improved.
342 Keyword highlighting for SqlServer 2000 is implemented.
343 sql-interactive-mode defaults to use osql, rather than isql, because
344 osql flushes its error stream more frequently. Thus error messages
345 are displayed when they occur rather than when the session is
346 terminated.
347
348 If the username and password are not provided to `sql-ms', osql is
349 called with the -E command line argument to use the operating system
350 credentials to authenticate the user.
351
352 *** Postgres support is enhanced.
353 Keyword highlighting of Postgres 7.3 is implemented. Prompting for
354 the username and the pgsql `-U' option is added.
355
356 *** MySQL support is enhanced.
357 Keyword higlighting of MySql 4.0 is implemented.
358
359 *** Imenu support has been enhanced to locate tables, views, indexes,
360 packages, procedures, functions, triggers, sequences, rules, and
361 defaults.
362
363 *** Added SQL->Start SQLi Session menu entry which calls the
364 appropriate sql-interactive-mode wrapper for the current setting of
365 `sql-product'.
366
367 ** M-x view-file and commands that use it now avoid interfering
368 with special modes such as Tar mode.
369
370 ** Enhancements to apropos commands:
371
372 *** The apropos commands will now accept a list of words to match.
373 When more than one word is specified, at least two of those words must
374 be present for an item to match. Regular expression matching is still
375 available.
376
377 *** The new option `apropos-sort-by-scores' causes the matching items
378 to be sorted according to their score. The score for an item is a
379 number calculated to indicate how well the item matches the words or
380 regular expression that you entered to the apropos command. The best
381 match is listed first, and the calculated score is shown for each
382 matching item.
383
384 +++
385 ** The old bindings C-M-delete and C-M-backspace have been deleted,
386 since there are situations where one or the other will shut down
387 the operating system or your X server.
388
389 ** New minor mode, Visible mode, toggles invisibility in the current buffer.
390 When enabled, it makes all invisible text visible. When disabled, it
391 restores the previous value of `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
392
393 ** New command `kill-whole-line' kills an entire line at once.
394 By default, it is bound to C-S-<backspace>.
395
396 ** Dired mode:
397
398 *** New faces dired-header, dired-mark, dired-marked, dired-flagged,
399 dired-ignored, dired-directory, dired-symlink, dired-warning
400 introduced for Dired mode instead of font-lock faces.
401
402 *** New Dired command `dired-compare-directories' to mark files with
403 different file attributes in two dired buffers.
404
405 +++
406 *** In Dired's ! command (dired-do-shell-command), `*' and `?' now
407 control substitution of the file names only when they are surrounded
408 by whitespace. This means you can now use them as shell wildcards
409 too. If you want to use just plain `*' as a wildcard, type `*""'; the
410 doublequotes make no difference in the shell, but they prevent
411 special treatment in `dired-do-shell-command'.
412
413 +++
414 *** Dired's v command now runs external viewers to view certain
415 types of files. The variable `dired-view-command-alist' controls
416 what external viewers to use and when.
417
418 *** In Dired, the w command now copies the current line's file name
419 into the kill ring.
420
421 ** Info mode:
422 +++
423 *** Info now hides node names in menus and cross references by default.
424 If you prefer the old behavior, you can set the new user option
425 `Info-hide-note-references' to nil.
426
427 *** The new command `info-apropos' searches the indices of the known
428 Info files on your system for a string, and builds a menu of the
429 possible matches.
430
431 *** Images in Info pages are supported.
432 Info pages show embedded images, in Emacs frames with image support.
433 Info documentation that includes images, processed with makeinfo
434 version 4.7 or newer, compiles to Info pages with embedded images.
435
436 +++
437 *** The default value for `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' is now nil.
438
439 ---
440 *** Info-index offers completion.
441
442 ** Support for the SQLite interpreter has been added to sql.el by calling
443 'sql-sqlite'.
444
445 ** BibTeX mode:
446 *** The new command bibtex-entry-update (bound to C-c C-u) updates
447 an existing BibTeX entry.
448 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `required-fields', enabled by default.
449 *** bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries can take values `plain',
450 `crossref', and `entry-class' which control the sorting scheme used
451 for BibTeX entries. `bibtex-sort-entry-class' controls the sorting
452 scheme `entry-class'. TAB completion for reference keys and
453 automatic detection of duplicates does not require anymore that
454 bibtex-maintain-sorted-entries is non-nil.
455
456 *** If the new variable bibtex-parse-keys-fast is non-nil,
457 use fast but simplified algorithm for parsing BibTeX keys.
458
459 *** If the new variable bibtex-autoadd-commas is non-nil,
460 automatically add missing commas at end of BibTeX fields.
461
462 *** The new variable bibtex-autofill-types contains a list of entry
463 types for which fields are filled automatically (if possible).
464
465 *** The new command bibtex-complete completes word fragment before
466 point according to context (bound to M-tab).
467
468 *** The new commands bibtex-find-entry and bibtex-find-crossref
469 locate entries and crossref'd entries.
470
471 *** In BibTeX mode the command fill-paragraph (bound to M-q) fills
472 individual fields of a BibTeX entry.
473
474 ** When display margins are present in a window, the fringes are now
475 displayed between the margins and the buffer's text area, rather than
476 at the edges of the window.
477
478 ** A window may now have individual fringe and scroll-bar settings,
479 in addition to the individual display margin settings.
480
481 Such individual settings are now preserved when windows are split
482 horizontally or vertically, a saved window configuration is restored,
483 or when the frame is resized.
484
485 ** New functions frame-current-scroll-bars and window-current-scroll-bars.
486
487 These functions return the current locations of the vertical and
488 horizontal scroll bars in a frame or window.
489
490 ---
491 ** Emacs now supports drag and drop for X. Dropping a file on a window
492 opens it, dropping text inserts the text. Dropping a file on a dired
493 buffer copies or moves the file to that directory.
494
495 ** Under X, mouse-wheel-mode is turned on by default.
496
497 ** The X resource useXIM can be used to turn off use of XIM, which may
498 speed up Emacs with slow networking to the X server.
499
500 If the configure option `--without-xim' was used to turn off use of
501 XIM by default, the X resource useXIM can be used to turn it on.
502
503 ** `undo-only' does an undo which does not redo any previous undo.
504
505 ** `uniquify-strip-common-suffix' tells uniquify to prefer
506 `file|dir1' and `file|dir2' to `file|dir1/subdir' and `file|dir2/subdir'.
507
508 ** If the user visits a file larger than `large-file-warning-threshold',
509 Emacs will prompt her for confirmation.
510
511 ** A UTF-7 coding system is available in the library `utf-7'.
512
513 ** GUD mode has its own tool bar for controlling execution of the inferior
514 and other common debugger commands.
515
516 ** recentf changes.
517
518 The recent file list is now automatically cleanup when recentf mode is
519 enabled. The new option `recentf-auto-cleanup' controls when to do
520 automatic cleanup.
521
522 With the more advanced option: `recentf-filename-handler', you can
523 specify a function that transforms filenames handled by recentf. For
524 example, if set to `file-truename', the same file will not be in the
525 recent list with different symbolic links.
526
527 To follow naming convention, `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-flag'
528 and `recentf-menu-append-commands-flag' respectively replace the
529 misnamed options `recentf-keep-non-readable-files-p' and
530 `recentf-menu-append-commands-p'. The old names remain available as
531 aliases, but have been marked obsolete.
532
533 ** The default for the paper size (variable ps-paper-type) is taken
534 from the locale.
535
536 ** Init file changes
537
538 You can now put the init files .emacs and .emacs_SHELL under
539 ~/.emacs.d or directly under ~. Emacs will find them in either place.
540
541 ** partial-completion-mode now does partial completion on directory names.
542
543 ** skeleton.el now supports using - to mark the skeleton-point without
544 interregion interaction. @ has reverted to only setting
545 skeleton-positions and no longer sets skeleton-point. Skeletons
546 which used @ to mark skeleton-point independent of _ should now use -
547 instead. The updated skeleton-insert docstring explains these new
548 features along with other details of skeleton construction.
549
550 ** MH-E changes.
551
552 Upgraded to MH-E version 7.3. There have been major changes since
553 version 5.0.2; see MH-E-NEWS for details.
554
555 +++
556 ** The `emacsclient' command understands the options `--eval' and
557 `--display' which tell Emacs respectively to evaluate the given elisp
558 expression and to use the given display when visiting files.
559
560 ** User option `server-mode' can be used to start a server process.
561
562 +++
563 ** The mode line position information now comes before the major mode.
564 When the file is maintained under version control, that information
565 appears between the position information and the major mode.
566
567 ** C-x s (save-some-buffers) now offers an option `d' to diff a buffer
568 against its file, so you can see what changes you would be saving.
569
570 +++
571 ** You can now customize the use of window fringes. To control this
572 for all frames, use M-x fringe-mode or the Show/Hide submenu of the
573 top-level Options menu, or customize the `fringe-mode' variable. To
574 control this for a specific frame, use the command M-x
575 set-fringe-style.
576
577 +++
578 ** There is a new user option `mail-default-directory' that allows you
579 to specify the value of `default-directory' for mail buffers. This
580 directory is used for auto-save files of mail buffers. It defaults to
581 "~/".
582
583 +++
584 ** When you are root, and you visit a file whose modes specify
585 read-only, the Emacs buffer is now read-only too. Type C-x C-q if you
586 want to make the buffer writable. (As root, you will in fact be able
587 to alter the file.)
588
589 ** The new command `revert-buffer-with-coding-system' (C-x RET r)
590 revisits the current file using a coding system that you specify.
591
592 ** The new command `recode-file-name' changes the encoding of the name
593 of a file.
594
595 ---
596 ** `ps-print' can now print characters from the mule-unicode charsets.
597
598 Printing text with characters from the mule-unicode-* sets works with
599 ps-print, provided that you have installed the appropriate BDF fonts.
600 See the file INSTALL for URLs where you can find these fonts.
601
602 ---
603 ** The new options `buffers-menu-show-directories' and
604 `buffers-menu-show-status' let you control how buffers are displayed
605 in the menu dropped down when you click "Buffers" from the menu bar.
606
607 `buffers-menu-show-directories' controls whether the menu displays
608 leading directories as part of the file name visited by the buffer.
609 If its value is `unless-uniquify', the default, directories will be
610 shown unless uniquify-buffer-name-style' is non-nil. The value of nil
611 and t turn the display of directories off and on, respectively.
612
613 `buffers-menu-show-status' controls whether the Buffers menu includes
614 the modified and read-only status of the buffers. By default it is
615 t, and the status is shown.
616
617 Setting these variables directly does not take effect until next time
618 the Buffers menu is regenerated.
619
620 +++
621 ** The commands M-x customize-face and M-x customize-face-other-window
622 now look at the character after point. If a face or faces are
623 specified for that character, the commands by default customize those
624 faces.
625
626 ** New language environments: French, Ukrainian, Tajik,
627 Bulgarian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, UTF-8, Windows-1255, Welsh, Latin-6,
628 Latin-7, Lithuanian, Latvian, Swedish, Slovenian, Croatian, Georgian,
629 Italian, Russian, Malayalam, Tamil, Russian, Chinese-EUC-TW. (Set up
630 automatically according to the locale.)
631
632 ** Indian support has been updated.
633 The in-is13194 coding system is now Unicode-based. CDAC fonts are
634 assumed. There is a framework for supporting various
635 Indian scripts, but currently only Devanagari, Malayalam and Tamil are
636 supported.
637
638 ---
639 ** New input methods: latin-alt-postfix, latin-postfix, latin-prefix,
640 ukrainian-computer, belarusian, bulgarian-bds, russian-computer,
641 vietnamese-telex, lithuanian-numeric, lithuanian-keyboard,
642 latvian-keyboard, welsh, georgian, rfc1345, ucs, sgml,
643 bulgarian-phonetic, dutch, slovenian, croatian, malayalam-inscript,
644 tamil-inscript.
645
646 ---
647 ** A new coding system `euc-tw' has been added for traditional Chinese
648 in CNS encoding; it accepts both Big 5 and CNS as input; on saving,
649 Big 5 is then converted to CNS.
650
651 ---
652 ** Many new coding systems are available by loading the `code-pages'
653 library. These include complete versions of most of those in
654 codepage.el, based on Unicode mappings. `codepage-setup' is now
655 obsolete and is used only in the MS-DOS port of Emacs. windows-1252
656 and windows-1251 are preloaded since the former is so common and the
657 latter is used by GNU locales.
658
659 ** The utf-8/16 coding systems have been enhanced.
660 By default, untranslatable utf-8 sequences (mostly representing CJK
661 characters) are simply composed into single quasi-characters. User
662 option `utf-translate-cjk' arranges to translate many utf-8 CJK
663 character sequences into real Emacs characters in a similar way to the
664 Mule-UCS system. This uses significant space, so is not the default.
665 You can augment/amend the CJK translation via hash tables
666 `ucs-mule-cjk-to-unicode' and `ucs-unicode-to-mule-cjk'. The utf-8
667 coding system now also encodes characters from most of Emacs's
668 one-dimensional internal charsets, specifically the ISO-8859 ones.
669 The utf-16 coding system is affected similarly.
670
671 ** iso-10646-1 (`Unicode') fonts can be used to display any range of
672 characters encodable by the utf-8 coding system. Just specify the
673 fontset appropriately.
674
675 ** New command `ucs-insert' inserts a character specified by its
676 unicode.
677
678 +++
679 ** Limited support for character `unification' has been added.
680 Emacs now knows how to translate between different representations of
681 the same characters in various Emacs charsets according to standard
682 Unicode mappings. This applies mainly to characters in the ISO 8859
683 sets plus some other 8-bit sets, but can be extended. For instance,
684 translation works amongst the Emacs ...-iso8859-... charsets and the
685 mule-unicode-... ones.
686
687 By default this translation will happen automatically on encoding.
688 Self-inserting characters are translated to make the input conformant
689 with the encoding of the buffer in which it's being used, where
690 possible.
691
692 You can force a more complete unification with the user option
693 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode. That maps all the Latin-N character sets
694 into Unicode characters (from the latin-iso8859-1 and
695 mule-unicode-0100-24ff charsets) on decoding. Note that this mode
696 will often effectively clobber data with an iso-2022 encoding.
697
698 ** There is support for decoding Greek and Cyrillic characters into
699 either Unicode (the mule-unicode charsets) or the iso-8859 charsets,
700 when possible. The latter are more space-efficient. This is
701 controlled by user option utf-fragment-on-decoding.
702
703 ** The new command `set-file-name-coding-system' (C-x RET F) sets
704 coding system for encoding and decoding file names. A new menu item
705 (Options->Mule->Set Coding Systems->For File Name) invokes this
706 command.
707
708 ---
709 ** The scrollbar under LessTif or Motif has a smoother drag-scrolling.
710 On the other hand, the size of the thumb does not represent the actual
711 amount of text shown any more (only a crude approximation of it).
712
713 ---
714 ** The pop up menus for Lucid now stay up if you do a fast click and can
715 be navigated with the arrow keys (like Gtk+ and W32).
716
717 ---
718 ** Dialogs for Lucid/Athena and Lesstif/Motif pops down when pressing ESC.
719
720 +++
721 ** The file selection dialog for Gtk+, W32 and Motif/Lesstif can be
722 disabled by customizing the variable `use-file-dialog'.
723
724 +++
725 ** Emacs can produce an underscore-like (horizontal bar) cursor.
726 The underscore cursor is set by putting `(cursor-type . hbar)' in
727 default-frame-alist. It supports variable heights, like the `bar'
728 cursor does.
729
730 +++
731 ** On X, MS Windows, and Mac OS, the blinking cursor's "off" state is
732 now controlled by the variable `blink-cursor-alist'.
733
734 ** Filesets are collections of files. You can define a fileset in
735 various ways, such as based on a directory tree or based on
736 program files that include other program files.
737
738 Once you have defined a fileset, you can perform various operations on
739 all the files in it, such as visiting them or searching and replacing
740 in them.
741
742 ---
743 ** PO translation files are decoded according to their MIME headers
744 when Emacs visits them.
745
746 ---
747 ** The game `mpuz' is enhanced.
748
749 `mpuz' now allows the 2nd factor not to have two identical digits. By
750 default, all trivial operations involving whole lines are performed
751 automatically. The game uses faces for better visual feedback.
752
753 ** The new variable `x-select-request-type' controls how Emacs
754 requests X selection. The default value is nil, which means that
755 Emacs requests X selection with types COMPOUND_TEXT and UTF8_STRING,
756 and use the more appropriately result.
757
758 +++
759 ** The parameters of automatic hscrolling can now be customized.
760 The variable `hscroll-margin' determines how many columns away from
761 the window edge point is allowed to get before automatic hscrolling
762 will horizontally scroll the window. The default value is 5.
763
764 The variable `hscroll-step' determines how many columns automatic
765 hscrolling will scroll the window when point gets too close to the
766 window edge. If its value is zero, the default, Emacs scrolls the
767 window so as to center point. If its value is an integer, it says how
768 many columns to scroll. If the value is a floating-point number, it
769 gives the fraction of the window's width to scroll the window.
770
771 The variable `automatic-hscrolling' was renamed to
772 `auto-hscroll-mode'. The old name is still available as an alias.
773
774 ** TeX modes:
775 *** C-c C-c prompts for a command to run, and tries to offer a good default.
776 +++
777 *** The user option `tex-start-options-string' has been replaced
778 by two new user options: `tex-start-options', which should hold
779 command-line options to feed to TeX, and `tex-start-commands' which should hold
780 TeX commands to use at startup.
781 *** verbatim environments are now highlighted in courier by font-lock
782 and super/sub-scripts are made into super/sub-scripts.
783
784 *** New major mode doctex-mode for *.dtx files.
785
786 +++
787 ** New display feature: focus follows the mouse from one Emacs window
788 to another, even within a frame. If you set the variable
789 mouse-autoselect-window to non-nil value, moving the mouse to a
790 different Emacs window will select that window (minibuffer window can
791 be selected only when it is active). The default is nil, so that this
792 feature is not enabled.
793
794 ** On X, when the window manager requires that you click on a frame to
795 select it (give it focus), the selected window and cursor position
796 normally changes according to the mouse click position. If you set
797 the variable x-mouse-click-focus-ignore-position to t, the selected
798 window and cursor position do not change when you click on a frame
799 to give it focus.
800
801 +++
802 ** The new command `describe-char' (C-u C-x =) pops up a buffer with
803 description various information about a character, including its
804 encodings and syntax, its text properties, how to input, overlays, and
805 widgets at point. You can get more information about some of them, by
806 clicking on mouse-sensitive areas or moving there and pressing RET.
807
808 +++
809 ** The new command `multi-occur' is just like `occur', except it can
810 search multiple buffers. There is also a new command
811 `multi-occur-by-filename-regexp' which allows you to specify the
812 buffers to search by their filename. Internally, Occur mode has been
813 rewritten, and now uses font-lock, among other changes.
814
815 +++
816 ** Emacs normally highlights mouse sensitive text whenever the mouse
817 is over the text. By setting the new variable `mouse-highlight', you
818 can optionally enable mouse highlighting only after you move the
819 mouse, so that highlighting disappears when you press a key. You can
820 also disable mouse highlighting.
821
822 ** You can now customize if selecting a region by dragging the mouse
823 shall not copy the selected text to the kill-ring by setting the new
824 variable mouse-drag-copy-region to nil.
825
826 +++
827 ** font-lock: in modes like C and Lisp where the fontification assumes that
828 an open-paren in column 0 is always outside of any string or comment,
829 font-lock now highlights any such open-paren-in-column-zero in bold-red
830 if it is inside a string or a comment, to indicate that it can cause
831 trouble with fontification and/or indentation.
832
833 +++
834 ** There's a new face `minibuffer-prompt'.
835 Emacs adds this face to the list of text properties stored in the
836 variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', which is used to display the
837 prompt string.
838
839 +++
840 ** The new face `mode-line-inactive' is used to display the mode line
841 of non-selected windows. The `mode-line' face is now used to display
842 the mode line of the currently selected window.
843
844 The new variable `mode-line-in-non-selected-windows' controls whether
845 the `mode-line-inactive' face is used.
846
847 ---
848 ** A menu item "Show/Hide" was added to the top-level menu "Options".
849 This menu allows you to turn various display features on and off (such
850 as the fringes, the tool bar, the speedbar, and the menu bar itself).
851 You can also move the vertical scroll bar to either side here or turn
852 it off completely. There is also a menu-item to toggle displaying of
853 current date and time, current line and column number in the
854 mode-line.
855
856 ---
857 ** Speedbar has moved from the "Tools" top level menu to "Show/Hide".
858
859 +++
860 ** Emacs can now indicate in the mode-line the presence of new e-mail
861 in a directory or in a file. See the documentation of the user option
862 `display-time-mail-directory'.
863
864 ---
865 ** LDAP support now defaults to ldapsearch from OpenLDAP version 2.
866
867 +++
868 ** You can now disable pc-selection-mode after enabling it.
869 M-x pc-selection-mode behaves like a proper minor mode, and with no
870 argument it toggles the mode.
871
872 Turning off PC-Selection mode restores the global key bindings
873 that were replaced by turning on the mode.
874
875 +++
876 ** Emacs now displays a splash screen by default even if command-line
877 arguments were given. The new command-line option --no-splash
878 disables the splash screen; see also the variable
879 `inhibit-startup-message' (which is also aliased as
880 `inhibit-splash-screen').
881
882 ** Changes in support of colors on character terminals
883
884 +++
885 *** The new command-line option --color=MODE lets you specify a standard
886 mode for a tty color support. It is meant to be used on character
887 terminals whose capabilities are not set correctly in the terminal
888 database, or with terminal emulators which support colors, but don't
889 set the TERM environment variable to a name of a color-capable
890 terminal. "emacs --color" uses the same color commands as GNU `ls'
891 when invoked with "ls --color", so if your terminal can support colors
892 in "ls --color", it will support "emacs --color" as well. See the
893 user manual for the possible values of the MODE parameter.
894
895 ---
896 *** Emacs now supports several character terminals which provide more
897 than 8 colors. For example, for `xterm', 16-color, 88-color, and
898 256-color modes are supported. Emacs automatically notes at startup
899 the extended number of colors, and defines the appropriate entries for
900 all of these colors.
901
902 +++
903 *** Emacs now uses the full range of available colors for the default
904 faces when running on a color terminal, including 16-, 88-, and
905 256-color xterms. This means that when you run "emacs -nw" on an
906 88-color or 256-color xterm, you will see essentially the same face
907 colors as on X.
908
909 ---
910 *** There's a new support for colors on `rxvt' terminal emulator.
911
912 +++
913 ** Emacs can now be invoked in full-screen mode on a windowed display.
914
915 When Emacs is invoked on a window system, the new command-line options
916 `--fullwidth', `--fullheight', and `--fullscreen' produce a frame
917 whose width, height, or both width and height take up the entire
918 screen size. (For now, this does not work with some window managers.)
919
920 ---
921 ** Emacs now tries to set up buffer coding systems for HTML/XML files
922 automatically.
923
924 +++
925 ** The new command `comint-insert-previous-argument' in comint-derived
926 modes (shell-mode etc) inserts arguments from previous command lines,
927 like bash's `ESC .' binding. It is bound by default to `C-c .', but
928 otherwise behaves quite similarly to the bash version.
929
930 +++
931 ** Changes in C-h bindings:
932
933 C-h e displays the *Messages* buffer.
934
935 C-h followed by a control character is used for displaying files
936 that do not change:
937
938 C-h C-f displays the FAQ.
939 C-h C-e displays the PROBLEMS file.
940
941 The info-search bindings on C-h C-f, C-h C-k and C-h C-i
942 have been moved to C-h F, C-h K and C-h S.
943
944 C-h c, C-h k, C-h w, and C-h f now handle remapped interactive commands.
945
946 - C-h c and C-h k report the actual command (after possible remapping)
947 run by the key sequence.
948
949 - C-h w and C-h f on a command which has been remapped now report the
950 command it is remapped to, and the keys which can be used to run
951 that command.
952
953 For example, if C-k is bound to kill-line, and kill-line is remapped
954 to new-kill-line, these commands now report:
955
956 - C-h c and C-h k C-k reports:
957 C-k runs the command new-kill-line
958
959 - C-h w and C-h f kill-line reports:
960 kill-line is remapped to new-kill-line which is on C-k, <deleteline>
961
962 - C-h w and C-h f new-kill-line reports:
963 new-kill-line is on C-k
964
965 +++
966 ** C-w in incremental search now grabs either a character or a word,
967 making the decision in a heuristic way. This new job is done by the
968 command `isearch-yank-word-or-char'. To restore the old behavior,
969 bind C-w to `isearch-yank-word' in `isearch-mode-map'.
970
971 +++
972 ** Yanking text now discards certain text properties that can
973 be inconvenient when you did not expect them. The variable
974 `yank-excluded-properties' specifies which ones. Insertion
975 of register contents and rectangles also discards these properties.
976
977 +++
978 ** Occur, Info, and comint-derived modes now support using
979 M-x font-lock-mode to toggle fontification. The variable
980 `Info-fontify' is no longer applicable; to disable fontification,
981 remove `turn-on-font-lock' from `Info-mode-hook'.
982
983 +++
984 ** M-x grep now tries to avoid appending `/dev/null' to the command line
985 by using GNU grep `-H' option instead. M-x grep will automatically
986 detect whether this is possible or not the first time it is invoked.
987 When `-H' is used, the grep command line supplied by the user is passed
988 unchanged to the system to execute, which allows more complicated
989 command lines to be used than was possible before.
990
991 ---
992 ** The face-customization widget has been reworked to be less confusing.
993 In particular, when you enable a face attribute using the corresponding
994 check-box, there's no longer a redundant `*' option in value selection
995 for that attribute; the values you can choose are only those which make
996 sense for the attribute. When an attribute is de-selected by unchecking
997 its check-box, then the (now ignored, but still present temporarily in
998 case you re-select the attribute) value is hidden.
999
1000 +++
1001 ** When you set or reset a variable's value in a Customize buffer,
1002 the previous value becomes the "backup value" of the variable.
1003 You can go back to that backup value by selecting "Use Backup Value"
1004 under the "[State]" button.
1005
1006 ** The new customization type `float' specifies numbers with floating
1007 point (no integers are allowed).
1008
1009 +++
1010 ** In GUD mode, when talking to GDB, C-x C-a C-j "jumps" the program
1011 counter to the specified source line (the one where point is).
1012
1013 ---
1014 ** GUD mode improvements for jdb:
1015
1016 *** Search for source files using jdb classpath and class
1017 information. Fast startup since there is no need to scan all
1018 source files up front. There is also no need to create and maintain
1019 lists of source directories to scan. Look at `gud-jdb-use-classpath'
1020 and `gud-jdb-classpath' customization variables documentation.
1021
1022 *** Supports the standard breakpoint (gud-break, gud-clear)
1023 set/clear operations from java source files under the classpath, stack
1024 traversal (gud-up, gud-down), and run until current stack finish
1025 (gud-finish).
1026
1027 *** Supports new jdb (Java 1.2 and later) in addition to oldjdb
1028 (Java 1.1 jdb).
1029
1030 *** The previous method of searching for source files has been
1031 preserved in case someone still wants/needs to use it.
1032 Set gud-jdb-use-classpath to nil.
1033
1034 Added Customization Variables
1035
1036 *** gud-jdb-command-name. What command line to use to invoke jdb.
1037
1038 *** gud-jdb-use-classpath. Allows selection of java source file searching
1039 method: set to t for new method, nil to scan gud-jdb-directories for
1040 java sources (previous method).
1041
1042 *** gud-jdb-directories. List of directories to scan and search for java
1043 classes using the original gud-jdb method (if gud-jdb-use-classpath
1044 is nil).
1045
1046 Minor Improvements
1047
1048 *** Do not allow debugger output history variable to grow without bounds.
1049
1050 +++
1051 ** hide-ifdef-mode now uses overlays rather than selective-display
1052 to hide its text. This should be mostly transparent but slightly
1053 changes the behavior of motion commands like C-e and C-p.
1054
1055 +++
1056 ** Unquoted `$' in file names do not signal an error any more when
1057 the corresponding environment variable does not exist.
1058 Instead, the `$ENVVAR' text is left as is, so that `$$' quoting
1059 is only rarely needed.
1060
1061 ---
1062 ** JIT-lock changes
1063 *** jit-lock can now be delayed with `jit-lock-defer-time'.
1064
1065 If this variable is non-nil, its value should be the amount of Emacs
1066 idle time in seconds to wait before starting fontification. For
1067 example, if you set `jit-lock-defer-time' to 0.25, fontification will
1068 only happen after 0.25s of idle time.
1069
1070 *** contextual refontification is now separate from stealth fontification.
1071
1072 jit-lock-defer-contextually is renamed jit-lock-contextually and
1073 jit-lock-context-time determines the delay after which contextual
1074 refontification takes place.
1075
1076 +++
1077 ** Marking commands extend the region when invoked multiple times. If
1078 you hit M-C-SPC (mark-sexp), M-@ (mark-word), M-h (mark-paragraph), or
1079 C-M-h (mark-defun) repeatedly, the marked region will now be extended
1080 each time, so you can mark the next two sexps with M-C-SPC M-C-SPC,
1081 for example. This feature also works for mark-end-of-sentence, if you
1082 bind that to a key.
1083
1084 +++
1085 ** Some commands do something special in Transient Mark mode when the
1086 mark is active--for instance, they limit their operation to the
1087 region. Even if you don't normally use Transient Mark mode, you might
1088 want to get this behavior from a particular command. There are two
1089 ways you can enable Transient Mark mode and activate the mark, for one
1090 command only.
1091
1092 One method is to type C-SPC C-SPC; this enables Transient Mark mode
1093 and sets the mark at point. The other method is to type C-u C-x C-x.
1094 This enables Transient Mark mode temporarily but does not alter the
1095 mark or the region.
1096
1097 After these commands, Transient Mark mode remains enabled until you
1098 deactivate the mark. That typically happens when you type a command
1099 that alters the buffer, but you can also deactivate the mark by typing
1100 C-g.
1101
1102 +++
1103 ** A prefix argument is no longer required to repeat a jump to a
1104 previous mark, i.e. C-u C-SPC C-SPC C-SPC ... will cycle through the
1105 mark ring. Use C-u C-u C-SPC to set the mark immediately after a jump.
1106
1107 +++
1108 ** In the *Occur* buffer, `o' switches to it in another window, and
1109 C-o displays the current line's occurrence in another window without
1110 switching to it.
1111
1112 +++
1113 ** When you specify a frame size with --geometry, the size applies to
1114 all frames you create. A position specified with --geometry only
1115 affects the initial frame.
1116
1117 +++
1118 ** M-h (mark-paragraph) now accepts a prefix arg.
1119 With positive arg, M-h marks the current and the following paragraphs;
1120 if the arg is negative, it marks the current and the preceding
1121 paragraphs.
1122
1123 +++
1124 ** The variables dired-free-space-program and dired-free-space-args
1125 have been renamed to directory-free-space-program and
1126 directory-free-space-args, and they now apply whenever Emacs puts a
1127 directory listing into a buffer.
1128
1129 ---
1130 ** mouse-wheels can now scroll a specific fraction of the window
1131 (rather than a fixed number of lines) and the scrolling is `progressive'.
1132
1133 ** Unexpected yanking of text due to accidental clicking on the mouse
1134 wheel button (typically mouse-2) during wheel scrolling is now avoided.
1135 This behaviour can be customized via the mouse-wheel-click-event and
1136 mouse-wheel-inhibit-click-time variables.
1137
1138 +++
1139 ** The keyboard-coding-system is now automatically set based on your
1140 current locale settings if you are not using a window system. This
1141 may mean that the META key doesn't work but generates non-ASCII
1142 characters instead, depending on how the terminal (or terminal
1143 emulator) works. Use `set-keyboard-coding-system' (or customize
1144 keyboard-coding-system) if you prefer META to work (the old default)
1145 or if the locale doesn't describe the character set actually generated
1146 by the keyboard. See Info node `Single-Byte Character Support'.
1147
1148 +++
1149 ** Emacs now reads the standard abbrevs file ~/.abbrev_defs
1150 automatically at startup, if it exists. When Emacs offers to save
1151 modified buffers, it saves the abbrevs too if they have changed. It
1152 can do this either silently or asking for confirmation first,
1153 according to the value of `save-abbrevs'.
1154
1155 +++
1156 ** Display of hollow cursors now obeys the buffer-local value (if any)
1157 of `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' in the buffer that the cursor
1158 appears in.
1159
1160 ** The variable `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' can now be set to any
1161 of the recognized cursor types.
1162
1163 ---
1164 ** The variable `auto-save-file-name-transforms' now has a third element that
1165 controls whether or not the function `make-auto-save-file-name' will
1166 attempt to construct a unique auto-save name (e.g. for remote files).
1167
1168 +++
1169 ** Diary sexp entries can have custom marking in the calendar.
1170 Diary sexp functions which only apply to certain days (such as
1171 `diary-block' or `diary-cyclic') now take an optional parameter MARK,
1172 which is the name of a face or a single-character string indicating
1173 how to highlight the day in the calendar display. Specifying a
1174 single-character string as @var{mark} places the character next to the
1175 day in the calendar. Specifying a face highlights the day with that
1176 face. This lets you have different colors or markings for vacations,
1177 appointments, paydays or anything else using a sexp.
1178
1179 +++
1180 ** The new function `calendar-goto-day-of-year' (g D) prompts for a
1181 year and day number, and moves to that date. Negative day numbers
1182 count backward from the end of the year.
1183
1184 ** The function `simple-diary-display' now by default sets a header line.
1185 This can be controlled through the variables `diary-header-line-flag'
1186 and `diary-header-line-format'.
1187
1188 +++
1189 ** The procedure for activating appointment reminders has changed: use
1190 the new function `appt-activate'. The new variable
1191 `appt-display-format' controls how reminders are displayed, replacing
1192 appt-issue-message, appt-visible, and appt-msg-window.
1193
1194 ** The new functions `diary-from-outlook', `diary-from-outlook-gnus',
1195 and `diary-from-outlook-rmail' can be used to import diary entries
1196 from Outlook-format appointments in mail messages. The variable
1197 `diary-outlook-formats' can be customized to recognize additional
1198 formats.
1199
1200
1201 ** VC Changes
1202
1203 *** The key C-x C-q no longer checks files in or out, it only changes
1204 the read-only state of the buffer (toggle-read-only). We made this
1205 change because we held a poll and found that many users were unhappy
1206 with the previous behavior. If you do prefer this behavior, you
1207 can bind `vc-toggle-read-only' to C-x C-q in your .emacs:
1208
1209 (global-set-key "\C-x\C-q" 'vc-toggle-read-only)
1210
1211 The function `vc-toggle-read-only' will continue to exist.
1212
1213 +++
1214 *** There is a new user option `vc-cvs-global-switches' that allows
1215 you to specify switches that are passed to any CVS command invoked
1216 by VC. These switches are used as "global options" for CVS, which
1217 means they are inserted before the command name. For example, this
1218 allows you to specify a compression level using the "-z#" option for
1219 CVS.
1220
1221 *** New backends for Subversion and Meta-CVS.
1222
1223 ** EDiff changes.
1224
1225 +++
1226 *** When comparing directories.
1227 Typing D brings up a buffer that lists the differences between the contents of
1228 directories. Now it is possible to use this buffer to copy the missing files
1229 from one directory to another.
1230
1231 +++
1232 *** When comparing files or buffers.
1233 Typing the = key now offers to perform the word-by-word comparison of the
1234 currently highlighted regions in an inferior Ediff session. If you answer 'n'
1235 then it reverts to the old behavior and asks the user to select regions for
1236 comparison.
1237
1238 *** The new command `ediff-backup' compares a file with its most recent
1239 backup using `ediff'. If you specify the name of a backup file,
1240 `ediff-backup' compares it with the file of which it is a backup.
1241
1242 +++
1243 ** Etags changes.
1244
1245 *** New regular expressions features
1246
1247 **** New syntax for regular expressions, multi-line regular expressions.
1248 The syntax --ignore-case-regexp=/regex/ is now undocumented and retained
1249 only for backward compatibility. The new equivalent syntax is
1250 --regex=/regex/i. More generally, it is --regex=/TAGREGEX/TAGNAME/MODS,
1251 where `/TAGNAME' is optional, as usual, and MODS is a string of 0 or
1252 more characters among `i' (ignore case), `m' (multi-line) and `s'
1253 (single-line). The `m' and `s' modifiers behave as in Perl regular
1254 expressions: `m' allows regexps to match more than one line, while `s'
1255 (which implies `m') means that `.' matches newlines. The ability to
1256 span newlines allows writing of much more powerful regular expressions
1257 and rapid prototyping for tagging new languages.
1258
1259 **** Regular expressions can use char escape sequences as in Gcc.
1260 The escaped character sequence \a, \b, \d, \e, \f, \n, \r, \t, \v,
1261 respectively, stand for the ASCII characters BEL, BS, DEL, ESC, FF, NL,
1262 CR, TAB, VT,
1263
1264 **** Regular expressions can be bound to a given language.
1265 The syntax --regex={LANGUAGE}REGEX means that REGEX is used to make tags
1266 only for files of language LANGUAGE, and ignored otherwise. This is
1267 particularly useful when storing regexps in a file.
1268
1269 **** Regular expressions can be read from a file.
1270 The --regex=@regexfile option means read the regexps from a file, one
1271 per line. Lines beginning with space or tab are ignored.
1272
1273 *** New language parsing features
1274
1275 **** The `::' qualifier triggers C++ parsing in C file.
1276 Previously, only the `template' and `class' keywords had this effect.
1277
1278 **** In Perl, packages are tags.
1279 Subroutine tags are named from their package. You can jump to sub tags
1280 as you did before, by the sub name, or additionally by looking for
1281 package::sub.
1282
1283 **** New language PHP.
1284 Tags are functions, classes and defines.
1285 If the --members option is specified to etags, tags are vars also.
1286
1287 **** New language HTML.
1288 Title and h1, h2, h3 are tagged. Also, tags are generated when name= is
1289 used inside an anchor and whenever id= is used.
1290
1291 **** New default keywords for TeX.
1292 The new keywords are def, newcommand, renewcommand, newenvironment and
1293 renewenvironment.
1294
1295 **** In Makefiles, constants are tagged.
1296 If you want the old behavior instead, thus avoiding to increase the
1297 size of the tags file, use the --no-globals option.
1298
1299 **** In Prolog, etags creates tags for rules in addition to predicates.
1300
1301 *** Honour #line directives.
1302 When Etags parses an input file that contains C preprocessor's #line
1303 directives, it creates tags using the file name and line number
1304 specified in those directives. This is useful when dealing with code
1305 created from Cweb source files. When Etags tags the generated file, it
1306 writes tags pointing to the source file.
1307
1308 *** New option --parse-stdin=FILE.
1309 This option is mostly useful when calling etags from programs. It can
1310 be used (only once) in place of a file name on the command line. Etags
1311 will read from standard input and mark the produced tags as belonging to
1312 the file FILE.
1313
1314 +++
1315 ** CC Mode changes.
1316
1317 *** Font lock support.
1318 CC Mode now provides font lock support for all its languages. This
1319 supersedes the font lock patterns that have been in the core font lock
1320 package for C, C++, Java and Objective-C. Like indentation, font
1321 locking is done in a uniform way across all languages (except the new
1322 AWK mode - see below). That means that the new font locking will be
1323 different from the old patterns in various details for most languages.
1324
1325 The main goal of the font locking in CC Mode is accuracy, to provide a
1326 dependable aid in recognizing the various constructs. Some, like
1327 strings and comments, are easy to recognize while others like
1328 declarations and types can be very tricky. CC Mode can go to great
1329 lengths to recognize declarations and casts correctly, especially when
1330 the types aren't recognized by standard patterns. This is a fairly
1331 demanding analysis which can be slow on older hardware, and it can
1332 therefore be disabled by choosing a lower decoration level with the
1333 variable font-lock-maximum-decoration.
1334
1335 Note that the most demanding font lock level has been tuned with lazy
1336 fontification in mind, i.e. there should be a support mode that waits
1337 with the fontification until the text is actually shown
1338 (e.g. Just-in-time Lock mode, which is the default, or Lazy Lock
1339 mode). Fontifying a file with several thousand lines in one go can
1340 take the better part of a minute.
1341
1342 **** The (c|c++|objc|java|idl|pike)-font-lock-extra-types variables
1343 are now used by CC Mode to recognize identifiers that are certain to
1344 be types. (They are also used in cases that aren't related to font
1345 locking.) At the maximum decoration level, types are often recognized
1346 properly anyway, so these variables should be fairly restrictive and
1347 not contain patterns for uncertain types.
1348
1349 **** Support for documentation comments.
1350 There is a "plugin" system to fontify documentation comments like
1351 Javadoc and the markup within them. It's independent of the host
1352 language, so it's possible to e.g. turn on Javadoc font locking in C
1353 buffers. See the variable c-doc-comment-style for details.
1354
1355 Currently two kinds of doc comment styles are recognized: Suns Javadoc
1356 and Autodoc which is used in Pike. This is by no means a complete
1357 list of the most common tools; if your doc comment extractor of choice
1358 is missing then please drop a note to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
1359
1360 **** Better handling of C++ templates.
1361 As a side effect of the more accurate font locking, C++ templates are
1362 now handled much better. The angle brackets that delimit them are
1363 given parenthesis syntax so that they can be navigated like other
1364 parens.
1365
1366 This also improves indentation of templates, although there still is
1367 work to be done in that area. E.g. it's required that multiline
1368 template clauses are written in full and then refontified to be
1369 recognized, and the indentation of nested templates is a bit odd and
1370 not as configurable as it ought to be.
1371
1372 **** Improved handling of Objective-C and CORBA IDL.
1373 Especially the support for Objective-C and IDL has gotten an overhaul.
1374 The special "@" declarations in Objective-C are handled correctly.
1375 All the keywords used in CORBA IDL, PSDL, and CIDL are recognized and
1376 handled correctly, also wrt indentation.
1377
1378 *** Support for the AWK language.
1379 Support for the AWK language has been introduced. The implementation is
1380 based around GNU AWK version 3.1, but it should work pretty well with
1381 any AWK. As yet, not all features of CC Mode have been adapted for AWK.
1382 Here is a summary:
1383
1384 **** Indentation Engine
1385 The CC Mode indentation engine fully supports AWK mode.
1386
1387 AWK mode handles code formatted in the conventional AWK fashion: `{'s
1388 which start actions, user-defined functions, or compound statements are
1389 placed on the same line as the associated construct; the matching `}'s
1390 are normally placed under the start of the respective pattern, function
1391 definition, or structured statement.
1392
1393 The predefined indentation functions haven't yet been adapted for AWK
1394 mode, though some of them may work serendipitously. There shouldn't be
1395 any problems writing custom indentation functions for AWK mode.
1396
1397 The command C-c C-q (c-indent-defun) hasn't yet been adapted for AWK,
1398 though in practice it works properly nearly all the time. Should it
1399 fail, explicitly set the region around the function (using C-u C-SPC:
1400 C-M-h probably won't work either) then do C-M-\ (indent-region).
1401
1402 **** Font Locking
1403 There is a single level of font locking in AWK mode, rather than the
1404 three distinct levels the other modes have. There are several
1405 idiosyncrasies in AWK mode's font-locking due to the peculiarities of
1406 the AWK language itself.
1407
1408 **** Comment Commands
1409 M-; (indent-for-comment) works fine. None of the other CC Mode
1410 comment formatting commands have yet been adapted for AWK mode.
1411
1412 **** Movement Commands
1413 Most of the movement commands work in AWK mode. The most important
1414 exceptions are M-a (c-beginning-of-statement) and M-e
1415 (c-end-of-statement) which haven't yet been adapted.
1416
1417 The notion of "defun" has been augmented to include AWK pattern-action
1418 pairs. C-M-a (c-awk-beginning-of-defun) and C-M-e (c-awk-end-of-defun)
1419 recognise these pattern-action pairs, as well as user defined
1420 functions.
1421
1422 **** Auto-newline Insertion and Clean-ups
1423 Auto-newline insertion hasn't yet been adapted for AWK. Some of
1424 the clean-ups can actually convert good AWK code into syntactically
1425 invalid code. These features are best disabled in AWK buffers.
1426
1427 *** New syntactic symbols in IDL mode.
1428 The top level constructs "module" and "composition" (from CIDL) are
1429 now handled like "namespace" in C++: They are given syntactic symbols
1430 module-open, module-close, inmodule, composition-open,
1431 composition-close, and incomposition.
1432
1433 *** New functions to do hungry delete without enabling hungry delete mode.
1434 The functions c-hungry-backspace and c-hungry-delete-forward can be
1435 bound to keys to get this feature without toggling a mode.
1436 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
1437
1438 *** Better control over require-final-newline.
1439 The variable that controls how to handle a final newline when the
1440 buffer is saved, require-final-newline, is now customizable on a
1441 per-mode basis through c-require-final-newline. The default is to set
1442 it to t only in languages that mandate a final newline in source files
1443 (C, C++ and Objective-C).
1444
1445 *** Format change for syntactic context elements.
1446 The elements in the syntactic context returned by c-guess-basic-syntax
1447 and stored in c-syntactic-context has been changed somewhat to allow
1448 attaching more information. They are now lists instead of single cons
1449 cells. E.g. a line that previously had the syntactic analysis
1450
1451 ((inclass . 11) (topmost-intro . 13))
1452
1453 is now analysed as
1454
1455 ((inclass 11) (topmost-intro 13))
1456
1457 In some cases there are more than one position given for a syntactic
1458 symbol.
1459
1460 This change might affect code that call c-guess-basic-syntax directly,
1461 and custom lineup functions if they use c-syntactic-context. However,
1462 the argument given to lineup functions is still a single cons cell
1463 with nil or an integer in the cdr.
1464
1465 *** API changes for derived modes.
1466 There have been extensive changes "under the hood" which can affect
1467 derived mode writers. Some of these changes are likely to cause
1468 incompatibilities with existing derived modes, but on the other hand
1469 care has now been taken to make it possible to extend and modify CC
1470 Mode with less risk of such problems in the future.
1471
1472 **** New language variable system.
1473 See the comment blurb near the top of cc-langs.el.
1474
1475 **** New initialization functions.
1476 The initialization procedure has been split up into more functions to
1477 give better control: c-basic-common-init, c-font-lock-init, and
1478 c-init-language-vars.
1479
1480 *** Changes in analysis of nested syntactic constructs.
1481 The syntactic analysis engine has better handling of cases where
1482 several syntactic constructs appear nested on the same line. They are
1483 now handled as if each construct started on a line of its own.
1484
1485 This means that CC Mode now indents some cases differently, and
1486 although it's more consistent there might be cases where the old way
1487 gave results that's more to one's liking. So if you find a situation
1488 where you think that the indentation has become worse, please report
1489 it to bug-cc-mode@gnu.org.
1490
1491 **** New syntactic symbol substatement-label.
1492 This symbol is used when a label is inserted between a statement and
1493 its substatement. E.g:
1494
1495 if (x)
1496 x_is_true:
1497 do_stuff();
1498
1499 *** Better handling of multiline macros.
1500
1501 **** Syntactic indentation inside macros.
1502 The contents of multiline #define's are now analyzed and indented
1503 syntactically just like other code. This can be disabled by the new
1504 variable c-syntactic-indentation-in-macros. A new syntactic symbol
1505 cpp-define-intro has been added to control the initial indentation
1506 inside #define's.
1507
1508 **** New lineup function c-lineup-cpp-define.
1509 Now used by default to line up macro continuation lines. The behavior
1510 of this function closely mimics the indentation one gets if the macro
1511 is indented while the line continuation backslashes are temporarily
1512 removed. If syntactic indentation in macros is turned off, it works
1513 much line c-lineup-dont-change, which was used earlier, but handles
1514 empty lines within the macro better.
1515
1516 **** Automatically inserted newlines continues the macro if used within one.
1517 This applies to the newlines inserted by the auto-newline mode, and to
1518 c-context-line-break and c-context-open-line.
1519
1520 **** Better alignment of line continuation backslashes.
1521 c-backslash-region tries to adapt to surrounding backslashes. New
1522 variable c-backslash-max-column which put a limit on how far out
1523 backslashes can be moved.
1524
1525 **** Automatic alignment of line continuation backslashes.
1526 This is controlled by the new variable c-auto-align-backslashes. It
1527 affects c-context-line-break, c-context-open-line and newlines
1528 inserted in auto-newline mode.
1529
1530 **** Line indentation works better inside macros.
1531 Regardless whether syntactic indentation and syntactic indentation
1532 inside macros are enabled or not, line indentation now ignores the
1533 line continuation backslashes. This is most noticeable when syntactic
1534 indentation is turned off and there are empty lines (save for the
1535 backslash) in the macro.
1536
1537 *** indent-for-comment is more customizable.
1538 The behavior of M-; (indent-for-comment) is now configurable through
1539 the variable c-indent-comment-alist. The indentation behavior based
1540 on the preceding code on the line, e.g. to get two spaces after #else
1541 and #endif but indentation to comment-column in most other cases
1542 (something which was hardcoded earlier).
1543
1544 *** New function c-context-open-line.
1545 It's the open-line equivalent of c-context-line-break.
1546
1547 *** New lineup functions
1548
1549 **** c-lineup-string-cont
1550 This lineup function lines up a continued string under the one it
1551 continues. E.g:
1552
1553 result = prefix + "A message "
1554 "string."; <- c-lineup-string-cont
1555
1556 **** c-lineup-cascaded-calls
1557 Lines up series of calls separated by "->" or ".".
1558
1559 **** c-lineup-knr-region-comment
1560 Gives (what most people think is) better indentation of comments in
1561 the "K&R region" between the function header and its body.
1562
1563 **** c-lineup-gcc-asm-reg
1564 Provides better indentation inside asm blocks. Contributed by Kevin
1565 Ryde.
1566
1567 **** c-lineup-argcont
1568 Lines up continued function arguments after the preceding comma.
1569 Contributed by Kevin Ryde.
1570
1571 *** Better caching of the syntactic context.
1572 CC Mode caches the positions of the opening parentheses (of any kind)
1573 of the lists surrounding the point. Those positions are used in many
1574 places as anchor points for various searches. The cache is now
1575 improved so that it can be reused to a large extent when the point is
1576 moved. The less it moves, the less needs to be recalculated.
1577
1578 The effect is that CC Mode should be fast most of the time even when
1579 opening parens are hung (i.e. aren't in column zero). It's typically
1580 only the first time after the point is moved far down in a complex
1581 file that it'll take noticeable time to find out the syntactic
1582 context.
1583
1584 *** Statements are recognized in a more robust way.
1585 Statements are recognized most of the time even when they occur in an
1586 "invalid" context, e.g. in a function argument. In practice that can
1587 happen when macros are involved.
1588
1589 *** Improved the way c-indent-exp chooses the block to indent.
1590 It now indents the block for the closest sexp following the point
1591 whose closing paren ends on a different line. This means that the
1592 point doesn't have to be immediately before the block to indent.
1593 Also, only the block and the closing line is indented; the current
1594 line is left untouched.
1595
1596 *** Added toggle for syntactic indentation.
1597 The function c-toggle-syntactic-indentation can be used to toggle
1598 syntactic indentation.
1599
1600 ** The command line option --no-windows has been changed to
1601 --no-window-system. The old one still works, but is deprecated.
1602
1603 +++
1604 ** The command `list-text-properties-at' has been deleted because
1605 C-u C-x = gives the same information and more.
1606
1607 +++
1608 ** `buffer-menu' and `list-buffers' now list buffers whose names begin
1609 with a space, when those buffers are visiting files. Normally buffers
1610 whose names begin with space are omitted.
1611
1612 +++
1613 ** You can now customize fill-nobreak-predicate to control where
1614 filling can break lines. We provide two sample predicates,
1615 fill-single-word-nobreak-p and fill-french-nobreak-p.
1616
1617 +++
1618 ** New user option `add-log-always-start-new-record'.
1619 When this option is enabled, M-x add-change-log-entry will always
1620 start a new record regardless of when the last record is.
1621
1622 +++
1623 ** SGML mode has indentation and supports XML syntax.
1624 The new variable `sgml-xml-mode' tells SGML mode to use XML syntax.
1625 When this option is enabled, SGML tags are inserted in XML style,
1626 i.e., there is always a closing tag.
1627 By default, its setting is inferred on a buffer-by-buffer basis
1628 from the file name or buffer contents.
1629
1630 +++
1631 ** `xml-mode' is now an alias for `sgml-mode', which has XML support.
1632
1633 +++
1634 ** New user option `isearch-resume-enabled'.
1635 This option can be disabled, to avoid the normal behavior of isearch
1636 which puts calls to `isearch-resume' in the command history.
1637
1638 ---
1639 ** Lisp mode now uses font-lock-doc-face for the docstrings.
1640
1641 ---
1642 ** Perl mode has a new variable `perl-indent-continued-arguments'.
1643
1644 +++
1645 ** Fortran mode has a new variable `fortran-directive-re'.
1646 Adapt this to match the format of any compiler directives you use.
1647 Lines that match are never indented, and are given distinctive font-locking.
1648
1649 ---
1650 ** F90 mode has new navigation commands `f90-end-of-block',
1651 `f90-beginning-of-block', `f90-next-block', `f90-previous-block'.
1652
1653 ** F90 mode now has support for hs-minor-mode (hideshow).
1654 It cannot deal with every code format, but ought to handle a sizeable
1655 majority.
1656
1657 ---
1658 ** Prolog mode has a new variable `prolog-font-lock-keywords'
1659 to support use of font-lock.
1660
1661 +++
1662 ** `special-display-buffer-names' and `special-display-regexps' now
1663 understand two new boolean pseudo-frame-parameters `same-frame' and
1664 `same-window'.
1665
1666 +++
1667 ** M-x setenv now expands environment variables of the form `$foo' and
1668 `${foo}' in the specified new value of the environment variable. To
1669 include a `$' in the value, use `$$'.
1670
1671 +++
1672 ** File-name completion can now ignore directories.
1673 If an element of the list in `completion-ignored-extensions' ends in a
1674 slash `/', it indicates a subdirectory that should be ignored when
1675 completing file names. Elements of `completion-ignored-extensions'
1676 which do not end in a slash are never considered when a completion
1677 candidate is a directory.
1678
1679 +++
1680 ** The completion commands TAB, SPC and ? in the minibuffer apply only
1681 to the text before point. If there is text in the buffer after point,
1682 it remains unchanged.
1683
1684 ** Enhanced visual feedback in *Completions* buffer.
1685
1686 Completions lists use faces to highlight what all completions
1687 have in common and where they begin to differ.
1688
1689 The common prefix shared by all possible completions uses the face
1690 `completions-common-part', while the first character that isn't the
1691 same uses the face `completions-first-difference'. By default,
1692 `completions-common-part' inherits from `default', and
1693 `completions-first-difference' inherits from `bold'. The idea of
1694 `completions-common-part' is that you can use it to make the common
1695 parts less visible than normal, so that the rest of the differing
1696 parts is, by contrast, slightly highlighted.
1697
1698 +++
1699 ** New user option `inhibit-startup-buffer-menu'.
1700 When loading many files, for instance with `emacs *', Emacs normally
1701 displays a buffer menu. This option turns the buffer menu off.
1702
1703 ** Compilation mode enhancements:
1704
1705 *** New user option `compilation-environment'.
1706 This option allows you to specify environment variables for inferior
1707 compilation processes without affecting the environment that all
1708 subprocesses inherit.
1709
1710 *** `next-error' now temporarily highlights the corresponding source line.
1711
1712 ** Grep has been decoupled from compilation mode setup.
1713
1714 *** Grep commands now have their own submenu and customization group.
1715
1716 *** The new variables `grep-window-height', `grep-auto-highlight', and
1717 `grep-scroll-output' can be used to override the corresponding
1718 compilation mode settings for grep commands.
1719
1720 *** Source line is temporarily highlighted when going to next match.
1721
1722 *** New key bindings in grep output window:
1723 SPC and DEL scrolls window up and down. C-n and C-p moves to next and
1724 previous match in the grep window. RET jumps to the source line of
1725 the current match. `n' and `p' shows next and previous match in
1726 other window, but does not switch buffer. `{' and `}' jumps to the
1727 previous or next file in the grep output. TAB also jumps to the next
1728 file.
1729
1730 ---
1731 ** Rmail now displays 5-digit message ids in its summary buffer.
1732
1733 ---
1734 ** On MS Windows, the "system caret" now follows the cursor.
1735 This enables Emacs to work better with programs that need to track
1736 the cursor, for example screen magnifiers and text to speech programs.
1737
1738 ---
1739 ** Tooltips now work on MS Windows.
1740 See the Emacs 21.1 NEWS entry for tooltips for details.
1741
1742 ---
1743 ** Images are now supported on MS Windows.
1744 PBM and XBM images are supported out of the box. Other image formats
1745 depend on external libraries. All of these libraries have been ported
1746 to Windows, and can be found in both source and binary form at
1747 http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/. Note that libpng also depends on
1748 zlib, and tiff depends on the version of jpeg that it was compiled
1749 against.
1750
1751 ---
1752 ** Sound is now supported on MS Windows.
1753 WAV format is supported on all versions of Windows, other formats such
1754 as AU, AIFF and MP3 may be supported in the more recent versions of
1755 Windows, or when other software provides hooks into the system level
1756 sound support for those formats.
1757
1758 ---
1759 ** Different shaped mouse pointers are supported on MS Windows.
1760 The mouse pointer changes shape depending on what is under the pointer.
1761
1762 ---
1763 ** Pointing devices with more than 3 buttons are now supported on MS Windows.
1764 The new variable `w32-pass-extra-mouse-buttons-to-system' controls
1765 whether Emacs should handle the extra buttons itself (the default), or
1766 pass them to Windows to be handled with system-wide functions.
1767
1768 ---
1769 ** Emacs takes note of colors defined in Control Panel on MS-Windows.
1770 The Control Panel defines some default colors for applications in
1771 much the same way as wildcard X Resources do on X. Emacs now
1772 adds these colors to the colormap prefixed by System (eg SystemMenu
1773 for the default Menu background, SystemMenuText for the foreground),
1774 and uses some of them to initialize some of the default faces.
1775 `list-colors-display' will show the list of System color names if you
1776 wish to use them in other faces.
1777
1778 +++
1779 ** Under X11, it is possible to swap Alt and Meta (and Super and Hyper).
1780 The new variables `x-alt-keysym', `x-hyper-keysym', `x-meta-keysym',
1781 and `x-super-keysym' can be used to choose which keysyms Emacs should
1782 use for the modifiers. For example, the following two lines swap
1783 Meta and Alt:
1784 (setq x-alt-keysym 'meta)
1785 (setq x-meta-keysym 'alt)
1786
1787 +++
1788 ** vc-annotate-mode enhancements
1789
1790 In vc-annotate mode, you can now use the following key bindings for
1791 enhanced functionality to browse the annotations of past revisions, or
1792 to view diffs or log entries directly from vc-annotate-mode:
1793
1794 P: annotates the previous revision
1795 N: annotates the next revision
1796 J: annotates the revision at line
1797 A: annotates the revision previous to line
1798 D: shows the diff of the revision at line with its previous revision
1799 L: shows the log of the revision at line
1800 W: annotates the workfile (most up to date) version
1801 \f
1802 * New modes and packages in Emacs 21.4
1803
1804 ** The library tree-widget.el provides a new widget to display a set
1805 of hierarchical data as an outline. For example, the tree-widget is
1806 well suited to display a hierarchy of directories and files.
1807
1808 ** The wdired.el package allows you to use normal editing commands on dired
1809 buffers to change filenames, permissions, etc...
1810
1811 ** The new python.el package is used to edit Python and Jython programs.
1812
1813 ** The URL package (which had been part of W3) is now part of Emacs.
1814
1815 +++
1816 ** The new global minor mode `size-indication-mode' (off by default)
1817 shows the size of accessible part of the buffer on the mode line.
1818
1819 ** GDB-Script-mode is used for files like .gdbinit.
1820
1821 ---
1822 ** Ido mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1823
1824 The ido (interactively do) package is an extension of the iswitchb
1825 package to do interactive opening of files and directories in addition
1826 to interactive buffer switching. Ido is a superset of iswitchb (with
1827 a few exceptions), so don't enable both packages.
1828
1829 ---
1830 ** CUA mode is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1831
1832 The new cua package provides CUA-like keybindings using C-x for
1833 cut (kill), C-c for copy, C-v for paste (yank), and C-z for undo.
1834 With cua, the region can be set and extended using shifted movement
1835 keys (like pc-selection-mode) and typed text replaces the active
1836 region (like delete-selection-mode). Do not enable these modes with
1837 cua-mode. Customize the variable `cua-mode' to enable cua.
1838
1839 In addition, cua provides unified rectangle support with visible
1840 rectangle highlighting: Use S-return to start a rectangle, extend it
1841 using the movement commands (or mouse-3), and cut or copy it using C-x
1842 or C-c (using C-w and M-w also works).
1843
1844 Use M-o and M-c to `open' or `close' the rectangle, use M-b or M-f, to
1845 fill it with blanks or another character, use M-u or M-l to upcase or
1846 downcase the rectangle, use M-i to increment the numbers in the
1847 rectangle, use M-n to fill the rectangle with a numeric sequence (such
1848 as 10 20 30...), use M-r to replace a regexp in the rectangle, and use
1849 M-' or M-/ to restrict command on the rectangle to a subset of the
1850 rows. See the commentary in cua-base.el for more rectangle commands.
1851
1852 Cua also provides unified support for registers: Use a numeric
1853 prefix argument between 0 and 9, i.e. M-0 .. M-9, for C-x, C-c, and
1854 C-v to cut or copy into register 0-9, or paste from register 0-9.
1855
1856 The last text deleted (not killed) is automatically stored in
1857 register 0. This includes text deleted by typing text.
1858
1859 Finally, cua provides a global mark which is set using S-C-space.
1860 When the global mark is active, any text which is cut or copied is
1861 automatically inserted at the global mark position. See the
1862 commentary in cua-base.el for more global mark related commands.
1863
1864 The features of cua also works with the standard emacs bindings for
1865 kill, copy, yank, and undo. If you want to use cua mode, but don't
1866 want the C-x, C-c, C-v, and C-z bindings, you may customize the
1867 `cua-enable-cua-keys' variable.
1868
1869 Note: This version of cua mode is not backwards compatible with older
1870 versions of cua.el and cua-mode.el. To ensure proper operation, you
1871 must remove older versions of cua.el or cua-mode.el as well as the
1872 loading and customization of those packages from the .emacs file.
1873
1874 ** The new keypad setup package provides several common bindings for
1875 the numeric keypad which is available on most keyboards. The numeric
1876 keypad typically has the digits 0 to 9, a decimal point, keys marked
1877 +, -, /, and *, an Enter key, and a NumLock toggle key. The keypad
1878 package only controls the use of the digit and decimal keys.
1879
1880 By customizing the variables `keypad-setup', `keypad-shifted-setup',
1881 `keypad-numlock-setup', and `keypad-numlock-shifted-setup', or by
1882 using the function `keypad-setup', you can rebind all digit keys and
1883 the decimal key of the keypad in one step for each of the four
1884 possible combinations of the Shift key state (not pressed/pressed) and
1885 the NumLock toggle state (off/on).
1886
1887 The choices for the keypad keys in each of the above states are:
1888 `Plain numeric keypad' where the keys generates plain digits,
1889 `Numeric keypad with decimal key' where the character produced by the
1890 decimal key can be customized individually (for internationalization),
1891 `Numeric Prefix Arg' where the keypad keys produce numeric prefix args
1892 for emacs editing commands, `Cursor keys' and `Shifted Cursor keys'
1893 where the keys work like (shifted) arrow keys, home/end, etc., and
1894 `Unspecified/User-defined' where the keypad keys (kp-0, kp-1, etc.)
1895 are left unspecified and can be bound individually through the global
1896 or local keymaps.
1897
1898 ** The new kmacro package provides a simpler user interface to
1899 emacs' keyboard macro facilities.
1900
1901 Basically, it uses two function keys (default F3 and F4) like this:
1902 F3 starts a macro, F4 ends the macro, and pressing F4 again executes
1903 the last macro. While defining the macro, F3 inserts a counter value
1904 which automatically increments every time the macro is executed.
1905
1906 There is now a keyboard macro ring which stores the most recently
1907 defined macros.
1908
1909 The C-x C-k sequence is now a prefix for the kmacro keymap which
1910 defines bindings for moving through the keyboard macro ring,
1911 C-x C-k C-p and C-x C-k C-n, editing the last macro C-x C-k C-e,
1912 manipulating the macro counter and format via C-x C-k C-c,
1913 C-x C-k C-a, and C-x C-k C-f. See the commentary in kmacro.el
1914 for more commands.
1915
1916 The normal macro bindings C-x (, C-x ), and C-x e now interfaces to
1917 the keyboard macro ring.
1918
1919 The C-x e command now automatically terminates the current macro
1920 before calling it, if used while defining a macro.
1921
1922 In addition, when ending or calling a macro with C-x e, the macro can
1923 be repeated immediately by typing just the `e'. You can customize
1924 this behaviour via the variable kmacro-call-repeat-key and
1925 kmacro-call-repeat-with-arg.
1926
1927 Keyboard macros can now be debugged and edited interactively.
1928 C-x C-k SPC will step through the last keyboard macro one key sequence
1929 at a time, prompting for the actions to take.
1930
1931 ---
1932 ** The old Octave mode bindings C-c f and C-c i have been changed
1933 to C-c C-f and C-c C-i. The C-c C-i subcommands now have duplicate
1934 bindings on control characters--thus, C-c C-i C-b is the same as
1935 C-c C-i b, and so on.
1936
1937 ** The printing package is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1938
1939 If you enable the printing package by including (require 'printing) in
1940 the .emacs file, the normal Print item on the File menu is replaced
1941 with a Print sub-menu which allows you to preview output through
1942 ghostview, use ghostscript to print (if you don't have a PostScript
1943 printer) or send directly to printer a PostScript code generated by
1944 `ps-print' package. Use M-x pr-help for more information.
1945
1946 +++
1947 ** Calc is now part of the Emacs distribution.
1948
1949 Calc is an advanced desk calculator and mathematical tool written in
1950 Emacs Lisp. Its documentation is in a separate manual; within Emacs,
1951 type "C-h i m calc RET" to read that manual. A reference card is
1952 available in `etc/calccard.tex' and `etc/calccard.ps'.
1953
1954 +++
1955 ** Tramp is now part of the distribution.
1956
1957 This package is similar to Ange-FTP: it allows you to edit remote
1958 files. But whereas Ange-FTP uses FTP to access the remote host,
1959 Tramp uses a shell connection. The shell connection is always used
1960 for filename completion and directory listings and suchlike, but for
1961 the actual file transfer, you can choose between the so-called
1962 `inline' methods (which transfer the files through the shell
1963 connection using base64 or uu encoding) and the `out-of-band' methods
1964 (which invoke an external copying program such as `rcp' or `scp' or
1965 `rsync' to do the copying).
1966
1967 Shell connections can be acquired via `rsh', `ssh', `telnet' and also
1968 `su' and `sudo'.
1969
1970 ---
1971 ** The new global minor mode `file-name-shadow-mode' modifies the way
1972 filenames being entered by the user in the minibuffer are displayed, so
1973 that it's clear when part of the entered filename will be ignored due to
1974 emacs' filename parsing rules. The ignored portion can be made dim,
1975 invisible, or otherwise less visually noticable. The display method may
1976 be displayed by customizing the variable `file-name-shadow-properties'.
1977
1978 ---
1979 ** The ruler-mode.el library provides a minor mode for displaying an
1980 "active" ruler in the header line. You can use the mouse to visually
1981 change the `fill-column', `window-margins' and `tab-stop-list'
1982 settings.
1983
1984 ---
1985 ** The minor mode Reveal mode makes text visible on the fly as you
1986 move your cursor into hidden regions of the buffer.
1987 It should work with any package that uses overlays to hide parts
1988 of a buffer, such as outline-minor-mode, hs-minor-mode, hide-ifdef-mode, ...
1989
1990 There is also Global Reveal mode which affects all buffers.
1991
1992 ---
1993 ** The new package ibuffer provides a powerful, completely
1994 customizable replacement for buff-menu.el.
1995
1996 ** The new package table.el implements editable, WYSIWYG, embedded
1997 `text tables' in Emacs buffers. It simulates the effect of putting
1998 these tables in a special major mode. The package emulates WYSIWYG
1999 table editing available in modern word processors. The package also
2000 can generate a table source in typesetting and markup languages such
2001 as latex and html from the visually laid out text table.
2002
2003 +++
2004 ** SES mode (ses-mode) is a new major mode for creating and editing
2005 spreadsheet files. Besides the usual Emacs features (intuitive command
2006 letters, undo, cell formulas in Lisp, plaintext files, etc.) it also offers
2007 viral immunity and import/export of tab-separated values.
2008
2009 ---
2010 ** Support for `magic cookie' standout modes has been removed.
2011 Emacs will still work on terminals that require magic cookies in order
2012 to use standout mode, however they will not be able to display
2013 mode-lines in inverse-video.
2014
2015 ---
2016 ** cplus-md.el has been removed to avoid problems with Custom.
2017
2018 ** New package benchmark.el contains simple support for convenient
2019 timing measurements of code (including the garbage collection component).
2020
2021 ** The default values of paragraph-start and indent-line-function have
2022 been changed to reflect those used in Text mode rather than those used
2023 in Indented-Text mode.
2024
2025 ** If you set `query-replace-skip-read-only' non-nil,
2026 `query-replace' and related functions simply ignore
2027 a match if part of it has a read-only property.
2028
2029 ** The new Lisp library fringe.el controls the apperance of fringes.
2030
2031 ** `cfengine-mode' is a major mode for editing GNU Cfengine
2032 configuration files.
2033 \f
2034 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.4
2035
2036 ** New function quail-find-key returns a list of keys to type in the
2037 current input method to input a character.
2038
2039 ** New functions posn-at-point and posn-at-x-y returns
2040 click-event-style position information for a given visible buffer
2041 position or for a given window pixel coordinate.
2042
2043 ** Function pos-visible-in-window-p now returns the pixel coordinates
2044 and partial visiblity state of the corresponding row, if the PARTIALLY
2045 arg is non-nil.
2046
2047 ** The function `eql' is now available without requiring the CL package.
2048
2049 +++
2050 ** The new primitive `set-file-times' sets a file's access and
2051 modification times. Magic file name handlers can handle this
2052 operation.
2053
2054 ** The display space :width and :align-to text properties are now
2055 supported on text terminals.
2056
2057 ** Support for displaying image slices
2058
2059 *** New display property (slice X Y WIDTH HEIGHT) may be used with
2060 an image property to display only a specific slice of the image.
2061
2062 *** Function insert-image has new optional fourth arg to
2063 specify image slice (X Y WIDTH HEIGHT).
2064
2065 *** New function insert-sliced-image inserts a given image as a
2066 specified number of evenly sized slices (rows x columns).
2067
2068 ** New line-height and line-spacing properties for newline characters
2069
2070 A newline may now have line-height and line-spacing text or overlay
2071 properties that control the height of the corresponding display row.
2072
2073 If the line-height property value is 0, the newline does not
2074 contribute to the height of the display row; instead the height of the
2075 newline glyph is reduced. Also, a line-spacing property on this
2076 newline is ignored. This can be used to tile small images or image
2077 slices without adding blank areas between the images.
2078
2079 If the line-height property value is a positive integer, the value
2080 specifies the minimum line height in pixels. If necessary, the line
2081 height it increased by increasing the line's ascent.
2082
2083 If the line-height property value is a float, the minimum line height
2084 is calculated by multiplying the default frame line height by the
2085 given value.
2086
2087 If the line-height property value is a cons (RATIO . FACE), the
2088 minimum line height is calculated as RATIO * height of named FACE.
2089 RATIO is int or float. If FACE is t, it specifies the current face.
2090
2091 If the line-spacing property value is an positive integer, the value
2092 is used as additional pixels to insert after the display line; this
2093 overrides the default frame line-spacing and any buffer local value of
2094 the line-spacing variable.
2095
2096 If the line-spacing property may be a float or cons, the line spacing
2097 is calculated as specified above for the line-height property.
2098
2099 If the line-spacing value is a cons (total . SPACING) where SPACING is
2100 any of the forms described above, the value of SPACING is used as the
2101 total height of the line, i.e. a varying number of pixels are inserted
2102 after each line to make each line exactly that many pixels high.
2103
2104
2105 ** The buffer local line-spacing variable may now have a float value,
2106 which is used as a height relative to the default frame line height.
2107
2108 ** Enhancements to stretch display properties
2109
2110 The display property stretch specification form `(space PROPS)', where
2111 PROPS is a property list now allows pixel based width and height
2112 specifications, as well as enhanced horizontal text alignment.
2113
2114 The value of these properties can now be a (primitive) expression
2115 which is evaluated during redisplay. The following expressions
2116 are supported:
2117
2118 EXPR ::= NUM | (NUM) | UNIT | ELEM | POS | IMAGE | FORM
2119 NUM ::= INTEGER | FLOAT | SYMBOL
2120 UNIT ::= in | mm | cm | width | height
2121 ELEM ::= left-fringe | right-fringe | left-margin | right-margin
2122 | scroll-bar | text
2123 POS ::= left | center | right
2124 FORM ::= (NUM . EXPR) | (OP EXPR ...)
2125 OP ::= + | -
2126
2127 The form `NUM' specifies a fractional width or height of the default
2128 frame font size. The form `(NUM)' specifies an absolute number of
2129 pixels. If a symbol is specified, its buffer-local variable binding
2130 is used. The `in', `mm', and `cm' units specifies the number of
2131 pixels per inch, milli-meter, and centi-meter, resp. The `width' and
2132 `height' units correspond to the width and height of the current face
2133 font. An image specification corresponds to the width or height of
2134 the image.
2135
2136 The `left-fringe', `right-fringe', `left-margin', `right-margin',
2137 `scroll-bar', and `text' elements specify to the width of the
2138 corresponding area of the window.
2139
2140 The `left', `center', and `right' positions can be used with :align-to
2141 to specify a position relative to the left edge, center, or right edge
2142 of the text area. One of the above window elements (except `text')
2143 can also be used with :align-to to specify that the position is
2144 relative to the left edge of the given area. Once the base offset for
2145 a relative position has been set (by the first occurrence of one of
2146 these symbols), further occurences of these symbols are interpreted as
2147 the width of the area.
2148
2149 For example, to align to the center of the left-margin, use
2150 :align-to (+ left-margin (0.5 . left-margin))
2151
2152 If no specific base offset is set for alignment, it is always relative
2153 to the left edge of the text area. For example, :align-to 0 in a
2154 header-line aligns with the first text column in the text area.
2155
2156 The value of the form `(NUM . EXPR)' is the value of NUM multiplied by
2157 the value of the expression EXPR. For example, (2 . in) specifies a
2158 width of 2 inches, while (0.5 . IMAGE) specifies half the width (or
2159 height) of the specified image.
2160
2161 The form `(+ EXPR ...)' adds up the value of the expressions.
2162 The form `(- EXPR ...)' negates or subtracts the value of the expressions.
2163
2164 ** New macro with-local-quit temporarily sets inhibit-quit to nil for use
2165 around potentially blocking or long-running code in timers
2166 and post-command-hooks.
2167
2168 +++
2169 ** New face attribute `min-colors' can be used to tailor the face color
2170 to the number of colors supported by a display, and define the
2171 foreground and background colors accordingly so that they look best on
2172 a terminal that supports at least this many colors. This is now the
2173 preferred method for defining default faces in a way that makes a good
2174 use of the capabilities of the display.
2175
2176 ** New function 'define-fringe-bitmap' can now be used to change the
2177 built-in fringe bitmaps, as well as create new fringe bitmaps.
2178 The return value is a number identifying the new fringe bitmap.
2179
2180 To change a built-in bitmap, do (require 'fringe) and identify the
2181 bitmap to change with the value of the corresponding symbol, like
2182 `left-truncation-fringe-bitmap' or `continued-line-fringe-bitmap'.
2183
2184 ** New function 'destroy-fringe-bitmap' may be used to destroy a
2185 previously created bitmap, or restore a built-in bitmap.
2186
2187 ** New function 'set-fringe-bitmap-face' can now be used to set a
2188 specific face to be used for a specific fringe bitmap. Normally,
2189 this should be a face derived from the `fringe' face, specifying
2190 the foreground color as the desired color of the bitmap.
2191
2192 ** There are new display properties, left-fringe and right-fringe,
2193 that can be used to show a specific bitmap in the left or right fringe
2194 bitmap of the display line.
2195
2196 Format is 'display '(left-fringe BITMAP [FACE]), where BITMAP is a
2197 number identifying a fringe bitmap, either built-in or as returned by
2198 `define-fringe-bitmap', and FACE is an optional face name to be used
2199 for displaying the bitmap.
2200
2201 ** New function `fringe-bitmaps-at-pos' returns a cons (LEFT . RIGHT)
2202 identifying the current fringe bitmaps in the display line at a given
2203 buffer position. A nil value means no bitmap.
2204
2205 ** Multiple overlay arrows can now be defined and managed via the new
2206 variable `overlay-arrow-variable-list'. It contains a list of
2207 varibles which contain overlay arrow position markers, including
2208 the original `overlay-arrow-position' variable.
2209
2210 Each variable on this list may have individual `overlay-arrow-string'
2211 and `overlay-arrow-bitmap' properties that specify an overlay arrow
2212 string (for non-window terminals) or fringe bitmap (for window
2213 systems) to display at the corresponding overlay arrow position.
2214 If either property is not set, the default `overlay-arrow-string' or
2215 'overlay-arrow-fringe-bitmap' will be used.
2216
2217 +++
2218 ** New function `line-number-at-pos' returns line number of current
2219 line in current buffer, or if optional buffer position is given, line
2220 number of corresponding line in current buffer.
2221
2222 ** The default value of `sentence-end' is now defined using the new
2223 variable `sentence-end-without-space' which contains such characters
2224 that end a sentence without following spaces.
2225
2226 ** The function `sentence-end' should be used to obtain the value of
2227 the variable `sentence-end'. If the variable `sentence-end' is nil,
2228 then this function returns the regexp constructed from the variables
2229 `sentence-end-without-period', `sentence-end-double-space' and
2230 `sentence-end-without-space'.
2231
2232 +++
2233 ** The flags, width, and precision options for %-specifications in function
2234 `format' are now documented. Some flags that were accepted but not
2235 implemented (such as "*") are no longer accepted.
2236
2237 ** New function `macroexpand-all' expands all macros in a form.
2238 It is similar to the Common-Lisp function of the same name.
2239 One difference is that it guarantees to return the original argument
2240 if no expansion is done, which may be tested using `eq'.
2241
2242 +++
2243 ** New function `delete-dups' destructively removes `equal' duplicates
2244 from a list. Of several `equal' occurrences of an element in the list,
2245 the first one is kept.
2246
2247 +++
2248 ** `declare' is now a macro. This change was made mostly for
2249 documentation purposes and should have no real effect on Lisp code.
2250
2251 ** The new hook `before-save-hook' is invoked by `basic-save-buffer'
2252 before saving buffers. This allows packages to perform various final
2253 tasks, for example; it can be used by the copyright package to make
2254 sure saved files have the current year in any copyright headers.
2255
2256 +++
2257 ** The function `insert-for-yank' now supports strings where the
2258 `yank-handler' property does not span the first character of the
2259 string. The old behavior is available if you call
2260 `insert-for-yank-1' instead.
2261
2262 ** New function `get-char-property-and-overlay' accepts the same
2263 arguments as `get-char-property' and returns a cons whose car is the
2264 return value of `get-char-property' called with those arguments and
2265 whose cdr is the overlay in which the property was found, or nil if
2266 it was found as a text property or not found at all.
2267
2268 ** The mouse pointer shape in void text areas (i.e. after the end of a
2269 line or below the last line in the buffer) of the text window is now
2270 controlled by the new variable `void-text-area-pointer'. The default
2271 is to use the `arrow' (non-text) pointer. Other choices are `text'
2272 (or nil), `hand', `vdrag', `hdrag', `modeline', and `hourglass'.
2273
2274 ** The mouse pointer shape over an image can now be controlled by the
2275 :pointer image property.
2276
2277 ** The mouse pointer shape over ordinary text or images may now be
2278 controlled/overriden via the `pointer' text property.
2279
2280 ** Images may now have an associated image map via the :map property.
2281
2282 An image map is an alist where each element has the format (AREA ID PLIST).
2283 An AREA is specified as either a rectangle, a circle, or a polygon:
2284 A rectangle is a cons (rect . ((x0 . y0) . (x1 . y1))) specifying the
2285 pixel coordinates of the upper left and bottom right corners.
2286 A circle is a cons (circle . ((x0 . y0) . r)) specifying the center
2287 and the radius of the circle; r may be a float or integer.
2288 A polygon is a cons (poly . [x0 y0 x1 y1 ...]) where each pair in the
2289 vector describes one corner in the polygon.
2290
2291 When the mouse pointer is above a hot-spot area of an image, the
2292 PLIST of that hot-spot is consulted; if it contains a `help-echo'
2293 property it defines a tool-tip for the hot-spot, and if it contains
2294 a `pointer' property, it defines the shape of the mouse cursor when
2295 it is over the hot-spot. See the variable 'void-area-text-pointer'
2296 for possible pointer shapes.
2297
2298 When you click the mouse when the mouse pointer is over a hot-spot,
2299 an event is composed by combining the ID of the hot-spot with the
2300 mouse event, e.g. [area4 mouse-1] if the hot-spot's ID is `area4'.
2301
2302 ** Mouse event enhancements:
2303
2304 *** Mouse clicks on fringes now generates left-fringe or right-fringes
2305 events, rather than a text area click event.
2306
2307 *** Mouse clicks in the left and right marginal areas now includes a
2308 sensible buffer position corresponding to the first character in the
2309 corresponding text row.
2310
2311 *** Function `mouse-set-point' now works for events outside text area.
2312
2313 +++
2314 *** Mouse events now includes buffer position for all event types.
2315
2316 +++
2317 *** `posn-point' now returns buffer position for non-text area events.
2318
2319 +++
2320 *** New function `posn-area' returns window area clicked on (nil means
2321 text area).
2322
2323 +++
2324 *** Mouse events include actual glyph column and row for all event types.
2325
2326 +++
2327 *** New function `posn-actual-col-row' returns actual glyph coordinates.
2328
2329 +++
2330 *** Mouse events may now include image object in addition to string object.
2331
2332 +++
2333 *** Mouse events include relative x and y pixel coordinates relative to
2334 the top left corner of the object (image or character) clicked on.
2335
2336 +++
2337 *** Mouse events include the pixel width and height of the object
2338 (image or character) clicked on.
2339
2340 +++
2341 *** New functions 'posn-object', 'posn-object-x-y', and
2342 'posn-object-width-height' return the image or string object of a mouse
2343 click, the x and y pixel coordinates relative to the top left corner
2344 of that object, and the total width and height of that object.
2345
2346 ** New function `force-window-update' can initiate a full redisplay of
2347 one or all windows. Normally, this is not needed as changes in window
2348 contents are detected automatically. However, certain implicit
2349 changes to mode lines, header lines, or display properties may require
2350 forcing an explicit window update.
2351
2352 ** New function `redirect-debugging-output' can be used to redirect
2353 debugging output on the stderr file handle to a file.
2354
2355 +++
2356 ** `split-string' now includes null substrings in the returned list if
2357 the optional argument SEPARATORS is non-nil and there are matches for
2358 SEPARATORS at the beginning or end of the string. If SEPARATORS is
2359 nil, or if the new optional third argument OMIT-NULLS is non-nil, all
2360 empty matches are omitted from the returned list.
2361
2362 +++
2363 ** `makehash' is now obsolete. Use `make-hash-table' instead.
2364
2365 +++
2366 ** If optional third argument APPEND to `add-to-list' is non-nil, a
2367 new element gets added at the end of the list instead of at the
2368 beginning. This change actually occurred in Emacs-21.1, but was not
2369 documented.
2370
2371 ** Major modes can define `eldoc-print-current-symbol-info-function'
2372 locally to provide Eldoc functionality by some method appropriate to
2373 the language.
2374
2375 ---
2376 ** New coding system property `mime-text-unsuitable' indicates that
2377 the coding system's `mime-charset' is not suitable for MIME text
2378 parts, e.g. utf-16.
2379
2380 +++
2381 ** The argument to forward-word, backward-word, forward-to-indentation
2382 and backward-to-indentation is now optional, and defaults to 1.
2383
2384 +++
2385 ** (char-displayable-p CHAR) returns non-nil if Emacs ought to be able
2386 to display CHAR. More precisely, if the selected frame's fontset has
2387 a font to display the character set that CHAR belongs to.
2388
2389 Fontsets can specify a font on a per-character basis; when the fontset
2390 does that, this value may not be accurate.
2391
2392 +++
2393 ** The new function `window-inside-edges' returns the edges of the
2394 actual text portion of the window, not including the scroll bar or
2395 divider line, the fringes, the display margins, the header line and
2396 the mode line.
2397
2398 +++
2399 ** The new functions `window-pixel-edges' and `window-inside-pixel-edges'
2400 return window edges in units of pixels, rather than columns and lines.
2401
2402 +++
2403 ** The kill-buffer-hook is now permanent-local.
2404
2405 +++
2406 ** `select-window' takes an optional second argument `norecord', like
2407 `switch-to-buffer'.
2408
2409 +++
2410 ** The new macro `with-selected-window' temporarily switches the
2411 selected window without impacting the order of buffer-list.
2412
2413 +++
2414 ** The `keymap' property now also works at the ends of overlays and
2415 text-properties, according to their stickiness. This also means that it
2416 works with empty overlays. The same hold for the `local-map' property.
2417
2418 +++
2419 ** (map-keymap FUNCTION KEYMAP) applies the function to each binding
2420 in the keymap.
2421
2422 ---
2423 ** VC changes for backends:
2424 *** (vc-switches BACKEND OPERATION) is a new function for use by backends.
2425 *** The new `find-version' backend function replaces the `destfile'
2426 parameter of the `checkout' backend function.
2427 Old code still works thanks to a default `find-version' behavior that
2428 uses the old `destfile' parameter.
2429
2430 +++
2431 ** The new macro dynamic-completion-table supports using functions
2432 as a dynamic completion table.
2433
2434 (dynamic-completion-table FUN)
2435
2436 FUN is called with one argument, the string for which completion is required,
2437 and it should return an alist containing all the intended possible
2438 completions. This alist may be a full list of possible completions so that FUN
2439 can ignore the value of its argument. If completion is performed in the
2440 minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer from which the minibuffer was
2441 entered. dynamic-completion-table then computes the completion.
2442
2443 +++
2444 ** The new macro lazy-completion-table initializes a variable
2445 as a lazy completion table.
2446
2447 (lazy-completion-table VAR FUN &rest ARGS)
2448
2449 If the completion table VAR is used for the first time (e.g., by passing VAR
2450 as an argument to `try-completion'), the function FUN is called with arguments
2451 ARGS. FUN must return the completion table that will be stored in VAR. If
2452 completion is requested in the minibuffer, FUN will be called in the buffer
2453 from which the minibuffer was entered. The return value of
2454 `lazy-completion-table' must be used to initialize the value of VAR.
2455
2456 +++
2457 ** `minor-mode-list' now holds a list of minor mode commands.
2458
2459 +++
2460 ** The new function `modify-all-frames-parameters' modifies parameters
2461 for all (existing and future) frames.
2462
2463 +++
2464 ** `sit-for' can now be called with args (SECONDS &optional NODISP).
2465
2466 +++
2467 ** New standard font-lock face `font-lock-preprocessor-face'.
2468
2469 +++
2470 ** The macro `with-syntax-table' does not copy the table any more.
2471
2472 +++
2473 ** The variable `face-font-rescale-alist' specifies how much larger
2474 (or smaller) font we should use. For instance, if the value is
2475 '((SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN . 1.3)) and a face requests a font of 10
2476 point, we actually use a font of 13 point if the font matches
2477 SOME-FONTNAME-PATTERN.
2478
2479 +++
2480 ** The function `number-sequence' returns a list of equally-separated
2481 numbers. For instance, (number-sequence 4 9) returns (4 5 6 7 8 9).
2482 By default, the separation is 1, but you can specify a different separation
2483 as the third argument. (number-sequence 1.5 6 2) returns (1.5 3.5 5.5).
2484
2485 +++
2486 ** `file-chase-links' now takes an optional second argument LIMIT which
2487 specifies the maximum number of links to chase through. If after that
2488 many iterations the file name obtained is still a symbolic link,
2489 `file-chase-links' returns it anyway.
2490
2491 ---
2492 ** `set-fontset-font', `fontset-info', `fontset-font' now operate on
2493 the default fontset if the argument NAME is nil..
2494
2495 +++
2496 ** The escape sequence \s is now interpreted as a SPACE character,
2497 unless it is followed by a `-' in a character constant (e.g. ?\s-A),
2498 in which case it is still interpreted as the super modifier.
2499 In strings, \s is always interpreted as a space.
2500
2501 +++
2502 ** New function `set-process-filter-multibyte' sets the multibyteness
2503 of a string given to a process's filter.
2504
2505 +++
2506 ** New function `process-filter-multibyte-p' returns t if
2507 a string given to a process's filter is multibyte.
2508
2509 +++
2510 ** A filter function of a process is called with a multibyte string if
2511 the filter's multibyteness is t. That multibyteness is decided by the
2512 value of `default-enable-multibyte-characters' when the process is
2513 created and can be changed later by `set-process-filter-multibyte'.
2514
2515 +++
2516 ** If a process's coding system is raw-text or no-conversion and its
2517 buffer is multibyte, the output of the process is at first converted
2518 to multibyte by `string-to-multibyte' then inserted in the buffer.
2519 Previously, it was converted to multibyte by `string-as-multibyte',
2520 which was not compatible with the behaviour of file reading.
2521
2522 +++
2523 ** New function `string-to-multibyte' converts a unibyte string to a
2524 multibyte string with the same individual character codes.
2525
2526 +++
2527 ** New variables `gc-elapsed' and `gcs-done' provide extra information
2528 on garbage collection.
2529
2530 +++
2531 ** New function `decode-coding-inserted-region' decodes a region as if
2532 it is read from a file without decoding.
2533
2534 +++
2535 ** New function `locale-info' accesses locale information.
2536
2537 +++
2538 ** `save-selected-window' now saves and restores the selected window
2539 of every frame. This way, it restores everything that can be changed
2540 by calling `select-window'.
2541
2542 ---
2543 ** `easy-menu-define' now allows you to use nil for the symbol name
2544 if you don't need to give the menu a name. If you install the menu
2545 into other keymaps right away (MAPS is non-nil), it usually doesn't
2546 need to have a name.
2547
2548 ** Byte compiler changes:
2549
2550 ---
2551 *** `(featurep 'xemacs)' is treated by the compiler as nil. This
2552 helps to avoid noisy compiler warnings in code meant to run under both
2553 Emacs and XEmacs and may sometimes make the result significantly more
2554 efficient. Since byte code from recent versions of XEmacs won't
2555 generally run in Emacs and vice versa, this optimization doesn't lose
2556 you anything.
2557
2558 +++
2559 *** You can avoid warnings for possibly-undefined symbols with a
2560 simple convention that the compiler understands. (This is mostly
2561 useful in code meant to be portable to different Emacs versions.)
2562 Write forms like the following, or code that macroexpands into such
2563 forms:
2564
2565 (if (fboundp 'foo) <then> <else>)
2566 (if (boundp 'foo) <then> <else)
2567
2568 In the first case, using `foo' as a function inside the <then> form
2569 won't produce a warning if it's not defined as a function, and in the
2570 second case, using `foo' as a variable won't produce a warning if it's
2571 unbound. The test must be in exactly one of the above forms (after
2572 macro expansion), but such tests may be nested. Note that `when' and
2573 `unless' expand to `if', but `cond' doesn't.
2574
2575 +++
2576 *** The new macro `with-no-warnings' suppresses all compiler warnings
2577 inside its body. In terms of execution, it is equivalent to `progn'.
2578
2579 +++
2580 ** The new translation table `translation-table-for-input'
2581 is used for customizing self-insertion. The character to
2582 be inserted is translated through it.
2583
2584 +++
2585 ** `load-history' can now have elements of the form (t . FUNNAME),
2586 which means FUNNAME was previously defined as an autoload (before the
2587 current file redefined it).
2588
2589 +++
2590 ** New Lisp library testcover.el works with edebug to help you determine
2591 whether you've tested all your Lisp code. Function testcover-start
2592 instruments all functions in a given file. Then test your code. Function
2593 testcover-mark-all adds overlay "splotches" to the Lisp file's buffer to
2594 show where coverage is lacking. Command testcover-next-mark (bind it to
2595 a key!) will move point forward to the next spot that has a splotch.
2596
2597 *** Normally, a red splotch indicates the form was never completely evaluated;
2598 a brown splotch means it always evaluated to the same value. The red
2599 splotches are skipped for forms that can't possibly complete their evaluation,
2600 such as `error'. The brown splotches are skipped for forms that are expected
2601 to always evaluate to the same value, such as (setq x 14).
2602
2603 *** For difficult cases, you can add do-nothing macros to your code to help
2604 out the test coverage tool. The macro `noreturn' suppresses a red splotch.
2605 It is an error if the argument to `noreturn' does return. The macro 1value
2606 suppresses a brown splotch for its argument. This macro is a no-op except
2607 during test-coverage -- then it signals an error if the argument actually
2608 returns differing values.
2609
2610 +++
2611 ** New function unsafep returns nil if the given Lisp form can't possibly
2612 do anything dangerous; otherwise it returns a reason why the form might be
2613 unsafe (calls dangerous function, alters global variable, etc).
2614
2615 +++
2616 ** The new variable `print-continuous-numbering', when non-nil, says
2617 that successive calls to print functions should use the same
2618 numberings for circular structure references. This is only relevant
2619 when `print-circle' is non-nil.
2620
2621 When you bind `print-continuous-numbering' to t, you should
2622 also bind `print-number-table' to nil.
2623
2624 +++
2625 ** When using non-toolkit scroll bars with the default width,
2626 the scroll-bar-width frame parameter value is nil.
2627
2628 +++
2629 ** The new function copy-abbrev-table returns a new abbrev table that
2630 is a copy of a given abbrev table.
2631
2632 +++
2633 ** The option --script FILE runs Emacs in batch mode and loads FILE.
2634 It is useful for writing Emacs Lisp shell script files, because they
2635 can start with this line:
2636
2637 #!/usr/bin/emacs --script
2638
2639 +++
2640 ** A function's docstring can now hold the function's usage info on
2641 its last line. It should match the regexp "\n\n(fn.*)\\'".
2642
2643 ---
2644 ** New CCL functions `lookup-character' and `lookup-integer' access
2645 hash tables defined by the Lisp function `define-translation-hash-table'.
2646
2647 +++
2648 ** The new function `minibufferp' returns non-nil if its optional buffer
2649 argument is a minibuffer. If the argument is omitted it defaults to
2650 the current buffer.
2651
2652 +++
2653 ** There is a new Warnings facility; see the functions `warn'
2654 and `display-warning'.
2655
2656 +++
2657 ** The functions all-completions and try-completion now accept lists
2658 of strings as well as hash-tables additionally to alists, obarrays
2659 and functions. Furthermore, the function `test-completion' is now
2660 exported to Lisp.
2661
2662 ---
2663 ** When pure storage overflows while dumping, Emacs now prints how
2664 much pure storage it will approximately need.
2665
2666 +++
2667 ** The new variable `auto-coding-functions' lets you specify functions
2668 to examine a file being visited and deduce the proper coding system
2669 for it. (If the coding system is detected incorrectly for a specific
2670 file, you can put a `coding:' tags to override it.)
2671
2672 ---
2673 ** The new function `merge-coding-systems' fills in unspecified aspects
2674 of one coding system from another coding system.
2675
2676 +++
2677 ** The variable `safe-local-eval-forms' specifies a list of forms that
2678 are ok to evaluate when they appear in an `eval' local variables
2679 specification. Normally Emacs asks for confirmation before evaluating
2680 such a form, but if the form appears in this list, no confirmation is
2681 needed.
2682
2683 ---
2684 ** If a function has a non-nil `safe-local-eval-function' property,
2685 that means it is ok to evaluate some calls to that function when it
2686 appears in an `eval' local variables specification. If the property
2687 is t, then any form calling that function with constant arguments is
2688 ok. If the property is a function or list of functions, they are called
2689 with the form as argument, and if any returns t, the form is ok to call.
2690
2691 If the form is not "ok to call", that means Emacs asks for
2692 confirmation as before.
2693
2694 +++
2695 ** Controlling the default left and right fringe widths.
2696
2697 The default left and right fringe widths for all windows of a frame
2698 can now be controlled by setting the `left-fringe' and `right-fringe'
2699 frame parameters to an integer value specifying the width in pixels.
2700 Setting the width to 0 effectively removes the corresponding fringe.
2701
2702 The actual default fringe widths for the frame may deviate from the
2703 specified widths, since the combined fringe widths must match an
2704 integral number of columns. The extra width is distributed evenly
2705 between the left and right fringe. For force a specific fringe width,
2706 specify the width as a negative integer (if both widths are negative,
2707 only the left fringe gets the specified width).
2708
2709 Setting the width to nil (the default), restores the default fringe
2710 width which is the minimum number of pixels necessary to display any
2711 of the currently defined fringe bitmaps. The width of the built-in
2712 fringe bitmaps is 8 pixels.
2713
2714 +++
2715 ** Per-window fringes settings
2716
2717 Windows can now have their own individual fringe widths and position
2718 settings.
2719
2720 To control the fringe widths of a window, either set the buffer-local
2721 variables `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', or call
2722 `set-window-fringes'.
2723
2724 To control the fringe position in a window, that is, whether fringes
2725 are positioned between the display margins and the window's text area,
2726 or at the edges of the window, either set the buffer-local variable
2727 `fringes-outside-margins' or call `set-window-fringes'.
2728
2729 The function `window-fringes' can be used to obtain the current
2730 settings. To make `left-fringe-width', `right-fringe-width', and
2731 `fringes-outside-margins' take effect, you must set them before
2732 displaying the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force
2733 an update of the display margins.
2734
2735 +++
2736 ** Per-window vertical scroll-bar settings
2737
2738 Windows can now have their own individual scroll-bar settings
2739 controlling the width and position of scroll-bars.
2740
2741 To control the scroll-bar of a window, either set the buffer-local
2742 variables `scroll-bar-mode' and `scroll-bar-width', or call
2743 `set-window-scroll-bars'. The function `window-scroll-bars' can be
2744 used to obtain the current settings. To make `scroll-bar-mode' and
2745 `scroll-bar-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
2746 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
2747 of the display margins.
2748
2749 +++
2750 ** The function `set-window-buffer' now has an optional third argument
2751 KEEP-MARGINS which will preserve the window's current margin, fringe,
2752 and scroll-bar settings if non-nil.
2753
2754 +++
2755 ** Renamed file hooks to follow the convention:
2756 find-file-hooks to find-file-hook,
2757 find-file-not-found-hooks to find-file-not-found-functions,
2758 write-file-hooks to write-file-functions,
2759 write-contents-hooks to write-contents-functions.
2760 Marked local-write-file-hooks as obsolete (use the LOCAL arg of `add-hook').
2761
2762 +++
2763 ** The new variable `delete-frame-functions' replaces `delete-frame-hook'.
2764 It was renamed to follow the naming conventions for abnormal hooks. The old
2765 name remains available as an alias, but has been marked obsolete.
2766
2767 +++
2768 ** The `read-file-name' function now takes an additional argument which
2769 specifies a predicate which the file name read must satify. The
2770 new variable `read-file-name-predicate' contains the predicate argument
2771 while reading the file name from the minibuffer; the predicate in this
2772 variable is used by read-file-name-internal to filter the completion list.
2773
2774 ---
2775 ** The new variable `read-file-name-function' can be used by lisp code
2776 to override the internal read-file-name function.
2777
2778 +++
2779 ** The new function `read-directory-name' can be used instead of
2780 `read-file-name' to read a directory name; when used, completion
2781 will only show directories.
2782
2783 +++
2784 ** The new function `file-remote-p' tests a file name and returns
2785 non-nil if it specifies a remote file (one that Emacs accesses using
2786 its own special methods and not directly through the file system).
2787
2788 ---
2789 ** When a Lisp file uses CL functions at run-time, compiling the file
2790 now issues warnings about these calls, unless the file performs
2791 (require 'cl) when loaded.
2792
2793 +++
2794 ** The `defmacro' form may contain declarations specifying how to
2795 indent the macro in Lisp mode and how to debug it with Edebug. The
2796 syntax of defmacro has been extended to
2797
2798 (defmacro NAME LAMBDA-LIST [DOC-STRING] [DECLARATION ...] ...)
2799
2800 DECLARATION is a list `(declare DECLARATION-SPECIFIER ...)'. The
2801 declaration specifiers supported are:
2802
2803 (indent INDENT)
2804 Set NAME's `lisp-indent-function' property to INDENT.
2805
2806 (edebug DEBUG)
2807 Set NAME's `edebug-form-spec' property to DEBUG. (This is
2808 equivalent to writing a `def-edebug-spec' for the macro.
2809
2810 +++
2811 ** Interactive commands can be remapped through keymaps.
2812
2813 This is an alternative to using defadvice or substitute-key-definition
2814 to modify the behavior of a key binding using the normal keymap
2815 binding and lookup functionality.
2816
2817 When a key sequence is bound to a command, and that command is
2818 remapped to another command, that command is run instead of the
2819 original command.
2820
2821 Example:
2822 Suppose that minor mode my-mode has defined the commands
2823 my-kill-line and my-kill-word, and it wants C-k (and any other key
2824 bound to kill-line) to run the command my-kill-line instead of
2825 kill-line, and likewise it wants to run my-kill-word instead of
2826 kill-word.
2827
2828 Instead of rebinding C-k and the other keys in the minor mode map,
2829 command remapping allows you to directly map kill-line into
2830 my-kill-line and kill-word into my-kill-word through the minor mode
2831 map using define-key:
2832
2833 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-line] 'my-kill-line)
2834 (define-key my-mode-map [remap kill-word] 'my-kill-word)
2835
2836 Now, when my-mode is enabled, and the user enters C-k or M-d,
2837 the commands my-kill-line and my-kill-word are run.
2838
2839 Notice that only one level of remapping is supported. In the above
2840 example, this means that if my-kill-line is remapped to other-kill,
2841 then C-k still runs my-kill-line.
2842
2843 The following changes have been made to provide command remapping:
2844
2845 - Command remappings are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
2846 `remap', i.e. `(define-key MAP [remap CMD] DEF)' remaps command CMD
2847 to definition DEF in keymap MAP. The definition is not limited to
2848 another command; it can be anything accepted for a normal binding.
2849
2850 - The new function `command-remapping' returns the binding for a
2851 remapped command in the current keymaps, or nil if not remapped.
2852
2853 - key-binding now remaps interactive commands unless the optional
2854 third argument NO-REMAP is non-nil.
2855
2856 - where-is-internal now returns nil for a remapped command (e.g.
2857 kill-line if my-mode is enabled), and the actual key binding for
2858 the command it is remapped to (e.g. C-k for my-kill-line).
2859 It also has a new optional fifth argument, NO-REMAP, which inhibits
2860 remapping if non-nil (e.g. it returns C-k for kill-line and
2861 <kill-line> for my-kill-line).
2862
2863 - The new variable `this-original-command' contains the original
2864 command before remapping. It is equal to `this-command' when the
2865 command was not remapped.
2866
2867 +++
2868 ** New variable emulation-mode-map-alists.
2869
2870 Lisp packages using many minor mode keymaps can now maintain their own
2871 keymap alist separate from minor-mode-map-alist by adding their keymap
2872 alist to this list.
2873
2874 +++
2875 ** Atomic change groups.
2876
2877 To perform some changes in the current buffer "atomically" so that
2878 they either all succeed or are all undone, use `atomic-change-group'
2879 around the code that makes changes. For instance:
2880
2881 (atomic-change-group
2882 (insert foo)
2883 (delete-region x y))
2884
2885 If an error (or other nonlocal exit) occurs inside the body of
2886 `atomic-change-group', it unmakes all the changes in that buffer that
2887 were during the execution of the body. The change group has no effect
2888 on any other buffers--any such changes remain.
2889
2890 If you need something more sophisticated, you can directly call the
2891 lower-level functions that `atomic-change-group' uses. Here is how.
2892
2893 To set up a change group for one buffer, call `prepare-change-group'.
2894 Specify the buffer as argument; it defaults to the current buffer.
2895 This function returns a "handle" for the change group. You must save
2896 the handle to activate the change group and then finish it.
2897
2898 Before you change the buffer again, you must activate the change
2899 group. Pass the handle to `activate-change-group' afterward to
2900 do this.
2901
2902 After you make the changes, you must finish the change group. You can
2903 either accept the changes or cancel them all. Call
2904 `accept-change-group' to accept the changes in the group as final;
2905 call `cancel-change-group' to undo them all.
2906
2907 You should use `unwind-protect' to make sure the group is always
2908 finished. The call to `activate-change-group' should be inside the
2909 `unwind-protect', in case the user types C-g just after it runs.
2910 (This is one reason why `prepare-change-group' and
2911 `activate-change-group' are separate functions.) Once you finish the
2912 group, don't use the handle again--don't try to finish the same group
2913 twice.
2914
2915 To make a multibuffer change group, call `prepare-change-group' once
2916 for each buffer you want to cover, then use `nconc' to combine the
2917 returned values, like this:
2918
2919 (nconc (prepare-change-group buffer-1)
2920 (prepare-change-group buffer-2))
2921
2922 You can then activate the multibuffer change group with a single call
2923 to `activate-change-group', and finish it with a single call to
2924 `accept-change-group' or `cancel-change-group'.
2925
2926 Nested use of several change groups for the same buffer works as you
2927 would expect. Non-nested use of change groups for the same buffer
2928 will lead to undesirable results, so don't let it happen; the first
2929 change group you start for any given buffer should be the last one
2930 finished.
2931
2932 +++
2933 ** New variable char-property-alias-alist.
2934
2935 This variable allows you to create alternative names for text
2936 properties. It works at the same level as `default-text-properties',
2937 although it applies to overlays as well. This variable was introduced
2938 to implement the `font-lock-face' property.
2939
2940 +++
2941 ** New special text property `font-lock-face'.
2942
2943 This property acts like the `face' property, but it is controlled by
2944 M-x font-lock-mode. It is not, strictly speaking, a builtin text
2945 property. Instead, it is implemented inside font-core.el, using the
2946 new variable `char-property-alias-alist'.
2947
2948 +++
2949 ** New function remove-list-of-text-properties.
2950
2951 The new function `remove-list-of-text-properties' is almost the same
2952 as `remove-text-properties'. The only difference is that it takes
2953 a list of property names as argument rather than a property list.
2954
2955 +++
2956 ** New function insert-for-yank.
2957
2958 This function normally works like `insert' but removes the text
2959 properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list. However, if the
2960 inserted text has a `yank-handler' text property on the first
2961 character of the string, the insertion of the text may be modified in
2962 a number of ways. See the description of `yank-handler' below.
2963
2964 +++
2965 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-as-yank.
2966
2967 This function works like `insert-buffer-substring', but removes the
2968 text properties in the `yank-excluded-properties' list.
2969
2970 +++
2971 ** New function insert-buffer-substring-no-properties.
2972
2973 This function is like insert-buffer-substring, but removes all
2974 text properties from the inserted substring.
2975
2976 +++
2977 ** New `yank-handler' text property may be used to control how
2978 previously killed text on the kill-ring is reinserted.
2979
2980 The value of the yank-handler property must be a list with one to four
2981 elements with the following format:
2982 (FUNCTION PARAM NOEXCLUDE UNDO).
2983
2984 The `insert-for-yank' function looks for a yank-handler property on
2985 the first character on its string argument (typically the first
2986 element on the kill-ring). If a yank-handler property is found,
2987 the normal behaviour of `insert-for-yank' is modified in various ways:
2988
2989 When FUNCTION is present and non-nil, it is called instead of `insert'
2990 to insert the string. FUNCTION takes one argument--the object to insert.
2991 If PARAM is present and non-nil, it replaces STRING as the object
2992 passed to FUNCTION (or `insert'); for example, if FUNCTION is
2993 `yank-rectangle', PARAM should be a list of strings to insert as a
2994 rectangle.
2995 If NOEXCLUDE is present and non-nil, the normal removal of the
2996 yank-excluded-properties is not performed; instead FUNCTION is
2997 responsible for removing those properties. This may be necessary
2998 if FUNCTION adjusts point before or after inserting the object.
2999 If UNDO is present and non-nil, it is a function that will be called
3000 by `yank-pop' to undo the insertion of the current object. It is
3001 called with two arguments, the start and end of the current region.
3002 FUNCTION may set `yank-undo-function' to override the UNDO value.
3003
3004 *** The functions kill-new, kill-append, and kill-region now have an
3005 optional argument to specify the yank-handler text property to put on
3006 the killed text.
3007
3008 *** The function yank-pop will now use a non-nil value of the variable
3009 `yank-undo-function' (instead of delete-region) to undo the previous
3010 yank or yank-pop command (or a call to insert-for-yank). The function
3011 insert-for-yank automatically sets that variable according to the UNDO
3012 element of the string argument's yank-handler text property if present.
3013
3014 +++
3015 ** New function display-supports-face-attributes-p may be used to test
3016 whether a given set of face attributes is actually displayable.
3017
3018 A new predicate `supports' has also been added to the `defface' face
3019 specification language, which can be used to do this test for faces
3020 defined with defface.
3021
3022 +++
3023 ** face-attribute, face-foreground, face-background, and face-stipple now
3024 accept a new optional argument, INHERIT, which controls how face
3025 inheritance is used when determining the value of a face attribute.
3026
3027 +++
3028 ** New functions face-attribute-relative-p and merge-face-attribute
3029 help with handling relative face attributes.
3030
3031 +++
3032 ** Enhancements to process support
3033
3034 *** Function list-processes now has an optional argument; if non-nil,
3035 only the processes whose query-on-exit flag is set are listed.
3036
3037 *** New set-process-query-on-exit-flag and process-query-on-exit-flag
3038 functions. The existing process-kill-without-query function is still
3039 supported, but new code should use the new functions.
3040
3041 *** Function signal-process now accepts a process object or process
3042 name in addition to a process id to identify the signalled process.
3043
3044 *** Processes now have an associated property list where programs can
3045 maintain process state and other per-process related information.
3046
3047 The new functions process-get and process-put are used to access, add,
3048 and modify elements on this property list.
3049
3050 The new low-level functions process-plist and set-process-plist are
3051 used to access and replace the entire property list of a process.
3052
3053 ???
3054 *** Adaptive read buffering of subprocess output.
3055
3056 On some systems, when emacs reads the output from a subprocess, the
3057 output data is read in very small blocks, potentially resulting in
3058 very poor performance. This behaviour can be remedied to some extent
3059 by setting the new variable process-adaptive-read-buffering to a
3060 non-nil value (the default), as it will automatically delay reading
3061 from such processes, to allowing them to produce more output before
3062 emacs tries to read it.
3063
3064 +++
3065 ** Enhanced networking support.
3066
3067 *** There is a new `make-network-process' function which supports
3068 opening of stream and datagram connections to a server, as well as
3069 create a stream or datagram server inside emacs.
3070
3071 - A server is started using :server t arg.
3072 - Datagram connection is selected using :type 'datagram arg.
3073 - A server can open on a random port using :service t arg.
3074 - Local sockets are supported using :family 'local arg.
3075 - Non-blocking connect is supported using :nowait t arg.
3076 - The process' property list may be initialized using :plist PLIST arg;
3077 a copy of the server process' property list is automatically inherited
3078 by new client processes created to handle incoming connections.
3079
3080 To test for the availability of a given feature, use featurep like this:
3081 (featurep 'make-network-process '(:type datagram))
3082
3083 *** Original open-network-stream is now emulated using make-network-process.
3084
3085 *** New function open-network-stream-nowait.
3086
3087 This function initiates a non-blocking connect and returns immediately
3088 without waiting for the connection to be established. It takes the
3089 filter and sentinel functions as arguments; when the non-blocking
3090 connect completes, the sentinel is called with a status string
3091 matching "open" or "failed".
3092
3093 *** New function open-network-stream-server.
3094
3095 This function creates a network server process for a TCP service.
3096 When a client connects to the specified service, a new subprocess
3097 is created to handle the new connection, and the sentinel function
3098 is called for the new process.
3099
3100 *** New functions process-datagram-address and set-process-datagram-address.
3101
3102 These functions are used with datagram-based network processes to get
3103 and set the current address of the remote partner.
3104
3105 *** New function format-network-address.
3106
3107 This function reformats the lisp representation of a network address
3108 to a printable string. For example, an IP address A.B.C.D and port
3109 number P is represented as a five element vector [A B C D P], and the
3110 printable string returned for this vector is "A.B.C.D:P". See the doc
3111 string for other formatting options.
3112
3113 *** By default, the function process-contact still returns (HOST SERVICE)
3114 for a network process. Using the new optional KEY arg, the complete list
3115 of network process properties or a specific property can be selected.
3116
3117 Using :local and :remote as the KEY, the address of the local or
3118 remote end-point is returned. An Inet address is represented as a 5
3119 element vector, where the first 4 elements contain the IP address and
3120 the fifth is the port number.
3121
3122 *** Network processes can now be stopped and restarted with
3123 `stop-process' and `continue-process'. For a server process, no
3124 connections are accepted in the stopped state. For a client process,
3125 no input is received in the stopped state.
3126
3127 *** New function network-interface-list.
3128
3129 This function returns a list of network interface names and their
3130 current network addresses.
3131
3132 *** New function network-interface-info.
3133
3134 This function returns the network address, hardware address, current
3135 status, and other information about a specific network interface.
3136
3137 +++
3138 ** New function copy-tree.
3139
3140 +++
3141 ** New function substring-no-properties.
3142
3143 +++
3144 ** New function minibuffer-selected-window.
3145
3146 +++
3147 ** New function `call-process-shell-command'.
3148
3149 ---
3150 ** The dummy function keys made by easymenu
3151 are now always lower case. If you specify the
3152 menu item name "Ada", for instance, it uses `ada'
3153 as the "key" bound by that key binding.
3154
3155 This is relevant only if Lisp code looks for
3156 the bindings that were made with easymenu.
3157
3158 +++
3159 ** The function `commandp' takes an additional optional
3160 argument. If it is non-nil, then `commandp' checks
3161 for a function that could be called with `call-interactively',
3162 and does not return t for keyboard macros.
3163
3164 ---
3165 ** master-mode.el implements a minor mode for scrolling a slave
3166 buffer without leaving your current buffer, the master buffer.
3167
3168 It can be used by sql.el, for example: the SQL buffer is the master
3169 and its SQLi buffer is the slave. This allows you to scroll the SQLi
3170 buffer containing the output from the SQL buffer containing the
3171 commands.
3172
3173 This is how to use sql.el and master.el together: the variable
3174 sql-buffer contains the slave buffer. It is a local variable in the
3175 SQL buffer.
3176
3177 (add-hook 'sql-mode-hook
3178 (function (lambda ()
3179 (master-mode t)
3180 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
3181 (add-hook 'sql-set-sqli-hook
3182 (function (lambda ()
3183 (master-set-slave sql-buffer))))
3184
3185 +++
3186 ** File local variables.
3187
3188 A file local variables list cannot specify a string with text
3189 properties--any specified text properties are discarded.
3190
3191 +++
3192 ** New function window-body-height.
3193
3194 This is like window-height but does not count the mode line
3195 or the header line.
3196
3197 +++
3198 ** New function format-mode-line.
3199
3200 This returns the mode-line or header-line of the selected (or a
3201 specified) window as a string with or without text properties.
3202
3203 +++
3204 ** New functions `lax-plist-get' and `lax-plist-put'.
3205
3206 These functions are like `plist-get' and `plist-put' except that they
3207 compare the property name using `equal' rather than `eq'.
3208
3209 +++
3210 ** New function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu'
3211
3212 The `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' must not be used (as previously
3213 recommended) for making entries in the tool bar for local keymaps.
3214 Instead, use the function `tool-bar-local-item-from-menu', which lets
3215 you specify the map to use as an argument.
3216
3217 +++
3218 ** The function `atan' now accepts an optional second argument.
3219
3220 When called with 2 arguments, as in `(atan Y X)', `atan' returns the
3221 angle in radians between the vector [X, Y] and the X axis. (This is
3222 equivalent to the standard C library function `atan2'.)
3223
3224 +++
3225 ** You can now make a window as short as one line.
3226
3227 A window that is just one line tall does not display either a mode
3228 line or a header line, even if the variables `mode-line-format' and
3229 `header-line-format' call for them. A window that is two lines tall
3230 cannot display both a mode line and a header line at once; if the
3231 variables call for both, only the mode line actually appears.
3232
3233 +++
3234 ** The new frame parameter `tty-color-mode' specifies the mode to use
3235 for color support on character terminal frames. Its value can be a
3236 number of colors to support, or a symbol. See the Emacs Lisp
3237 Reference manual for more detailed documentation.
3238
3239 +++
3240 ** The new mode-line construct `(:propertize ELT PROPS...)' can be
3241 used to add text properties to mode-line elements.
3242
3243 +++
3244 ** Mode line display ignores text properties as well as the
3245 :propertize and :eval forms in the value of a variable whose
3246 `risky-local-variable' property is nil.
3247
3248 +++
3249 ** The new `%i' and `%I' constructs for `mode-line-format' can be used
3250 to display the size of the accessible part of the buffer on the mode
3251 line.
3252
3253 ---
3254 ** Indentation of simple and extended loop forms has been added to the
3255 cl-indent package. The new user options
3256 `lisp-loop-keyword-indentation', `lisp-loop-forms-indentation', and
3257 `lisp-simple-loop-indentation' can be used to customize the
3258 indentation of keywords and forms in loop forms.
3259
3260 ---
3261 ** Indentation of backquoted forms has been made customizable in the
3262 cl-indent package. See the new user option `lisp-backquote-indentation'.
3263
3264 +++
3265 ** Already true in Emacs 21.1, but not emphasized clearly enough:
3266
3267 Multibyte buffers can now faithfully record all 256 character codes
3268 from 0 to 255. As a result, most of the past reasons to use unibyte
3269 buffers no longer exist. We only know of three reasons to use them
3270 now:
3271
3272 1. If you prefer to use unibyte text all of the time.
3273
3274 2. For reading files into temporary buffers, when you want to avoid
3275 the time it takes to convert the format.
3276
3277 3. For binary files where format conversion would be pointless and
3278 wasteful.
3279
3280 +++
3281 ** If text has a `keymap' property, that keymap takes precedence
3282 over minor mode keymaps.
3283
3284 +++
3285 ** A hex escape in a string forces the string to be multibyte.
3286 An octal escape makes it unibyte.
3287
3288 +++
3289 ** At the end of a command, point moves out from within invisible
3290 text, in the same way it moves out from within text covered by an
3291 image or composition property.
3292
3293 This makes it generally unnecessary to mark invisible text as intangible.
3294 This is particularly good because the intangible property often has
3295 unexpected side-effects since the property applies to everything
3296 (including `goto-char', ...) whereas this new code is only run after
3297 post-command-hook and thus does not care about intermediate states.
3298
3299 +++
3300 ** field-beginning and field-end now accept an additional optional
3301 argument, LIMIT.
3302
3303 +++
3304 ** define-abbrev now accepts an optional argument SYSTEM-FLAG. If
3305 non-nil, this marks the abbrev as a "system" abbrev, which means that
3306 it won't be stored in the user's abbrevs file if he saves the abbrevs.
3307 Major modes that predefine some abbrevs should always specify this
3308 flag.
3309
3310 ---
3311 ** Support for Mocklisp has been removed.
3312
3313 ---
3314 ** The function insert-string is now obsolete.
3315
3316 ---
3317 ** The precedence of file-name-handlers has been changed.
3318 Instead of blindly choosing the first handler that matches,
3319 find-file-name-handler now gives precedence to a file-name handler
3320 that matches near the end of the file name. More specifically, the
3321 handler whose (match-beginning 0) is the largest is chosen.
3322 In case of ties, the old "first matched" rule applies.
3323
3324 ---
3325 ** Dense keymaps now handle inheritance correctly.
3326 Previously a dense keymap would hide all of the simple-char key
3327 bindings of the parent keymap.
3328
3329 ---
3330 ** jit-lock obeys a new text-property `jit-lock-defer-multiline'.
3331 If a piece of text with that property gets contextually refontified
3332 (see jit-lock-defer-contextually), then all of that text will
3333 be refontified. This is useful when the syntax of a textual element
3334 depends on text several lines further down (and when font-lock-multiline
3335 is not appropriate to solve that problem). For example in Perl:
3336
3337 s{
3338 foo
3339 }{
3340 bar
3341 }e
3342
3343 Adding/removing the last `e' changes the `bar' from being a piece of
3344 text to being a piece of code, so you'd put a jit-lock-defer-multiline
3345 property over the second half of the command to force (deferred)
3346 refontification of `bar' whenever the `e' is added/removed.
3347
3348 ---
3349 ** describe-vector now takes a second argument `describer' which is
3350 called to print the entries' values. It defaults to `princ'.
3351
3352 ** defcustom and other custom declarations now use a default group
3353 (the last prior group defined in the same file) when no :group was given.
3354
3355 +++
3356 ** emacsserver now runs pre-command-hook and post-command-hook when
3357 it receives a request from emacsclient.
3358
3359 ---
3360 ** The variable `recursive-load-depth-limit' has been deleted.
3361 Emacs now signals an error if the same file is loaded with more
3362 than 3 levels of nesting.
3363
3364 ---
3365 ** If a major mode function has a non-nil `no-clone-indirect'
3366 property, `clone-indirect-buffer' signals an error if you use
3367 it in that buffer.
3368
3369 ---
3370 ** In `replace-match', the replacement text no longer inherits
3371 properties from surrounding text.
3372
3373 +++
3374 ** New function `buffer-local-value'.
3375
3376 This function returns the buffer-local binding of VARIABLE (a symbol)
3377 in buffer BUFFER. If VARIABLE does not have a buffer-local binding in
3378 buffer BUFFER, it returns the default value of VARIABLE instead.
3379
3380 ---
3381 ** New function `text-clone-create'. Text clones are chunks of text
3382 that are kept identical by transparently propagating changes from one
3383 clone to the other.
3384
3385 +++
3386 ** font-lock can manage arbitrary text-properties beside `face'.
3387 *** the FACENAME returned in font-lock-keywords can be a list
3388 of the form (face FACE PROP1 VAL1 PROP2 VAL2 ...) so you can set
3389 other properties than `face'.
3390 *** font-lock-extra-managed-props can be set to make sure those extra
3391 properties are automatically cleaned up by font-lock.
3392
3393 ---
3394 ** The special treatment of faces whose names are of the form `fg:COLOR'
3395 or `bg:COLOR' has been removed. Lisp programs should use the
3396 `defface' facility for defining faces with specific colors, or use
3397 the feature of specifying the face attributes :foreground and :background
3398 directly in the `face' property instead of using a named face.
3399
3400 +++
3401 ** The new function `run-mode-hooks' and the new macro `delay-mode-hooks'
3402 are used by define-derived-mode to make sure the mode hook for the
3403 parent mode is run at the end of the child mode.
3404
3405 +++
3406 ** define-minor-mode now accepts arbitrary additional keyword arguments
3407 and simply passes them to defcustom, if applicable.
3408
3409 +++
3410 ** define-derived-mode by default creates a new empty abbrev table.
3411 It does not copy abbrevs from the parent mode's abbrev table.
3412
3413 +++
3414 ** `provide' and `featurep' now accept an optional second argument
3415 to test/provide subfeatures. Also `provide' now checks `after-load-alist'
3416 and runs any code associated with the provided feature.
3417
3418 +++
3419 ** Functions `file-name-sans-extension' and `file-name-extension' now
3420 ignore the leading dots in file names, so that file names such as
3421 `.emacs' are treated as extensionless.
3422
3423 +++
3424 ** Functions `user-uid' and `user-real-uid' now return floats if the
3425 user UID doesn't fit in a Lisp integer. Function `user-full-name'
3426 accepts a float as UID parameter.
3427
3428 ---
3429 ** `define-key-after' now accepts keys longer than 1.
3430
3431 +++
3432 ** The local variable `no-byte-compile' in elisp files is now obeyed.
3433
3434 +++
3435 ** The Emacs Lisp byte-compiler now displays the actual line and
3436 character position of errors, where possible. Additionally, the form
3437 of its warning and error messages have been brought more in line with
3438 the output of other GNU tools.
3439
3440 +++
3441 ** New functions `keymap-prompt' and `current-active-maps'.
3442
3443 ---
3444 ** New function `describe-buffer-bindings'.
3445
3446 +++
3447 ** New vars `exec-suffixes' and `load-suffixes' used when
3448 searching for an executable resp. an elisp file.
3449
3450 +++
3451 ** Variable aliases have been implemented:
3452
3453 *** defvaralias ALIAS-VAR BASE-VAR [DOCSTRING]
3454
3455 This function defines the symbol ALIAS-VAR as a variable alias for
3456 symbol BASE-VAR. This means that retrieving the value of ALIAS-VAR
3457 returns the value of BASE-VAR, and changing the value of ALIAS-VAR
3458 changes the value of BASE-VAR.
3459
3460 DOCSTRING, if present, is the documentation for ALIAS-VAR; else it has
3461 the same documentation as BASE-VAR.
3462
3463 *** indirect-variable VARIABLE
3464
3465 This function returns the variable at the end of the chain of aliases
3466 of VARIABLE. If VARIABLE is not a symbol, or if VARIABLE is not
3467 defined as an alias, the function returns VARIABLE.
3468
3469 It might be noteworthy that variables aliases work for all kinds of
3470 variables, including buffer-local and frame-local variables.
3471
3472 +++
3473 ** Functions from `post-gc-hook' are run at the end of garbage
3474 collection. The hook is run with GC inhibited, so use it with care.
3475
3476 +++
3477 ** If the second argument to `copy-file' is the name of a directory,
3478 the file is copied to that directory instead of signaling an error.
3479
3480 +++
3481 ** The variables most-positive-fixnum and most-negative-fixnum
3482 hold the largest and smallest possible integer values.
3483
3484 ---
3485 ** On MS Windows, locale-coding-system is used to interact with the OS.
3486 The Windows specific variable w32-system-coding-system, which was
3487 formerly used for that purpose is now an alias for locale-coding-system.
3488
3489 ** Functions y-or-n-p, read-char, read-key-sequence and the like, that
3490 display a prompt but don't use the minibuffer, now display the prompt
3491 using the text properties (esp. the face) of the prompt string.
3492
3493 ** New function x-send-client-message sends a client message when
3494 running under X.
3495
3496 ** Arguments for remove-overlays are now optional, so that you can remove
3497 all overlays in the buffer by just calling (remove-overlay).
3498
3499 ** New packages:
3500
3501 *** The new package gdb-ui.el provides an enhanced graphical interface to
3502 GDB. You can interact with GDB through the GUD buffer in the usual way, but
3503 there are also further buffers which control the execution and describe the
3504 state of your program. It separates the input/output of your program from
3505 that of GDB and watches expressions in the speedbar. It also uses features of
3506 Emacs 21 such as the display margin for breakpoints, and the toolbar.
3507
3508 Use M-x gdba to start GDB-UI.
3509
3510 *** The new package syntax.el provides an efficient way to find the
3511 current syntactic context (as returned by parse-partial-sexp).
3512
3513 *** The new package bindat.el provides functions to unpack and pack
3514 binary data structures, such as network packets, to and from Lisp
3515 data structures.
3516
3517 *** The TCL package tcl-mode.el was replaced by tcl.el.
3518 This was actually done in Emacs-21.1, and was not documented.
3519
3520 *** The new package button.el implements simple and fast `clickable buttons'
3521 in emacs buffers. `buttons' are much lighter-weight than the `widgets'
3522 implemented by widget.el, and can be used by lisp code that doesn't
3523 require the full power of widgets. Emacs uses buttons for such things
3524 as help and apropos buffers.
3525
3526 \f
3527 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.3
3528
3529 ** Support for GNU/Linux on little-endian MIPS and on IBM S390 has
3530 been added.
3531
3532 \f
3533 * Changes in Emacs 21.3
3534
3535 ** The obsolete C mode (c-mode.el) has been removed to avoid problems
3536 with Custom.
3537
3538 ** UTF-16 coding systems are available, encoding the same characters
3539 as mule-utf-8.
3540
3541 ** There is a new language environment for UTF-8 (set up automatically
3542 in UTF-8 locales).
3543
3544 ** Translation tables are available between equivalent characters in
3545 different Emacs charsets -- for instance `e with acute' coming from the
3546 Latin-1 and Latin-2 charsets. User options `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode'
3547 and `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' respectively turn on translation
3548 between ISO 8859 character sets (`unification') on encoding
3549 (e.g. writing a file) and decoding (e.g. reading a file). Note that
3550 `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is useful and safe, but
3551 `unify-8859-on-decoding-mode' can cause text to change when you read
3552 it and write it out again without edits, so it is not generally advisable.
3553 By default `unify-8859-on-encoding-mode' is turned on.
3554
3555 ** In Emacs running on the X window system, the default value of
3556 `selection-coding-system' is now `compound-text-with-extensions'.
3557
3558 If you want the old behavior, set selection-coding-system to
3559 compound-text, which may be significantly more efficient. Using
3560 compound-text-with-extensions seems to be necessary only for decoding
3561 text from applications under XFree86 4.2, whose behaviour is actually
3562 contrary to the compound text specification.
3563
3564 \f
3565 * Installation changes in Emacs 21.2
3566
3567 ** Support for BSD/OS 5.0 has been added.
3568
3569 ** Support for AIX 5.1 was added.
3570
3571 \f
3572 * Changes in Emacs 21.2
3573
3574 ** Emacs now supports compound-text extended segments in X selections.
3575
3576 X applications can use `extended segments' to encode characters in
3577 compound text that belong to character sets which are not part of the
3578 list of approved standard encodings for X, e.g. Big5. To paste
3579 selections with such characters into Emacs, use the new coding system
3580 compound-text-with-extensions as the value of selection-coding-system.
3581
3582 ** The default values of `tooltip-delay' and `tooltip-hide-delay'
3583 were changed.
3584
3585 ** On terminals whose erase-char is ^H (Backspace), Emacs
3586 now uses normal-erase-is-backspace-mode.
3587
3588 ** When the *scratch* buffer is recreated, its mode is set from
3589 initial-major-mode, which normally is lisp-interaction-mode,
3590 instead of using default-major-mode.
3591
3592 ** The new option `Info-scroll-prefer-subnodes' causes Info to behave
3593 like the stand-alone Info reader (from the GNU Texinfo package) as far
3594 as motion between nodes and their subnodes is concerned. If it is t
3595 (the default), Emacs behaves as before when you type SPC in a menu: it
3596 visits the subnode pointed to by the first menu entry. If this option
3597 is nil, SPC scrolls to the end of the current node, and only then goes
3598 to the first menu item, like the stand-alone reader does.
3599
3600 This change was already in Emacs 21.1, but wasn't advertised in the
3601 NEWS.
3602
3603 \f
3604 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 21.2
3605
3606 ** The meanings of scroll-up-aggressively and scroll-down-aggressively
3607 have been interchanged, so that the former now controls scrolling up,
3608 and the latter now controls scrolling down.
3609
3610 ** The variable `compilation-parse-errors-filename-function' can
3611 be used to transform filenames found in compilation output.
3612
3613 \f
3614 * Installation Changes in Emacs 21.1
3615
3616 See the INSTALL file for information on installing extra libraries and
3617 fonts to take advantage of the new graphical features and extra
3618 charsets in this release.
3619
3620 ** Support for GNU/Linux on IA64 machines has been added.
3621
3622 ** Support for LynxOS has been added.
3623
3624 ** There are new configure options associated with the support for
3625 images and toolkit scrollbars. Use the --help option in `configure'
3626 to list them.
3627
3628 ** You can build a 64-bit Emacs for SPARC/Solaris systems which
3629 support 64-bit executables and also on Irix 6.5. This increases the
3630 maximum buffer size. See etc/MACHINES for instructions. Changes to
3631 build on other 64-bit systems should be straightforward modulo any
3632 necessary changes to unexec.
3633
3634 ** There is a new configure option `--disable-largefile' to omit
3635 Unix-98-style support for large files if that is available.
3636
3637 ** There is a new configure option `--without-xim' that instructs
3638 Emacs to not use X Input Methods (XIM), if these are available.
3639
3640 ** `movemail' defaults to supporting POP. You can turn this off using
3641 the --without-pop configure option, should that be necessary.
3642
3643 ** This version can be built for the Macintosh, but does not implement
3644 all of the new display features described below. The port currently
3645 lacks unexec, asynchronous processes, and networking support. See the
3646 "Emacs and the Mac OS" appendix in the Emacs manual, for the
3647 description of aspects specific to the Mac.
3648
3649 ** Note that the MS-Windows port does not yet implement various of the
3650 new display features described below.
3651
3652 \f
3653 * Changes in Emacs 21.1
3654
3655 ** Emacs has a new redisplay engine.
3656
3657 The new redisplay handles characters of variable width and height.
3658 Italic text can be used without redisplay problems. Fonts containing
3659 oversized characters, i.e. characters larger than the logical height
3660 of a font can be used. Images of various formats can be displayed in
3661 the text.
3662
3663 ** Emacs has a new face implementation.
3664
3665 The new faces no longer fundamentally use X font names to specify the
3666 font. Instead, each face has several independent attributes--family,
3667 height, width, weight and slant--that it may or may not specify.
3668 These attributes can be merged from various faces, and then together
3669 specify a font.
3670
3671 Faces are supported on terminals that can display color or fonts.
3672 These terminal capabilities are auto-detected. Details can be found
3673 under Lisp changes, below.
3674
3675 ** Emacs can display faces on TTY frames.
3676
3677 Emacs automatically detects terminals that are able to display colors.
3678 Faces with a weight greater than normal are displayed extra-bright, if
3679 the terminal supports it. Faces with a weight less than normal and
3680 italic faces are displayed dimmed, if the terminal supports it.
3681 Underlined faces are displayed underlined if possible. Other face
3682 attributes such as `overline', `strike-through', and `box' are ignored
3683 on terminals.
3684
3685 The command-line options `-fg COLOR', `-bg COLOR', and `-rv' are now
3686 supported on character terminals.
3687
3688 Emacs automatically remaps all X-style color specifications to one of
3689 the colors supported by the terminal. This means you could have the
3690 same color customizations that work both on a windowed display and on
3691 a TTY or when Emacs is invoked with the -nw option.
3692
3693 ** New default font is Courier 12pt under X.
3694
3695 ** Sound support
3696
3697 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and FreeBSD (Voxware
3698 driver and native BSD driver, a.k.a. Luigi's driver). Currently
3699 supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio (*.au).
3700 You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes' to enable
3701 sound support.
3702
3703 ** Emacs now resizes mini-windows if appropriate.
3704
3705 If a message is longer than one line, or minibuffer contents are
3706 longer than one line, Emacs can resize the minibuffer window unless it
3707 is on a frame of its own. You can control resizing and the maximum
3708 minibuffer window size by setting the following variables:
3709
3710 - User option: max-mini-window-height
3711
3712 Maximum height for resizing mini-windows. If a float, it specifies a
3713 fraction of the mini-window frame's height. If an integer, it
3714 specifies a number of lines.
3715
3716 Default is 0.25.
3717
3718 - User option: resize-mini-windows
3719
3720 How to resize mini-windows. If nil, don't resize. If t, always
3721 resize to fit the size of the text. If `grow-only', let mini-windows
3722 grow only, until they become empty, at which point they are shrunk
3723 again.
3724
3725 Default is `grow-only'.
3726
3727 ** LessTif support.
3728
3729 Emacs now runs with the LessTif toolkit (see
3730 <http://www.lesstif.org>). You will need version 0.92.26, or later.
3731
3732 ** LessTif/Motif file selection dialog.
3733
3734 When Emacs is configured to use LessTif or Motif, reading a file name
3735 from a menu will pop up a file selection dialog if `use-dialog-box' is
3736 non-nil.
3737
3738 ** File selection dialog on MS-Windows is supported.
3739
3740 When a file is visited by clicking File->Open, the MS-Windows version
3741 now pops up a standard file selection dialog where you can select a
3742 file to visit. File->Save As also pops up that dialog.
3743
3744 ** Toolkit scroll bars.
3745
3746 Emacs now uses toolkit scroll bars if available. When configured for
3747 LessTif/Motif, it will use that toolkit's scroll bar. Otherwise, when
3748 configured for Lucid and Athena widgets, it will use the Xaw3d scroll
3749 bar if Xaw3d is available. You can turn off the use of toolkit scroll
3750 bars by specifying `--with-toolkit-scroll-bars=no' when configuring
3751 Emacs.
3752
3753 When you encounter problems with the Xaw3d scroll bar, watch out how
3754 Xaw3d is compiled on your system. If the Makefile generated from
3755 Xaw3d's Imakefile contains a `-DNARROWPROTO' compiler option, and your
3756 Emacs system configuration file `s/your-system.h' does not contain a
3757 define for NARROWPROTO, you might consider adding it. Take
3758 `s/freebsd.h' as an example.
3759
3760 Alternatively, if you don't have access to the Xaw3d source code, take
3761 a look at your system's imake configuration file, for example in the
3762 directory `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/config' (paths are different on
3763 different systems). You will find files `*.cf' there. If your
3764 system's cf-file contains a line like `#define NeedWidePrototypes NO',
3765 add a `#define NARROWPROTO' to your Emacs system configuration file.
3766
3767 The reason for this is that one Xaw3d function uses `double' or
3768 `float' function parameters depending on the setting of NARROWPROTO.
3769 This is not a problem when Imakefiles are used because each system's
3770 imake configuration file contains the necessary information. Since
3771 Emacs doesn't use imake, this has do be done manually.
3772
3773 ** Tool bar support.
3774
3775 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. For details
3776 of how to define a tool bar, see the page describing Lisp-level
3777 changes. Tool-bar global minor mode controls whether or not it is
3778 displayed and is on by default. The appearance of the bar is improved
3779 if Emacs has been built with XPM image support. Otherwise monochrome
3780 icons will be used.
3781
3782 To make the tool bar more useful, we need contributions of extra icons
3783 for specific modes (with copyright assignments).
3784
3785 ** Tooltips.
3786
3787 Tooltips are small X windows displaying a help string at the current
3788 mouse position. The Lisp package `tooltip' implements them. You can
3789 turn them off via the user option `tooltip-mode'.
3790
3791 Tooltips also provides support for GUD debugging. If activated,
3792 variable values can be displayed in tooltips by pointing at them with
3793 the mouse in source buffers. You can customize various aspects of the
3794 tooltip display in the group `tooltip'.
3795
3796 ** Automatic Hscrolling
3797
3798 Horizontal scrolling now happens automatically if
3799 `automatic-hscrolling' is set (the default). This setting can be
3800 customized.
3801
3802 If a window is scrolled horizontally with set-window-hscroll, or
3803 scroll-left/scroll-right (C-x <, C-x >), this serves as a lower bound
3804 for automatic horizontal scrolling. Automatic scrolling will scroll
3805 the text more to the left if necessary, but won't scroll the text more
3806 to the right than the column set with set-window-hscroll etc.
3807
3808 ** When using a windowing terminal, each Emacs window now has a cursor
3809 of its own. By default, when a window is selected, the cursor is
3810 solid; otherwise, it is hollow. The user-option
3811 `cursor-in-non-selected-windows' controls how to display the
3812 cursor in non-selected windows. If nil, no cursor is shown, if
3813 non-nil a hollow box cursor is shown.
3814
3815 ** Fringes to the left and right of windows are used to display
3816 truncation marks, continuation marks, overlay arrows and alike. The
3817 foreground, background, and stipple of these areas can be changed by
3818 customizing face `fringe'.
3819
3820 ** The mode line under X is now drawn with shadows by default.
3821 You can change its appearance by modifying the face `mode-line'.
3822 In particular, setting the `:box' attribute to nil turns off the 3D
3823 appearance of the mode line. (The 3D appearance makes the mode line
3824 occupy more space, and thus might cause the first or the last line of
3825 the window to be partially obscured.)
3826
3827 The variable `mode-line-inverse-video', which was used in older
3828 versions of emacs to make the mode-line stand out, is now deprecated.
3829 However, setting it to nil will cause the `mode-line' face to be
3830 ignored, and mode-lines to be drawn using the default text face.
3831
3832 ** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
3833
3834 Different parts of the mode line have been made mouse-sensitive on all
3835 systems which support the mouse. Moving the mouse to a
3836 mouse-sensitive part in the mode line changes the appearance of the
3837 mouse pointer to an arrow, and help about available mouse actions is
3838 displayed either in the echo area, or in the tooltip window if you
3839 have enabled one.
3840
3841 Currently, the following actions have been defined:
3842
3843 - Mouse-1 on the buffer name in the mode line goes to the next buffer.
3844
3845 - Mouse-3 on the buffer-name goes to the previous buffer.
3846
3847 - Mouse-2 on the read-only or modified status in the mode line (`%' or
3848 `*') toggles the status.
3849
3850 - Mouse-3 on the mode name displays a minor-mode menu.
3851
3852 ** Hourglass pointer
3853
3854 Emacs can optionally display an hourglass pointer under X. You can
3855 turn the display on or off by customizing group `cursor'.
3856
3857 ** Blinking cursor
3858
3859 M-x blink-cursor-mode toggles a blinking cursor under X and on
3860 terminals having terminal capabilities `vi', `vs', and `ve'. Blinking
3861 and related parameters like frequency and delay can be customized in
3862 the group `cursor'.
3863
3864 ** New font-lock support mode `jit-lock-mode'.
3865
3866 This support mode is roughly equivalent to `lazy-lock' but is
3867 generally faster. It supports stealth and deferred fontification.
3868 See the documentation of the function `jit-lock-mode' for more
3869 details.
3870
3871 Font-lock uses jit-lock-mode as default support mode, so you don't
3872 have to do anything to activate it.
3873
3874 ** The default binding of the Delete key has changed.
3875
3876 The new user-option `normal-erase-is-backspace' can be set to
3877 determine the effect of the Delete and Backspace function keys.
3878
3879 On window systems, the default value of this option is chosen
3880 according to the keyboard used. If the keyboard has both a Backspace
3881 key and a Delete key, and both are mapped to their usual meanings, the
3882 option's default value is set to t, so that Backspace can be used to
3883 delete backward, and Delete can be used to delete forward. On
3884 keyboards which either have only one key (usually labeled DEL), or two
3885 keys DEL and BS which produce the same effect, the option's value is
3886 set to nil, and these keys delete backward.
3887
3888 If not running under a window system, setting this option accomplishes
3889 a similar effect by mapping C-h, which is usually generated by the
3890 Backspace key, to DEL, and by mapping DEL to C-d via
3891 `keyboard-translate'. The former functionality of C-h is available on
3892 the F1 key. You should probably not use this setting on a text-only
3893 terminal if you don't have both Backspace, Delete and F1 keys.
3894
3895 Programmatically, you can call function normal-erase-is-backspace-mode
3896 to toggle the behavior of the Delete and Backspace keys.
3897
3898 ** The default for user-option `next-line-add-newlines' has been
3899 changed to nil, i.e. C-n will no longer add newlines at the end of a
3900 buffer by default.
3901
3902 ** The <home> and <end> keys now move to the beginning or end of the
3903 current line, respectively. C-<home> and C-<end> move to the
3904 beginning and end of the buffer.
3905
3906 ** Emacs now checks for recursive loads of Lisp files. If the
3907 recursion depth exceeds `recursive-load-depth-limit', an error is
3908 signaled.
3909
3910 ** When an error is signaled during the loading of the user's init
3911 file, Emacs now pops up the *Messages* buffer.
3912
3913 ** Emacs now refuses to load compiled Lisp files which weren't
3914 compiled with Emacs. Set `load-dangerous-libraries' to t to change
3915 this behavior.
3916
3917 The reason for this change is an incompatible change in XEmacs's byte
3918 compiler. Files compiled with XEmacs can contain byte codes that let
3919 Emacs dump core.
3920
3921 ** Toggle buttons and radio buttons in menus.
3922
3923 When compiled with LessTif (or Motif) support, Emacs uses toolkit
3924 widgets for radio and toggle buttons in menus. When configured for
3925 Lucid, Emacs draws radio buttons and toggle buttons similar to Motif.
3926
3927 ** The menu bar configuration has changed. The new configuration is
3928 more CUA-compliant. The most significant change is that Options is
3929 now a separate menu-bar item, with Mule and Customize as its submenus.
3930
3931 ** Item Save Options on the Options menu allows saving options set
3932 using that menu.
3933
3934 ** Highlighting of trailing whitespace.
3935
3936 When `show-trailing-whitespace' is non-nil, Emacs displays trailing
3937 whitespace in the face `trailing-whitespace'. Trailing whitespace is
3938 defined as spaces or tabs at the end of a line. To avoid busy
3939 highlighting when entering new text, trailing whitespace is not
3940 displayed if point is at the end of the line containing the
3941 whitespace.
3942
3943 ** C-x 5 1 runs the new command delete-other-frames which deletes
3944 all frames except the selected one.
3945
3946 ** The new user-option `confirm-kill-emacs' can be customized to
3947 let Emacs ask for confirmation before exiting.
3948
3949 ** The header line in an Info buffer is now displayed as an emacs
3950 header-line (which is like a mode-line, but at the top of the window),
3951 so that it remains visible even when the buffer has been scrolled.
3952 This behavior may be disabled by customizing the option
3953 `Info-use-header-line'.
3954
3955 ** Polish, Czech, German, and French translations of Emacs' reference card
3956 have been added. They are named `pl-refcard.tex', `cs-refcard.tex',
3957 `de-refcard.tex' and `fr-refcard.tex'. Postscript files are included.
3958
3959 ** An `Emacs Survival Guide', etc/survival.tex, is available.
3960
3961 ** A reference card for Dired has been added. Its name is
3962 `dired-ref.tex'. A French translation is available in
3963 `fr-drdref.tex'.
3964
3965 ** C-down-mouse-3 is bound differently. Now if the menu bar is not
3966 displayed it pops up a menu containing the items which would be on the
3967 menu bar. If the menu bar is displayed, it pops up the major mode
3968 menu or the Edit menu if there is no major mode menu.
3969
3970 ** Variable `load-path' is no longer customizable through Customize.
3971
3972 You can no longer use `M-x customize-variable' to customize `load-path'
3973 because it now contains a version-dependent component. You can still
3974 use `add-to-list' and `setq' to customize this variable in your
3975 `~/.emacs' init file or to modify it from any Lisp program in general.
3976
3977 ** C-u C-x = provides detailed information about the character at
3978 point in a pop-up window.
3979
3980 ** Emacs can now support 'wheeled' mice (such as the MS IntelliMouse)
3981 under XFree86. To enable this, use the `mouse-wheel-mode' command, or
3982 customize the variable `mouse-wheel-mode'.
3983
3984 The variables `mouse-wheel-follow-mouse' and `mouse-wheel-scroll-amount'
3985 determine where and by how much buffers are scrolled.
3986
3987 ** Emacs' auto-save list files are now by default stored in a
3988 sub-directory `.emacs.d/auto-save-list/' of the user's home directory.
3989 (On MS-DOS, this subdirectory's name is `_emacs.d/auto-save.list/'.)
3990 You can customize `auto-save-list-file-prefix' to change this location.
3991
3992 ** The function `getenv' is now callable interactively.
3993
3994 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
3995 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
3996
3997 ** The new command M-x delete-trailing-whitespace RET will delete the
3998 trailing whitespace within the current restriction. You can also add
3999 this function to `write-file-hooks' or `local-write-file-hooks'.
4000
4001 ** When visiting a file with M-x find-file-literally, no newlines will
4002 be added to the end of the buffer even if `require-final-newline' is
4003 non-nil.
4004
4005 ** The new user-option `find-file-suppress-same-file-warnings' can be
4006 set to suppress warnings ``X and Y are the same file'' when visiting a
4007 file that is already visited under a different name.
4008
4009 ** The new user-option `electric-help-shrink-window' can be set to
4010 nil to prevent adjusting the help window size to the buffer size.
4011
4012 ** New command M-x describe-character-set reads a character set name
4013 and displays information about that.
4014
4015 ** The new variable `auto-mode-interpreter-regexp' contains a regular
4016 expression matching interpreters, for file mode determination.
4017
4018 This regular expression is matched against the first line of a file to
4019 determine the file's mode in `set-auto-mode' when Emacs can't deduce a
4020 mode from the file's name. If it matches, the file is assumed to be
4021 interpreted by the interpreter matched by the second group of the
4022 regular expression. The mode is then determined as the mode
4023 associated with that interpreter in `interpreter-mode-alist'.
4024
4025 ** New function executable-make-buffer-file-executable-if-script-p is
4026 suitable as an after-save-hook as an alternative to `executable-chmod'.
4027
4028 ** The most preferred coding-system is now used to save a buffer if
4029 buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and it is safe for the buffer
4030 contents. (The most preferred is set by set-language-environment or
4031 by M-x prefer-coding-system.) Thus if you visit an ASCII file and
4032 insert a non-ASCII character from your current language environment,
4033 the file will be saved silently with the appropriate coding.
4034 Previously you would be prompted for a safe coding system.
4035
4036 ** The many obsolete language `setup-...-environment' commands have
4037 been removed -- use `set-language-environment'.
4038
4039 ** The new Custom option `keyboard-coding-system' specifies a coding
4040 system for keyboard input.
4041
4042 ** New variable `inhibit-iso-escape-detection' determines if Emacs'
4043 coding system detection algorithm should pay attention to ISO2022's
4044 escape sequences. If this variable is non-nil, the algorithm ignores
4045 such escape sequences. The default value is nil, and it is
4046 recommended not to change it except for the special case that you
4047 always want to read any escape code verbatim. If you just want to
4048 read a specific file without decoding escape codes, use C-x RET c
4049 (`universal-coding-system-argument'). For instance, C-x RET c latin-1
4050 RET C-x C-f filename RET.
4051
4052 ** Variable `default-korean-keyboard' is initialized properly from the
4053 environment variable `HANGUL_KEYBOARD_TYPE'.
4054
4055 ** New command M-x list-charset-chars reads a character set name and
4056 displays all characters in that character set.
4057
4058 ** M-x set-terminal-coding-system (C-x RET t) now allows CCL-based
4059 coding systems such as cpXXX and cyrillic-koi8.
4060
4061 ** Emacs now attempts to determine the initial language environment
4062 and preferred and locale coding systems systematically from the
4063 LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG environment variables during startup.
4064
4065 ** New language environments `Polish', `Latin-8' and `Latin-9'.
4066 Latin-8 and Latin-9 correspond respectively to the ISO character sets
4067 8859-14 (Celtic) and 8859-15 (updated Latin-1, with the Euro sign).
4068 GNU Intlfonts doesn't support these yet but recent X releases have
4069 8859-15. See etc/INSTALL for information on obtaining extra fonts.
4070 There are new Leim input methods for Latin-8 and Latin-9 prefix (only)
4071 and Polish `slash'.
4072
4073 ** New language environments `Dutch' and `Spanish'.
4074 These new environments mainly select appropriate translations
4075 of the tutorial.
4076
4077 ** In Ethiopic language environment, special key bindings for
4078 function keys are changed as follows. This is to conform to "Emacs
4079 Lisp Coding Convention".
4080
4081 new command old-binding
4082 --- ------- -----------
4083 f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-buffer f5
4084 S-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-region f5
4085 C-f3 ethio-fidel-to-sera-mail-or-marker f5
4086
4087 f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-buffer unchanged
4088 S-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-region unchanged
4089 C-f4 ethio-sera-to-fidel-mail-or-marker unchanged
4090
4091 S-f5 ethio-toggle-punctuation f3
4092 S-f6 ethio-modify-vowel f6
4093 S-f7 ethio-replace-space f7
4094 S-f8 ethio-input-special-character f8
4095 S-f9 ethio-replace-space unchanged
4096 C-f9 ethio-toggle-space f2
4097
4098 ** There are new Leim input methods.
4099 New input methods "turkish-postfix", "turkish-alt-postfix",
4100 "greek-mizuochi", "TeX", and "greek-babel" are now part of the Leim
4101 package.
4102
4103 ** The rule of input method "slovak" is slightly changed. Now the
4104 rules for translating "q" and "Q" to "`" (backquote) are deleted, thus
4105 typing them inserts "q" and "Q" respectively. Rules for translating
4106 "=q", "+q", "=Q", and "+Q" to "`" are also deleted. Now, to input
4107 "`", you must type "=q".
4108
4109 ** When your terminal can't display characters from some of the ISO
4110 8859 character sets but can display Latin-1, you can display
4111 more-or-less mnemonic sequences of ASCII/Latin-1 characters instead of
4112 empty boxes (under a window system) or question marks (not under a
4113 window system). Customize the option `latin1-display' to turn this
4114 on.
4115
4116 ** M-; now calls comment-dwim which tries to do something clever based
4117 on the context. M-x kill-comment is now an alias to comment-kill,
4118 defined in newcomment.el. You can choose different styles of region
4119 commenting with the variable `comment-style'.
4120
4121 ** New user options `display-time-mail-face' and
4122 `display-time-use-mail-icon' control the appearance of mode-line mail
4123 indicator used by the display-time package. On a suitable display the
4124 indicator can be an icon and is mouse-sensitive.
4125
4126 ** On window-systems, additional space can be put between text lines
4127 on the display using several methods
4128
4129 - By setting frame parameter `line-spacing' to PIXELS. PIXELS must be
4130 a positive integer, and specifies that PIXELS number of pixels should
4131 be put below text lines on the affected frame or frames.
4132
4133 - By setting X resource `lineSpacing', class `LineSpacing'. This is
4134 equivalent to specifying the frame parameter.
4135
4136 - By specifying `--line-spacing=N' or `-lsp N' on the command line.
4137
4138 - By setting buffer-local variable `line-spacing'. The meaning is
4139 the same, but applies to the a particular buffer only.
4140
4141 ** The new command `clone-indirect-buffer' can be used to create
4142 an indirect buffer that is a twin copy of the current buffer. The
4143 command `clone-indirect-buffer-other-window', bound to C-x 4 c,
4144 does the same but displays the indirect buffer in another window.
4145
4146 ** New user options `backup-directory-alist' and
4147 `make-backup-file-name-function' control the placement of backups,
4148 typically in a single directory or in an invisible sub-directory.
4149
4150 ** New commands iso-iso2sgml and iso-sgml2iso convert between Latin-1
4151 characters and the corresponding SGML (HTML) entities.
4152
4153 ** New X resources recognized
4154
4155 *** The X resource `synchronous', class `Synchronous', specifies
4156 whether Emacs should run in synchronous mode. Synchronous mode
4157 is useful for debugging X problems.
4158
4159 Example:
4160
4161 emacs.synchronous: true
4162
4163 *** The X resource `visualClass, class `VisualClass', specifies the
4164 visual Emacs should use. The resource's value should be a string of
4165 the form `CLASS-DEPTH', where CLASS is the name of the visual class,
4166 and DEPTH is the requested color depth as a decimal number. Valid
4167 visual class names are
4168
4169 TrueColor
4170 PseudoColor
4171 DirectColor
4172 StaticColor
4173 GrayScale
4174 StaticGray
4175
4176 Visual class names specified as X resource are case-insensitive, i.e.
4177 `pseudocolor', `Pseudocolor' and `PseudoColor' all have the same
4178 meaning.
4179
4180 The program `xdpyinfo' can be used to list the visual classes
4181 supported on your display, and which depths they have. If
4182 `visualClass' is not specified, Emacs uses the display's default
4183 visual.
4184
4185 Example:
4186
4187 emacs.visualClass: TrueColor-8
4188
4189 *** The X resource `privateColormap', class `PrivateColormap',
4190 specifies that Emacs should use a private colormap if it is using the
4191 default visual, and that visual is of class PseudoColor. Recognized
4192 resource values are `true' or `on'.
4193
4194 Example:
4195
4196 emacs.privateColormap: true
4197
4198 ** Faces and frame parameters.
4199
4200 There are four new faces `scroll-bar', `border', `cursor' and `mouse'.
4201 Setting the frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
4202 `scroll-bar-background' sets foreground and background color of face
4203 `scroll-bar' and vice versa. Setting frame parameter `border-color'
4204 sets the background color of face `border' and vice versa. Likewise
4205 for frame parameters `cursor-color' and face `cursor', and frame
4206 parameter `mouse-color' and face `mouse'.
4207
4208 Changing frame parameter `font' sets font-related attributes of the
4209 `default' face and vice versa. Setting frame parameters
4210 `foreground-color' or `background-color' sets the colors of the
4211 `default' face and vice versa.
4212
4213 ** New face `menu'.
4214
4215 The face `menu' can be used to change colors and font of Emacs' menus.
4216
4217 ** New frame parameter `screen-gamma' for gamma correction.
4218
4219 The new frame parameter `screen-gamma' specifies gamma-correction for
4220 colors. Its value may be nil, the default, in which case no gamma
4221 correction occurs, or a number > 0, usually a float, that specifies
4222 the screen gamma of a frame's display.
4223
4224 PC monitors usually have a screen gamma of 2.2. smaller values result
4225 in darker colors. You might want to try a screen gamma of 1.5 for LCD
4226 color displays. The viewing gamma Emacs uses is 0.4545. (1/2.2).
4227
4228 The X resource name of this parameter is `screenGamma', class
4229 `ScreenGamma'.
4230
4231 ** Tabs and variable-width text.
4232
4233 Tabs are now displayed with stretch properties; the width of a tab is
4234 defined as a multiple of the normal character width of a frame, and is
4235 independent of the fonts used in the text where the tab appears.
4236 Thus, tabs can be used to line up text in different fonts.
4237
4238 ** Enhancements of the Lucid menu bar
4239
4240 *** The Lucid menu bar now supports the resource "margin".
4241
4242 emacs.pane.menubar.margin: 5
4243
4244 The default margin is 4 which makes the menu bar appear like the
4245 LessTif/Motif one.
4246
4247 *** Arrows that indicate sub-menus are now drawn with shadows, as in
4248 LessTif and Motif.
4249
4250 ** A block cursor can be drawn as wide as the glyph under it under X.
4251
4252 As an example: if a block cursor is over a tab character, it will be
4253 drawn as wide as that tab on the display. To do this, set
4254 `x-stretch-cursor' to a non-nil value.
4255
4256 ** Empty display lines at the end of a buffer may be marked with a
4257 bitmap (this is similar to the tilde displayed by vi and Less).
4258
4259 This behavior is activated by setting the buffer-local variable
4260 `indicate-empty-lines' to a non-nil value. The default value of this
4261 variable is found in `default-indicate-empty-lines'.
4262
4263 ** There is a new "aggressive" scrolling method.
4264
4265 When scrolling up because point is above the window start, if the
4266 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-up-aggressively' is a
4267 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
4268 fraction of the window's height from the top of the window.
4269
4270 When scrolling down because point is below the window end, if the
4271 value of the buffer-local variable `scroll-down-aggressively' is a
4272 number, Emacs chooses a new window start so that point ends up that
4273 fraction of the window's height from the bottom of the window.
4274
4275 ** You can now easily create new *Info* buffers using either
4276 M-x clone-buffer, C-u m <entry> RET or C-u g <entry> RET.
4277 M-x clone-buffer can also be used on *Help* and several other special
4278 buffers.
4279
4280 ** The command `Info-search' now uses a search history.
4281
4282 ** Listing buffers with M-x list-buffers (C-x C-b) now shows
4283 abbreviated file names. Abbreviations can be customized by changing
4284 `directory-abbrev-alist'.
4285
4286 ** A new variable, backup-by-copying-when-privileged-mismatch, gives
4287 the highest file uid for which backup-by-copying-when-mismatch will be
4288 forced on. The assumption is that uids less than or equal to this
4289 value are special uids (root, bin, daemon, etc.--not real system
4290 users) and that files owned by these users should not change ownership,
4291 even if your system policy allows users other than root to edit them.
4292
4293 The default is 200; set the variable to nil to disable the feature.
4294
4295 ** The rectangle commands now avoid inserting undesirable spaces,
4296 notably at the end of lines.
4297
4298 All these functions have been rewritten to avoid inserting unwanted
4299 spaces, and an optional prefix now allows them to behave the old way.
4300
4301 ** The function `replace-rectangle' is an alias for `string-rectangle'.
4302
4303 ** The new command M-x string-insert-rectangle is like `string-rectangle',
4304 but inserts text instead of replacing it.
4305
4306 ** The new command M-x query-replace-regexp-eval acts like
4307 query-replace-regexp, but takes a Lisp expression which is evaluated
4308 after each match to get the replacement text.
4309
4310 ** M-x query-replace recognizes a new command `e' (or `E') that lets
4311 you edit the replacement string.
4312
4313 ** The new command mail-abbrev-complete-alias, bound to `M-TAB'
4314 (if you load the library `mailabbrev'), lets you complete mail aliases
4315 in the text, analogous to lisp-complete-symbol.
4316
4317 ** The variable `echo-keystrokes' may now have a floating point value.
4318
4319 ** If your init file is compiled (.emacs.elc), `user-init-file' is set
4320 to the source name (.emacs.el), if that exists, after loading it.
4321
4322 ** The help string specified for a menu-item whose definition contains
4323 the property `:help HELP' is now displayed under X, on MS-Windows, and
4324 MS-DOS, either in the echo area or with tooltips. Many standard menus
4325 displayed by Emacs now have help strings.
4326
4327 --
4328 ** New user option `read-mail-command' specifies a command to use to
4329 read mail from the menu etc.
4330
4331 ** The environment variable `EMACSLOCKDIR' is no longer used on MS-Windows.
4332 This environment variable was used when creating lock files. Emacs on
4333 MS-Windows does not use this variable anymore. This change was made
4334 before Emacs 21.1, but wasn't documented until now.
4335
4336 ** Highlighting of mouse-sensitive regions is now supported in the
4337 MS-DOS version of Emacs.
4338
4339 ** The new command `msdos-set-mouse-buttons' forces the MS-DOS version
4340 of Emacs to behave as if the mouse had a specified number of buttons.
4341 This comes handy with mice that don't report their number of buttons
4342 correctly. One example is the wheeled mice, which report 3 buttons,
4343 but clicks on the middle button are not passed to the MS-DOS version
4344 of Emacs.
4345
4346 ** Customize changes
4347
4348 *** Customize now supports comments about customized items. Use the
4349 `State' menu to add comments, or give a prefix argument to
4350 M-x customize-set-variable or M-x customize-set-value. Note that
4351 customization comments will cause the customizations to fail in
4352 earlier versions of Emacs.
4353
4354 *** The new option `custom-buffer-done-function' says whether to kill
4355 Custom buffers when you've done with them or just bury them (the
4356 default).
4357
4358 *** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
4359 does not allow you to save customizations in your `~/.emacs' init
4360 file. This is because saving customizations from such a session would
4361 wipe out all the other customizationss you might have on your init
4362 file.
4363
4364 ** If Emacs was invoked with the `-q' or `--no-init-file' options, it
4365 does not save disabled and enabled commands for future sessions, to
4366 avoid overwriting existing customizations of this kind that are
4367 already in your init file.
4368
4369 ** New features in evaluation commands
4370
4371 *** The commands to evaluate Lisp expressions, such as C-M-x in Lisp
4372 modes, C-j in Lisp Interaction mode, and M-:, now bind the variables
4373 print-level, print-length, and debug-on-error based on the new
4374 customizable variables eval-expression-print-level,
4375 eval-expression-print-length, and eval-expression-debug-on-error.
4376
4377 The default values for the first two of these variables are 12 and 4
4378 respectively, which means that `eval-expression' now prints at most
4379 the first 12 members of a list and at most 4 nesting levels deep (if
4380 the list is longer or deeper than that, an ellipsis `...' is
4381 printed).
4382
4383 <RET> or <mouse-2> on the printed text toggles between an abbreviated
4384 printed representation and an unabbreviated one.
4385
4386 The default value of eval-expression-debug-on-error is t, so any error
4387 during evaluation produces a backtrace.
4388
4389 *** The function `eval-defun' (C-M-x) now loads Edebug and instruments
4390 code when called with a prefix argument.
4391
4392 ** CC mode changes.
4393
4394 Note: This release contains changes that might not be compatible with
4395 current user setups (although it's believed that these
4396 incompatibilities will only show in very uncommon circumstances).
4397 However, since the impact is uncertain, these changes may be rolled
4398 back depending on user feedback. Therefore there's no forward
4399 compatibility guarantee wrt the new features introduced in this
4400 release.
4401
4402 *** The hardcoded switch to "java" style in Java mode is gone.
4403 CC Mode used to automatically set the style to "java" when Java mode
4404 is entered. This has now been removed since it caused too much
4405 confusion.
4406
4407 However, to keep backward compatibility to a certain extent, the
4408 default value for c-default-style now specifies the "java" style for
4409 java-mode, but "gnu" for all other modes (as before). So you won't
4410 notice the change if you haven't touched that variable.
4411
4412 *** New cleanups, space-before-funcall and compact-empty-funcall.
4413 Two new cleanups have been added to c-cleanup-list:
4414
4415 space-before-funcall causes a space to be inserted before the opening
4416 parenthesis of a function call, which gives the style "foo (bar)".
4417
4418 compact-empty-funcall causes any space before a function call opening
4419 parenthesis to be removed if there are no arguments to the function.
4420 It's typically useful together with space-before-funcall to get the
4421 style "foo (bar)" and "foo()".
4422
4423 *** Some keywords now automatically trigger reindentation.
4424 Keywords like "else", "while", "catch" and "finally" have been made
4425 "electric" to make them reindent automatically when they continue an
4426 earlier statement. An example:
4427
4428 for (i = 0; i < 17; i++)
4429 if (a[i])
4430 res += a[i]->offset;
4431 else
4432
4433 Here, the "else" should be indented like the preceding "if", since it
4434 continues that statement. CC Mode will automatically reindent it after
4435 the "else" has been typed in full, since it's not until then it's
4436 possible to decide whether it's a new statement or a continuation of
4437 the preceding "if".
4438
4439 CC Mode uses Abbrev mode to achieve this, which is therefore turned on
4440 by default.
4441
4442 *** M-a and M-e now moves by sentence in multiline strings.
4443 Previously these two keys only moved by sentence in comments, which
4444 meant that sentence movement didn't work in strings containing
4445 documentation or other natural language text.
4446
4447 The reason it's only activated in multiline strings (i.e. strings that
4448 contain a newline, even when escaped by a '\') is to avoid stopping in
4449 the short strings that often reside inside statements. Multiline
4450 strings almost always contain text in a natural language, as opposed
4451 to other strings that typically contain format specifications,
4452 commands, etc. Also, it's not that bothersome that M-a and M-e misses
4453 sentences in single line strings, since they're short anyway.
4454
4455 *** Support for autodoc comments in Pike mode.
4456 Autodoc comments for Pike are used to extract documentation from the
4457 source, like Javadoc in Java. Pike mode now recognize this markup in
4458 comment prefixes and paragraph starts.
4459
4460 *** The comment prefix regexps on c-comment-prefix may be mode specific.
4461 When c-comment-prefix is an association list, it specifies the comment
4462 line prefix on a per-mode basis, like c-default-style does. This
4463 change came about to support the special autodoc comment prefix in
4464 Pike mode only.
4465
4466 *** Better handling of syntactic errors.
4467 The recovery after unbalanced parens earlier in the buffer has been
4468 improved; CC Mode now reports them by dinging and giving a message
4469 stating the offending line, but still recovers and indent the
4470 following lines in a sane way (most of the time). An "else" with no
4471 matching "if" is handled similarly. If an error is discovered while
4472 indenting a region, the whole region is still indented and the error
4473 is reported afterwards.
4474
4475 *** Lineup functions may now return absolute columns.
4476 A lineup function can give an absolute column to indent the line to by
4477 returning a vector with the desired column as the first element.
4478
4479 *** More robust and warning-free byte compilation.
4480 Although this is strictly not a user visible change (well, depending
4481 on the view of a user), it's still worth mentioning that CC Mode now
4482 can be compiled in the standard ways without causing trouble. Some
4483 code have also been moved between the subpackages to enhance the
4484 modularity somewhat. Thanks to Martin Buchholz for doing the
4485 groundwork.
4486
4487 *** c-style-variables-are-local-p now defaults to t.
4488 This is an incompatible change that has been made to make the behavior
4489 of the style system wrt global variable settings less confusing for
4490 non-advanced users. If you know what this variable does you might
4491 want to set it to nil in your .emacs, otherwise you probably don't
4492 have to bother.
4493
4494 Defaulting c-style-variables-are-local-p to t avoids the confusing
4495 situation that occurs when a user sets some style variables globally
4496 and edits both a Java and a non-Java file in the same Emacs session.
4497 If the style variables aren't buffer local in this case, loading of
4498 the second file will cause the default style (either "gnu" or "java"
4499 by default) to override the global settings made by the user.
4500
4501 *** New initialization procedure for the style system.
4502 When the initial style for a buffer is determined by CC Mode (from the
4503 variable c-default-style), the global values of style variables now
4504 take precedence over the values specified by the chosen style. This
4505 is different than the old behavior: previously, the style-specific
4506 settings would override the global settings. This change makes it
4507 possible to do simple configuration in the intuitive way with
4508 Customize or with setq lines in one's .emacs file.
4509
4510 By default, the global value of every style variable is the new
4511 special symbol set-from-style, which causes the value to be taken from
4512 the style system. This means that in effect, only an explicit setting
4513 of a style variable will cause the "overriding" behavior described
4514 above.
4515
4516 Also note that global settings override style-specific settings *only*
4517 when the initial style of a buffer is chosen by a CC Mode major mode
4518 function. When a style is chosen in other ways --- for example, by a
4519 call like (c-set-style "gnu") in a hook, or via M-x c-set-style ---
4520 then the style-specific values take precedence over any global style
4521 values. In Lisp terms, global values override style-specific values
4522 only when the new second argument to c-set-style is non-nil; see the
4523 function documentation for more info.
4524
4525 The purpose of these changes is to make it easier for users,
4526 especially novice users, to do simple customizations with Customize or
4527 with setq in their .emacs files. On the other hand, the new system is
4528 intended to be compatible with advanced users' customizations as well,
4529 such as those that choose styles in hooks or whatnot. This new system
4530 is believed to be almost entirely compatible with current
4531 configurations, in spite of the changed precedence between style and
4532 global variable settings when a buffer's default style is set.
4533
4534 (Thanks to Eric Eide for clarifying this explanation a bit.)
4535
4536 **** c-offsets-alist is now a customizable variable.
4537 This became possible as a result of the new initialization behavior.
4538
4539 This variable is treated slightly differently from the other style
4540 variables; instead of using the symbol set-from-style, it will be
4541 completed with the syntactic symbols it doesn't already contain when
4542 the style is first initialized. This means it now defaults to the
4543 empty list to make all syntactic elements get their values from the
4544 style system.
4545
4546 **** Compatibility variable to restore the old behavior.
4547 In case your configuration doesn't work with this change, you can set
4548 c-old-style-variable-behavior to non-nil to get the old behavior back
4549 as far as possible.
4550
4551 *** Improvements to line breaking and text filling.
4552 CC Mode now handles this more intelligently and seamlessly wrt the
4553 surrounding code, especially inside comments. For details see the new
4554 chapter about this in the manual.
4555
4556 **** New variable to recognize comment line prefix decorations.
4557 The variable c-comment-prefix-regexp has been added to properly
4558 recognize the line prefix in both block and line comments. It's
4559 primarily used to initialize the various paragraph recognition and
4560 adaptive filling variables that the text handling functions uses.
4561
4562 **** New variable c-block-comment-prefix.
4563 This is a generalization of the now obsolete variable
4564 c-comment-continuation-stars to handle arbitrary strings.
4565
4566 **** CC Mode now uses adaptive fill mode.
4567 This to make it adapt better to the paragraph style inside comments.
4568
4569 It's also possible to use other adaptive filling packages inside CC
4570 Mode, notably Kyle E. Jones' Filladapt mode (http://wonderworks.com/).
4571 A new convenience function c-setup-filladapt sets up Filladapt for use
4572 inside CC Mode.
4573
4574 Note though that the 2.12 version of Filladapt lacks a feature that
4575 causes it to work suboptimally when c-comment-prefix-regexp can match
4576 the empty string (which it commonly does). A patch for that is
4577 available from the CC Mode web site (http://www.python.org/emacs/
4578 cc-mode/).
4579
4580 **** The variables `c-hanging-comment-starter-p' and
4581 `c-hanging-comment-ender-p', which controlled how comment starters and
4582 enders were filled, are not used anymore. The new version of the
4583 function `c-fill-paragraph' keeps the comment starters and enders as
4584 they were before the filling.
4585
4586 **** It's now possible to selectively turn off auto filling.
4587 The variable c-ignore-auto-fill is used to ignore auto fill mode in
4588 specific contexts, e.g. in preprocessor directives and in string
4589 literals.
4590
4591 **** New context sensitive line break function c-context-line-break.
4592 It works like newline-and-indent in normal code, and adapts the line
4593 prefix according to the comment style when used inside comments. If
4594 you're normally using newline-and-indent, you might want to switch to
4595 this function.
4596
4597 *** Fixes to IDL mode.
4598 It now does a better job in recognizing only the constructs relevant
4599 to IDL. E.g. it no longer matches "class" as the beginning of a
4600 struct block, but it does match the CORBA 2.3 "valuetype" keyword.
4601 Thanks to Eric Eide.
4602
4603 *** Improvements to the Whitesmith style.
4604 It now keeps the style consistently on all levels and both when
4605 opening braces hangs and when they don't.
4606
4607 **** New lineup function c-lineup-whitesmith-in-block.
4608
4609 *** New lineup functions c-lineup-template-args and c-indent-multi-line-block.
4610 See their docstrings for details. c-lineup-template-args does a
4611 better job of tracking the brackets used as parens in C++ templates,
4612 and is used by default to line up continued template arguments.
4613
4614 *** c-lineup-comment now preserves alignment with a comment on the
4615 previous line. It used to instead preserve comments that started in
4616 the column specified by comment-column.
4617
4618 *** c-lineup-C-comments handles "free form" text comments.
4619 In comments with a long delimiter line at the start, the indentation
4620 is kept unchanged for lines that start with an empty comment line
4621 prefix. This is intended for the type of large block comments that
4622 contain documentation with its own formatting. In these you normally
4623 don't want CC Mode to change the indentation.
4624
4625 *** The `c' syntactic symbol is now relative to the comment start
4626 instead of the previous line, to make integers usable as lineup
4627 arguments.
4628
4629 *** All lineup functions have gotten docstrings.
4630
4631 *** More preprocessor directive movement functions.
4632 c-down-conditional does the reverse of c-up-conditional.
4633 c-up-conditional-with-else and c-down-conditional-with-else are
4634 variants of these that also stops at "#else" lines (suggested by Don
4635 Provan).
4636
4637 *** Minor improvements to many movement functions in tricky situations.
4638
4639 ** Dired changes
4640
4641 *** New variable `dired-recursive-deletes' determines if the delete
4642 command will delete non-empty directories recursively. The default
4643 is, delete only empty directories.
4644
4645 *** New variable `dired-recursive-copies' determines if the copy
4646 command will copy directories recursively. The default is, do not
4647 copy directories recursively.
4648
4649 *** In command `dired-do-shell-command' (usually bound to `!') a `?'
4650 in the shell command has a special meaning similar to `*', but with
4651 the difference that the command will be run on each file individually.
4652
4653 *** The new command `dired-find-alternate-file' (usually bound to `a')
4654 replaces the Dired buffer with the buffer for an alternate file or
4655 directory.
4656
4657 *** The new command `dired-show-file-type' (usually bound to `y') shows
4658 a message in the echo area describing what type of file the point is on.
4659 This command invokes the external program `file' do its work, and so
4660 will only work on systems with that program, and will be only as
4661 accurate or inaccurate as it is.
4662
4663 *** Dired now properly handles undo changes of adding/removing `-R'
4664 from ls switches.
4665
4666 *** Dired commands that prompt for a destination file now allow the use
4667 of the `M-n' command in the minibuffer to insert the source filename,
4668 which the user can then edit. This only works if there is a single
4669 source file, not when operating on multiple marked files.
4670
4671 ** Gnus changes.
4672
4673 The Gnus NEWS entries are short, but they reflect sweeping changes in
4674 four areas: Article display treatment, MIME treatment,
4675 internationalization and mail-fetching.
4676
4677 *** The mail-fetching functions have changed. See the manual for the
4678 many details. In particular, all procmail fetching variables are gone.
4679
4680 If you used procmail like in
4681
4682 (setq nnmail-use-procmail t)
4683 (setq nnmail-spool-file 'procmail)
4684 (setq nnmail-procmail-directory "~/mail/incoming/")
4685 (setq nnmail-procmail-suffix "\\.in")
4686
4687 this now has changed to
4688
4689 (setq mail-sources
4690 '((directory :path "~/mail/incoming/"
4691 :suffix ".in")))
4692
4693 More information is available in the info doc at Select Methods ->
4694 Getting Mail -> Mail Sources
4695
4696 *** Gnus is now a MIME-capable reader. This affects many parts of
4697 Gnus, and adds a slew of new commands. See the manual for details.
4698 Separate MIME packages like RMIME, mime-compose etc., will probably no
4699 longer work; remove them and use the native facilities.
4700
4701 The FLIM/SEMI package still works with Emacs 21, but if you want to
4702 use the native facilities, you must remove any mailcap.el[c] that was
4703 installed by FLIM/SEMI version 1.13 or earlier.
4704
4705 *** Gnus has also been multilingualized. This also affects too many
4706 parts of Gnus to summarize here, and adds many new variables. There
4707 are built-in facilities equivalent to those of gnus-mule.el, which is
4708 now just a compatibility layer.
4709
4710 *** gnus-mule.el is now just a compatibility layer over the built-in
4711 Gnus facilities.
4712
4713 *** gnus-auto-select-first can now be a function to be
4714 called to position point.
4715
4716 *** The user can now decide which extra headers should be included in
4717 summary buffers and NOV files.
4718
4719 *** `gnus-article-display-hook' has been removed. Instead, a number
4720 of variables starting with `gnus-treat-' have been added.
4721
4722 *** The Gnus posting styles have been redone again and now work in a
4723 subtly different manner.
4724
4725 *** New web-based backends have been added: nnslashdot, nnwarchive
4726 and nnultimate. nnweb has been revamped, again, to keep up with
4727 ever-changing layouts.
4728
4729 *** Gnus can now read IMAP mail via nnimap.
4730
4731 *** There is image support of various kinds and some sound support.
4732
4733 ** Changes in Texinfo mode.
4734
4735 *** A couple of new key bindings have been added for inserting Texinfo
4736 macros
4737
4738 Key binding Macro
4739 -------------------------
4740 C-c C-c C-s @strong
4741 C-c C-c C-e @emph
4742 C-c C-c u @uref
4743 C-c C-c q @quotation
4744 C-c C-c m @email
4745 C-c C-o @<block> ... @end <block>
4746 M-RET @item
4747
4748 *** The " key now inserts either " or `` or '' depending on context.
4749
4750 ** Changes in Outline mode.
4751
4752 There is now support for Imenu to index headings. A new command
4753 `outline-headers-as-kill' copies the visible headings in the region to
4754 the kill ring, e.g. to produce a table of contents.
4755
4756 ** Changes to Emacs Server
4757
4758 *** The new option `server-kill-new-buffers' specifies what to do
4759 with buffers when done with them. If non-nil, the default, buffers
4760 are killed, unless they were already present before visiting them with
4761 Emacs Server. If nil, `server-temp-file-regexp' specifies which
4762 buffers to kill, as before.
4763
4764 Please note that only buffers are killed that still have a client,
4765 i.e. buffers visited with `emacsclient --no-wait' are never killed in
4766 this way.
4767
4768 ** Both emacsclient and Emacs itself now accept command line options
4769 of the form +LINE:COLUMN in addition to +LINE.
4770
4771 ** Changes to Show Paren mode.
4772
4773 *** Overlays used by Show Paren mode now use a priority property.
4774 The new user option show-paren-priority specifies the priority to
4775 use. Default is 1000.
4776
4777 ** New command M-x check-parens can be used to find unbalanced paren
4778 groups and strings in buffers in Lisp mode (or other modes).
4779
4780 ** Changes to hideshow.el
4781
4782 *** Generalized block selection and traversal
4783
4784 A block is now recognized by its start and end regexps (both strings),
4785 and an integer specifying which sub-expression in the start regexp
4786 serves as the place where a `forward-sexp'-like function can operate.
4787 See the documentation of variable `hs-special-modes-alist'.
4788
4789 *** During incremental search, if Hideshow minor mode is active,
4790 hidden blocks are temporarily shown. The variable `hs-headline' can
4791 be used in the mode line format to show the line at the beginning of
4792 the open block.
4793
4794 *** User option `hs-hide-all-non-comment-function' specifies a
4795 function to be called at each top-level block beginning, instead of
4796 the normal block-hiding function.
4797
4798 *** The command `hs-show-region' has been removed.
4799
4800 *** The key bindings have changed to fit the Emacs conventions,
4801 roughly imitating those of Outline minor mode. Notably, the prefix
4802 for all bindings is now `C-c @'. For details, see the documentation
4803 for `hs-minor-mode'.
4804
4805 *** The variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' has been removed, and
4806 hideshow.el now always behaves as if this variable were set to t.
4807
4808 ** Changes to Change Log mode and Add-Log functions
4809
4810 *** If you invoke `add-change-log-entry' from a backup file, it makes
4811 an entry appropriate for the file's parent. This is useful for making
4812 log entries by comparing a version with deleted functions.
4813
4814 **** New command M-x change-log-merge merges another log into the
4815 current buffer.
4816
4817 *** New command M-x change-log-redate fixes any old-style date entries
4818 in a log file.
4819
4820 *** Change Log mode now adds a file's version number to change log
4821 entries if user-option `change-log-version-info-enabled' is non-nil.
4822 Unless the file is under version control the search for a file's
4823 version number is performed based on regular expressions from
4824 `change-log-version-number-regexp-list' which can be customized.
4825 Version numbers are only found in the first 10 percent of a file.
4826
4827 *** Change Log mode now defines its own faces for font-lock highlighting.
4828
4829 ** Changes to cmuscheme
4830
4831 *** The user-option `scheme-program-name' has been renamed
4832 `cmuscheme-program-name' due to conflicts with xscheme.el.
4833
4834 ** Changes in Font Lock
4835
4836 *** The new function `font-lock-remove-keywords' can be used to remove
4837 font-lock keywords from the current buffer or from a specific major mode.
4838
4839 *** Multi-line patterns are now supported. Modes using this, should
4840 set font-lock-multiline to t in their font-lock-defaults.
4841
4842 *** `font-lock-syntactic-face-function' allows major-modes to choose
4843 the face used for each string/comment.
4844
4845 *** A new standard face `font-lock-doc-face'.
4846 Meant for Lisp docstrings, Javadoc comments and other "documentation in code".
4847
4848 ** Changes to Shell mode
4849
4850 *** The `shell' command now accepts an optional argument to specify the buffer
4851 to use, which defaults to "*shell*". When used interactively, a
4852 non-default buffer may be specified by giving the `shell' command a
4853 prefix argument (causing it to prompt for the buffer name).
4854
4855 ** Comint (subshell) changes
4856
4857 These changes generally affect all modes derived from comint mode, which
4858 include shell-mode, gdb-mode, scheme-interaction-mode, etc.
4859
4860 *** Comint now by default interprets some carriage-control characters.
4861 Comint now removes CRs from CR LF sequences, and treats single CRs and
4862 BSs in the output in a way similar to a terminal (by deleting to the
4863 beginning of the line, or deleting the previous character,
4864 respectively). This is achieved by adding `comint-carriage-motion' to
4865 the `comint-output-filter-functions' hook by default.
4866
4867 *** By default, comint no longer uses the variable `comint-prompt-regexp'
4868 to distinguish prompts from user-input. Instead, it notices which
4869 parts of the text were output by the process, and which entered by the
4870 user, and attaches `field' properties to allow emacs commands to use
4871 this information. Common movement commands, notably beginning-of-line,
4872 respect field boundaries in a fairly natural manner. To disable this
4873 feature, and use the old behavior, customize the user option
4874 `comint-use-prompt-regexp-instead-of-fields'.
4875
4876 *** Comint now includes new features to send commands to running processes
4877 and redirect the output to a designated buffer or buffers.
4878
4879 *** The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command reads a command and
4880 buffer name from the mini-buffer. The command is sent to the current
4881 buffer's process, and its output is inserted into the specified buffer.
4882
4883 The command M-x comint-redirect-send-command-to-process acts like
4884 M-x comint-redirect-send-command but additionally reads the name of
4885 the buffer whose process should be used from the mini-buffer.
4886
4887 *** Packages based on comint now highlight user input and program prompts,
4888 and support choosing previous input with mouse-2. To control these features,
4889 see the user-options `comint-highlight-input' and `comint-highlight-prompt'.
4890
4891 *** The new command `comint-write-output' (usually bound to `C-c C-s')
4892 saves the output from the most recent command to a file. With a prefix
4893 argument, it appends to the file.
4894
4895 *** The command `comint-kill-output' has been renamed `comint-delete-output'
4896 (usually bound to `C-c C-o'); the old name is aliased to it for
4897 compatibility.
4898
4899 *** The new function `comint-add-to-input-history' adds commands to the input
4900 ring (history).
4901
4902 *** The new variable `comint-input-history-ignore' is a regexp for
4903 identifying history lines that should be ignored, like tcsh time-stamp
4904 strings, starting with a `#'. The default value of this variable is "^#".
4905
4906 ** Changes to Rmail mode
4907
4908 *** The new user-option rmail-user-mail-address-regexp can be
4909 set to fine tune the identification of the correspondent when
4910 receiving new mail. If it matches the address of the sender, the
4911 recipient is taken as correspondent of a mail. If nil, the default,
4912 `user-login-name' and `user-mail-address' are used to exclude yourself
4913 as correspondent.
4914
4915 Usually you don't have to set this variable, except if you collect
4916 mails sent by you under different user names. Then it should be a
4917 regexp matching your mail addresses.
4918
4919 *** The new user-option rmail-confirm-expunge controls whether and how
4920 to ask for confirmation before expunging deleted messages from an
4921 Rmail file. You can choose between no confirmation, confirmation
4922 with y-or-n-p, or confirmation with yes-or-no-p. Default is to ask
4923 for confirmation with yes-or-no-p.
4924
4925 *** RET is now bound in the Rmail summary to rmail-summary-goto-msg,
4926 like `j'.
4927
4928 *** There is a new user option `rmail-digest-end-regexps' that
4929 specifies the regular expressions to detect the line that ends a
4930 digest message.
4931
4932 *** The new user option `rmail-automatic-folder-directives' specifies
4933 in which folder to put messages automatically.
4934
4935 *** The new function `rmail-redecode-body' allows to fix a message
4936 with non-ASCII characters if Emacs happens to decode it incorrectly
4937 due to missing or malformed "charset=" header.
4938
4939 ** The new user-option `mail-envelope-from' can be used to specify
4940 an envelope-from address different from user-mail-address.
4941
4942 ** The variable mail-specify-envelope-from controls whether to
4943 use the -f option when sending mail.
4944
4945 ** The Rmail command `o' (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file') now writes the
4946 current message in the internal `emacs-mule' encoding, rather than in
4947 the encoding taken from the variable `buffer-file-coding-system'.
4948 This allows to save messages whose characters cannot be safely encoded
4949 by the buffer's coding system, and makes sure the message will be
4950 displayed correctly when you later visit the target Rmail file.
4951
4952 If you want your Rmail files be encoded in a specific coding system
4953 other than `emacs-mule', you can customize the variable
4954 `rmail-file-coding-system' to set its value to that coding system.
4955
4956 ** Changes to TeX mode
4957
4958 *** The default mode has been changed from `plain-tex-mode' to
4959 `latex-mode'.
4960
4961 *** latex-mode now has a simple indentation algorithm.
4962
4963 *** M-f and M-p jump around \begin...\end pairs.
4964
4965 *** Added support for outline-minor-mode.
4966
4967 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
4968
4969 *** RefTeX has new support for index generation. Index entries can be
4970 created with `C-c <', with completion available on index keys.
4971 Pressing `C-c /' indexes the word at the cursor with a default
4972 macro. `C-c >' compiles all index entries into an alphabetically
4973 sorted *Index* buffer which looks like the final index. Entries
4974 can be edited from that buffer.
4975
4976 *** Label and citation key selection now allow to select several
4977 items and reference them together (use `m' to mark items, `a' or
4978 `A' to use all marked entries).
4979
4980 *** reftex.el has been split into a number of smaller files to reduce
4981 memory use when only a part of RefTeX is being used.
4982
4983 *** a new command `reftex-view-crossref-from-bibtex' (bound to `C-c &'
4984 in BibTeX-mode) can be called in a BibTeX database buffer in order
4985 to show locations in LaTeX documents where a particular entry has
4986 been cited.
4987
4988 ** Emacs Lisp mode now allows multiple levels of outline headings.
4989 The level of a heading is determined from the number of leading
4990 semicolons in a heading line. Toplevel forms starting with a `('
4991 in column 1 are always made leaves.
4992
4993 ** The M-x time-stamp command (most commonly used on write-file-hooks)
4994 has the following new features:
4995
4996 *** The patterns for finding the time stamp and for updating a pattern
4997 may match text spanning multiple lines. For example, some people like
4998 to have the filename and date on separate lines. The new variable
4999 time-stamp-inserts-lines controls the matching for multi-line patterns.
5000
5001 *** More than one time stamp can be updated in the same file. This
5002 feature is useful if you need separate time stamps in a program source
5003 file to both include in formatted documentation and insert in the
5004 compiled binary. The same time-stamp will be written at each matching
5005 pattern. The variable time-stamp-count enables this new feature; it
5006 defaults to 1.
5007
5008 ** Partial Completion mode now completes environment variables in
5009 file names.
5010
5011 ** Ispell changes
5012
5013 *** The command `ispell' now spell-checks a region if
5014 transient-mark-mode is on, and the mark is active. Otherwise it
5015 spell-checks the current buffer.
5016
5017 *** Support for synchronous subprocesses - DOS/Windoze - has been
5018 added.
5019
5020 *** An "alignment error" bug was fixed when a manual spelling
5021 correction is made and re-checked.
5022
5023 *** Italian, Portuguese, and Slovak dictionary definitions have been added.
5024
5025 *** Region skipping performance has been vastly improved in some
5026 cases.
5027
5028 *** Spell checking HTML buffers has been improved and isn't so strict
5029 on syntax errors.
5030
5031 *** The buffer-local words are now always placed on a new line at the
5032 end of the buffer.
5033
5034 *** Spell checking now works in the MS-DOS version of Emacs.
5035
5036 ** Makefile mode changes
5037
5038 *** The mode now uses the abbrev table `makefile-mode-abbrev-table'.
5039
5040 *** Conditionals and include statements are now highlighted when
5041 Fontlock mode is active.
5042
5043 ** Isearch changes
5044
5045 *** Isearch now puts a call to `isearch-resume' in the command history,
5046 so that searches can be resumed.
5047
5048 *** In Isearch mode, C-M-s and C-M-r are now bound like C-s and C-r,
5049 respectively, i.e. you can repeat a regexp isearch with the same keys
5050 that started the search.
5051
5052 *** In Isearch mode, mouse-2 in the echo area now yanks the current
5053 selection into the search string rather than giving an error.
5054
5055 *** There is a new lazy highlighting feature in incremental search.
5056
5057 Lazy highlighting is switched on/off by customizing variable
5058 `isearch-lazy-highlight'. When active, all matches for the current
5059 search string are highlighted. The current match is highlighted as
5060 before using face `isearch' or `region'. All other matches are
5061 highlighted using face `isearch-lazy-highlight-face' which defaults to
5062 `secondary-selection'.
5063
5064 The extra highlighting makes it easier to anticipate where the cursor
5065 will end up each time you press C-s or C-r to repeat a pending search.
5066 Highlighting of these additional matches happens in a deferred fashion
5067 using "idle timers," so the cycles needed do not rob isearch of its
5068 usual snappy response.
5069
5070 If `isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup' is set to t, highlights for
5071 matches are automatically cleared when you end the search. If it is
5072 set to nil, you can remove the highlights manually with `M-x
5073 isearch-lazy-highlight-cleanup'.
5074
5075 ** VC Changes
5076
5077 VC has been overhauled internally. It is now modular, making it
5078 easier to plug-in arbitrary version control backends. (See Lisp
5079 Changes for details on the new structure.) As a result, the mechanism
5080 to enable and disable support for particular version systems has
5081 changed: everything is now controlled by the new variable
5082 `vc-handled-backends'. Its value is a list of symbols that identify
5083 version systems; the default is '(RCS CVS SCCS). When finding a file,
5084 each of the backends in that list is tried in order to see whether the
5085 file is registered in that backend.
5086
5087 When registering a new file, VC first tries each of the listed
5088 backends to see if any of them considers itself "responsible" for the
5089 directory of the file (e.g. because a corresponding subdirectory for
5090 master files exists). If none of the backends is responsible, then
5091 the first backend in the list that could register the file is chosen.
5092 As a consequence, the variable `vc-default-back-end' is now obsolete.
5093
5094 The old variable `vc-master-templates' is also obsolete, although VC
5095 still supports it for backward compatibility. To define templates for
5096 RCS or SCCS, you should rather use the new variables
5097 vc-{rcs,sccs}-master-templates. (There is no such feature under CVS
5098 where it doesn't make sense.)
5099
5100 The variables `vc-ignore-vc-files' and `vc-handle-cvs' are also
5101 obsolete now, you must set `vc-handled-backends' to nil or exclude
5102 `CVS' from the list, respectively, to achieve their effect now.
5103
5104 *** General Changes
5105
5106 The variable `vc-checkout-carefully' is obsolete: the corresponding
5107 checks are always done now.
5108
5109 VC Dired buffers are now kept up-to-date during all version control
5110 operations.
5111
5112 `vc-diff' output is now displayed in `diff-mode'.
5113 `vc-print-log' uses `log-view-mode'.
5114 `vc-log-mode' (used for *VC-Log*) has been replaced by `log-edit-mode'.
5115
5116 The command C-x v m (vc-merge) now accepts an empty argument as the
5117 first revision number. This means that any recent changes on the
5118 current branch should be picked up from the repository and merged into
5119 the working file (``merge news'').
5120
5121 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
5122 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) now ask for a directory name from which to work
5123 downwards.
5124
5125 *** Multiple Backends
5126
5127 VC now lets you register files in more than one backend. This is
5128 useful, for example, if you are working with a slow remote CVS
5129 repository. You can then use RCS for local editing, and occasionally
5130 commit your changes back to CVS, or pick up changes from CVS into your
5131 local RCS archives.
5132
5133 To make this work, the ``more local'' backend (RCS in our example)
5134 should come first in `vc-handled-backends', and the ``more remote''
5135 backend (CVS) should come later. (The default value of
5136 `vc-handled-backends' already has it that way.)
5137
5138 You can then commit changes to another backend (say, RCS), by typing
5139 C-u C-x v v RCS RET (i.e. vc-next-action now accepts a backend name as
5140 a revision number). VC registers the file in the more local backend
5141 if that hasn't already happened, and commits to a branch based on the
5142 current revision number from the more remote backend.
5143
5144 If a file is registered in multiple backends, you can switch to
5145 another one using C-x v b (vc-switch-backend). This does not change
5146 any files, it only changes VC's perspective on the file. Use this to
5147 pick up changes from CVS while working under RCS locally.
5148
5149 After you are done with your local RCS editing, you can commit your
5150 changes back to CVS using C-u C-x v v CVS RET. In this case, the
5151 local RCS archive is removed after the commit, and the log entry
5152 buffer is initialized to contain the entire RCS change log of the file.
5153
5154 *** Changes for CVS
5155
5156 There is a new user option, `vc-cvs-stay-local'. If it is `t' (the
5157 default), then VC avoids network queries for files registered in
5158 remote repositories. The state of such files is then only determined
5159 by heuristics and past information. `vc-cvs-stay-local' can also be a
5160 regexp to match against repository hostnames; only files from hosts
5161 that match it are treated locally. If the variable is nil, then VC
5162 queries the repository just as often as it does for local files.
5163
5164 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, then VC also makes local backups of
5165 repository versions. This means that ordinary diffs (C-x v =) and
5166 revert operations (C-x v u) can be done completely locally, without
5167 any repository interactions at all. The name of a local version
5168 backup of FILE is FILE.~REV.~, where REV is the repository version
5169 number. This format is similar to that used by C-x v ~
5170 (vc-version-other-window), except for the trailing dot. As a matter
5171 of fact, the two features can each use the files created by the other,
5172 the only difference being that files with a trailing `.' are deleted
5173 automatically after commit. (This feature doesn't work on MS-DOS,
5174 since DOS disallows more than a single dot in the trunk of a file
5175 name.)
5176
5177 If `vc-cvs-stay-local' is on, and there have been changes in the
5178 repository, VC notifies you about it when you actually try to commit.
5179 If you want to check for updates from the repository without trying to
5180 commit, you can either use C-x v m RET to perform an update on the
5181 current file, or you can use C-x v r RET to get an update for an
5182 entire directory tree.
5183
5184 The new user option `vc-cvs-use-edit' indicates whether VC should call
5185 "cvs edit" to make files writeable; it defaults to `t'. (This option
5186 is only meaningful if the CVSREAD variable is set, or if files are
5187 "watched" by other developers.)
5188
5189 The commands C-x v s (vc-create-snapshot) and C-x v r
5190 (vc-retrieve-snapshot) are now also implemented for CVS. If you give
5191 an empty snapshot name to the latter, that performs a `cvs update',
5192 starting at the given directory.
5193
5194 *** Lisp Changes in VC
5195
5196 VC has been restructured internally to make it modular. You can now
5197 add support for arbitrary version control backends by writing a
5198 library that provides a certain set of backend-specific functions, and
5199 then telling VC to use that library. For example, to add support for
5200 a version system named SYS, you write a library named vc-sys.el, which
5201 provides a number of functions vc-sys-... (see commentary at the top
5202 of vc.el for a detailed list of them). To make VC use that library,
5203 you need to put it somewhere into Emacs' load path and add the symbol
5204 `SYS' to the list `vc-handled-backends'.
5205
5206 ** The customizable EDT emulation package now supports the EDT
5207 SUBS command and EDT scroll margins. It also works with more
5208 terminal/keyboard configurations and it now works under XEmacs.
5209 See etc/edt-user.doc for more information.
5210
5211 ** New modes and packages
5212
5213 *** The new global minor mode `minibuffer-electric-default-mode'
5214 automatically hides the `(default ...)' part of minibuffer prompts when
5215 the default is not applicable.
5216
5217 *** Artist is an Emacs lisp package that allows you to draw lines,
5218 rectangles and ellipses by using your mouse and/or keyboard. The
5219 shapes are made up with the ascii characters |, -, / and \.
5220
5221 Features are:
5222
5223 - Intersecting: When a `|' intersects with a `-', a `+' is
5224 drawn, like this: | \ /
5225 --+-- X
5226 | / \
5227
5228 - Rubber-banding: When drawing lines you can interactively see the
5229 result while holding the mouse button down and moving the mouse. If
5230 your machine is not fast enough (a 386 is a bit too slow, but a
5231 pentium is well enough), you can turn this feature off. You will
5232 then see 1's and 2's which mark the 1st and 2nd endpoint of the line
5233 you are drawing.
5234
5235 - Arrows: After having drawn a (straight) line or a (straight)
5236 poly-line, you can set arrows on the line-ends by typing < or >.
5237
5238 - Flood-filling: You can fill any area with a certain character by
5239 flood-filling.
5240
5241 - Cut copy and paste: You can cut, copy and paste rectangular
5242 regions. Artist also interfaces with the rect package (this can be
5243 turned off if it causes you any trouble) so anything you cut in
5244 artist can be yanked with C-x r y and vice versa.
5245
5246 - Drawing with keys: Everything you can do with the mouse, you can
5247 also do without the mouse.
5248
5249 - Aspect-ratio: You can set the variable artist-aspect-ratio to
5250 reflect the height-width ratio for the font you are using. Squares
5251 and circles are then drawn square/round. Note, that once your
5252 ascii-file is shown with font with a different height-width ratio,
5253 the squares won't be square and the circles won't be round.
5254
5255 - Drawing operations: The following drawing operations are implemented:
5256
5257 lines straight-lines
5258 rectangles squares
5259 poly-lines straight poly-lines
5260 ellipses circles
5261 text (see-thru) text (overwrite)
5262 spray-can setting size for spraying
5263 vaporize line vaporize lines
5264 erase characters erase rectangles
5265
5266 Straight lines are lines that go horizontally, vertically or
5267 diagonally. Plain lines go in any direction. The operations in
5268 the right column are accessed by holding down the shift key while
5269 drawing.
5270
5271 It is possible to vaporize (erase) entire lines and connected lines
5272 (rectangles for example) as long as the lines being vaporized are
5273 straight and connected at their endpoints. Vaporizing is inspired
5274 by the drawrect package by Jari Aalto <jari.aalto@poboxes.com>.
5275
5276 - Picture mode compatibility: Artist is picture mode compatible (this
5277 can be turned off).
5278
5279 *** The new package Eshell is an operating system command shell
5280 implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. Use `M-x eshell' to invoke it.
5281 It functions similarly to bash and zsh, and allows running of Lisp
5282 functions and external commands using the same syntax. It supports
5283 history lists, aliases, extended globbing, smart scrolling, etc. It
5284 will work on any platform Emacs has been ported to. And since most of
5285 the basic commands -- ls, rm, mv, cp, ln, du, cat, etc. -- have been
5286 rewritten in Lisp, it offers an operating-system independent shell,
5287 all within the scope of your Emacs process.
5288
5289 *** The new package timeclock.el is a mode is for keeping track of time
5290 intervals. You can use it for whatever purpose you like, but the
5291 typical scenario is to keep track of how much time you spend working
5292 on certain projects.
5293
5294 *** The new package hi-lock.el provides commands to highlight matches
5295 of interactively entered regexps. For example,
5296
5297 M-x highlight-regexp RET clearly RET RET
5298
5299 will highlight all occurrences of `clearly' using a yellow background
5300 face. New occurrences of `clearly' will be highlighted as they are
5301 typed. `M-x unhighlight-regexp RET' will remove the highlighting.
5302 Any existing face can be used for highlighting and a set of
5303 appropriate faces is provided. The regexps can be written into the
5304 current buffer in a form that will be recognized the next time the
5305 corresponding file is read. There are commands to highlight matches
5306 to phrases and to highlight entire lines containing a match.
5307
5308 *** The new package zone.el plays games with Emacs' display when
5309 Emacs is idle.
5310
5311 *** The new package tildify.el allows to add hard spaces or other text
5312 fragments in accordance with the current major mode.
5313
5314 *** The new package xml.el provides a simple but generic XML
5315 parser. It doesn't parse the DTDs however.
5316
5317 *** The comment operations are now provided by the newcomment.el
5318 package which allows different styles of comment-region and should
5319 be more robust while offering the same functionality.
5320 `comment-region' now doesn't always comment a-line-at-a-time, but only
5321 comments the region, breaking the line at point if necessary.
5322
5323 *** The Ebrowse package implements a C++ class browser and tags
5324 facilities tailored for use with C++. It is documented in a
5325 separate Texinfo file.
5326
5327 *** The PCL-CVS package available by either running M-x cvs-examine or
5328 by visiting a CVS administrative directory (with a prefix argument)
5329 provides an alternative interface to VC-dired for CVS. It comes with
5330 `log-view-mode' to view RCS and SCCS logs and `log-edit-mode' used to
5331 enter check-in log messages.
5332
5333 *** The new package called `woman' allows to browse Unix man pages
5334 without invoking external programs.
5335
5336 The command `M-x woman' formats manual pages entirely in Emacs Lisp
5337 and then displays them, like `M-x manual-entry' does. Unlike
5338 `manual-entry', `woman' does not invoke any external programs, so it
5339 is useful on systems such as MS-DOS/MS-Windows where the `man' and
5340 Groff or `troff' commands are not readily available.
5341
5342 The command `M-x woman-find-file' asks for the file name of a man
5343 page, then formats and displays it like `M-x woman' does.
5344
5345 *** The new command M-x re-builder offers a convenient interface for
5346 authoring regular expressions with immediate visual feedback.
5347
5348 The buffer from which the command was called becomes the target for
5349 the regexp editor popping up in a separate window. Matching text in
5350 the target buffer is immediately color marked during the editing.
5351 Each sub-expression of the regexp will show up in a different face so
5352 even complex regexps can be edited and verified on target data in a
5353 single step.
5354
5355 On displays not supporting faces the matches instead blink like
5356 matching parens to make them stand out. On such a setup you will
5357 probably also want to use the sub-expression mode when the regexp
5358 contains such to get feedback about their respective limits.
5359
5360 *** glasses-mode is a minor mode that makes
5361 unreadableIdentifiersLikeThis readable. It works as glasses, without
5362 actually modifying content of a buffer.
5363
5364 *** The package ebnf2ps translates an EBNF to a syntactic chart in
5365 PostScript.
5366
5367 Currently accepts ad-hoc EBNF, ISO EBNF and Bison/Yacc.
5368
5369 The ad-hoc default EBNF syntax has the following elements:
5370
5371 ; comment (until end of line)
5372 A non-terminal
5373 "C" terminal
5374 ?C? special
5375 $A default non-terminal
5376 $"C" default terminal
5377 $?C? default special
5378 A = B. production (A is the header and B the body)
5379 C D sequence (C occurs before D)
5380 C | D alternative (C or D occurs)
5381 A - B exception (A excluding B, B without any non-terminal)
5382 n * A repetition (A repeats n (integer) times)
5383 (C) group (expression C is grouped together)
5384 [C] optional (C may or not occurs)
5385 C+ one or more occurrences of C
5386 {C}+ one or more occurrences of C
5387 {C}* zero or more occurrences of C
5388 {C} zero or more occurrences of C
5389 C / D equivalent to: C {D C}*
5390 {C || D}+ equivalent to: C {D C}*
5391 {C || D}* equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
5392 {C || D} equivalent to: [C {D C}*]
5393
5394 Please, see ebnf2ps documentation for EBNF syntax and how to use it.
5395
5396 *** The package align.el will align columns within a region, using M-x
5397 align. Its mode-specific rules, based on regular expressions,
5398 determine where the columns should be split. In C and C++, for
5399 example, it will align variable names in declaration lists, or the
5400 equal signs of assignments.
5401
5402 *** `paragraph-indent-minor-mode' is a new minor mode supporting
5403 paragraphs in the same style as `paragraph-indent-text-mode'.
5404
5405 *** bs.el is a new package for buffer selection similar to
5406 list-buffers or electric-buffer-list. Use M-x bs-show to display a
5407 buffer menu with this package. See the Custom group `bs'.
5408
5409 *** find-lisp.el is a package emulating the Unix find command in Lisp.
5410
5411 *** calculator.el is a small calculator package that is intended to
5412 replace desktop calculators such as xcalc and calc.exe. Actually, it
5413 is not too small - it has more features than most desktop calculators,
5414 and can be customized easily to get many more functions. It should
5415 not be confused with "calc" which is a much bigger mathematical tool
5416 which answers different needs.
5417
5418 *** The minor modes cwarn-mode and global-cwarn-mode highlights
5419 suspicious C and C++ constructions. Currently, assignments inside
5420 expressions, semicolon following `if', `for' and `while' (except, of
5421 course, after a `do .. while' statement), and C++ functions with
5422 reference parameters are recognized. The modes require font-lock mode
5423 to be enabled.
5424
5425 *** smerge-mode.el provides `smerge-mode', a simple minor-mode for files
5426 containing diff3-style conflict markers, such as generated by RCS.
5427
5428 *** 5x5.el is a simple puzzle game.
5429
5430 *** hl-line.el provides `hl-line-mode', a minor mode to highlight the
5431 current line in the current buffer. It also provides
5432 `global-hl-line-mode' to provide the same behavior in all buffers.
5433
5434 *** ansi-color.el translates ANSI terminal escapes into text-properties.
5435
5436 Please note: if `ansi-color-for-comint-mode' and
5437 `global-font-lock-mode' are non-nil, loading ansi-color.el will
5438 disable font-lock and add `ansi-color-apply' to
5439 `comint-preoutput-filter-functions' for all shell-mode buffers. This
5440 displays the output of "ls --color=yes" using the correct foreground
5441 and background colors.
5442
5443 *** delphi.el provides a major mode for editing the Delphi (Object
5444 Pascal) language.
5445
5446 *** quickurl.el provides a simple method of inserting a URL based on
5447 the text at point.
5448
5449 *** sql.el provides an interface to SQL data bases.
5450
5451 *** fortune.el uses the fortune program to create mail/news signatures.
5452
5453 *** whitespace.el is a package for warning about and cleaning bogus
5454 whitespace in a file.
5455
5456 *** PostScript mode (ps-mode) is a new major mode for editing PostScript
5457 files. It offers: interaction with a PostScript interpreter, including
5458 (very basic) error handling; fontification, easily customizable for
5459 interpreter messages; auto-indentation; insertion of EPSF templates and
5460 often used code snippets; viewing of BoundingBox; commenting out /
5461 uncommenting regions; conversion of 8bit characters to PostScript octal
5462 codes. All functionality is accessible through a menu.
5463
5464 *** delim-col helps to prettify columns in a text region or rectangle.
5465
5466 Here is an example of columns:
5467
5468 horse apple bus
5469 dog pineapple car EXTRA
5470 porcupine strawberry airplane
5471
5472 Doing the following settings:
5473
5474 (setq delimit-columns-str-before "[ ")
5475 (setq delimit-columns-str-after " ]")
5476 (setq delimit-columns-str-separator ", ")
5477 (setq delimit-columns-separator "\t")
5478
5479
5480 Selecting the lines above and typing:
5481
5482 M-x delimit-columns-region
5483
5484 It results:
5485
5486 [ horse , apple , bus , ]
5487 [ dog , pineapple , car , EXTRA ]
5488 [ porcupine, strawberry, airplane, ]
5489
5490 delim-col has the following options:
5491
5492 delimit-columns-str-before Specify a string to be inserted
5493 before all columns.
5494
5495 delimit-columns-str-separator Specify a string to be inserted
5496 between each column.
5497
5498 delimit-columns-str-after Specify a string to be inserted
5499 after all columns.
5500
5501 delimit-columns-separator Specify a regexp which separates
5502 each column.
5503
5504 delim-col has the following commands:
5505
5506 delimit-columns-region Prettify all columns in a text region.
5507 delimit-columns-rectangle Prettify all columns in a text rectangle.
5508
5509 *** Recentf mode maintains a menu for visiting files that were
5510 operated on recently. User option recentf-menu-filter specifies a
5511 menu filter function to change the menu appearance. For example, the
5512 recent file list can be displayed:
5513
5514 - organized by major modes, directories or user defined rules.
5515 - sorted by file paths, file names, ascending or descending.
5516 - showing paths relative to the current default-directory
5517
5518 The `recentf-filter-changer' menu filter function allows to
5519 dynamically change the menu appearance.
5520
5521 *** elide-head.el provides a mechanism for eliding boilerplate header
5522 text.
5523
5524 *** footnote.el provides `footnote-mode', a minor mode supporting use
5525 of footnotes. It is intended for use with Message mode, but isn't
5526 specific to Message mode.
5527
5528 *** diff-mode.el provides `diff-mode', a major mode for
5529 viewing/editing context diffs (patches). It is selected for files
5530 with extension `.diff', `.diffs', `.patch' and `.rej'.
5531
5532 *** EUDC, the Emacs Unified Directory Client, provides a common user
5533 interface to access directory servers using different directory
5534 protocols. It has a separate manual.
5535
5536 *** autoconf.el provides a major mode for editing configure.in files
5537 for Autoconf, selected automatically.
5538
5539 *** windmove.el provides moving between windows.
5540
5541 *** crm.el provides a facility to read multiple strings from the
5542 minibuffer with completion.
5543
5544 *** todo-mode.el provides management of TODO lists and integration
5545 with the diary features.
5546
5547 *** autoarg.el provides a feature reported from Twenex Emacs whereby
5548 numeric keys supply prefix args rather than self inserting.
5549
5550 *** The function `turn-off-auto-fill' unconditionally turns off Auto
5551 Fill mode.
5552
5553 *** pcomplete.el is a library that provides programmable completion
5554 facilities for Emacs, similar to what zsh and tcsh offer. The main
5555 difference is that completion functions are written in Lisp, meaning
5556 they can be profiled, debugged, etc.
5557
5558 *** antlr-mode is a new major mode for editing ANTLR grammar files.
5559 It is automatically turned on for files whose names have the extension
5560 `.g'.
5561
5562 ** Changes in sort.el
5563
5564 The function sort-numeric-fields interprets numbers starting with `0'
5565 as octal and numbers starting with `0x' or `0X' as hexadecimal. The
5566 new user-option sort-numeric-base can be used to specify a default
5567 numeric base.
5568
5569 ** Changes to Ange-ftp
5570
5571 *** Ange-ftp allows you to specify of a port number in remote file
5572 names cleanly. It is appended to the host name, separated by a hash
5573 sign, e.g. `/foo@bar.org#666:mumble'. (This syntax comes from EFS.)
5574
5575 *** If the new user-option `ange-ftp-try-passive-mode' is set, passive
5576 ftp mode will be used if the ftp client supports that.
5577
5578 *** Ange-ftp handles the output of the w32-style clients which
5579 output ^M at the end of lines.
5580
5581 ** The recommended way of using Iswitchb is via the new global minor
5582 mode `iswitchb-mode'.
5583
5584 ** Just loading the msb package doesn't switch on Msb mode anymore.
5585 If you have `(require 'msb)' in your .emacs, please replace it with
5586 `(msb-mode 1)'.
5587
5588 ** Flyspell mode has various new options. See the `flyspell' Custom
5589 group.
5590
5591 ** The user option `backward-delete-char-untabify-method' controls the
5592 behavior of `backward-delete-char-untabify'. The following values
5593 are recognized:
5594
5595 `untabify' -- turn a tab to many spaces, then delete one space;
5596 `hungry' -- delete all whitespace, both tabs and spaces;
5597 `all' -- delete all whitespace, including tabs, spaces and newlines;
5598 nil -- just delete one character.
5599
5600 Default value is `untabify'.
5601
5602 [This change was made in Emacs 20.3 but not mentioned then.]
5603
5604 ** In Cperl mode `cperl-invalid-face' should now be a normal face
5605 symbol, not double-quoted.
5606
5607 ** Some packages are declared obsolete, to be removed in a future
5608 version. They are: auto-show, c-mode, hilit19, hscroll, ooutline,
5609 profile, rnews, rnewspost, and sc. Their implementations have been
5610 moved to lisp/obsolete.
5611
5612 ** auto-compression mode is no longer enabled just by loading jka-compr.el.
5613 To control it, set `auto-compression-mode' via Custom or use the
5614 `auto-compression-mode' command.
5615
5616 ** `browse-url-gnome-moz' is a new option for
5617 `browse-url-browser-function', invoking Mozilla in GNOME, and
5618 `browse-url-kde' can be chosen for invoking the KDE browser.
5619
5620 ** The user-option `browse-url-new-window-p' has been renamed to
5621 `browse-url-new-window-flag'.
5622
5623 ** The functions `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many' now
5624 operate on the active region in Transient Mark mode.
5625
5626 ** `gnus-user-agent' is a new possibility for `mail-user-agent'. It
5627 is like `message-user-agent', but with all the Gnus paraphernalia.
5628
5629 ** The Strokes package has been updated. If your Emacs has XPM
5630 support, you can use it for pictographic editing. In Strokes mode,
5631 use C-mouse-2 to compose a complex stoke and insert it into the
5632 buffer. You can encode or decode a strokes buffer with new commands
5633 M-x strokes-encode-buffer and M-x strokes-decode-buffer. There is a
5634 new command M-x strokes-list-strokes.
5635
5636 ** Hexl contains a new command `hexl-insert-hex-string' which inserts
5637 a string of hexadecimal numbers read from the mini-buffer.
5638
5639 ** Hexl mode allows to insert non-ASCII characters.
5640
5641 The non-ASCII characters are encoded using the same encoding as the
5642 file you are visiting in Hexl mode.
5643
5644 ** Shell script mode changes.
5645
5646 Shell script mode (sh-script) can now indent scripts for shells
5647 derived from sh and rc. The indentation style is customizable, and
5648 sh-script can attempt to "learn" the current buffer's style.
5649
5650 ** Etags changes.
5651
5652 *** In DOS, etags looks for file.cgz if it cannot find file.c.
5653
5654 *** New option --ignore-case-regex is an alternative to --regex. It is now
5655 possible to bind a regexp to a language, by prepending the regexp with
5656 {lang}, where lang is one of the languages that `etags --help' prints out.
5657 This feature is useful especially for regex files, where each line contains
5658 a regular expression. The manual contains details.
5659
5660 *** In C and derived languages, etags creates tags for function
5661 declarations when given the --declarations option.
5662
5663 *** In C++, tags are created for "operator". The tags have the form
5664 "operator+", without spaces between the keyword and the operator.
5665
5666 *** You shouldn't generally need any more the -C or -c++ option: etags
5667 automatically switches to C++ parsing when it meets the `class' or
5668 `template' keywords.
5669
5670 *** Etags now is able to delve at arbitrary deeps into nested structures in
5671 C-like languages. Previously, it was limited to one or two brace levels.
5672
5673 *** New language Ada: tags are functions, procedures, packages, tasks, and
5674 types.
5675
5676 *** In Fortran, `procedure' is not tagged.
5677
5678 *** In Java, tags are created for "interface".
5679
5680 *** In Lisp, "(defstruct (foo", "(defun (operator" and similar constructs
5681 are now tagged.
5682
5683 *** In makefiles, tags the targets.
5684
5685 *** In Perl, the --globals option tags global variables. my and local
5686 variables are tagged.
5687
5688 *** New language Python: def and class at the beginning of a line are tags.
5689
5690 *** .ss files are Scheme files, .pdb is Postscript with C syntax, .psw is
5691 for PSWrap.
5692
5693 ** Changes in etags.el
5694
5695 *** The new user-option tags-case-fold-search can be used to make
5696 tags operations case-sensitive or case-insensitive. The default
5697 is to use the same setting as case-fold-search.
5698
5699 *** You can display additional output with M-x tags-apropos by setting
5700 the new variable tags-apropos-additional-actions.
5701
5702 If non-nil, the variable's value should be a list of triples (TITLE
5703 FUNCTION TO-SEARCH). For each triple, M-x tags-apropos processes
5704 TO-SEARCH and lists tags from it. TO-SEARCH should be an alist,
5705 obarray, or symbol. If it is a symbol, the symbol's value is used.
5706
5707 TITLE is a string to use to label the list of tags from TO-SEARCH.
5708
5709 FUNCTION is a function to call when an entry is selected in the Tags
5710 List buffer. It is called with one argument, the selected symbol.
5711
5712 A useful example value for this variable might be something like:
5713
5714 '(("Emacs Lisp" Info-goto-emacs-command-node obarray)
5715 ("Common Lisp" common-lisp-hyperspec common-lisp-hyperspec-obarray)
5716 ("SCWM" scwm-documentation scwm-obarray))
5717
5718 *** The face tags-tag-face can be used to customize the appearance
5719 of tags in the output of M-x tags-apropos.
5720
5721 *** Setting tags-apropos-verbose to a non-nil value displays the
5722 names of tags files in the *Tags List* buffer.
5723
5724 *** You can now search for tags that are part of the filename itself.
5725 If you have tagged the files topfile.c subdir/subfile.c
5726 /tmp/tempfile.c, you can now search for tags "topfile.c", "subfile.c",
5727 "dir/sub", "tempfile", "tempfile.c". If the tag matches the file name,
5728 point will go to the beginning of the file.
5729
5730 *** Compressed files are now transparently supported if
5731 auto-compression-mode is active. You can tag (with Etags) and search
5732 (with find-tag) both compressed and uncompressed files.
5733
5734 *** Tags commands like M-x tags-search no longer change point
5735 in buffers where no match is found. In buffers where a match is
5736 found, the original value of point is pushed on the marker ring.
5737
5738 ** Fortran mode has a new command `fortran-strip-sequence-nos' to
5739 remove text past column 72. The syntax class of `\' in Fortran is now
5740 appropriate for C-style escape sequences in strings.
5741
5742 ** SGML mode's default `sgml-validate-command' is now `nsgmls'.
5743
5744 ** A new command `view-emacs-problems' (C-h P) displays the PROBLEMS file.
5745
5746 ** The Dabbrev package has a new user-option `dabbrev-ignored-regexps'
5747 containing a list of regular expressions. Buffers matching a regular
5748 expression from that list, are not checked.
5749
5750 ** Emacs can now figure out modification times of remote files.
5751 When you do C-x C-f /user@host:/path/file RET and edit the file,
5752 and someone else modifies the file, you will be prompted to revert
5753 the buffer, just like for the local files.
5754
5755 ** The buffer menu (C-x C-b) no longer lists the *Buffer List* buffer.
5756
5757 ** When invoked with a prefix argument, the command `list-abbrevs' now
5758 displays local abbrevs, only.
5759
5760 ** Refill minor mode provides preliminary support for keeping
5761 paragraphs filled as you modify them.
5762
5763 ** The variable `double-click-fuzz' specifies how much the mouse
5764 may be moved between clicks that are recognized as a pair. Its value
5765 is measured in pixels.
5766
5767 ** The new global minor mode `auto-image-file-mode' allows image files
5768 to be visited as images.
5769
5770 ** Two new user-options `grep-command' and `grep-find-command'
5771 were added to compile.el.
5772
5773 ** Withdrawn packages
5774
5775 *** mldrag.el has been removed. mouse.el provides the same
5776 functionality with aliases for the mldrag functions.
5777
5778 *** eval-reg.el has been obsoleted by changes to edebug.el and removed.
5779
5780 *** ph.el has been obsoleted by EUDC and removed.
5781
5782 \f
5783 * Incompatible Lisp changes
5784
5785 There are a few Lisp changes which are not backwards-compatible and
5786 may require changes to existing code. Here is a list for reference.
5787 See the sections below for details.
5788
5789 ** Since `format' preserves text properties, the idiom
5790 `(format "%s" foo)' no longer works to copy and remove properties.
5791 Use `copy-sequence' to copy the string, then use `set-text-properties'
5792 to remove the properties of the copy.
5793
5794 ** Since the `keymap' text property now has significance, some code
5795 which uses both `local-map' and `keymap' properties (for portability)
5796 may, for instance, give rise to duplicate menus when the keymaps from
5797 these properties are active.
5798
5799 ** The change in the treatment of non-ASCII characters in search
5800 ranges may affect some code.
5801
5802 ** A non-nil value for the LOCAL arg of add-hook makes the hook
5803 buffer-local even if `make-local-hook' hasn't been called, which might
5804 make a difference to some code.
5805
5806 ** The new treatment of the minibuffer prompt might affect code which
5807 operates on the minibuffer.
5808
5809 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
5810 cause `no-conversion' and `emacs-mule-unix' coding systems to produce
5811 different results when reading files with non-ASCII characters
5812 (previously, both coding systems would produce the same results).
5813 Specifically, `no-conversion' interprets each 8-bit byte as a separate
5814 character. This makes `no-conversion' inappropriate for reading
5815 multibyte text, e.g. buffers written to disk in their internal MULE
5816 encoding (auto-saving does that, for example). If a Lisp program
5817 reads such files with `no-conversion', each byte of the multibyte
5818 sequence, including the MULE leading codes such as \201, is treated as
5819 a separate character, which prevents them from being interpreted in
5820 the buffer as multibyte characters.
5821
5822 Therefore, Lisp programs that read files which contain the internal
5823 MULE encoding should use `emacs-mule-unix'. `no-conversion' is only
5824 appropriate for reading truly binary files.
5825
5826 ** Code that relies on the obsolete `before-change-function' and
5827 `after-change-function' to detect buffer changes will now fail. Use
5828 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions' instead.
5829
5830 ** Code that uses `concat' with integer args now gets an error, as
5831 long promised. So does any code that uses derivatives of `concat',
5832 such as `mapconcat'.
5833
5834 ** The function base64-decode-string now always returns a unibyte
5835 string.
5836
5837 ** Not a Lisp incompatibility as such but, with the introduction of
5838 extra private charsets, there is now only one slot free for a new
5839 dimension-2 private charset. User code which tries to add more than
5840 one extra will fail unless you rebuild Emacs with some standard
5841 charset(s) removed; that is probably inadvisable because it changes
5842 the emacs-mule encoding. Also, files stored in the emacs-mule
5843 encoding using Emacs 20 with additional private charsets defined will
5844 probably not be read correctly by Emacs 21.
5845
5846 ** The variable `directory-sep-char' is slated for removal.
5847 Not really a change (yet), but a projected one that you should be
5848 aware of: The variable `directory-sep-char' is deprecated, and should
5849 not be used. It was always ignored on GNU/Linux and Unix systems and
5850 on MS-DOS, but the MS-Windows port tried to support it by adapting the
5851 behavior of certain primitives to the value of this variable. It
5852 turned out that such support cannot be reliable, so it was decided to
5853 remove this variable in the near future. Lisp programs are well
5854 advised not to set it to anything but '/', because any different value
5855 will not have any effect when support for this variable is removed.
5856
5857 \f
5858 * Lisp changes made after edition 2.6 of the Emacs Lisp Manual,
5859 (Display-related features are described in a page of their own below.)
5860
5861 ** Function assq-delete-all replaces function assoc-delete-all.
5862
5863 ** The new function animate-string, from lisp/play/animate.el
5864 allows the animated display of strings.
5865
5866 ** The new function `interactive-form' can be used to obtain the
5867 interactive form of a function.
5868
5869 ** The keyword :set-after in defcustom allows to specify dependencies
5870 between custom options. Example:
5871
5872 (defcustom default-input-method nil
5873 "*Default input method for multilingual text (a string).
5874 This is the input method activated automatically by the command
5875 `toggle-input-method' (\\[toggle-input-method])."
5876 :group 'mule
5877 :type '(choice (const nil) string)
5878 :set-after '(current-language-environment))
5879
5880 This specifies that default-input-method should be set after
5881 current-language-environment even if default-input-method appears
5882 first in a custom-set-variables statement.
5883
5884 ** The new hook `kbd-macro-termination-hook' is run at the end of
5885 function execute-kbd-macro. Functions on this hook are called with no
5886 args. The hook is run independent of how the macro was terminated
5887 (signal or normal termination).
5888
5889 ** Functions `butlast' and `nbutlast' for removing trailing elements
5890 from a list are now available without requiring the CL package.
5891
5892 ** The new user-option `even-window-heights' can be set to nil
5893 to prevent `display-buffer' from evening out window heights.
5894
5895 ** The user-option `face-font-registry-alternatives' specifies
5896 alternative font registry names to try when looking for a font.
5897
5898 ** Function `md5' calculates the MD5 "message digest"/"checksum".
5899
5900 ** Function `delete-frame' runs `delete-frame-hook' before actually
5901 deleting the frame. The hook is called with one arg, the frame
5902 being deleted.
5903
5904 ** `add-hook' now makes the hook local if called with a non-nil LOCAL arg.
5905
5906 ** The treatment of non-ASCII characters in search ranges has changed.
5907 If a range in a regular expression or the arg of
5908 skip-chars-forward/backward starts with a unibyte character C and ends
5909 with a multibyte character C2, the range is divided into two: one is
5910 C..?\377, the other is C1..C2, where C1 is the first character of C2's
5911 charset.
5912
5913 ** The new function `display-message-or-buffer' displays a message in
5914 the echo area or pops up a buffer, depending on the length of the
5915 message.
5916
5917 ** The new macro `with-auto-compression-mode' allows evaluating an
5918 expression with auto-compression-mode enabled.
5919
5920 ** In image specifications, `:heuristic-mask' has been replaced
5921 with the more general `:mask' property.
5922
5923 ** Image specifications accept more `:conversion's.
5924
5925 ** A `?' can be used in a symbol name without escaping it with a
5926 backslash.
5927
5928 ** Reading from the mini-buffer now reads from standard input if Emacs
5929 is running in batch mode. For example,
5930
5931 (message "%s" (read t))
5932
5933 will read a Lisp expression from standard input and print the result
5934 to standard output.
5935
5936 ** The argument of `down-list', `backward-up-list', `up-list',
5937 `kill-sexp', `backward-kill-sexp' and `mark-sexp' is now optional.
5938
5939 ** If `display-buffer-reuse-frames' is set, function `display-buffer'
5940 will raise frames displaying a buffer, instead of creating a new
5941 frame or window.
5942
5943 ** Two new functions for removing elements from lists/sequences
5944 were added
5945
5946 - Function: remove ELT SEQ
5947
5948 Return a copy of SEQ with all occurrences of ELT removed. SEQ must be
5949 a list, vector, or string. The comparison is done with `equal'.
5950
5951 - Function: remq ELT LIST
5952
5953 Return a copy of LIST with all occurrences of ELT removed. The
5954 comparison is done with `eq'.
5955
5956 ** The function `delete' now also works with vectors and strings.
5957
5958 ** The meaning of the `:weakness WEAK' argument of make-hash-table
5959 has been changed: WEAK can now have new values `key-or-value' and
5960 `key-and-value', in addition to `nil', `key', `value', and `t'.
5961
5962 ** Function `aset' stores any multibyte character in any string
5963 without signaling "Attempt to change char length of a string". It may
5964 convert a unibyte string to multibyte if necessary.
5965
5966 ** The value of the `help-echo' text property is called as a function
5967 or evaluated, if it is not a string already, to obtain a help string.
5968
5969 ** Function `make-obsolete' now has an optional arg to say when the
5970 function was declared obsolete.
5971
5972 ** Function `plist-member' is renamed from `widget-plist-member' (which is
5973 retained as an alias).
5974
5975 ** Easy-menu's :filter now works as in XEmacs.
5976 It takes the unconverted (i.e. XEmacs) form of the menu and the result
5977 is automatically converted to Emacs' form.
5978
5979 ** The new function `window-list' has been defined
5980
5981 - Function: window-list &optional FRAME WINDOW MINIBUF
5982
5983 Return a list of windows on FRAME, starting with WINDOW. FRAME nil or
5984 omitted means use the selected frame. WINDOW nil or omitted means use
5985 the selected window. MINIBUF t means include the minibuffer window,
5986 even if it isn't active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means include the
5987 minibuffer window only if it's active. MINIBUF neither nil nor t
5988 means never include the minibuffer window.
5989
5990 ** There's a new function `get-window-with-predicate' defined as follows
5991
5992 - Function: get-window-with-predicate PREDICATE &optional MINIBUF ALL-FRAMES DEFAULT
5993
5994 Return a window satisfying PREDICATE.
5995
5996 This function cycles through all visible windows using `walk-windows',
5997 calling PREDICATE on each one. PREDICATE is called with a window as
5998 argument. The first window for which PREDICATE returns a non-nil
5999 value is returned. If no window satisfies PREDICATE, DEFAULT is
6000 returned.
6001
6002 Optional second arg MINIBUF t means count the minibuffer window even
6003 if not active. MINIBUF nil or omitted means count the minibuffer iff
6004 it is active. MINIBUF neither t nor nil means not to count the
6005 minibuffer even if it is active.
6006
6007 Several frames may share a single minibuffer; if the minibuffer
6008 counts, all windows on all frames that share that minibuffer count
6009 too. Therefore, if you are using a separate minibuffer frame
6010 and the minibuffer is active and MINIBUF says it counts,
6011 `walk-windows' includes the windows in the frame from which you
6012 entered the minibuffer, as well as the minibuffer window.
6013
6014 ALL-FRAMES is the optional third argument.
6015 ALL-FRAMES nil or omitted means cycle within the frames as specified above.
6016 ALL-FRAMES = `visible' means include windows on all visible frames.
6017 ALL-FRAMES = 0 means include windows on all visible and iconified frames.
6018 ALL-FRAMES = t means include windows on all frames including invisible frames.
6019 If ALL-FRAMES is a frame, it means include windows on that frame.
6020 Anything else means restrict to the selected frame.
6021
6022 ** The function `single-key-description' now encloses function key and
6023 event names in angle brackets. When called with a second optional
6024 argument non-nil, angle brackets won't be printed.
6025
6026 ** If the variable `message-truncate-lines' is bound to t around a
6027 call to `message', the echo area will not be resized to display that
6028 message; it will be truncated instead, as it was done in 20.x.
6029 Default value is nil.
6030
6031 ** The user option `line-number-display-limit' can now be set to nil,
6032 meaning no limit.
6033
6034 ** The new user option `line-number-display-limit-width' controls
6035 the maximum width of lines in a buffer for which Emacs displays line
6036 numbers in the mode line. The default is 200.
6037
6038 ** `select-safe-coding-system' now also checks the most preferred
6039 coding-system if buffer-file-coding-system is `undecided' and
6040 DEFAULT-CODING-SYSTEM is not specified,
6041
6042 ** The function `subr-arity' provides information about the argument
6043 list of a primitive.
6044
6045 ** `where-is-internal' now also accepts a list of keymaps.
6046
6047 ** The text property `keymap' specifies a key map which overrides the
6048 buffer's local map and the map specified by the `local-map' property.
6049 This is probably what most current uses of `local-map' want, rather
6050 than replacing the local map.
6051
6052 ** The obsolete variables `before-change-function' and
6053 `after-change-function' are no longer acted upon and have been
6054 removed. Use `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions'
6055 instead.
6056
6057 ** The function `apropos-mode' runs the hook `apropos-mode-hook'.
6058
6059 ** `concat' no longer accepts individual integer arguments,
6060 as promised long ago.
6061
6062 ** The new function `float-time' returns the current time as a float.
6063
6064 ** The new variable auto-coding-regexp-alist specifies coding systems
6065 for reading specific files, analogous to auto-coding-alist, but
6066 patterns are checked against file contents instead of file names.
6067
6068 \f
6069 * Lisp changes in Emacs 21.1 (see following page for display-related features)
6070
6071 ** The new package rx.el provides an alternative sexp notation for
6072 regular expressions.
6073
6074 - Function: rx-to-string SEXP
6075
6076 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
6077
6078 - Macro: rx SEXP
6079
6080 Translate SEXP into a regular expression in string notation.
6081
6082 The following are valid subforms of regular expressions in sexp
6083 notation.
6084
6085 STRING
6086 matches string STRING literally.
6087
6088 CHAR
6089 matches character CHAR literally.
6090
6091 `not-newline'
6092 matches any character except a newline.
6093 .
6094 `anything'
6095 matches any character
6096
6097 `(any SET)'
6098 matches any character in SET. SET may be a character or string.
6099 Ranges of characters can be specified as `A-Z' in strings.
6100
6101 '(in SET)'
6102 like `any'.
6103
6104 `(not (any SET))'
6105 matches any character not in SET
6106
6107 `line-start'
6108 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of a line
6109 in the text being matched
6110
6111 `line-end'
6112 is similar to `line-start' but matches only at the end of a line
6113
6114 `string-start'
6115 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
6116 string being matched against.
6117
6118 `string-end'
6119 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
6120 string being matched against.
6121
6122 `buffer-start'
6123 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning of the
6124 buffer being matched against.
6125
6126 `buffer-end'
6127 matches the empty string, but only at the end of the
6128 buffer being matched against.
6129
6130 `point'
6131 matches the empty string, but only at point.
6132
6133 `word-start'
6134 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
6135 word.
6136
6137 `word-end'
6138 matches the empty string, but only at the end of a word.
6139
6140 `word-boundary'
6141 matches the empty string, but only at the beginning or end of a
6142 word.
6143
6144 `(not word-boundary)'
6145 matches the empty string, but not at the beginning or end of a
6146 word.
6147
6148 `digit'
6149 matches 0 through 9.
6150
6151 `control'
6152 matches ASCII control characters.
6153
6154 `hex-digit'
6155 matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
6156
6157 `blank'
6158 matches space and tab only.
6159
6160 `graphic'
6161 matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
6162 space, and DEL.
6163
6164 `printing'
6165 matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
6166 and DEL.
6167
6168 `alphanumeric'
6169 matches letters and digits. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6170 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6171
6172 `letter'
6173 matches letters. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6174 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6175
6176 `ascii'
6177 matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
6178
6179 `nonascii'
6180 matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
6181
6182 `lower'
6183 matches anything lower-case.
6184
6185 `upper'
6186 matches anything upper-case.
6187
6188 `punctuation'
6189 matches punctuation. (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6190 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
6191
6192 `space'
6193 matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
6194
6195 `word'
6196 matches anything that has word syntax.
6197
6198 `(syntax SYNTAX)'
6199 matches a character with syntax SYNTAX. SYNTAX must be one
6200 of the following symbols.
6201
6202 `whitespace' (\\s- in string notation)
6203 `punctuation' (\\s.)
6204 `word' (\\sw)
6205 `symbol' (\\s_)
6206 `open-parenthesis' (\\s()
6207 `close-parenthesis' (\\s))
6208 `expression-prefix' (\\s')
6209 `string-quote' (\\s\")
6210 `paired-delimiter' (\\s$)
6211 `escape' (\\s\\)
6212 `character-quote' (\\s/)
6213 `comment-start' (\\s<)
6214 `comment-end' (\\s>)
6215
6216 `(not (syntax SYNTAX))'
6217 matches a character that has not syntax SYNTAX.
6218
6219 `(category CATEGORY)'
6220 matches a character with category CATEGORY. CATEGORY must be
6221 either a character to use for C, or one of the following symbols.
6222
6223 `consonant' (\\c0 in string notation)
6224 `base-vowel' (\\c1)
6225 `upper-diacritical-mark' (\\c2)
6226 `lower-diacritical-mark' (\\c3)
6227 `tone-mark' (\\c4)
6228 `symbol' (\\c5)
6229 `digit' (\\c6)
6230 `vowel-modifying-diacritical-mark' (\\c7)
6231 `vowel-sign' (\\c8)
6232 `semivowel-lower' (\\c9)
6233 `not-at-end-of-line' (\\c<)
6234 `not-at-beginning-of-line' (\\c>)
6235 `alpha-numeric-two-byte' (\\cA)
6236 `chinse-two-byte' (\\cC)
6237 `greek-two-byte' (\\cG)
6238 `japanese-hiragana-two-byte' (\\cH)
6239 `indian-two-byte' (\\cI)
6240 `japanese-katakana-two-byte' (\\cK)
6241 `korean-hangul-two-byte' (\\cN)
6242 `cyrillic-two-byte' (\\cY)
6243 `ascii' (\\ca)
6244 `arabic' (\\cb)
6245 `chinese' (\\cc)
6246 `ethiopic' (\\ce)
6247 `greek' (\\cg)
6248 `korean' (\\ch)
6249 `indian' (\\ci)
6250 `japanese' (\\cj)
6251 `japanese-katakana' (\\ck)
6252 `latin' (\\cl)
6253 `lao' (\\co)
6254 `tibetan' (\\cq)
6255 `japanese-roman' (\\cr)
6256 `thai' (\\ct)
6257 `vietnamese' (\\cv)
6258 `hebrew' (\\cw)
6259 `cyrillic' (\\cy)
6260 `can-break' (\\c|)
6261
6262 `(not (category CATEGORY))'
6263 matches a character that has not category CATEGORY.
6264
6265 `(and SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6266 matches what SEXP1 matches, followed by what SEXP2 matches, etc.
6267
6268 `(submatch SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6269 like `and', but makes the match accessible with `match-end',
6270 `match-beginning', and `match-string'.
6271
6272 `(group SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6273 another name for `submatch'.
6274
6275 `(or SEXP1 SEXP2 ...)'
6276 matches anything that matches SEXP1 or SEXP2, etc. If all
6277 args are strings, use `regexp-opt' to optimize the resulting
6278 regular expression.
6279
6280 `(minimal-match SEXP)'
6281 produce a non-greedy regexp for SEXP. Normally, regexps matching
6282 zero or more occurrences of something are \"greedy\" in that they
6283 match as much as they can, as long as the overall regexp can
6284 still match. A non-greedy regexp matches as little as possible.
6285
6286 `(maximal-match SEXP)'
6287 produce a greedy regexp for SEXP. This is the default.
6288
6289 `(zero-or-more SEXP)'
6290 matches zero or more occurrences of what SEXP matches.
6291
6292 `(0+ SEXP)'
6293 like `zero-or-more'.
6294
6295 `(* SEXP)'
6296 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
6297
6298 `(*? SEXP)'
6299 like `zero-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
6300
6301 `(one-or-more SEXP)'
6302 matches one or more occurrences of A.
6303
6304 `(1+ SEXP)'
6305 like `one-or-more'.
6306
6307 `(+ SEXP)'
6308 like `one-or-more', but always produces a greedy regexp.
6309
6310 `(+? SEXP)'
6311 like `one-or-more', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
6312
6313 `(zero-or-one SEXP)'
6314 matches zero or one occurrences of A.
6315
6316 `(optional SEXP)'
6317 like `zero-or-one'.
6318
6319 `(? SEXP)'
6320 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a greedy regexp.
6321
6322 `(?? SEXP)'
6323 like `zero-or-one', but always produces a non-greedy regexp.
6324
6325 `(repeat N SEXP)'
6326 matches N occurrences of what SEXP matches.
6327
6328 `(repeat N M SEXP)'
6329 matches N to M occurrences of what SEXP matches.
6330
6331 `(eval FORM)'
6332 evaluate FORM and insert result. If result is a string,
6333 `regexp-quote' it.
6334
6335 `(regexp REGEXP)'
6336 include REGEXP in string notation in the result.
6337
6338 *** The features `md5' and `overlay' are now provided by default.
6339
6340 *** The special form `save-restriction' now works correctly even if the
6341 buffer is widened inside the save-restriction and changes made outside
6342 the original restriction. Previously, doing this would cause the saved
6343 restriction to be restored incorrectly.
6344
6345 *** The functions `find-charset-region' and `find-charset-string' include
6346 `eight-bit-control' and/or `eight-bit-graphic' in the returned list
6347 when they find 8-bit characters. Previously, they included `ascii' in a
6348 multibyte buffer and `unknown' in a unibyte buffer.
6349
6350 *** The functions `set-buffer-multibyte', `string-as-multibyte' and
6351 `string-as-unibyte' change the byte sequence of a buffer or a string
6352 if it contains a character from the `eight-bit-control' character set.
6353
6354 *** The handling of multibyte sequences in a multibyte buffer is
6355 changed. Previously, a byte sequence matching the pattern
6356 [\200-\237][\240-\377]+ was interpreted as a single character
6357 regardless of the length of the trailing bytes [\240-\377]+. Thus, if
6358 the sequence was longer than what the leading byte indicated, the
6359 extra trailing bytes were ignored by Lisp functions. Now such extra
6360 bytes are independent 8-bit characters belonging to the charset
6361 eight-bit-graphic.
6362
6363 ** Fontsets are now implemented using char-tables.
6364
6365 A fontset can now be specified for each independent character, for
6366 a group of characters or for a character set rather than just for a
6367 character set as previously.
6368
6369 *** The arguments of the function `set-fontset-font' are changed.
6370 They are NAME, CHARACTER, FONTNAME, and optional FRAME. The function
6371 modifies fontset NAME to use FONTNAME for CHARACTER.
6372
6373 CHARACTER may be a cons (FROM . TO), where FROM and TO are non-generic
6374 characters. In that case FONTNAME is used for all characters in the
6375 range FROM and TO (inclusive). CHARACTER may be a charset. In that
6376 case FONTNAME is used for all character in the charset.
6377
6378 FONTNAME may be a cons (FAMILY . REGISTRY), where FAMILY is the family
6379 name of a font and REGISTRY is a registry name of a font.
6380
6381 *** Variable x-charset-registry has been deleted. The default charset
6382 registries of character sets are set in the default fontset
6383 "fontset-default".
6384
6385 *** The function `create-fontset-from-fontset-spec' ignores the second
6386 argument STYLE-VARIANT. It never creates style-variant fontsets.
6387
6388 ** The method of composing characters is changed. Now character
6389 composition is done by a special text property `composition' in
6390 buffers and strings.
6391
6392 *** Charset composition is deleted. Emacs never creates a `composite
6393 character' which is an independent character with a unique character
6394 code. Thus the following functions handling `composite characters'
6395 have been deleted: composite-char-component,
6396 composite-char-component-count, composite-char-composition-rule,
6397 composite-char-composition-rule and decompose-composite-char delete.
6398 The variables leading-code-composition and min-composite-char have
6399 also been deleted.
6400
6401 *** Three more glyph reference points are added. They can be used to
6402 specify a composition rule. See the documentation of the variable
6403 `reference-point-alist' for more detail.
6404
6405 *** The function `compose-region' takes new arguments COMPONENTS and
6406 MODIFICATION-FUNC. With COMPONENTS, you can specify not only a
6407 composition rule but also characters to be composed. Such characters
6408 may differ between buffer and string text.
6409
6410 *** The function `compose-string' takes new arguments START, END,
6411 COMPONENTS, and MODIFICATION-FUNC.
6412
6413 *** The function `compose-string' puts text property `composition'
6414 directly on the argument STRING instead of returning a new string.
6415 Likewise, the function `decompose-string' just removes text property
6416 `composition' from STRING.
6417
6418 *** The new function `find-composition' returns information about
6419 a composition at a specified position in a buffer or a string.
6420
6421 *** The function `decompose-composite-char' is now labeled as
6422 obsolete.
6423
6424 ** The new coding system `mac-roman' is primarily intended for use on
6425 the Macintosh but may be used generally for Macintosh-encoded text.
6426
6427 ** The new character sets `mule-unicode-0100-24ff',
6428 `mule-unicode-2500-33ff', and `mule-unicode-e000-ffff' have been
6429 introduced for Unicode characters in the range U+0100..U+24FF,
6430 U+2500..U+33FF, U+E000..U+FFFF respectively.
6431
6432 Note that the character sets are not yet unified in Emacs, so
6433 characters which belong to charsets such as Latin-2, Greek, Hebrew,
6434 etc. and the same characters in the `mule-unicode-*' charsets are
6435 different characters, as far as Emacs is concerned. For example, text
6436 which includes Unicode characters from the Latin-2 locale cannot be
6437 encoded by Emacs with ISO 8859-2 coding system.
6438
6439 ** The new coding system `mule-utf-8' has been added.
6440 It provides limited support for decoding/encoding UTF-8 text. For
6441 details, please see the documentation string of this coding system.
6442
6443 ** The new character sets `japanese-jisx0213-1' and
6444 `japanese-jisx0213-2' have been introduced for the new Japanese
6445 standard JIS X 0213 Plane 1 and Plane 2.
6446
6447 ** The new character sets `latin-iso8859-14' and `latin-iso8859-15'
6448 have been introduced.
6449
6450 ** The new character sets `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'
6451 have been introduced for 8-bit characters in the ranges 0x80..0x9F and
6452 0xA0..0xFF respectively. Note that the multibyte representation of
6453 eight-bit-control is never exposed; this leads to an exception in the
6454 emacs-mule coding system, which encodes everything else to the
6455 buffer/string internal representation. Note that to search for
6456 eight-bit-graphic characters in a multibyte buffer, the search string
6457 must be multibyte, otherwise such characters will be converted to
6458 their multibyte equivalent.
6459
6460 ** If the APPEND argument of `write-region' is an integer, it seeks to
6461 that offset in the file before writing.
6462
6463 ** The function `add-minor-mode' has been added for convenience and
6464 compatibility with XEmacs (and is used internally by define-minor-mode).
6465
6466 ** The function `shell-command' now sets the default directory of the
6467 `*Shell Command Output*' buffer to the default directory of the buffer
6468 from which the command was issued.
6469
6470 ** The functions `query-replace', `query-replace-regexp',
6471 `query-replace-regexp-eval' `map-query-replace-regexp',
6472 `replace-string', `replace-regexp', and `perform-replace' take two
6473 additional optional arguments START and END that specify the region to
6474 operate on.
6475
6476 ** The new function `count-screen-lines' is a more flexible alternative
6477 to `window-buffer-height'.
6478
6479 - Function: count-screen-lines &optional BEG END COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE WINDOW
6480
6481 Return the number of screen lines in the region between BEG and END.
6482 The number of screen lines may be different from the number of actual
6483 lines, due to line breaking, display table, etc.
6484
6485 Optional arguments BEG and END default to `point-min' and `point-max'
6486 respectively.
6487
6488 If region ends with a newline, ignore it unless optional third argument
6489 COUNT-FINAL-NEWLINE is non-nil.
6490
6491 The optional fourth argument WINDOW specifies the window used for
6492 obtaining parameters such as width, horizontal scrolling, and so
6493 on. The default is to use the selected window's parameters.
6494
6495 Like `vertical-motion', `count-screen-lines' always uses the current
6496 buffer, regardless of which buffer is displayed in WINDOW. This makes
6497 possible to use `count-screen-lines' in any buffer, whether or not it
6498 is currently displayed in some window.
6499
6500 ** The new function `mapc' is like `mapcar' but doesn't collect the
6501 argument function's results.
6502
6503 ** The functions base64-decode-region and base64-decode-string now
6504 signal an error instead of returning nil if decoding fails. Also,
6505 `base64-decode-string' now always returns a unibyte string (in Emacs
6506 20, it returned a multibyte string when the result was a valid multibyte
6507 sequence).
6508
6509 ** The function sendmail-user-agent-compose now recognizes a `body'
6510 header in the list of headers passed to it.
6511
6512 ** The new function member-ignore-case works like `member', but
6513 ignores differences in case and text representation.
6514
6515 ** The buffer-local variable cursor-type can be used to specify the
6516 cursor to use in windows displaying a buffer. Values are interpreted
6517 as follows:
6518
6519 t use the cursor specified for the frame (default)
6520 nil don't display a cursor
6521 `bar' display a bar cursor with default width
6522 (bar . WIDTH) display a bar cursor with width WIDTH
6523 others display a box cursor.
6524
6525 ** The variable open-paren-in-column-0-is-defun-start controls whether
6526 an open parenthesis in column 0 is considered to be the start of a
6527 defun. If set, the default, it is considered a defun start. If not
6528 set, an open parenthesis in column 0 has no special meaning.
6529
6530 ** The new function `string-to-syntax' can be used to translate syntax
6531 specifications in string form as accepted by `modify-syntax-entry' to
6532 the cons-cell form that is used for the values of the `syntax-table'
6533 text property, and in `font-lock-syntactic-keywords'.
6534
6535 Example:
6536
6537 (string-to-syntax "()")
6538 => (4 . 41)
6539
6540 ** Emacs' reader supports CL read syntax for integers in bases
6541 other than 10.
6542
6543 *** `#BINTEGER' or `#bINTEGER' reads INTEGER in binary (radix 2).
6544 INTEGER optionally contains a sign.
6545
6546 #b1111
6547 => 15
6548 #b-1111
6549 => -15
6550
6551 *** `#OINTEGER' or `#oINTEGER' reads INTEGER in octal (radix 8).
6552
6553 #o666
6554 => 438
6555
6556 *** `#XINTEGER' or `#xINTEGER' reads INTEGER in hexadecimal (radix 16).
6557
6558 #xbeef
6559 => 48815
6560
6561 *** `#RADIXrINTEGER' reads INTEGER in radix RADIX, 2 <= RADIX <= 36.
6562
6563 #2R-111
6564 => -7
6565 #25rah
6566 => 267
6567
6568 ** The function `documentation-property' now evaluates the value of
6569 the given property to obtain a string if it doesn't refer to etc/DOC
6570 and isn't a string.
6571
6572 ** If called for a symbol, the function `documentation' now looks for
6573 a `function-documentation' property of that symbol. If it has a non-nil
6574 value, the documentation is taken from that value. If the value is
6575 not a string, it is evaluated to obtain a string.
6576
6577 ** The last argument of `define-key-after' defaults to t for convenience.
6578
6579 ** The new function `replace-regexp-in-string' replaces all matches
6580 for a regexp in a string.
6581
6582 ** `mouse-position' now runs the abnormal hook
6583 `mouse-position-function'.
6584
6585 ** The function string-to-number now returns a float for numbers
6586 that don't fit into a Lisp integer.
6587
6588 ** The variable keyword-symbols-constants-flag has been removed.
6589 Keywords are now always considered constants.
6590
6591 ** The new function `delete-and-extract-region' deletes text and
6592 returns it.
6593
6594 ** The function `clear-this-command-keys' now also clears the vector
6595 returned by function `recent-keys'.
6596
6597 ** Variables `beginning-of-defun-function' and `end-of-defun-function'
6598 can be used to define handlers for the functions that find defuns.
6599 Major modes can define these locally instead of rebinding C-M-a
6600 etc. if the normal conventions for defuns are not appropriate for the
6601 mode.
6602
6603 ** easy-mmode-define-minor-mode now takes an additional BODY argument
6604 and is renamed `define-minor-mode'.
6605
6606 ** If an abbrev has a hook function which is a symbol, and that symbol
6607 has a non-nil `no-self-insert' property, the return value of the hook
6608 function specifies whether an expansion has been done or not. If it
6609 returns nil, abbrev-expand also returns nil, meaning "no expansion has
6610 been performed."
6611
6612 When abbrev expansion is done by typing a self-inserting character,
6613 and the abbrev has a hook with the `no-self-insert' property, and the
6614 hook function returns non-nil meaning expansion has been done,
6615 then the self-inserting character is not inserted.
6616
6617 ** The function `intern-soft' now accepts a symbol as first argument.
6618 In this case, that exact symbol is looked up in the specified obarray,
6619 and the function's value is nil if it is not found.
6620
6621 ** The new macro `with-syntax-table' can be used to evaluate forms
6622 with the syntax table of the current buffer temporarily set to a
6623 specified table.
6624
6625 (with-syntax-table TABLE &rest BODY)
6626
6627 Evaluate BODY with syntax table of current buffer set to a copy of
6628 TABLE. The current syntax table is saved, BODY is evaluated, and the
6629 saved table is restored, even in case of an abnormal exit. Value is
6630 what BODY returns.
6631
6632 ** Regular expressions now support intervals \{n,m\} as well as
6633 Perl's shy-groups \(?:...\) and non-greedy *? +? and ?? operators.
6634 Also back-references like \2 are now considered as an error if the
6635 corresponding subgroup does not exist (or is not closed yet).
6636 Previously it would have been silently turned into `2' (ignoring the `\').
6637
6638 ** The optional argument BUFFER of function file-local-copy has been
6639 removed since it wasn't used by anything.
6640
6641 ** The file name argument of function `file-locked-p' is now required
6642 instead of being optional.
6643
6644 ** The new built-in error `text-read-only' is signaled when trying to
6645 modify read-only text.
6646
6647 ** New functions and variables for locales.
6648
6649 The new variable `locale-coding-system' specifies how to encode and
6650 decode strings passed to low-level message functions like strerror and
6651 time functions like strftime. The new variables
6652 `system-messages-locale' and `system-time-locale' give the system
6653 locales to be used when invoking these two types of functions.
6654
6655 The new function `set-locale-environment' sets the language
6656 environment, preferred coding system, and locale coding system from
6657 the system locale as specified by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, and LANG
6658 environment variables. Normally, it is invoked during startup and need
6659 not be invoked thereafter. It uses the new variables
6660 `locale-language-names', `locale-charset-language-names', and
6661 `locale-preferred-coding-systems' to make its decisions.
6662
6663 ** syntax tables now understand nested comments.
6664 To declare a comment syntax as allowing nesting, just add an `n'
6665 modifier to either of the characters of the comment end and the comment
6666 start sequences.
6667
6668 ** The function `pixmap-spec-p' has been renamed `bitmap-spec-p'
6669 because `bitmap' is more in line with the usual X terminology.
6670
6671 ** New function `propertize'
6672
6673 The new function `propertize' can be used to conveniently construct
6674 strings with text properties.
6675
6676 - Function: propertize STRING &rest PROPERTIES
6677
6678 Value is a copy of STRING with text properties assigned as specified
6679 by PROPERTIES. PROPERTIES is a sequence of pairs PROPERTY VALUE, with
6680 PROPERTY being the name of a text property and VALUE being the
6681 specified value of that property. Example:
6682
6683 (propertize "foo" 'face 'bold 'read-only t)
6684
6685 ** push and pop macros.
6686
6687 Simple versions of the push and pop macros of Common Lisp
6688 are now defined in Emacs Lisp. These macros allow only symbols
6689 as the place that holds the list to be changed.
6690
6691 (push NEWELT LISTNAME) add NEWELT to the front of LISTNAME's value.
6692 (pop LISTNAME) return first elt of LISTNAME, and remove it
6693 (thus altering the value of LISTNAME).
6694
6695 ** New dolist and dotimes macros.
6696
6697 Simple versions of the dolist and dotimes macros of Common Lisp
6698 are now defined in Emacs Lisp.
6699
6700 (dolist (VAR LIST [RESULT]) BODY...)
6701 Execute body once for each element of LIST,
6702 using the variable VAR to hold the current element.
6703 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
6704
6705 (dotimes (VAR COUNT [RESULT]) BODY...)
6706 Execute BODY with VAR bound to successive integers running from 0,
6707 inclusive, to COUNT, exclusive.
6708 Then return the value of RESULT, or nil if RESULT is omitted.
6709
6710 ** Regular expressions now support Posix character classes such as
6711 [:alpha:], [:space:] and so on. These must be used within a character
6712 class--for instance, [-[:digit:].+] matches digits or a period
6713 or a sign.
6714
6715 [:digit:] matches 0 through 9
6716 [:cntrl:] matches ASCII control characters
6717 [:xdigit:] matches 0 through 9, a through f and A through F.
6718 [:blank:] matches space and tab only
6719 [:graph:] matches graphic characters--everything except ASCII control chars,
6720 space, and DEL.
6721 [:print:] matches printing characters--everything except ASCII control chars
6722 and DEL.
6723 [:alnum:] matches letters and digits.
6724 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6725 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6726 [:alpha:] matches letters.
6727 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6728 it matches anything that has word syntax.)
6729 [:ascii:] matches ASCII (unibyte) characters.
6730 [:nonascii:] matches non-ASCII (multibyte) characters.
6731 [:lower:] matches anything lower-case.
6732 [:punct:] matches punctuation.
6733 (But at present, for multibyte characters,
6734 it matches anything that has non-word syntax.)
6735 [:space:] matches anything that has whitespace syntax.
6736 [:upper:] matches anything upper-case.
6737 [:word:] matches anything that has word syntax.
6738
6739 ** Emacs now has built-in hash tables.
6740
6741 The following functions are defined for hash tables:
6742
6743 - Function: make-hash-table ARGS
6744
6745 The argument list ARGS consists of keyword/argument pairs. All arguments
6746 are optional. The following arguments are defined:
6747
6748 :test TEST
6749
6750 TEST must be a symbol specifying how to compare keys. Default is `eql'.
6751 Predefined are `eq', `eql' and `equal'. If TEST is not predefined,
6752 it must have been defined with `define-hash-table-test'.
6753
6754 :size SIZE
6755
6756 SIZE must be an integer > 0 giving a hint to the implementation how
6757 many elements will be put in the hash table. Default size is 65.
6758
6759 :rehash-size REHASH-SIZE
6760
6761 REHASH-SIZE specifies by how much to grow a hash table once it becomes
6762 full. If REHASH-SIZE is an integer, add that to the hash table's old
6763 size to get the new size. Otherwise, REHASH-SIZE must be a float >
6764 1.0, and the new size is computed by multiplying REHASH-SIZE with the
6765 old size. Default rehash size is 1.5.
6766
6767 :rehash-threshold THRESHOLD
6768
6769 THRESHOLD must be a float > 0 and <= 1.0 specifying when to resize the
6770 hash table. It is resized when the ratio of (number of entries) /
6771 (size of hash table) is >= THRESHOLD. Default threshold is 0.8.
6772
6773 :weakness WEAK
6774
6775 WEAK must be either nil, one of the symbols `key, `value',
6776 `key-or-value', `key-and-value', or t, meaning the same as
6777 `key-and-value'. Entries are removed from weak tables during garbage
6778 collection if their key and/or value are not referenced elsewhere
6779 outside of the hash table. Default are non-weak hash tables.
6780
6781 - Function: makehash &optional TEST
6782
6783 Similar to make-hash-table, but only TEST can be specified.
6784
6785 - Function: hash-table-p TABLE
6786
6787 Returns non-nil if TABLE is a hash table object.
6788
6789 - Function: copy-hash-table TABLE
6790
6791 Returns a copy of TABLE. Only the table itself is copied, keys and
6792 values are shared.
6793
6794 - Function: hash-table-count TABLE
6795
6796 Returns the number of entries in TABLE.
6797
6798 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
6799
6800 Returns the rehash size of TABLE.
6801
6802 - Function: hash-table-rehash-threshold TABLE
6803
6804 Returns the rehash threshold of TABLE.
6805
6806 - Function: hash-table-rehash-size TABLE
6807
6808 Returns the size of TABLE.
6809
6810 - Function: hash-table-test TABLE
6811
6812 Returns the test TABLE uses to compare keys.
6813
6814 - Function: hash-table-weakness TABLE
6815
6816 Returns the weakness specified for TABLE.
6817
6818 - Function: clrhash TABLE
6819
6820 Clear TABLE.
6821
6822 - Function: gethash KEY TABLE &optional DEFAULT
6823
6824 Look up KEY in TABLE and return its associated VALUE or DEFAULT if
6825 not found.
6826
6827 - Function: puthash KEY VALUE TABLE
6828
6829 Associate KEY with VALUE in TABLE. If KEY is already associated with
6830 another value, replace the old value with VALUE.
6831
6832 - Function: remhash KEY TABLE
6833
6834 Remove KEY from TABLE if it is there.
6835
6836 - Function: maphash FUNCTION TABLE
6837
6838 Call FUNCTION for all elements in TABLE. FUNCTION must take two
6839 arguments KEY and VALUE.
6840
6841 - Function: sxhash OBJ
6842
6843 Return a hash code for Lisp object OBJ.
6844
6845 - Function: define-hash-table-test NAME TEST-FN HASH-FN
6846
6847 Define a new hash table test named NAME. If NAME is specified as
6848 a test in `make-hash-table', the table created will use TEST-FN for
6849 comparing keys, and HASH-FN to compute hash codes for keys. Test
6850 and hash function are stored as symbol property `hash-table-test'
6851 of NAME with a value of (TEST-FN HASH-FN).
6852
6853 TEST-FN must take two arguments and return non-nil if they are the same.
6854
6855 HASH-FN must take one argument and return an integer that is the hash
6856 code of the argument. The function should use the whole range of
6857 integer values for hash code computation, including negative integers.
6858
6859 Example: The following creates a hash table whose keys are supposed to
6860 be strings that are compared case-insensitively.
6861
6862 (defun case-fold-string= (a b)
6863 (compare-strings a nil nil b nil nil t))
6864
6865 (defun case-fold-string-hash (a)
6866 (sxhash (upcase a)))
6867
6868 (define-hash-table-test 'case-fold 'case-fold-string=
6869 'case-fold-string-hash))
6870
6871 (make-hash-table :test 'case-fold)
6872
6873 ** The Lisp reader handles circular structure.
6874
6875 It now works to use the #N= and #N# constructs to represent
6876 circular structures. For example, #1=(a . #1#) represents
6877 a cons cell which is its own cdr.
6878
6879 ** The Lisp printer handles circular structure.
6880
6881 If you bind print-circle to a non-nil value, the Lisp printer outputs
6882 #N= and #N# constructs to represent circular and shared structure.
6883
6884 ** If the second argument to `move-to-column' is anything but nil or
6885 t, that means replace a tab with spaces if necessary to reach the
6886 specified column, but do not add spaces at the end of the line if it
6887 is too short to reach that column.
6888
6889 ** perform-replace has a new feature: the REPLACEMENTS argument may
6890 now be a cons cell (FUNCTION . DATA). This means to call FUNCTION
6891 after each match to get the replacement text. FUNCTION is called with
6892 two arguments: DATA, and the number of replacements already made.
6893
6894 If the FROM-STRING contains any upper-case letters,
6895 perform-replace also turns off `case-fold-search' temporarily
6896 and inserts the replacement text without altering case in it.
6897
6898 ** The function buffer-size now accepts an optional argument
6899 to specify which buffer to return the size of.
6900
6901 ** The calendar motion commands now run the normal hook
6902 calendar-move-hook after moving point.
6903
6904 ** The new variable small-temporary-file-directory specifies a
6905 directory to use for creating temporary files that are likely to be
6906 small. (Certain Emacs features use this directory.) If
6907 small-temporary-file-directory is nil, they use
6908 temporary-file-directory instead.
6909
6910 ** The variable `inhibit-modification-hooks', if non-nil, inhibits all
6911 the hooks that track changes in the buffer. This affects
6912 `before-change-functions' and `after-change-functions', as well as
6913 hooks attached to text properties and overlay properties.
6914
6915 ** assq-delete-all is a new function that deletes all the
6916 elements of an alist which have a car `eq' to a particular value.
6917
6918 ** make-temp-file provides a more reliable way to create a temporary file.
6919
6920 make-temp-file is used like make-temp-name, except that it actually
6921 creates the file before it returns. This prevents a timing error,
6922 ensuring that no other job can use the same name for a temporary file.
6923
6924 ** New exclusive-open feature in `write-region'
6925
6926 The optional seventh arg is now called MUSTBENEW. If non-nil, it insists
6927 on a check for an existing file with the same name. If MUSTBENEW
6928 is `excl', that means to get an error if the file already exists;
6929 never overwrite. If MUSTBENEW is neither nil nor `excl', that means
6930 ask for confirmation before overwriting, but do go ahead and
6931 overwrite the file if the user gives confirmation.
6932
6933 If the MUSTBENEW argument in `write-region' is `excl',
6934 that means to use a special feature in the `open' system call
6935 to get an error if the file exists at that time.
6936 The error reported is `file-already-exists'.
6937
6938 ** Function `format' now handles text properties.
6939
6940 Text properties of the format string are applied to the result string.
6941 If the result string is longer than the format string, text properties
6942 ending at the end of the format string are extended to the end of the
6943 result string.
6944
6945 Text properties from string arguments are applied to the result
6946 string where arguments appear in the result string.
6947
6948 Example:
6949
6950 (let ((s1 "hello, %s")
6951 (s2 "world"))
6952 (put-text-property 0 (length s1) 'face 'bold s1)
6953 (put-text-property 0 (length s2) 'face 'italic s2)
6954 (format s1 s2))
6955
6956 results in a bold-face string with an italic `world' at the end.
6957
6958 ** Messages can now be displayed with text properties.
6959
6960 Text properties are handled as described above for function `format'.
6961 The following example displays a bold-face message with an italic
6962 argument in it.
6963
6964 (let ((msg "hello, %s!")
6965 (arg "world"))
6966 (put-text-property 0 (length msg) 'face 'bold msg)
6967 (put-text-property 0 (length arg) 'face 'italic arg)
6968 (message msg arg))
6969
6970 ** Sound support
6971
6972 Emacs supports playing sound files on GNU/Linux and the free BSDs
6973 (Voxware driver and native BSD driver, aka as Luigi's driver).
6974
6975 Currently supported file formats are RIFF-WAVE (*.wav) and Sun Audio
6976 (*.au). You must configure Emacs with the option `--with-sound=yes'
6977 to enable sound support.
6978
6979 Sound files can be played by calling (play-sound SOUND). SOUND is a
6980 list of the form `(sound PROPERTY...)'. The function is only defined
6981 when sound support is present for the system on which Emacs runs. The
6982 functions runs `play-sound-functions' with one argument which is the
6983 sound to play, before playing the sound.
6984
6985 The following sound properties are supported:
6986
6987 - `:file FILE'
6988
6989 FILE is a file name. If FILE isn't an absolute name, it will be
6990 searched relative to `data-directory'.
6991
6992 - `:data DATA'
6993
6994 DATA is a string containing sound data. Either :file or :data
6995 may be present, but not both.
6996
6997 - `:volume VOLUME'
6998
6999 VOLUME must be an integer in the range 0..100 or a float in the range
7000 0..1. This property is optional.
7001
7002 - `:device DEVICE'
7003
7004 DEVICE is a string specifying the system device on which to play the
7005 sound. The default device is system-dependent.
7006
7007 Other properties are ignored.
7008
7009 An alternative interface is called as
7010 (play-sound-file FILE &optional VOLUME DEVICE).
7011
7012 ** `multimedia' is a new Finder keyword and Custom group.
7013
7014 ** keywordp is a new predicate to test efficiently for an object being
7015 a keyword symbol.
7016
7017 ** Changes to garbage collection
7018
7019 *** The function garbage-collect now additionally returns the number
7020 of live and free strings.
7021
7022 *** There is a new variable `strings-consed' holding the number of
7023 strings that have been consed so far.
7024
7025 \f
7026 * Lisp-level Display features added after release 2.6 of the Emacs
7027 Lisp Manual
7028
7029 ** The user-option `resize-mini-windows' controls how Emacs resizes
7030 mini-windows.
7031
7032 ** The function `pos-visible-in-window-p' now has a third optional
7033 argument, PARTIALLY. If a character is only partially visible, nil is
7034 returned, unless PARTIALLY is non-nil.
7035
7036 ** On window systems, `glyph-table' is no longer used.
7037
7038 ** Help strings in menu items are now used to provide `help-echo' text.
7039
7040 ** The function `image-size' can be used to determine the size of an
7041 image.
7042
7043 - Function: image-size SPEC &optional PIXELS FRAME
7044
7045 Return the size of an image as a pair (WIDTH . HEIGHT).
7046
7047 SPEC is an image specification. PIXELS non-nil means return sizes
7048 measured in pixels, otherwise return sizes measured in canonical
7049 character units (fractions of the width/height of the frame's default
7050 font). FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed.
7051 FRAME nil or omitted means use the selected frame.
7052
7053 ** The function `image-mask-p' can be used to determine if an image
7054 has a mask bitmap.
7055
7056 - Function: image-mask-p SPEC &optional FRAME
7057
7058 Return t if image SPEC has a mask bitmap.
7059 FRAME is the frame on which the image will be displayed. FRAME nil
7060 or omitted means use the selected frame.
7061
7062 ** The function `find-image' can be used to find a usable image
7063 satisfying one of a list of specifications.
7064
7065 ** The STRING argument of `put-image' and `insert-image' is now
7066 optional.
7067
7068 ** Image specifications may contain the property `:ascent center' (see
7069 below).
7070
7071 \f
7072 * New Lisp-level Display features in Emacs 21.1
7073
7074 ** The function tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors can be used
7075 to make Emacs avoid displaying text with bold black foreground on TTYs.
7076
7077 Some terminals, notably PC consoles, emulate bold text by displaying
7078 text in brighter colors. On such a console, a bold black foreground
7079 is displayed in a gray color. If this turns out to be hard to read on
7080 your monitor---the problem occurred with the mode line on
7081 laptops---you can instruct Emacs to ignore the text's boldness, and to
7082 just display it black instead.
7083
7084 This situation can't be detected automatically. You will have to put
7085 a line like
7086
7087 (tty-suppress-bold-inverse-default-colors t)
7088
7089 in your `.emacs'.
7090
7091 ** New face implementation.
7092
7093 Emacs faces have been reimplemented from scratch. They don't use XLFD
7094 font names anymore and face merging now works as expected.
7095
7096 *** New faces.
7097
7098 Each face can specify the following display attributes:
7099
7100 1. Font family or fontset alias name.
7101
7102 2. Relative proportionate width, aka character set width or set
7103 width (swidth), e.g. `semi-compressed'.
7104
7105 3. Font height in 1/10pt
7106
7107 4. Font weight, e.g. `bold'.
7108
7109 5. Font slant, e.g. `italic'.
7110
7111 6. Foreground color.
7112
7113 7. Background color.
7114
7115 8. Whether or not characters should be underlined, and in what color.
7116
7117 9. Whether or not characters should be displayed in inverse video.
7118
7119 10. A background stipple, a bitmap.
7120
7121 11. Whether or not characters should be overlined, and in what color.
7122
7123 12. Whether or not characters should be strike-through, and in what
7124 color.
7125
7126 13. Whether or not a box should be drawn around characters, its
7127 color, the width of the box lines, and 3D appearance.
7128
7129 Faces are frame-local by nature because Emacs allows to define the
7130 same named face (face names are symbols) differently for different
7131 frames. Each frame has an alist of face definitions for all named
7132 faces. The value of a named face in such an alist is a Lisp vector
7133 with the symbol `face' in slot 0, and a slot for each of the face
7134 attributes mentioned above.
7135
7136 There is also a global face alist `face-new-frame-defaults'. Face
7137 definitions from this list are used to initialize faces of newly
7138 created frames.
7139
7140 A face doesn't have to specify all attributes. Those not specified
7141 have a nil value. Faces specifying all attributes are called
7142 `fully-specified'.
7143
7144 *** Face merging.
7145
7146 The display style of a given character in the text is determined by
7147 combining several faces. This process is called `face merging'. Any
7148 aspect of the display style that isn't specified by overlays or text
7149 properties is taken from the `default' face. Since it is made sure
7150 that the default face is always fully-specified, face merging always
7151 results in a fully-specified face.
7152
7153 *** Face realization.
7154
7155 After all face attributes for a character have been determined by
7156 merging faces of that character, that face is `realized'. The
7157 realization process maps face attributes to what is physically
7158 available on the system where Emacs runs. The result is a `realized
7159 face' in form of an internal structure which is stored in the face
7160 cache of the frame on which it was realized.
7161
7162 Face realization is done in the context of the charset of the
7163 character to display because different fonts and encodings are used
7164 for different charsets. In other words, for characters of different
7165 charsets, different realized faces are needed to display them.
7166
7167 Except for composite characters, faces are always realized for a
7168 specific character set and contain a specific font, even if the face
7169 being realized specifies a fontset. The reason is that the result of
7170 the new font selection stage is better than what can be done with
7171 statically defined font name patterns in fontsets.
7172
7173 In unibyte text, Emacs' charsets aren't applicable; function
7174 `char-charset' reports ASCII for all characters, including those >
7175 0x7f. The X registry and encoding of fonts to use is determined from
7176 the variable `face-default-registry' in this case. The variable is
7177 initialized at Emacs startup time from the font the user specified for
7178 Emacs.
7179
7180 Currently all unibyte text, i.e. all buffers with
7181 `enable-multibyte-characters' nil are displayed with fonts of the same
7182 registry and encoding `face-default-registry'. This is consistent
7183 with the fact that languages can also be set globally, only.
7184
7185 **** Clearing face caches.
7186
7187 The Lisp function `clear-face-cache' can be called to clear face caches
7188 on all frames. If called with a non-nil argument, it will also unload
7189 unused fonts.
7190
7191 *** Font selection.
7192
7193 Font selection tries to find the best available matching font for a
7194 given (charset, face) combination. This is done slightly differently
7195 for faces specifying a fontset, or a font family name.
7196
7197 If the face specifies a fontset name, that fontset determines a
7198 pattern for fonts of the given charset. If the face specifies a font
7199 family, a font pattern is constructed. Charset symbols have a
7200 property `x-charset-registry' for that purpose that maps a charset to
7201 an XLFD registry and encoding in the font pattern constructed.
7202
7203 Available fonts on the system on which Emacs runs are then matched
7204 against the font pattern. The result of font selection is the best
7205 match for the given face attributes in this font list.
7206
7207 Font selection can be influenced by the user.
7208
7209 The user can specify the relative importance he gives the face
7210 attributes width, height, weight, and slant by setting
7211 face-font-selection-order (faces.el) to a list of face attribute
7212 names. The default is (:width :height :weight :slant), and means
7213 that font selection first tries to find a good match for the font
7214 width specified by a face, then---within fonts with that width---tries
7215 to find a best match for the specified font height, etc.
7216
7217 Setting `face-font-family-alternatives' allows the user to specify
7218 alternative font families to try if a family specified by a face
7219 doesn't exist.
7220
7221 Setting `face-font-registry-alternatives' allows the user to specify
7222 all alternative font registry names to try for a face specifying a
7223 registry.
7224
7225 Please note that the interpretations of the above two variables are
7226 slightly different.
7227
7228 Setting face-ignored-fonts allows the user to ignore specific fonts.
7229
7230
7231 **** Scalable fonts
7232
7233 Emacs can make use of scalable fonts but doesn't do so by default,
7234 since the use of too many or too big scalable fonts may crash XFree86
7235 servers.
7236
7237 To enable scalable font use, set the variable
7238 `scalable-fonts-allowed'. A value of nil, the default, means never use
7239 scalable fonts. A value of t means any scalable font may be used.
7240 Otherwise, the value must be a list of regular expressions. A
7241 scalable font may then be used if it matches a regular expression from
7242 that list. Example:
7243
7244 (setq scalable-fonts-allowed '("muleindian-2$"))
7245
7246 allows the use of scalable fonts with registry `muleindian-2'.
7247
7248 *** Functions and variables related to font selection.
7249
7250 - Function: x-family-fonts &optional FAMILY FRAME
7251
7252 Return a list of available fonts of family FAMILY on FRAME. If FAMILY
7253 is omitted or nil, list all families. Otherwise, FAMILY must be a
7254 string, possibly containing wildcards `?' and `*'.
7255
7256 If FRAME is omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Each element of
7257 the result is a vector [FAMILY WIDTH POINT-SIZE WEIGHT SLANT FIXED-P
7258 FULL REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING]. FAMILY is the font family name.
7259 POINT-SIZE is the size of the font in 1/10 pt. WIDTH, WEIGHT, and
7260 SLANT are symbols describing the width, weight and slant of the font.
7261 These symbols are the same as for face attributes. FIXED-P is non-nil
7262 if the font is fixed-pitch. FULL is the full name of the font, and
7263 REGISTRY-AND-ENCODING is a string giving the registry and encoding of
7264 the font. The result list is sorted according to the current setting
7265 of the face font sort order.
7266
7267 - Function: x-font-family-list
7268
7269 Return a list of available font families on FRAME. If FRAME is
7270 omitted or nil, use the selected frame. Value is a list of conses
7271 (FAMILY . FIXED-P) where FAMILY is a font family, and FIXED-P is
7272 non-nil if fonts of that family are fixed-pitch.
7273
7274 - Variable: font-list-limit
7275
7276 Limit for font matching. If an integer > 0, font matching functions
7277 won't load more than that number of fonts when searching for a
7278 matching font. The default is currently 100.
7279
7280 *** Setting face attributes.
7281
7282 For the most part, the new face implementation is interface-compatible
7283 with the old one. Old face attribute related functions are now
7284 implemented in terms of the new functions `set-face-attribute' and
7285 `face-attribute'.
7286
7287 Face attributes are identified by their names which are keyword
7288 symbols. All attributes can be set to `unspecified'.
7289
7290 The following attributes are recognized:
7291
7292 `:family'
7293
7294 VALUE must be a string specifying the font family, e.g. ``courier'',
7295 or a fontset alias name. If a font family is specified, wild-cards `*'
7296 and `?' are allowed.
7297
7298 `:width'
7299
7300 VALUE specifies the relative proportionate width of the font to use.
7301 It must be one of the symbols `ultra-condensed', `extra-condensed',
7302 `condensed', `semi-condensed', `normal', `semi-expanded', `expanded',
7303 `extra-expanded', or `ultra-expanded'.
7304
7305 `:height'
7306
7307 VALUE must be either an integer specifying the height of the font to use
7308 in 1/10 pt, a floating point number specifying the amount by which to
7309 scale any underlying face, or a function, which is called with the old
7310 height (from the underlying face), and should return the new height.
7311
7312 `:weight'
7313
7314 VALUE specifies the weight of the font to use. It must be one of the
7315 symbols `ultra-bold', `extra-bold', `bold', `semi-bold', `normal',
7316 `semi-light', `light', `extra-light', `ultra-light'.
7317
7318 `:slant'
7319
7320 VALUE specifies the slant of the font to use. It must be one of the
7321 symbols `italic', `oblique', `normal', `reverse-italic', or
7322 `reverse-oblique'.
7323
7324 `:foreground', `:background'
7325
7326 VALUE must be a color name, a string.
7327
7328 `:underline'
7329
7330 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be underlined. If
7331 VALUE is t, underline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is
7332 a string, underline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly
7333 don't underline.
7334
7335 `:overline'
7336
7337 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be overlined. If
7338 VALUE is t, overline with foreground color of the face. If VALUE is a
7339 string, overline with that color. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't
7340 overline.
7341
7342 `:strike-through'
7343
7344 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be drawn with a line
7345 striking through them. If VALUE is t, use the foreground color of the
7346 face. If VALUE is a string, strike-through with that color. If VALUE
7347 is nil, explicitly don't strike through.
7348
7349 `:box'
7350
7351 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should have a box drawn
7352 around them. If VALUE is nil, explicitly don't draw boxes. If
7353 VALUE is t, draw a box with lines of width 1 in the foreground color
7354 of the face. If VALUE is a string, the string must be a color name,
7355 and the box is drawn in that color with a line width of 1. Otherwise,
7356 VALUE must be a property list of the form `(:line-width WIDTH
7357 :color COLOR :style STYLE)'. If a keyword/value pair is missing from
7358 the property list, a default value will be used for the value, as
7359 specified below. WIDTH specifies the width of the lines to draw; it
7360 defaults to 1. COLOR is the name of the color to draw in, default is
7361 the foreground color of the face for simple boxes, and the background
7362 color of the face for 3D boxes. STYLE specifies whether a 3D box
7363 should be draw. If STYLE is `released-button', draw a box looking
7364 like a released 3D button. If STYLE is `pressed-button' draw a box
7365 that appears like a pressed button. If STYLE is nil, the default if
7366 the property list doesn't contain a style specification, draw a 2D
7367 box.
7368
7369 `:inverse-video'
7370
7371 VALUE specifies whether characters in FACE should be displayed in
7372 inverse video. VALUE must be one of t or nil.
7373
7374 `:stipple'
7375
7376 If VALUE is a string, it must be the name of a file of pixmap data.
7377 The directories listed in the `x-bitmap-file-path' variable are
7378 searched. Alternatively, VALUE may be a list of the form (WIDTH
7379 HEIGHT DATA) where WIDTH and HEIGHT are the size in pixels, and DATA
7380 is a string containing the raw bits of the bitmap. VALUE nil means
7381 explicitly don't use a stipple pattern.
7382
7383 For convenience, attributes `:family', `:width', `:height', `:weight',
7384 and `:slant' may also be set in one step from an X font name:
7385
7386 `:font'
7387
7388 Set font-related face attributes from VALUE. VALUE must be a valid
7389 XLFD font name. If it is a font name pattern, the first matching font
7390 is used--this is for compatibility with the behavior of previous
7391 versions of Emacs.
7392
7393 For compatibility with Emacs 20, keywords `:bold' and `:italic' can
7394 be used to specify that a bold or italic font should be used. VALUE
7395 must be t or nil in that case. A value of `unspecified' is not allowed."
7396
7397 Please see also the documentation of `set-face-attribute' and
7398 `defface'.
7399
7400 `:inherit'
7401
7402 VALUE is the name of a face from which to inherit attributes, or a list
7403 of face names. Attributes from inherited faces are merged into the face
7404 like an underlying face would be, with higher priority than underlying faces.
7405
7406 *** Face attributes and X resources
7407
7408 The following X resource names can be used to set face attributes
7409 from X resources:
7410
7411 Face attribute X resource class
7412 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
7413 :family attributeFamily . Face.AttributeFamily
7414 :width attributeWidth Face.AttributeWidth
7415 :height attributeHeight Face.AttributeHeight
7416 :weight attributeWeight Face.AttributeWeight
7417 :slant attributeSlant Face.AttributeSlant
7418 foreground attributeForeground Face.AttributeForeground
7419 :background attributeBackground . Face.AttributeBackground
7420 :overline attributeOverline Face.AttributeOverline
7421 :strike-through attributeStrikeThrough Face.AttributeStrikeThrough
7422 :box attributeBox Face.AttributeBox
7423 :underline attributeUnderline Face.AttributeUnderline
7424 :inverse-video attributeInverse Face.AttributeInverse
7425 :stipple attributeStipple Face.AttributeStipple
7426 or attributeBackgroundPixmap
7427 Face.AttributeBackgroundPixmap
7428 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
7429 :bold attributeBold Face.AttributeBold
7430 :italic attributeItalic . Face.AttributeItalic
7431 :font attributeFont Face.AttributeFont
7432
7433 *** Text property `face'.
7434
7435 The value of the `face' text property can now be a single face
7436 specification or a list of such specifications. Each face
7437 specification can be
7438
7439 1. A symbol or string naming a Lisp face.
7440
7441 2. A property list of the form (KEYWORD VALUE ...) where each
7442 KEYWORD is a face attribute name, and VALUE is an appropriate value
7443 for that attribute. Please see the doc string of `set-face-attribute'
7444 for face attribute names.
7445
7446 3. Conses of the form (FOREGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) or
7447 (BACKGROUND-COLOR . COLOR) where COLOR is a color name. This is
7448 for compatibility with previous Emacs versions.
7449
7450 ** Support functions for colors on text-only terminals.
7451
7452 The function `tty-color-define' can be used to define colors for use
7453 on TTY and MSDOS frames. It maps a color name to a color number on
7454 the terminal. Emacs defines a couple of common color mappings by
7455 default. You can get defined colors with a call to
7456 `defined-colors'. The function `tty-color-clear' can be
7457 used to clear the mapping table.
7458
7459 ** Unified support for colors independent of frame type.
7460
7461 The new functions `defined-colors', `color-defined-p', `color-values',
7462 and `display-color-p' work for any type of frame. On frames whose
7463 type is neither x nor w32, these functions transparently map X-style
7464 color specifications to the closest colors supported by the frame
7465 display. Lisp programs should use these new functions instead of the
7466 old `x-defined-colors', `x-color-defined-p', `x-color-values', and
7467 `x-display-color-p'. (The old function names are still available for
7468 compatibility; they are now aliases of the new names.) Lisp programs
7469 should no more look at the value of the variable window-system to
7470 modify their color-related behavior.
7471
7472 The primitives `color-gray-p' and `color-supported-p' also work for
7473 any frame type.
7474
7475 ** Platform-independent functions to describe display capabilities.
7476
7477 The new functions `display-mouse-p', `display-popup-menus-p',
7478 `display-graphic-p', `display-selections-p', `display-screens',
7479 `display-pixel-width', `display-pixel-height', `display-mm-width',
7480 `display-mm-height', `display-backing-store', `display-save-under',
7481 `display-planes', `display-color-cells', `display-visual-class', and
7482 `display-grayscale-p' describe the basic capabilities of a particular
7483 display. Lisp programs should call these functions instead of testing
7484 the value of the variables `window-system' or `system-type', or calling
7485 platform-specific functions such as `x-display-pixel-width'.
7486
7487 The new function `display-images-p' returns non-nil if a particular
7488 display can display image files.
7489
7490 ** The minibuffer prompt is now actually inserted in the minibuffer.
7491
7492 This makes it possible to scroll through the prompt, if you want to.
7493 To disallow this completely (like previous versions of emacs), customize
7494 the variable `minibuffer-prompt-properties', and turn on the
7495 `Inviolable' option.
7496
7497 The function `minibuffer-prompt-end' returns the current position of the
7498 end of the minibuffer prompt, if the minibuffer is current.
7499 Otherwise, it returns `(point-min)'.
7500
7501 ** New `field' abstraction in buffers.
7502
7503 There is now code to support an abstraction called `fields' in emacs
7504 buffers. A field is a contiguous region of text with the same `field'
7505 property (which can be a text property or an overlay).
7506
7507 Many emacs functions, such as forward-word, forward-sentence,
7508 forward-paragraph, beginning-of-line, etc., stop moving when they come
7509 to the boundary between fields; beginning-of-line and end-of-line will
7510 not let the point move past the field boundary, but other movement
7511 commands continue into the next field if repeated. Stopping at field
7512 boundaries can be suppressed programmatically by binding
7513 `inhibit-field-text-motion' to a non-nil value around calls to these
7514 functions.
7515
7516 Now that the minibuffer prompt is inserted into the minibuffer, it is in
7517 a separate field from the user-input part of the buffer, so that common
7518 editing commands treat the user's text separately from the prompt.
7519
7520 The following functions are defined for operating on fields:
7521
7522 - Function: constrain-to-field NEW-POS OLD-POS &optional ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE ONLY-IN-LINE INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY
7523
7524 Return the position closest to NEW-POS that is in the same field as OLD-POS.
7525
7526 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7527 If NEW-POS is nil, then the current point is used instead, and set to the
7528 constrained position if that is different.
7529
7530 If OLD-POS is at the boundary of two fields, then the allowable
7531 positions for NEW-POS depends on the value of the optional argument
7532 ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE: If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is nil, then NEW-POS is
7533 constrained to the field that has the same `field' char-property
7534 as any new characters inserted at OLD-POS, whereas if ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7535 is non-nil, NEW-POS is constrained to the union of the two adjacent
7536 fields. Additionally, if two fields are separated by another field with
7537 the special value `boundary', then any point within this special field is
7538 also considered to be `on the boundary'.
7539
7540 If the optional argument ONLY-IN-LINE is non-nil and constraining
7541 NEW-POS would move it to a different line, NEW-POS is returned
7542 unconstrained. This useful for commands that move by line, like
7543 C-n or C-a, which should generally respect field boundaries
7544 only in the case where they can still move to the right line.
7545
7546 If the optional argument INHIBIT-CAPTURE-PROPERTY is non-nil, and OLD-POS has
7547 a non-nil property of that name, then any field boundaries are ignored.
7548
7549 Field boundaries are not noticed if `inhibit-field-text-motion' is non-nil.
7550
7551 - Function: delete-field &optional POS
7552
7553 Delete the field surrounding POS.
7554 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7555 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7556
7557 - Function: field-beginning &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7558
7559 Return the beginning of the field surrounding POS.
7560 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7561 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7562 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the beginning of its
7563 field, then the beginning of the *previous* field is returned.
7564
7565 - Function: field-end &optional POS ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE
7566
7567 Return the end of the field surrounding POS.
7568 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7569 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7570 If ESCAPE-FROM-EDGE is non-nil and POS is at the end of its field,
7571 then the end of the *following* field is returned.
7572
7573 - Function: field-string &optional POS
7574
7575 Return the contents of the field surrounding POS as a string.
7576 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7577 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7578
7579 - Function: field-string-no-properties &optional POS
7580
7581 Return the contents of the field around POS, without text-properties.
7582 A field is a region of text with the same `field' property.
7583 If POS is nil, the value of point is used for POS.
7584
7585 ** Image support.
7586
7587 Emacs can now display images. Images are inserted into text by giving
7588 strings or buffer text a `display' text property containing one of
7589 (AREA IMAGE) or IMAGE. The display of the `display' property value
7590 replaces the display of the characters having that property.
7591
7592 If the property value has the form (AREA IMAGE), AREA must be one of
7593 `(margin left-margin)', `(margin right-margin)' or `(margin nil)'. If
7594 AREA is `(margin nil)', IMAGE will be displayed in the text area of a
7595 window, otherwise it will be displayed in the left or right marginal
7596 area.
7597
7598 IMAGE is an image specification.
7599
7600 *** Image specifications
7601
7602 Image specifications are lists of the form `(image PROPS)' where PROPS
7603 is a property list whose keys are keyword symbols. Each
7604 specifications must contain a property `:type TYPE' with TYPE being a
7605 symbol specifying the image type, e.g. `xbm'. Properties not
7606 described below are ignored.
7607
7608 The following is a list of properties all image types share.
7609
7610 `:ascent ASCENT'
7611
7612 ASCENT must be a number in the range 0..100, or the symbol `center'.
7613 If it is a number, it specifies the percentage of the image's height
7614 to use for its ascent.
7615
7616 If not specified, ASCENT defaults to the value 50 which means that the
7617 image will be centered with the base line of the row it appears in.
7618
7619 If ASCENT is `center' the image is vertically centered around a
7620 centerline which is the vertical center of text drawn at the position
7621 of the image, in the manner specified by the text properties and
7622 overlays that apply to the image.
7623
7624 `:margin MARGIN'
7625
7626 MARGIN must be either a number >= 0 specifying how many pixels to put
7627 as margin around the image, or a pair (X . Y) with X specifying the
7628 horizontal margin and Y specifying the vertical margin. Default is 0.
7629
7630 `:relief RELIEF'
7631
7632 RELIEF is analogous to the `:relief' attribute of faces. Puts a relief
7633 around an image.
7634
7635 `:conversion ALGO'
7636
7637 Apply an image algorithm to the image before displaying it.
7638
7639 ALGO `laplace' or `emboss' means apply a Laplace or ``emboss''
7640 edge-detection algorithm to the image.
7641
7642 ALGO `(edge-detection :matrix MATRIX :color-adjust ADJUST)' means
7643 apply a general edge-detection algorithm. MATRIX must be either a
7644 nine-element list or a nine-element vector of numbers. A pixel at
7645 position x/y in the transformed image is computed from original pixels
7646 around that position. MATRIX specifies, for each pixel in the
7647 neighborhood of x/y, a factor with which that pixel will influence the
7648 transformed pixel; element 0 specifies the factor for the pixel at
7649 x-1/y-1, element 1 the factor for the pixel at x/y-1 etc. as shown
7650 below.
7651
7652 (x-1/y-1 x/y-1 x+1/y-1
7653 x-1/y x/y x+1/y
7654 x-1/y+1 x/y+1 x+1/y+1)
7655
7656 The resulting pixel is computed from the color intensity of the color
7657 resulting from summing up the RGB values of surrounding pixels,
7658 multiplied by the specified factors, and dividing that sum by the sum
7659 of the factors' absolute values.
7660
7661 Laplace edge-detection currently uses a matrix of
7662
7663 (1 0 0
7664 0 0 0
7665 9 9 -1)
7666
7667 Emboss edge-detection uses a matrix of
7668
7669 ( 2 -1 0
7670 -1 0 1
7671 0 1 -2)
7672
7673 ALGO `disabled' means transform the image so that it looks
7674 ``disabled''.
7675
7676 `:mask MASK'
7677
7678 If MASK is `heuristic' or `(heuristic BG)', build a clipping mask for
7679 the image, so that the background of a frame is visible behind the
7680 image. If BG is not specified, or if BG is t, determine the
7681 background color of the image by looking at the 4 corners of the
7682 image, assuming the most frequently occurring color from the corners is
7683 the background color of the image. Otherwise, BG must be a list `(RED
7684 GREEN BLUE)' specifying the color to assume for the background of the
7685 image.
7686
7687 If MASK is nil, remove a mask from the image, if it has one. Images
7688 in some formats include a mask which can be removed by specifying
7689 `:mask nil'.
7690
7691 `:file FILE'
7692
7693 Load image from FILE. If FILE is not absolute after expanding it,
7694 search for the image in `data-directory'. Some image types support
7695 building images from data. When this is done, no `:file' property
7696 may be present in the image specification.
7697
7698 `:data DATA'
7699
7700 Get image data from DATA. (As of this writing, this is not yet
7701 supported for image type `postscript'). Either :file or :data may be
7702 present in an image specification, but not both. All image types
7703 support strings as DATA, some types allow additional types of DATA.
7704
7705 *** Supported image types
7706
7707 **** XBM, image type `xbm'.
7708
7709 XBM images don't require an external library. Additional image
7710 properties supported are:
7711
7712 `:foreground FG'
7713
7714 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
7715 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
7716
7717 `:background BG'
7718
7719 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
7720 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
7721
7722 XBM images can be constructed from data instead of file. In this
7723 case, the image specification must contain the following properties
7724 instead of a `:file' property.
7725
7726 `:width WIDTH'
7727
7728 WIDTH specifies the width of the image in pixels.
7729
7730 `:height HEIGHT'
7731
7732 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pixels.
7733
7734 `:data DATA'
7735
7736 DATA must be either
7737
7738 1. a string large enough to hold the bitmap data, i.e. it must
7739 have a size >= (WIDTH + 7) / 8 * HEIGHT
7740
7741 2. a bool-vector of size >= WIDTH * HEIGHT
7742
7743 3. a vector of strings or bool-vectors, one for each line of the
7744 bitmap.
7745
7746 4. a string that's an in-memory XBM file. Neither width nor
7747 height may be specified in this case because these are defined
7748 in the file.
7749
7750 **** XPM, image type `xpm'
7751
7752 XPM images require the external library `libXpm', package
7753 `xpm-3.4k.tar.gz', version 3.4k or later. Make sure the library is
7754 found when Emacs is configured by supplying appropriate paths via
7755 `--x-includes' and `--x-libraries'.
7756
7757 Additional image properties supported are:
7758
7759 `:color-symbols SYMBOLS'
7760
7761 SYMBOLS must be a list of pairs (NAME . COLOR), with NAME being the
7762 name of color as it appears in an XPM file, and COLOR being an X color
7763 name.
7764
7765 XPM images can be built from memory instead of files. In that case,
7766 add a `:data' property instead of a `:file' property.
7767
7768 The XPM library uses libz in its implementation so that it is able
7769 to display compressed images.
7770
7771 **** PBM, image type `pbm'
7772
7773 PBM images don't require an external library. Color, gray-scale and
7774 mono images are supported. Additional image properties supported for
7775 mono images are:
7776
7777 `:foreground FG'
7778
7779 FG must be a string specifying the image foreground color, or nil
7780 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's foreground color.
7781
7782 `:background FG'
7783
7784 BG must be a string specifying the image background color, or nil
7785 meaning to use the default. Default is the frame's background color.
7786
7787 **** JPEG, image type `jpeg'
7788
7789 Support for JPEG images requires the external library `libjpeg',
7790 package `jpegsrc.v6a.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7791 properties defined.
7792
7793 **** TIFF, image type `tiff'
7794
7795 Support for TIFF images requires the external library `libtiff',
7796 package `tiff-v3.4-tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7797 properties defined.
7798
7799 **** GIF, image type `gif'
7800
7801 Support for GIF images requires the external library `libungif', package
7802 `libungif-4.1.0', or later.
7803
7804 Additional image properties supported are:
7805
7806 `:index INDEX'
7807
7808 INDEX must be an integer >= 0. Load image number INDEX from a
7809 multi-image GIF file. If INDEX is too large, the image displays
7810 as a hollow box.
7811
7812 This could be used to implement limited support for animated GIFs.
7813 For example, the following function displays a multi-image GIF file
7814 at point-min in the current buffer, switching between sub-images
7815 every 0.1 seconds.
7816
7817 (defun show-anim (file max)
7818 "Display multi-image GIF file FILE which contains MAX subimages."
7819 (display-anim (current-buffer) file 0 max t))
7820
7821 (defun display-anim (buffer file idx max first-time)
7822 (when (= idx max)
7823 (setq idx 0))
7824 (let ((img (create-image file nil nil :index idx)))
7825 (save-excursion
7826 (set-buffer buffer)
7827 (goto-char (point-min))
7828 (unless first-time (delete-char 1))
7829 (insert-image img "x"))
7830 (run-with-timer 0.1 nil 'display-anim buffer file (1+ idx) max nil)))
7831
7832 **** PNG, image type `png'
7833
7834 Support for PNG images requires the external library `libpng',
7835 package `libpng-1.0.2.tar.gz', or later. There are no additional image
7836 properties defined.
7837
7838 **** Ghostscript, image type `postscript'.
7839
7840 Additional image properties supported are:
7841
7842 `:pt-width WIDTH'
7843
7844 WIDTH is width of the image in pt (1/72 inch). WIDTH must be an
7845 integer. This is a required property.
7846
7847 `:pt-height HEIGHT'
7848
7849 HEIGHT specifies the height of the image in pt (1/72 inch). HEIGHT
7850 must be a integer. This is an required property.
7851
7852 `:bounding-box BOX'
7853
7854 BOX must be a list or vector of 4 integers giving the bounding box of
7855 the PS image, analogous to the `BoundingBox' comment found in PS
7856 files. This is an required property.
7857
7858 Part of the Ghostscript interface is implemented in Lisp. See
7859 lisp/gs.el.
7860
7861 *** Lisp interface.
7862
7863 The variable `image-types' contains a list of those image types
7864 which are supported in the current configuration.
7865
7866 Images are stored in an image cache and removed from the cache when
7867 they haven't been displayed for `image-cache-eviction-delay seconds.
7868 The function `clear-image-cache' can be used to clear the image cache
7869 manually. Images in the cache are compared with `equal', i.e. all
7870 images with `equal' specifications share the same image.
7871
7872 *** Simplified image API, image.el
7873
7874 The new Lisp package image.el contains functions that simplify image
7875 creation and putting images into text. The function `create-image'
7876 can be used to create images. The macro `defimage' can be used to
7877 define an image based on available image types. The functions
7878 `put-image' and `insert-image' can be used to insert an image into a
7879 buffer.
7880
7881 ** Display margins.
7882
7883 Windows can now have margins which are used for special text
7884 and images.
7885
7886 To give a window margins, either set the buffer-local variables
7887 `left-margin-width' and `right-margin-width', or call
7888 `set-window-margins'. The function `window-margins' can be used to
7889 obtain the current settings. To make `left-margin-width' and
7890 `right-margin-width' take effect, you must set them before displaying
7891 the buffer in a window, or use `set-window-buffer' to force an update
7892 of the display margins.
7893
7894 You can put text in margins by giving it a `display' text property
7895 containing a pair of the form `(LOCATION . VALUE)', where LOCATION is
7896 one of `left-margin' or `right-margin' or nil. VALUE can be either a
7897 string, an image specification or a stretch specification (see later
7898 in this file).
7899
7900 ** Help display
7901
7902 Emacs displays short help messages in the echo area, when the mouse
7903 moves over a tool-bar item or a piece of text that has a text property
7904 `help-echo'. This feature also applies to strings in the mode line
7905 that have a `help-echo' property.
7906
7907 If the value of the `help-echo' property is a function, that function
7908 is called with three arguments WINDOW, OBJECT and POSITION. WINDOW is
7909 the window in which the help was found.
7910
7911 If OBJECT is a buffer, POS is the position in the buffer where the
7912 `help-echo' text property was found.
7913
7914 If OBJECT is an overlay, that overlay has a `help-echo' property, and
7915 POS is the position in the overlay's buffer under the mouse.
7916
7917 If OBJECT is a string (an overlay string or a string displayed with
7918 the `display' property), POS is the position in that string under the
7919 mouse.
7920
7921 If the value of the `help-echo' property is neither a function nor a
7922 string, it is evaluated to obtain a help string.
7923
7924 For tool-bar and menu-bar items, their key definition is used to
7925 determine the help to display. If their definition contains a
7926 property `:help FORM', FORM is evaluated to determine the help string.
7927 For tool-bar items without a help form, the caption of the item is
7928 used as help string.
7929
7930 The hook `show-help-function' can be set to a function that displays
7931 the help string differently. For example, enabling a tooltip window
7932 causes the help display to appear there instead of in the echo area.
7933
7934 ** Vertical fractional scrolling.
7935
7936 The display of text in windows can be scrolled smoothly in pixels.
7937 This is useful, for example, for making parts of large images visible.
7938
7939 The function `window-vscroll' returns the current value of vertical
7940 scrolling, a non-negative fraction of the canonical character height.
7941 The function `set-window-vscroll' can be used to set the vertical
7942 scrolling value. Here is an example of how these function might be
7943 used.
7944
7945 (global-set-key [A-down]
7946 #'(lambda ()
7947 (interactive)
7948 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
7949 (+ 0.5 (window-vscroll)))))
7950 (global-set-key [A-up]
7951 #'(lambda ()
7952 (interactive)
7953 (set-window-vscroll (selected-window)
7954 (- (window-vscroll) 0.5)))))
7955
7956 ** New hook `fontification-functions'.
7957
7958 Functions from `fontification-functions' are called from redisplay
7959 when it encounters a region of text that is not yet fontified. This
7960 variable automatically becomes buffer-local when set. Each function
7961 is called with one argument, POS.
7962
7963 At least one of the hook functions should fontify one or more
7964 characters starting at POS in the current buffer. It should mark them
7965 as fontified by giving them a non-nil value of the `fontified' text
7966 property. It may be reasonable for these functions to check for the
7967 `fontified' property and not put it back on, but they do not have to.
7968
7969 ** Tool bar support.
7970
7971 Emacs supports a tool bar at the top of a frame under X. The frame
7972 parameter `tool-bar-lines' (X resource "toolBar", class "ToolBar")
7973 controls how may lines to reserve for the tool bar. A zero value
7974 suppresses the tool bar. If the value is non-zero and
7975 `auto-resize-tool-bars' is non-nil the tool bar's size will be changed
7976 automatically so that all tool bar items are visible.
7977
7978 *** Tool bar item definitions
7979
7980 Tool bar items are defined using `define-key' with a prefix-key
7981 `tool-bar'. For example `(define-key global-map [tool-bar item1] ITEM)'
7982 where ITEM is a list `(menu-item CAPTION BINDING PROPS...)'.
7983
7984 CAPTION is the caption of the item, If it's not a string, it is
7985 evaluated to get a string. The caption is currently not displayed in
7986 the tool bar, but it is displayed if the item doesn't have a `:help'
7987 property (see below).
7988
7989 BINDING is the tool bar item's binding. Tool bar items with keymaps as
7990 binding are currently ignored.
7991
7992 The following properties are recognized:
7993
7994 `:enable FORM'.
7995
7996 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is enabled
7997 or disabled.
7998
7999 `:visible FORM'
8000
8001 FORM is evaluated and specifies whether the tool bar item is displayed.
8002
8003 `:filter FUNCTION'
8004
8005 FUNCTION is called with one parameter, the same list BINDING in which
8006 FUNCTION is specified as the filter. The value FUNCTION returns is
8007 used instead of BINDING to display this item.
8008
8009 `:button (TYPE SELECTED)'
8010
8011 TYPE must be one of `:radio' or `:toggle'. SELECTED is evaluated
8012 and specifies whether the button is selected (pressed) or not.
8013
8014 `:image IMAGES'
8015
8016 IMAGES is either a single image specification or a vector of four
8017 image specifications. If it is a vector, this table lists the
8018 meaning of each of the four elements:
8019
8020 Index Use when item is
8021 ----------------------------------------
8022 0 enabled and selected
8023 1 enabled and deselected
8024 2 disabled and selected
8025 3 disabled and deselected
8026
8027 If IMAGE is a single image specification, a Laplace edge-detection
8028 algorithm is used on that image to draw the image in disabled state.
8029
8030 `:help HELP-STRING'.
8031
8032 Gives a help string to display for the tool bar item. This help
8033 is displayed when the mouse is moved over the item.
8034
8035 The function `toolbar-add-item' is a convenience function for adding
8036 toolbar items generally, and `tool-bar-add-item-from-menu' can be used
8037 to define a toolbar item with a binding copied from an item on the
8038 menu bar.
8039
8040 The default bindings use a menu-item :filter to derive the tool-bar
8041 dynamically from variable `tool-bar-map' which may be set
8042 buffer-locally to override the global map.
8043
8044 *** Tool-bar-related variables.
8045
8046 If `auto-resize-tool-bar' is non-nil, the tool bar will automatically
8047 resize to show all defined tool bar items. It will never grow larger
8048 than 1/4 of the frame's size.
8049
8050 If `auto-raise-tool-bar-buttons' is non-nil, tool bar buttons will be
8051 raised when the mouse moves over them.
8052
8053 You can add extra space between tool bar items by setting
8054 `tool-bar-button-margin' to a positive integer specifying a number of
8055 pixels, or a pair of integers (X . Y) specifying horizontal and
8056 vertical margins . Default is 1.
8057
8058 You can change the shadow thickness of tool bar buttons by setting
8059 `tool-bar-button-relief' to an integer. Default is 3.
8060
8061 *** Tool-bar clicks with modifiers.
8062
8063 You can bind commands to clicks with control, shift, meta etc. on
8064 a tool bar item. If
8065
8066 (define-key global-map [tool-bar shell]
8067 '(menu-item "Shell" shell
8068 :image (image :type xpm :file "shell.xpm")))
8069
8070 is the original tool bar item definition, then
8071
8072 (define-key global-map [tool-bar S-shell] 'some-command)
8073
8074 makes a binding to run `some-command' for a shifted click on the same
8075 item.
8076
8077 ** Mode line changes.
8078
8079 *** Mouse-sensitive mode line.
8080
8081 The mode line can be made mouse-sensitive by displaying strings there
8082 that have a `local-map' text property. There are three ways to display
8083 a string with a `local-map' property in the mode line.
8084
8085 1. The mode line spec contains a variable whose string value has
8086 a `local-map' text property.
8087
8088 2. The mode line spec contains a format specifier (e.g. `%12b'), and
8089 that format specifier has a `local-map' property.
8090
8091 3. The mode line spec contains a list containing `:eval FORM'. FORM
8092 is evaluated. If the result is a string, and that string has a
8093 `local-map' property.
8094
8095 The same mechanism is used to determine the `face' and `help-echo'
8096 properties of strings in the mode line. See `bindings.el' for an
8097 example.
8098
8099 *** If a mode line element has the form `(:eval FORM)', FORM is
8100 evaluated and the result is used as mode line element.
8101
8102 *** You can suppress mode-line display by setting the buffer-local
8103 variable mode-line-format to nil.
8104
8105 *** A headerline can now be displayed at the top of a window.
8106
8107 This mode line's contents are controlled by the new variable
8108 `header-line-format' and `default-header-line-format' which are
8109 completely analogous to `mode-line-format' and
8110 `default-mode-line-format'. A value of nil means don't display a top
8111 line.
8112
8113 The appearance of top mode lines is controlled by the face
8114 `header-line'.
8115
8116 The function `coordinates-in-window-p' returns `header-line' for a
8117 position in the header-line.
8118
8119 ** Text property `display'
8120
8121 The `display' text property is used to insert images into text,
8122 replace text with other text, display text in marginal area, and it is
8123 also used to control other aspects of how text displays. The value of
8124 the `display' property should be a display specification, as described
8125 below, or a list or vector containing display specifications.
8126
8127 *** Replacing text, displaying text in marginal areas
8128
8129 To replace the text having the `display' property with some other
8130 text, use a display specification of the form `(LOCATION STRING)'.
8131
8132 If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)', STRING is displayed in the left
8133 marginal area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in
8134 the right marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' STRING
8135 is displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
8136 simpler form STRING as property value.
8137
8138 *** Variable width and height spaces
8139
8140 To display a space of fractional width or height, use a display
8141 specification of the form `(LOCATION STRECH)'. If LOCATION is
8142 `(margin left-margin)', the space is displayed in the left marginal
8143 area, if it is `(margin right-margin)', it is displayed in the right
8144 marginal area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the space is
8145 displayed in the text. In the latter case you can also use the
8146 simpler form STRETCH as property value.
8147
8148 The stretch specification STRETCH itself is a list of the form `(space
8149 PROPS)', where PROPS is a property list which can contain the
8150 properties described below.
8151
8152 The display of the fractional space replaces the display of the
8153 characters having the `display' property.
8154
8155 - :width WIDTH
8156
8157 Specifies that the space width should be WIDTH times the normal
8158 character width. WIDTH can be an integer or floating point number.
8159
8160 - :relative-width FACTOR
8161
8162 Specifies that the width of the stretch should be computed from the
8163 first character in a group of consecutive characters that have the
8164 same `display' property. The computation is done by multiplying the
8165 width of that character by FACTOR.
8166
8167 - :align-to HPOS
8168
8169 Specifies that the space should be wide enough to reach HPOS. The
8170 value HPOS is measured in units of the normal character width.
8171
8172 Exactly one of the above properties should be used.
8173
8174 - :height HEIGHT
8175
8176 Specifies the height of the space, as HEIGHT, measured in terms of the
8177 normal line height.
8178
8179 - :relative-height FACTOR
8180
8181 The height of the space is computed as the product of the height
8182 of the text having the `display' property and FACTOR.
8183
8184 - :ascent ASCENT
8185
8186 Specifies that ASCENT percent of the height of the stretch should be
8187 used for the ascent of the stretch, i.e. for the part above the
8188 baseline. The value of ASCENT must be a non-negative number less or
8189 equal to 100.
8190
8191 You should not use both `:height' and `:relative-height' together.
8192
8193 *** Images
8194
8195 A display specification for an image has the form `(LOCATION
8196 . IMAGE)', where IMAGE is an image specification. The image replaces,
8197 in the display, the characters having this display specification in
8198 their `display' text property. If LOCATION is `(margin left-margin)',
8199 the image will be displayed in the left marginal area, if it is
8200 `(margin right-margin)' it will be displayed in the right marginal
8201 area, and if LOCATION is `(margin nil)' the image will be displayed in
8202 the text. In the latter case you can also use the simpler form IMAGE
8203 as display specification.
8204
8205 *** Other display properties
8206
8207 - (space-width FACTOR)
8208
8209 Specifies that space characters in the text having that property
8210 should be displayed FACTOR times as wide as normal; FACTOR must be an
8211 integer or float.
8212
8213 - (height HEIGHT)
8214
8215 Display text having this property in a font that is smaller or larger.
8216
8217 If HEIGHT is a list of the form `(+ N)', where N is an integer, that
8218 means to use a font that is N steps larger. If HEIGHT is a list of
8219 the form `(- N)', that means to use a font that is N steps smaller. A
8220 ``step'' is defined by the set of available fonts; each size for which
8221 a font is available counts as a step.
8222
8223 If HEIGHT is a number, that means to use a font that is HEIGHT times
8224 as tall as the frame's default font.
8225
8226 If HEIGHT is a symbol, it is called as a function with the current
8227 height as argument. The function should return the new height to use.
8228
8229 Otherwise, HEIGHT is evaluated to get the new height, with the symbol
8230 `height' bound to the current specified font height.
8231
8232 - (raise FACTOR)
8233
8234 FACTOR must be a number, specifying a multiple of the current
8235 font's height. If it is positive, that means to display the characters
8236 raised. If it is negative, that means to display them lower down. The
8237 amount of raising or lowering is computed without taking account of the
8238 `height' subproperty.
8239
8240 *** Conditional display properties
8241
8242 All display specifications can be conditionalized. If a specification
8243 has the form `(when CONDITION . SPEC)', the specification SPEC applies
8244 only when CONDITION yields a non-nil value when evaluated. During the
8245 evaluation, `object' is bound to the string or buffer having the
8246 conditional display property; `position' and `buffer-position' are
8247 bound to the position within `object' and the buffer position where
8248 the display property was found, respectively. Both positions can be
8249 different when object is a string.
8250
8251 The normal specification consisting of SPEC only is equivalent to
8252 `(when t . SPEC)'.
8253
8254 ** New menu separator types.
8255
8256 Emacs now supports more than one menu separator type. Menu items with
8257 item names consisting of dashes only (including zero dashes) are
8258 treated like before. In addition, the following item names are used
8259 to specify other menu separator types.
8260
8261 - `--no-line' or `--space', or `--:space', or `--:noLine'
8262
8263 No separator lines are drawn, but a small space is inserted where the
8264 separator occurs.
8265
8266 - `--single-line' or `--:singleLine'
8267
8268 A single line in the menu's foreground color.
8269
8270 - `--double-line' or `--:doubleLine'
8271
8272 A double line in the menu's foreground color.
8273
8274 - `--single-dashed-line' or `--:singleDashedLine'
8275
8276 A single dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
8277
8278 - `--double-dashed-line' or `--:doubleDashedLine'
8279
8280 A double dashed line in the menu's foreground color.
8281
8282 - `--shadow-etched-in' or `--:shadowEtchedIn'
8283
8284 A single line with 3D sunken appearance. This is the form
8285 displayed for item names consisting of dashes only.
8286
8287 - `--shadow-etched-out' or `--:shadowEtchedOut'
8288
8289 A single line with 3D raised appearance.
8290
8291 - `--shadow-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedInDash'
8292
8293 A single dashed line with 3D sunken appearance.
8294
8295 - `--shadow-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowEtchedOutDash'
8296
8297 A single dashed line with 3D raise appearance.
8298
8299 - `--shadow-double-etched-in' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedIn'
8300
8301 Two lines with 3D sunken appearance.
8302
8303 - `--shadow-double-etched-out' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOut'
8304
8305 Two lines with 3D raised appearance.
8306
8307 - `--shadow-double-etched-in-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedInDash'
8308
8309 Two dashed lines with 3D sunken appearance.
8310
8311 - `--shadow-double-etched-out-dash' or `--:shadowDoubleEtchedOutDash'
8312
8313 Two dashed lines with 3D raised appearance.
8314
8315 Under LessTif/Motif, the last four separator types are displayed like
8316 the corresponding single-line separators.
8317
8318 ** New frame parameters for scroll bar colors.
8319
8320 The new frame parameters `scroll-bar-foreground' and
8321 `scroll-bar-background' can be used to change scroll bar colors.
8322 Their value must be either a color name, a string, or nil to specify
8323 that scroll bars should use a default color. For toolkit scroll bars,
8324 default colors are toolkit specific. For non-toolkit scroll bars, the
8325 default background is the background color of the frame, and the
8326 default foreground is black.
8327
8328 The X resource name of these parameters are `scrollBarForeground'
8329 (class ScrollBarForeground) and `scrollBarBackground' (class
8330 `ScrollBarBackground').
8331
8332 Setting these parameters overrides toolkit specific X resource
8333 settings for scroll bar colors.
8334
8335 ** You can set `redisplay-dont-pause' to a non-nil value to prevent
8336 display updates from being interrupted when input is pending.
8337
8338 ** Changing a window's width may now change its window start if it
8339 starts on a continuation line. The new window start is computed based
8340 on the window's new width, starting from the start of the continued
8341 line as the start of the screen line with the minimum distance from
8342 the original window start.
8343
8344 ** The variable `hscroll-step' and the functions
8345 `hscroll-point-visible' and `hscroll-window-column' have been removed
8346 now that proper horizontal scrolling is implemented.
8347
8348 ** Windows can now be made fixed-width and/or fixed-height.
8349
8350 A window is fixed-size if its buffer has a buffer-local variable
8351 `window-size-fixed' whose value is not nil. A value of `height' makes
8352 windows fixed-height, a value of `width' makes them fixed-width, any
8353 other non-nil value makes them both fixed-width and fixed-height.
8354
8355 The following code makes all windows displaying the current buffer
8356 fixed-width and fixed-height.
8357
8358 (set (make-local-variable 'window-size-fixed) t)
8359
8360 A call to enlarge-window on a window gives an error if that window is
8361 fixed-width and it is tried to change the window's width, or if the
8362 window is fixed-height, and it is tried to change its height. To
8363 change the size of a fixed-size window, bind `window-size-fixed'
8364 temporarily to nil, for example
8365
8366 (let ((window-size-fixed nil))
8367 (enlarge-window 10))
8368
8369 Likewise, an attempt to split a fixed-height window vertically,
8370 or a fixed-width window horizontally results in a error.
8371
8372 ** The cursor-type frame parameter is now supported on MS-DOS
8373 terminals. When Emacs starts, it by default changes the cursor shape
8374 to a solid box, as it does on Unix. The `cursor-type' frame parameter
8375 overrides this as it does on Unix, except that the bar cursor is
8376 horizontal rather than vertical (since the MS-DOS display doesn't
8377 support a vertical-bar cursor).
8378
8379
8380 \f
8381 * Emacs 20.7 is a bug-fix release with few user-visible changes
8382
8383 ** It is now possible to use CCL-based coding systems for keyboard
8384 input.
8385
8386 ** ange-ftp now handles FTP security extensions, like Kerberos.
8387
8388 ** Rmail has been extended to recognize more forms of digest messages.
8389
8390 ** Now, most coding systems set in keyboard coding system work not
8391 only for character input, but also in incremental search. The
8392 exceptions are such coding systems that handle 2-byte character sets
8393 (e.g euc-kr, euc-jp) and that use ISO's escape sequence
8394 (e.g. iso-2022-jp). They are ignored in incremental search.
8395
8396 ** Support for Macintosh PowerPC-based machines running GNU/Linux has
8397 been added.
8398
8399 \f
8400 * Emacs 20.6 is a bug-fix release with one user-visible change
8401
8402 ** Support for ARM-based non-RISCiX machines has been added.
8403
8404
8405 \f
8406 * Emacs 20.5 is a bug-fix release with no user-visible changes.
8407
8408 ** Not new, but not mentioned before:
8409 M-w when Transient Mark mode is enabled disables the mark.
8410 \f
8411 * Changes in Emacs 20.4
8412
8413 ** Init file may be called .emacs.el.
8414
8415 You can now call the Emacs init file `.emacs.el'.
8416 Formerly the name had to be `.emacs'. If you use the name
8417 `.emacs.el', you can byte-compile the file in the usual way.
8418
8419 If both `.emacs' and `.emacs.el' exist, the latter file
8420 is the one that is used.
8421
8422 ** shell-command, and shell-command-on-region, now return
8423 the exit code of the command (unless it is asynchronous).
8424 Also, you can specify a place to put the error output,
8425 separate from the command's regular output.
8426 Interactively, the variable shell-command-default-error-buffer
8427 says where to put error output; set it to a buffer name.
8428 In calls from Lisp, an optional argument ERROR-BUFFER specifies
8429 the buffer name.
8430
8431 When you specify a non-nil error buffer (or buffer name), any error
8432 output is inserted before point in that buffer, with \f\n to separate
8433 it from the previous batch of error output. The error buffer is not
8434 cleared, so error output from successive commands accumulates there.
8435
8436 ** Setting the default value of enable-multibyte-characters to nil in
8437 the .emacs file, either explicitly using setq-default, or via Custom,
8438 is now essentially equivalent to using --unibyte: all buffers
8439 created during startup will be made unibyte after loading .emacs.
8440
8441 ** C-x C-f now handles the wildcards * and ? in file names. For
8442 example, typing C-x C-f c*.c RET visits all the files whose names
8443 match c*.c. To visit a file whose name contains * or ?, add the
8444 quoting sequence /: to the beginning of the file name.
8445
8446 ** The M-x commands keep-lines, flush-lines and count-matches
8447 now have the same feature as occur and query-replace:
8448 if the pattern contains any upper case letters, then
8449 they never ignore case.
8450
8451 ** The end-of-line format conversion feature previously mentioned
8452 under `* Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows' actually
8453 applies to all operating systems. Emacs recognizes from the contents
8454 of a file what convention it uses to separate lines--newline, CRLF, or
8455 just CR--and automatically converts the contents to the normal Emacs
8456 convention (using newline to separate lines) for editing. This is a
8457 part of the general feature of coding system conversion.
8458
8459 If you subsequently save the buffer, Emacs converts the text back to
8460 the same format that was used in the file before.
8461
8462 You can turn off end-of-line conversion by setting the variable
8463 `inhibit-eol-conversion' to non-nil, e.g. with Custom in the MULE group.
8464
8465 ** The character set property `prefered-coding-system' has been
8466 renamed to `preferred-coding-system', for the sake of correct spelling.
8467 This is a fairly internal feature, so few programs should be affected.
8468
8469 ** Mode-line display of end-of-line format is changed.
8470 The indication of the end-of-line format of the file visited by a
8471 buffer is now more explicit when that format is not the usual one for
8472 your operating system. For example, the DOS-style end-of-line format
8473 is displayed as "(DOS)" on Unix and GNU/Linux systems. The usual
8474 end-of-line format is still displayed as a single character (colon for
8475 Unix, backslash for DOS and Windows, and forward slash for the Mac).
8476
8477 The values of the variables eol-mnemonic-unix, eol-mnemonic-dos,
8478 eol-mnemonic-mac, and eol-mnemonic-undecided, which are strings,
8479 control what is displayed in the mode line for each end-of-line
8480 format. You can now customize these variables.
8481
8482 ** In the previous version of Emacs, tar-mode didn't work well if a
8483 filename contained non-ASCII characters. Now this is fixed. Such a
8484 filename is decoded by file-name-coding-system if the default value of
8485 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil.
8486
8487 ** The command temp-buffer-resize-mode toggles a minor mode
8488 in which temporary buffers (such as help buffers) are given
8489 windows just big enough to hold the whole contents.
8490
8491 ** If you use completion.el, you must now run the function
8492 dynamic-completion-mode to enable it. Just loading the file
8493 doesn't have any effect.
8494
8495 ** In Flyspell mode, the default is now to make just one Ispell process,
8496 not one per buffer.
8497
8498 ** If you use iswitchb but do not call (iswitchb-default-keybindings) to
8499 use the default keybindings, you will need to add the following line:
8500 (add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook 'iswitchb-minibuffer-setup)
8501
8502 ** Auto-show mode is no longer enabled just by loading auto-show.el.
8503 To control it, set `auto-show-mode' via Custom or use the
8504 `auto-show-mode' command.
8505
8506 ** Handling of X fonts' ascent/descent parameters has been changed to
8507 avoid redisplay problems. As a consequence, compared with previous
8508 versions the line spacing and frame size now differ with some font
8509 choices, typically increasing by a pixel per line. This change
8510 occurred in version 20.3 but was not documented then.
8511
8512 ** If you select the bar cursor style, it uses the frame's
8513 cursor-color, rather than the cursor foreground pixel.
8514
8515 ** In multibyte mode, Rmail decodes incoming MIME messages using the
8516 character set specified in the message. If you want to disable this
8517 feature, set the variable rmail-decode-mime-charset to nil.
8518
8519 ** Not new, but not mentioned previously in NEWS: when you use #! at
8520 the beginning of a file to make it executable and specify an
8521 interpreter program, Emacs looks on the second line for the -*- mode
8522 and variable specification, as well as on the first line.
8523
8524 ** Support for IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters.
8525
8526 The new command M-x codepage-setup creates a special coding system
8527 that can be used to convert text between a specific IBM codepage and
8528 one of the character sets built into Emacs which matches that
8529 codepage. For example, codepage 850 corresponds to Latin-1 character
8530 set, codepage 855 corresponds to Cyrillic-ISO character set, etc.
8531
8532 Windows codepages 1250, 1251 and some others, where Windows deviates
8533 from the corresponding ISO character set, are also supported.
8534
8535 IBM box-drawing characters and other glyphs which don't have
8536 equivalents in the corresponding ISO character set, are converted to
8537 a character defined by dos-unsupported-char-glyph on MS-DOS, and to
8538 `?' on other systems.
8539
8540 IBM codepages are widely used on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, so this
8541 feature is most useful on those platforms, but it can also be used on
8542 Unix.
8543
8544 Emacs compiled for MS-DOS automatically loads the support for the
8545 current codepage when it starts.
8546
8547 ** Mail changes
8548
8549 *** When mail is sent using compose-mail (C-x m), and if
8550 `mail-send-nonascii' is set to the new default value `mime',
8551 appropriate MIME headers are added. The headers are added only if
8552 non-ASCII characters are present in the body of the mail, and no other
8553 MIME headers are already present. For example, the following three
8554 headers are added if the coding system used in the *mail* buffer is
8555 latin-1:
8556
8557 MIME-version: 1.0
8558 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
8559 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
8560
8561 *** The new variable default-sendmail-coding-system specifies the
8562 default way to encode outgoing mail. This has higher priority than
8563 default-buffer-file-coding-system but has lower priority than
8564 sendmail-coding-system and the local value of
8565 buffer-file-coding-system.
8566
8567 You should not set this variable manually. Instead, set
8568 sendmail-coding-system to specify a fixed encoding for all outgoing
8569 mail.
8570
8571 *** When you try to send a message that contains non-ASCII characters,
8572 if the coding system specified by those variables doesn't handle them,
8573 Emacs will ask you to select a suitable coding system while showing a
8574 list of possible coding systems.
8575
8576 ** CC Mode changes
8577
8578 *** c-default-style can now take an association list that maps major
8579 modes to style names. When this variable is an alist, Java mode no
8580 longer hardcodes a setting to "java" style. See the variable's
8581 docstring for details.
8582
8583 *** It's now possible to put a list as the offset on a syntactic
8584 symbol. The list is evaluated recursively until a non-nil offset is
8585 found. This is useful to combine several lineup functions to act in a
8586 prioritized order on a single line. However, none of the supplied
8587 lineup functions use this feature currently.
8588
8589 *** New syntactic symbol catch-clause, which is used on the "catch" and
8590 "finally" lines in try-catch constructs in C++ and Java.
8591
8592 *** New cleanup brace-catch-brace on c-cleanup-list, which does for
8593 "catch" lines what brace-elseif-brace does for "else if" lines.
8594
8595 *** The braces of Java anonymous inner classes are treated separately
8596 from the braces of other classes in auto-newline mode. Two new
8597 symbols inexpr-class-open and inexpr-class-close may be used on
8598 c-hanging-braces-alist to control the automatic newlines used for
8599 anonymous classes.
8600
8601 *** Support for the Pike language added, along with new Pike specific
8602 syntactic symbols: inlambda, lambda-intro-cont
8603
8604 *** Support for Java anonymous classes via new syntactic symbol
8605 inexpr-class. New syntactic symbol inexpr-statement for Pike
8606 support and gcc-style statements inside expressions. New lineup
8607 function c-lineup-inexpr-block.
8608
8609 *** New syntactic symbol brace-entry-open which is used in brace lists
8610 (i.e. static initializers) when a list entry starts with an open
8611 brace. These used to be recognized as brace-list-entry's.
8612 c-electric-brace also recognizes brace-entry-open braces
8613 (brace-list-entry's can no longer be electrified).
8614
8615 *** New command c-indent-line-or-region, not bound by default.
8616
8617 *** `#' is only electric when typed in the indentation of a line.
8618
8619 *** Parentheses are now electric (via the new command c-electric-paren)
8620 for auto-reindenting lines when parens are typed.
8621
8622 *** In "gnu" style, inline-open offset is now set to zero.
8623
8624 *** Uniform handling of the inclass syntactic symbol. The indentation
8625 associated with it is now always relative to the class opening brace.
8626 This means that the indentation behavior has changed in some
8627 circumstances, but only if you've put anything besides 0 on the
8628 class-open syntactic symbol (none of the default styles do that).
8629
8630 ** Gnus changes.
8631
8632 *** New functionality for using Gnus as an offline newsreader has been
8633 added. A plethora of new commands and modes have been added. See the
8634 Gnus manual for the full story.
8635
8636 *** The nndraft backend has returned, but works differently than
8637 before. All Message buffers are now also articles in the nndraft
8638 group, which is created automatically.
8639
8640 *** `gnus-alter-header-function' can now be used to alter header
8641 values.
8642
8643 *** `gnus-summary-goto-article' now accept Message-ID's.
8644
8645 *** A new Message command for deleting text in the body of a message
8646 outside the region: `C-c C-v'.
8647
8648 *** You can now post to component group in nnvirtual groups with
8649 `C-u C-c C-c'.
8650
8651 *** `nntp-rlogin-program' -- new variable to ease customization.
8652
8653 *** `C-u C-c C-c' in `gnus-article-edit-mode' will now inhibit
8654 re-highlighting of the article buffer.
8655
8656 *** New element in `gnus-boring-article-headers' -- `long-to'.
8657
8658 *** `M-i' symbolic prefix command. See the section "Symbolic
8659 Prefixes" in the Gnus manual for details.
8660
8661 *** `L' and `I' in the summary buffer now take the symbolic prefix
8662 `a' to add the score rule to the "all.SCORE" file.
8663
8664 *** `gnus-simplify-subject-functions' variable to allow greater
8665 control over simplification.
8666
8667 *** `A T' -- new command for fetching the current thread.
8668
8669 *** `/ T' -- new command for including the current thread in the
8670 limit.
8671
8672 *** `M-RET' is a new Message command for breaking cited text.
8673
8674 *** \\1-expressions are now valid in `nnmail-split-methods'.
8675
8676 *** The `custom-face-lookup' function has been removed.
8677 If you used this function in your initialization files, you must
8678 rewrite them to use `face-spec-set' instead.
8679
8680 *** Canceling now uses the current select method. Symbolic prefix
8681 `a' forces normal posting method.
8682
8683 *** New command to translate M******** sm*rtq**t*s into proper text
8684 -- `W d'.
8685
8686 *** For easier debugging of nntp, you can set `nntp-record-commands'
8687 to a non-nil value.
8688
8689 *** nntp now uses ~/.authinfo, a .netrc-like file, for controlling
8690 where and how to send AUTHINFO to NNTP servers.
8691
8692 *** A command for editing group parameters from the summary buffer
8693 has been added.
8694
8695 *** A history of where mails have been split is available.
8696
8697 *** A new article date command has been added -- `article-date-iso8601'.
8698
8699 *** Subjects can be simplified when threading by setting
8700 `gnus-score-thread-simplify'.
8701
8702 *** A new function for citing in Message has been added --
8703 `message-cite-original-without-signature'.
8704
8705 *** `article-strip-all-blank-lines' -- new article command.
8706
8707 *** A new Message command to kill to the end of the article has
8708 been added.
8709
8710 *** A minimum adaptive score can be specified by using the
8711 `gnus-adaptive-word-minimum' variable.
8712
8713 *** The "lapsed date" article header can be kept continually
8714 updated by the `gnus-start-date-timer' command.
8715
8716 *** Web listserv archives can be read with the nnlistserv backend.
8717
8718 *** Old dejanews archives can now be read by nnweb.
8719
8720 *** `gnus-posting-styles' has been re-activated.
8721
8722 ** Changes to TeX and LaTeX mode
8723
8724 *** The new variable `tex-start-options-string' can be used to give
8725 options for the TeX run. The default value causes TeX to run in
8726 nonstopmode. For an interactive TeX run set it to nil or "".
8727
8728 *** The command `tex-feed-input' sends input to the Tex Shell. In a
8729 TeX buffer it is bound to the keys C-RET, C-c RET, and C-c C-m (some
8730 of these keys may not work on all systems). For instance, if you run
8731 TeX interactively and if the TeX run stops because of an error, you
8732 can continue it without leaving the TeX buffer by typing C-RET.
8733
8734 *** The Tex Shell Buffer is now in `compilation-shell-minor-mode'.
8735 All error-parsing commands of the Compilation major mode are available
8736 but bound to keys that don't collide with the shell. Thus you can use
8737 the Tex Shell for command line executions like a usual shell.
8738
8739 *** The commands `tex-validate-region' and `tex-validate-buffer' check
8740 the matching of braces and $'s. The errors are listed in a *Occur*
8741 buffer and you can use C-c C-c or mouse-2 to go to a particular
8742 mismatch.
8743
8744 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
8745
8746 *** The table of contents buffer can now also display labels and
8747 file boundaries in addition to sections. Use `l', `i', and `c' keys.
8748
8749 *** Labels derived from context (the section heading) are now
8750 lowercase by default. To make the label legal in LaTeX, latin-1
8751 characters will lose their accent. All Mule characters will be
8752 removed from the label.
8753
8754 *** The automatic display of cross reference information can also use
8755 a window instead of the echo area. See variable `reftex-auto-view-crossref'.
8756
8757 *** kpsewhich can be used by RefTeX to find TeX and BibTeX files. See the
8758 customization group `reftex-finding-files'.
8759
8760 *** The option `reftex-bibfile-ignore-list' has been renamed to
8761 `reftex-bibfile-ignore-regexps' and indeed can be fed with regular
8762 expressions.
8763
8764 *** Multiple Selection buffers are now hidden buffers.
8765
8766 ** New/deleted modes and packages
8767
8768 *** The package snmp-mode.el provides major modes for editing SNMP and
8769 SNMPv2 MIBs. It has entries on `auto-mode-alist'.
8770
8771 *** The package sql.el provides a major mode, M-x sql-mode, for
8772 editing SQL files, and M-x sql-interactive-mode for interacting with
8773 SQL interpreters. It has an entry on `auto-mode-alist'.
8774
8775 *** M-x highlight-changes-mode provides a minor mode displaying buffer
8776 changes with a special face.
8777
8778 *** ispell4.el has been deleted. It got in the way of ispell.el and
8779 this was hard to fix reliably. It has long been obsolete -- use
8780 Ispell 3.1 and ispell.el.
8781 \f
8782 * MS-DOS changes in Emacs 20.4
8783
8784 ** Emacs compiled for MS-DOS now supports MULE features better.
8785 This includes support for display of all ISO 8859-N character sets,
8786 conversion to and from IBM codepage encoding of non-ASCII characters,
8787 and automatic setup of the MULE environment at startup. For details,
8788 check out the section `MS-DOS and MULE' in the manual.
8789
8790 The MS-DOS installation procedure automatically configures and builds
8791 Emacs with input method support if it finds an unpacked Leim
8792 distribution when the config.bat script is run.
8793
8794 ** Formerly, the value of lpr-command did not affect printing on
8795 MS-DOS unless print-region-function was set to nil, but now it
8796 controls whether an external program is invoked or output is written
8797 directly to a printer port. Similarly, in the previous version of
8798 Emacs, the value of ps-lpr-command did not affect PostScript printing
8799 on MS-DOS unless ps-printer-name was set to something other than a
8800 string (eg. t or `pipe'), but now it controls whether an external
8801 program is used. (These changes were made so that configuration of
8802 printing variables would be almost identical across all platforms.)
8803
8804 ** In the previous version of Emacs, PostScript and non-PostScript
8805 output was piped to external programs, but because most print programs
8806 available for MS-DOS and MS-Windows cannot read data from their standard
8807 input, on those systems the data to be output is now written to a
8808 temporary file whose name is passed as the last argument to the external
8809 program.
8810
8811 An exception is made for `print', a standard program on Windows NT,
8812 and `nprint', a standard program on Novell Netware. For both of these
8813 programs, the command line is constructed in the appropriate syntax
8814 automatically, using only the value of printer-name or ps-printer-name
8815 as appropriate--the value of the relevant `-switches' variable is
8816 ignored, as both programs have no useful switches.
8817
8818 ** The value of the variable dos-printer (cf. dos-ps-printer), if it has
8819 a value, overrides the value of printer-name (cf. ps-printer-name), on
8820 MS-DOS and MS-Windows only. This has been true since version 20.3, but
8821 was not documented clearly before.
8822
8823 ** All the Emacs games now work on MS-DOS terminals.
8824 This includes Tetris and Snake.
8825 \f
8826 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.4
8827
8828 ** New functions line-beginning-position and line-end-position
8829 return the position of the beginning or end of the current line.
8830 They both accept an optional argument, which has the same
8831 meaning as the argument to beginning-of-line or end-of-line.
8832
8833 ** find-file and allied functions now have an optional argument
8834 WILDCARD. If this is non-nil, they do wildcard processing,
8835 and visit all files that match the wildcard pattern.
8836
8837 ** Changes in the file-attributes function.
8838
8839 *** The file size returned by file-attributes may be an integer or a float.
8840 It is an integer if the size fits in a Lisp integer, float otherwise.
8841
8842 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
8843 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a cons cell containing two
8844 integers.
8845
8846 ** The new function directory-files-and-attributes returns a list of
8847 files in a directory and their attributes. It accepts the same
8848 arguments as directory-files and has similar semantics, except that
8849 file names and attributes are returned.
8850
8851 ** The new function file-attributes-lessp is a helper function for
8852 sorting the list generated by directory-files-and-attributes. It
8853 accepts two arguments, each a list of a file name and its attributes.
8854 It compares the file names of each according to string-lessp and
8855 returns the result.
8856
8857 ** The new function file-expand-wildcards expands a wildcard-pattern
8858 to produce a list of existing files that match the pattern.
8859
8860 ** New functions for base64 conversion:
8861
8862 The function base64-encode-region converts a part of the buffer
8863 into the base64 code used in MIME. base64-decode-region
8864 performs the opposite conversion. Line-breaking is supported
8865 optionally.
8866
8867 Functions base64-encode-string and base64-decode-string do a similar
8868 job on the text in a string. They return the value as a new string.
8869
8870 **
8871 The new function process-running-child-p
8872 will tell you if a subprocess has given control of its
8873 terminal to its own child process.
8874
8875 ** interrupt-process and such functions have a new feature:
8876 when the second argument is `lambda', they send a signal
8877 to the running child of the subshell, if any, but if the shell
8878 itself owns its terminal, no signal is sent.
8879
8880 ** There are new widget types `plist' and `alist' which can
8881 be used for customizing variables whose values are plists or alists.
8882
8883 ** easymenu.el now understands `:key-sequence' and `:style button'.
8884 :included is an alias for :visible.
8885
8886 easy-menu-add-item now understands the values returned by
8887 easy-menu-remove-item and easy-menu-item-present-p. This can be used
8888 to move or copy menu entries.
8889
8890 ** Multibyte editing changes
8891
8892 *** The definitions of sref and char-bytes are changed. Now, sref is
8893 an alias of aref and char-bytes always returns 1. This change is to
8894 make some Emacs Lisp code which works on 20.2 and earlier also
8895 work on the latest Emacs. Such code uses a combination of sref and
8896 char-bytes in a loop typically as below:
8897 (setq char (sref str idx)
8898 idx (+ idx (char-bytes idx)))
8899 The byte-compiler now warns that this is obsolete.
8900
8901 If you want to know how many bytes a specific multibyte character
8902 (say, CH) occupies in a multibyte buffer, use this code:
8903 (charset-bytes (char-charset ch))
8904
8905 *** In multibyte mode, when you narrow a buffer to some region, and the
8906 region is preceded or followed by non-ASCII codes, inserting or
8907 deleting at the head or the end of the region may signal this error:
8908
8909 Byte combining across boundary of accessible buffer text inhibited
8910
8911 This is to avoid some bytes being combined together into a character
8912 across the boundary.
8913
8914 *** The functions find-charset-region and find-charset-string include
8915 `unknown' in the returned list in the following cases:
8916 o The current buffer or the target string is unibyte and
8917 contains 8-bit characters.
8918 o The current buffer or the target string is multibyte and
8919 contains invalid characters.
8920
8921 *** The functions decode-coding-region and encode-coding-region remove
8922 text properties of the target region. Ideally, they should correctly
8923 preserve text properties, but for the moment, it's hard. Removing
8924 text properties is better than preserving them in a less-than-correct
8925 way.
8926
8927 *** prefer-coding-system sets EOL conversion of default coding systems.
8928 If the argument to prefer-coding-system specifies a certain type of
8929 end of line conversion, the default coding systems set by
8930 prefer-coding-system will specify that conversion type for end of line.
8931
8932 *** The new function thai-compose-string can be used to properly
8933 compose Thai characters in a string.
8934
8935 ** The primitive `define-prefix-command' now takes an optional third
8936 argument NAME, which should be a string. It supplies the menu name
8937 for the created keymap. Keymaps created in order to be displayed as
8938 menus should always use the third argument.
8939
8940 ** The meanings of optional second arguments for read-char,
8941 read-event, and read-char-exclusive are flipped. Now the second
8942 arguments are INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. These functions use the current
8943 input method (if any) if and only if INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD is non-nil.
8944
8945 ** The new function clear-this-command-keys empties out the contents
8946 of the vector that (this-command-keys) returns. This is useful in
8947 programs that read passwords, to prevent the passwords from echoing
8948 inadvertently as part of the next command in certain cases.
8949
8950 ** The new macro `with-temp-message' displays a temporary message in
8951 the echo area, while executing some Lisp code. Like `progn', it
8952 returns the value of the last form, but it also restores the previous
8953 echo area contents.
8954
8955 (with-temp-message MESSAGE &rest BODY)
8956
8957 ** The function `require' now takes an optional third argument
8958 NOERROR. If it is non-nil, then there is no error if the
8959 requested feature cannot be loaded.
8960
8961 ** In the function modify-face, an argument of (nil) for the
8962 foreground color, background color or stipple pattern
8963 means to clear out that attribute.
8964
8965 ** The `outer-window-id' frame property of an X frame
8966 gives the window number of the outermost X window for the frame.
8967
8968 ** Temporary buffers made with with-output-to-temp-buffer are now
8969 read-only by default, and normally use the major mode Help mode
8970 unless you put them in some other non-Fundamental mode before the
8971 end of with-output-to-temp-buffer.
8972
8973 ** The new functions gap-position and gap-size return information on
8974 the gap of the current buffer.
8975
8976 ** The new functions position-bytes and byte-to-position provide a way
8977 to convert between character positions and byte positions in the
8978 current buffer.
8979
8980 ** vc.el defines two new macros, `edit-vc-file' and `with-vc-file', to
8981 facilitate working with version-controlled files from Lisp programs.
8982 These macros check out a given file automatically if needed, and check
8983 it back in after any modifications have been made.
8984 \f
8985 * Installation Changes in Emacs 20.3
8986
8987 ** The default value of load-path now includes most subdirectories of
8988 the site-specific directories /usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp and
8989 /usr/local/share/emacs/VERSION/site-lisp, in addition to those
8990 directories themselves. Both immediate subdirectories and
8991 subdirectories multiple levels down are added to load-path.
8992
8993 Not all subdirectories are included, though. Subdirectories whose
8994 names do not start with a letter or digit are excluded.
8995 Subdirectories named RCS or CVS are excluded. Also, a subdirectory
8996 which contains a file named `.nosearch' is excluded. You can use
8997 these methods to prevent certain subdirectories from being searched.
8998
8999 Emacs finds these subdirectories and adds them to load-path when it
9000 starts up. While it would be cleaner to find the subdirectories each
9001 time Emacs loads a file, that would be much slower.
9002
9003 This feature is an incompatible change. If you have stored some Emacs
9004 Lisp files in a subdirectory of the site-lisp directory specifically
9005 to prevent them from being used, you will need to rename the
9006 subdirectory to start with a non-alphanumeric character, or create a
9007 `.nosearch' file in it, in order to continue to achieve the desired
9008 results.
9009
9010 ** Emacs no longer includes an old version of the C preprocessor from
9011 GCC. This was formerly used to help compile Emacs with C compilers
9012 that had limits on the significant length of an identifier, but in
9013 fact we stopped supporting such compilers some time ago.
9014 \f
9015 * Changes in Emacs 20.3
9016
9017 ** The new command C-x z (repeat) repeats the previous command
9018 including its argument. If you repeat the z afterward,
9019 it repeats the command additional times; thus, you can
9020 perform many repetitions with one keystroke per repetition.
9021
9022 ** Emacs now supports "selective undo" which undoes only within a
9023 specified region. To do this, set point and mark around the desired
9024 region and type C-u C-x u (or C-u C-_). You can then continue undoing
9025 further, within the same region, by repeating the ordinary undo
9026 command C-x u or C-_. This will keep undoing changes that were made
9027 within the region you originally specified, until either all of them
9028 are undone, or it encounters a change which crosses the edge of that
9029 region.
9030
9031 In Transient Mark mode, undoing when a region is active requests
9032 selective undo.
9033
9034 ** If you specify --unibyte when starting Emacs, then all buffers are
9035 unibyte, except when a Lisp program specifically creates a multibyte
9036 buffer. Setting the environment variable EMACS_UNIBYTE has the same
9037 effect. The --no-unibyte option overrides EMACS_UNIBYTE and directs
9038 Emacs to run normally in multibyte mode.
9039
9040 The option --unibyte does not affect the reading of Emacs Lisp files,
9041 though. If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode, use
9042 -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line. That will force Emacs to
9043 load that file in unibyte mode, regardless of how Emacs was started.
9044
9045 ** toggle-enable-multibyte-characters no longer has a key binding and
9046 no longer appears in the menu bar. We've realized that changing the
9047 enable-multibyte-characters variable in an existing buffer is
9048 something that most users not do.
9049
9050 ** You can specify a coding system to use for the next cut or paste
9051 operations through the window system with the command C-x RET X.
9052 The coding system can make a difference for communication with other
9053 applications.
9054
9055 C-x RET x specifies a coding system for all subsequent cutting and
9056 pasting operations.
9057
9058 ** You can specify the printer to use for commands that do printing by
9059 setting the variable `printer-name'. Just what a printer name looks
9060 like depends on your operating system. You can specify a different
9061 printer for the Postscript printing commands by setting
9062 `ps-printer-name'.
9063
9064 ** Emacs now supports on-the-fly spell checking by the means of a
9065 minor mode. It is called M-x flyspell-mode. You don't have to remember
9066 any other special commands to use it, and you will hardly notice it
9067 except when you make a spelling error. Flyspell works by highlighting
9068 incorrect words as soon as they are completed or as soon as the cursor
9069 hits a new word.
9070
9071 Flyspell mode works with whichever dictionary you have selected for
9072 Ispell in Emacs. In TeX mode, it understands TeX syntax so as not
9073 to be confused by TeX commands.
9074
9075 You can correct a misspelled word by editing it into something
9076 correct. You can also correct it, or accept it as correct, by
9077 clicking on the word with Mouse-2; that gives you a pop-up menu
9078 of various alternative replacements and actions.
9079
9080 Flyspell mode also proposes "automatic" corrections. M-TAB replaces
9081 the current misspelled word with a possible correction. If several
9082 corrections are made possible, M-TAB cycles through them in
9083 alphabetical order, or in order of decreasing likelihood if
9084 flyspell-sort-corrections is nil.
9085
9086 Flyspell mode also flags an error when a word is repeated, if
9087 flyspell-mark-duplications-flag is non-nil.
9088
9089 ** Changes in input method usage.
9090
9091 Now you can use arrow keys (right, left, down, up) for selecting among
9092 the alternatives just the same way as you do by C-f, C-b, C-n, and C-p
9093 respectively.
9094
9095 You can use the ENTER key to accept the current conversion.
9096
9097 If you type TAB to display a list of alternatives, you can select one
9098 of the alternatives with Mouse-2.
9099
9100 The meaning of the variable `input-method-verbose-flag' is changed so
9101 that you can set it to t, nil, `default', or `complex-only'.
9102
9103 If the value is nil, extra guidance is never given.
9104
9105 If the value is t, extra guidance is always given.
9106
9107 If the value is `complex-only', extra guidance is always given only
9108 when you are using complex input methods such as chinese-py.
9109
9110 If the value is `default' (this is the default), extra guidance is
9111 given in the following case:
9112 o When you are using a complex input method.
9113 o When you are using a simple input method but not in the minibuffer.
9114
9115 If you are using Emacs through a very slow line, setting
9116 input-method-verbose-flag to nil or to complex-only is a good choice,
9117 and if you are using an input method you are not familiar with,
9118 setting it to t is helpful.
9119
9120 The old command select-input-method is now called set-input-method.
9121
9122 In the language environment "Korean", you can use the following
9123 keys:
9124 Shift-SPC toggle-korean-input-method
9125 C-F9 quail-hangul-switch-symbol-ksc
9126 F9 quail-hangul-switch-hanja
9127 These key bindings are canceled when you switch to another language
9128 environment.
9129
9130 ** The minibuffer history of file names now records the specified file
9131 names, not the entire minibuffer input. For example, if the
9132 minibuffer starts out with /usr/foo/, you might type in /etc/passwd to
9133 get
9134
9135 /usr/foo//etc/passwd
9136
9137 which stands for the file /etc/passwd.
9138
9139 Formerly, this used to put /usr/foo//etc/passwd in the history list.
9140 Now this puts just /etc/passwd in the history list.
9141
9142 ** If you are root, Emacs sets backup-by-copying-when-mismatch to t
9143 at startup, so that saving a file will be sure to preserve
9144 its owner and group.
9145
9146 ** find-func.el can now also find the place of definition of Emacs
9147 Lisp variables in user-loaded libraries.
9148
9149 ** C-x r t (string-rectangle) now deletes the existing rectangle
9150 contents before inserting the specified string on each line.
9151
9152 ** There is a new command delete-whitespace-rectangle
9153 which deletes whitespace starting from a particular column
9154 in all the lines on a rectangle. The column is specified
9155 by the left edge of the rectangle.
9156
9157 ** You can now store a number into a register with C-u NUMBER C-x r n REG,
9158 increment it by INC with C-u INC C-x r + REG (to increment by one, omit
9159 C-u INC), and insert it in the buffer with C-x r g REG. This is useful
9160 for writing keyboard macros.
9161
9162 ** The new command M-x speedbar displays a frame in which directories,
9163 files, and tags can be displayed, manipulated, and jumped to. The
9164 frame defaults to 20 characters in width, and is the same height as
9165 the frame that it was started from. Some major modes define
9166 additional commands for the speedbar, including Rmail, GUD/GDB, and
9167 info.
9168
9169 ** query-replace-regexp is now bound to C-M-%.
9170
9171 ** In Transient Mark mode, when the region is active, M-x
9172 query-replace and the other replace commands now operate on the region
9173 contents only.
9174
9175 ** M-x write-region, when used interactively, now asks for
9176 confirmation before overwriting an existing file. When you call
9177 the function from a Lisp program, a new optional argument CONFIRM
9178 says whether to ask for confirmation in this case.
9179
9180 ** If you use find-file-literally and the file is already visited
9181 non-literally, the command asks you whether to revisit the file
9182 literally. If you say no, it signals an error.
9183
9184 ** Major modes defined with the "derived mode" feature
9185 now use the proper name for the mode hook: WHATEVER-mode-hook.
9186 Formerly they used the name WHATEVER-mode-hooks, but that is
9187 inconsistent with Emacs conventions.
9188
9189 ** shell-command-on-region (and shell-command) reports success or
9190 failure if the command produces no output.
9191
9192 ** Set focus-follows-mouse to nil if your window system or window
9193 manager does not transfer focus to another window when you just move
9194 the mouse.
9195
9196 ** mouse-menu-buffer-maxlen has been renamed to
9197 mouse-buffer-menu-maxlen to be consistent with the other related
9198 function and variable names.
9199
9200 ** The new variable auto-coding-alist specifies coding systems for
9201 reading specific files. This has higher priority than
9202 file-coding-system-alist.
9203
9204 ** If you set the variable unibyte-display-via-language-environment to
9205 t, then Emacs displays non-ASCII characters are displayed by
9206 converting them to the equivalent multibyte characters according to
9207 the current language environment. As a result, they are displayed
9208 according to the current fontset.
9209
9210 ** C-q's handling of codes in the range 0200 through 0377 is changed.
9211
9212 The codes in the range 0200 through 0237 are inserted as one byte of
9213 that code regardless of the values of nonascii-translation-table and
9214 nonascii-insert-offset.
9215
9216 For the codes in the range 0240 through 0377, if
9217 enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil and nonascii-translation-table
9218 nor nonascii-insert-offset can't convert them to valid multibyte
9219 characters, they are converted to Latin-1 characters.
9220
9221 ** If you try to find a file that is not read-accessible, you now get
9222 an error, rather than an empty buffer and a warning.
9223
9224 ** In the minibuffer history commands M-r and M-s, an upper case
9225 letter in the regular expression forces case-sensitive search.
9226
9227 ** In the *Help* buffer, cross-references to commands and variables
9228 are inferred and hyperlinked. Use C-h m in Help mode for the relevant
9229 command keys.
9230
9231 ** M-x apropos-command, with a prefix argument, no longer looks for
9232 user option variables--instead it looks for noninteractive functions.
9233
9234 Meanwhile, the command apropos-variable normally searches for
9235 user option variables; with a prefix argument, it looks at
9236 all variables that have documentation.
9237
9238 ** When you type a long line in the minibuffer, and the minibuffer
9239 shows just one line, automatically scrolling works in a special way
9240 that shows you overlap with the previous line of text. The variable
9241 minibuffer-scroll-overlap controls how many characters of overlap
9242 it should show; the default is 20.
9243
9244 Meanwhile, Resize Minibuffer mode is still available; in that mode,
9245 the minibuffer grows taller (up to a point) as needed to show the whole
9246 of your input.
9247
9248 ** The new command M-x customize-changed-options lets you customize
9249 all the options whose meanings or default values have changed in
9250 recent Emacs versions. You specify a previous Emacs version number as
9251 argument, and the command creates a customization buffer showing all
9252 the customizable options which were changed since that version.
9253 Newly added options are included as well.
9254
9255 If you don't specify a particular version number argument,
9256 then the customization buffer shows all the customizable options
9257 for which Emacs versions of changes are recorded.
9258
9259 This function is also bound to the Changed Options entry in the
9260 Customize menu.
9261
9262 ** When you run M-x grep with a prefix argument, it figures out
9263 the tag around point and puts that into the default grep command.
9264
9265 ** The new command M-* (pop-tag-mark) pops back through a history of
9266 buffer positions from which M-. or other tag-finding commands were
9267 invoked.
9268
9269 ** The new variable comment-padding specifies the number of spaces
9270 that `comment-region' will insert before the actual text of the comment.
9271 The default is 1.
9272
9273 ** In Fortran mode the characters `.', `_' and `$' now have symbol
9274 syntax, not word syntax. Fortran mode now supports `imenu' and has
9275 new commands fortran-join-line (M-^) and fortran-narrow-to-subprogram
9276 (C-x n d). M-q can be used to fill a statement or comment block
9277 sensibly.
9278
9279 ** GUD now supports jdb, the Java debugger, and pdb, the Python debugger.
9280
9281 ** If you set the variable add-log-keep-changes-together to a non-nil
9282 value, the command `C-x 4 a' will automatically notice when you make
9283 two entries in one day for one file, and combine them.
9284
9285 ** You can use the command M-x diary-mail-entries to mail yourself a
9286 reminder about upcoming diary entries. See the documentation string
9287 for a sample shell script for calling this function automatically
9288 every night.
9289
9290 ** Desktop changes
9291
9292 *** All you need to do to enable use of the Desktop package, is to set
9293 the variable desktop-enable to t with Custom.
9294
9295 *** Minor modes are now restored. Which minor modes are restored
9296 and how modes are restored is controlled by `desktop-minor-mode-table'.
9297
9298 ** There is no need to do anything special, now, to enable Gnus to
9299 read and post multi-lingual articles.
9300
9301 ** Outline mode has now support for showing hidden outlines when
9302 doing an isearch. In order for this to happen search-invisible should
9303 be set to open (the default). If an isearch match is inside a hidden
9304 outline the outline is made visible. If you continue pressing C-s and
9305 the match moves outside the formerly invisible outline, the outline is
9306 made invisible again.
9307
9308 ** Mail reading and sending changes
9309
9310 *** The Rmail e command now switches to displaying the whole header of
9311 the message before it lets you edit the message. This is so that any
9312 changes you make in the header will not be lost if you subsequently
9313 toggle.
9314
9315 *** The w command in Rmail, which writes the message body into a file,
9316 now works in the summary buffer as well. (The command to delete the
9317 summary buffer is now Q.) The default file name for the w command, if
9318 the message has no subject, is stored in the variable
9319 rmail-default-body-file.
9320
9321 *** Most of the commands and modes that operate on mail and netnews no
9322 longer depend on the value of mail-header-separator. Instead, they
9323 handle whatever separator the buffer happens to use.
9324
9325 *** If you set mail-signature to a value which is not t, nil, or a string,
9326 it should be an expression. When you send a message, this expression
9327 is evaluated to insert the signature.
9328
9329 *** The new Lisp library feedmail.el (version 8) enhances processing of
9330 outbound email messages. It works in coordination with other email
9331 handling packages (e.g., rmail, VM, gnus) and is responsible for
9332 putting final touches on messages and actually submitting them for
9333 transmission. Users of the emacs program "fakemail" might be
9334 especially interested in trying feedmail.
9335
9336 feedmail is not enabled by default. See comments at the top of
9337 feedmail.el for set-up instructions. Among the bigger features
9338 provided by feedmail are:
9339
9340 **** you can park outgoing messages into a disk-based queue and
9341 stimulate sending some or all of them later (handy for laptop users);
9342 there is also a queue for draft messages
9343
9344 **** you can get one last look at the prepped outbound message and
9345 be prompted for confirmation
9346
9347 **** does smart filling of address headers
9348
9349 **** can generate a MESSAGE-ID: line and a DATE: line; the date can be
9350 the time the message was written or the time it is being sent; this
9351 can make FCC copies more closely resemble copies that recipients get
9352
9353 **** you can specify an arbitrary function for actually transmitting
9354 the message; included in feedmail are interfaces for /bin/[r]mail,
9355 /usr/lib/sendmail, and elisp smtpmail; it's easy to write a new
9356 function for something else (10-20 lines of elisp)
9357
9358 ** Dired changes
9359
9360 *** The Dired function dired-do-toggle, which toggles marked and unmarked
9361 files, is now bound to "t" instead of "T".
9362
9363 *** dired-at-point has been added to ffap.el. It allows one to easily
9364 run Dired on the directory name at point.
9365
9366 *** Dired has a new command: %g. It searches the contents of
9367 files in the directory and marks each file that contains a match
9368 for a specified regexp.
9369
9370 ** VC Changes
9371
9372 *** New option vc-ignore-vc-files lets you turn off version control
9373 conveniently.
9374
9375 *** VC Dired has been completely rewritten. It is now much
9376 faster, especially for CVS, and works very similar to ordinary
9377 Dired.
9378
9379 VC Dired is invoked by typing C-x v d and entering the name of the
9380 directory to display. By default, VC Dired gives you a recursive
9381 listing of all files at or below the given directory which are
9382 currently locked (for CVS, all files not up-to-date are shown).
9383
9384 You can change the listing format by setting vc-dired-recurse to nil,
9385 then it shows only the given directory, and you may also set
9386 vc-dired-terse-display to nil, then it shows all files under version
9387 control plus the names of any subdirectories, so that you can type `i'
9388 on such lines to insert them manually, as in ordinary Dired.
9389
9390 All Dired commands operate normally in VC Dired, except for `v', which
9391 is redefined as the version control prefix. That means you may type
9392 `v l', `v =' etc. to invoke `vc-print-log', `vc-diff' and the like on
9393 the file named in the current Dired buffer line. `v v' invokes
9394 `vc-next-action' on this file, or on all files currently marked.
9395
9396 The new command `v t' (vc-dired-toggle-terse-mode) allows you to
9397 toggle between terse display (only locked files) and full display (all
9398 VC files plus subdirectories). There is also a special command,
9399 `* l', to mark all files currently locked.
9400
9401 Giving a prefix argument to C-x v d now does the same thing as in
9402 ordinary Dired: it allows you to supply additional options for the ls
9403 command in the minibuffer, to fine-tune VC Dired's output.
9404
9405 *** Under CVS, if you merge changes from the repository into a working
9406 file, and CVS detects conflicts, VC now offers to start an ediff
9407 session to resolve them.
9408
9409 Alternatively, you can use the new command `vc-resolve-conflicts' to
9410 resolve conflicts in a file at any time. It works in any buffer that
9411 contains conflict markers as generated by rcsmerge (which is what CVS
9412 uses as well).
9413
9414 *** You can now transfer changes between branches, using the new
9415 command vc-merge (C-x v m). It is implemented for RCS and CVS. When
9416 you invoke it in a buffer under version-control, you can specify
9417 either an entire branch or a pair of versions, and the changes on that
9418 branch or between the two versions are merged into the working file.
9419 If this results in any conflicts, they may be resolved interactively,
9420 using ediff.
9421
9422 ** Changes in Font Lock
9423
9424 *** The face and variable previously known as font-lock-reference-face
9425 are now called font-lock-constant-face to better reflect their typical
9426 use for highlighting constants and labels. (Its face properties are
9427 unchanged.) The variable font-lock-reference-face remains for now for
9428 compatibility reasons, but its value is font-lock-constant-face.
9429
9430 ** Frame name display changes
9431
9432 *** The command set-frame-name lets you set the name of the current
9433 frame. You can use the new command select-frame-by-name to select and
9434 raise a frame; this is mostly useful on character-only terminals, or
9435 when many frames are invisible or iconified.
9436
9437 *** On character-only terminal (not a window system), changing the
9438 frame name is now reflected on the mode line and in the Buffers/Frames
9439 menu.
9440
9441 ** Comint (subshell) changes
9442
9443 *** In Comint modes, the commands to kill, stop or interrupt a
9444 subjob now also kill pending input. This is for compatibility
9445 with ordinary shells, where the signal characters do this.
9446
9447 *** There are new commands in Comint mode.
9448
9449 C-c C-x fetches the "next" line from the input history;
9450 that is, the line after the last line you got.
9451 You can use this command to fetch successive lines, one by one.
9452
9453 C-c SPC accumulates lines of input. More precisely, it arranges to
9454 send the current line together with the following line, when you send
9455 the following line.
9456
9457 C-c C-a if repeated twice consecutively now moves to the process mark,
9458 which separates the pending input from the subprocess output and the
9459 previously sent input.
9460
9461 C-c M-r now runs comint-previous-matching-input-from-input;
9462 it searches for a previous command, using the current pending input
9463 as the search string.
9464
9465 *** New option compilation-scroll-output can be set to scroll
9466 automatically in compilation-mode windows.
9467
9468 ** C mode changes
9469
9470 *** Multiline macros are now handled, both as they affect indentation,
9471 and as recognized syntax. New syntactic symbol cpp-macro-cont is
9472 assigned to second and subsequent lines of a multiline macro
9473 definition.
9474
9475 *** A new style "user" which captures all non-hook-ified
9476 (i.e. top-level) .emacs file variable settings and customizations.
9477 Style "cc-mode" is an alias for "user" and is deprecated. "gnu"
9478 style is still the default however.
9479
9480 *** "java" style now conforms to Sun's JDK coding style.
9481
9482 *** There are new commands c-beginning-of-defun, c-end-of-defun which
9483 are alternatives which you could bind to C-M-a and C-M-e if you prefer
9484 them. They do not have key bindings by default.
9485
9486 *** New and improved implementations of M-a (c-beginning-of-statement)
9487 and M-e (c-end-of-statement).
9488
9489 *** C++ namespace blocks are supported, with new syntactic symbols
9490 namespace-open, namespace-close, and innamespace.
9491
9492 *** File local variable settings of c-file-style and c-file-offsets
9493 makes the style variables local to that buffer only.
9494
9495 *** New indentation functions c-lineup-close-paren,
9496 c-indent-one-line-block, c-lineup-dont-change.
9497
9498 *** Improvements (hopefully!) to the way CC Mode is loaded. You
9499 should now be able to do a (require 'cc-mode) to get the entire
9500 package loaded properly for customization in your .emacs file. A new
9501 variable c-initialize-on-load controls this and is t by default.
9502
9503 ** Changes to hippie-expand.
9504
9505 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-skip-space'. If
9506 non-nil, trailing spaces may be included in the abbreviation to search for,
9507 which then gives the same behavior as the original `dabbrev-expand'.
9508
9509 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-dabbrev-as-symbol'. If
9510 non-nil, characters of syntax '_' is considered part of the word when
9511 expanding dynamically.
9512
9513 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-no-restriction'. If
9514 non-nil, narrowed buffers are widened before they are searched.
9515
9516 *** New customization variable `hippie-expand-only-buffers'. If
9517 non-empty, buffers searched are restricted to the types specified in
9518 this list. Useful for example when constructing new special-purpose
9519 expansion functions with `make-hippie-expand-function'.
9520
9521 *** Text properties of the expansion are no longer copied.
9522
9523 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
9524
9525 *** Any titleword matching a regexp in the new variable
9526 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore (case sensitive) is ignored during
9527 automatic key generation. This replaces variable
9528 bibtex-autokey-titleword-first-ignore, which only checked for matches
9529 against the first word in the title.
9530
9531 *** Autokey generation now uses all words from the title, not just
9532 capitalized words. To avoid conflicts with existing customizations,
9533 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore is set up such that words starting with
9534 lowerkey characters will still be ignored. Thus, if you want to use
9535 lowercase words from the title, you will have to overwrite the
9536 bibtex-autokey-titleword-ignore standard setting.
9537
9538 *** Case conversion of names and title words for automatic key
9539 generation is more flexible. Variable bibtex-autokey-preserve-case is
9540 replaced by bibtex-autokey-titleword-case-convert and
9541 bibtex-autokey-name-case-convert.
9542
9543 ** Changes in vcursor.el.
9544
9545 *** Support for character terminals is available: there is a new keymap
9546 and the vcursor will appear as an arrow between buffer text. A
9547 variable `vcursor-interpret-input' allows input from the vcursor to be
9548 entered exactly as if typed. Numerous functions, including
9549 `vcursor-compare-windows', have been rewritten to improve consistency
9550 in the selection of windows and corresponding keymaps.
9551
9552 *** vcursor options can now be altered with M-x customize under the
9553 Editing group once the package is loaded.
9554
9555 *** Loading vcursor now does not define keys by default, as this is
9556 generally a bad side effect. Use M-x customize to set
9557 vcursor-key-bindings to t to restore the old behavior.
9558
9559 *** vcursor-auto-disable can be `copy', which turns off copying from the
9560 vcursor, but doesn't disable it, after any non-vcursor command.
9561
9562 ** Ispell changes.
9563
9564 *** You can now spell check comments and strings in the current
9565 buffer with M-x ispell-comments-and-strings. Comments and strings
9566 are identified by syntax tables in effect.
9567
9568 *** Generic region skipping implemented.
9569 A single buffer can be broken into a number of regions where text will
9570 and will not be checked. The definitions of the regions can be user
9571 defined. New applications and improvements made available by this
9572 include:
9573
9574 o URLs are automatically skipped
9575 o EMail message checking is vastly improved.
9576
9577 *** Ispell can highlight the erroneous word even on non-window terminals.
9578
9579 ** Changes to RefTeX mode
9580
9581 RefTeX has been updated in order to make it more usable with very
9582 large projects (like a several volume math book). The parser has been
9583 re-written from scratch. To get maximum speed from RefTeX, check the
9584 section `Optimizations' in the manual.
9585
9586 *** New recursive parser.
9587
9588 The old version of RefTeX created a single large buffer containing the
9589 entire multifile document in order to parse the document. The new
9590 recursive parser scans the individual files.
9591
9592 *** Parsing only part of a document.
9593
9594 Reparsing of changed document parts can now be made faster by enabling
9595 partial scans. To use this feature, read the documentation string of
9596 the variable `reftex-enable-partial-scans' and set the variable to t.
9597
9598 (setq reftex-enable-partial-scans t)
9599
9600 *** Storing parsing information in a file.
9601
9602 This can improve startup times considerably. To turn it on, use
9603
9604 (setq reftex-save-parse-info t)
9605
9606 *** Using multiple selection buffers
9607
9608 If the creation of label selection buffers is too slow (this happens
9609 for large documents), you can reuse these buffers by setting
9610
9611 (setq reftex-use-multiple-selection-buffers t)
9612
9613 *** References to external documents.
9614
9615 The LaTeX package `xr' allows to cross-reference labels in external
9616 documents. RefTeX can provide information about the external
9617 documents as well. To use this feature, set up the \externaldocument
9618 macros required by the `xr' package and rescan the document with
9619 RefTeX. The external labels can then be accessed with the `x' key in
9620 the selection buffer provided by `reftex-reference' (bound to `C-c )').
9621 The `x' key also works in the table of contents buffer.
9622
9623 *** Many more labeled LaTeX environments are recognized by default.
9624
9625 The built-in command list now covers all the standard LaTeX commands,
9626 and all of the major packages included in the LaTeX distribution.
9627
9628 Also, RefTeX now understands the \appendix macro and changes
9629 the enumeration of sections in the *toc* buffer accordingly.
9630
9631 *** Mouse support for selection and *toc* buffers
9632
9633 The mouse can now be used to select items in the selection and *toc*
9634 buffers. See also the new option `reftex-highlight-selection'.
9635
9636 *** New keymaps for selection and table of contents modes.
9637
9638 The selection processes for labels and citation keys, and the table of
9639 contents buffer now have their own keymaps: `reftex-select-label-map',
9640 `reftex-select-bib-map', `reftex-toc-map'. The selection processes
9641 have a number of new keys predefined. In particular, TAB lets you
9642 enter a label with completion. Check the on-the-fly help (press `?'
9643 at the selection prompt) or read the Info documentation to find out
9644 more.
9645
9646 *** Support for the varioref package
9647
9648 The `v' key in the label selection buffer toggles \ref versus \vref.
9649
9650 *** New hooks
9651
9652 Three new hooks can be used to redefine the way labels, references,
9653 and citations are created. These hooks are
9654 `reftex-format-label-function', `reftex-format-ref-function',
9655 `reftex-format-cite-function'.
9656
9657 *** Citations outside LaTeX
9658
9659 The command `reftex-citation' may also be used outside LaTeX (e.g. in
9660 a mail buffer). See the Info documentation for details.
9661
9662 *** Short context is no longer fontified.
9663
9664 The short context in the label menu no longer copies the
9665 fontification from the text in the buffer. If you prefer it to be
9666 fontified, use
9667
9668 (setq reftex-refontify-context t)
9669
9670 ** file-cache-minibuffer-complete now accepts a prefix argument.
9671 With a prefix argument, it does not try to do completion of
9672 the file name within its directory; it only checks for other
9673 directories that contain the same file name.
9674
9675 Thus, given the file name Makefile, and assuming that a file
9676 Makefile.in exists in the same directory, ordinary
9677 file-cache-minibuffer-complete will try to complete Makefile to
9678 Makefile.in and will therefore never look for other directories that
9679 have Makefile. A prefix argument tells it not to look for longer
9680 names such as Makefile.in, so that instead it will look for other
9681 directories--just as if the name were already complete in its present
9682 directory.
9683
9684 ** New modes and packages
9685
9686 *** There is a new alternative major mode for Perl, Cperl mode.
9687 It has many more features than Perl mode, and some people prefer
9688 it, but some do not.
9689
9690 *** There is a new major mode, M-x vhdl-mode, for editing files of VHDL
9691 code.
9692
9693 *** M-x which-function-mode enables a minor mode that displays the
9694 current function name continuously in the mode line, as you move
9695 around in a buffer.
9696
9697 Which Function mode is effective in major modes which support Imenu.
9698
9699 *** Gametree is a major mode for editing game analysis trees. The author
9700 uses it for keeping notes about his postal Chess games, but it should
9701 be helpful for other two-player games as well, as long as they have an
9702 established system of notation similar to Chess.
9703
9704 *** The new minor mode checkdoc-minor-mode provides Emacs Lisp
9705 documentation string checking for style and spelling. The style
9706 guidelines are found in the Emacs Lisp programming manual.
9707
9708 *** The net-utils package makes some common networking features
9709 available in Emacs. Some of these functions are wrappers around
9710 system utilities (ping, nslookup, etc); others are implementations of
9711 simple protocols (finger, whois) in Emacs Lisp. There are also
9712 functions to make simple connections to TCP/IP ports for debugging and
9713 the like.
9714
9715 *** highlight-changes-mode is a minor mode that uses colors to
9716 identify recently changed parts of the buffer text.
9717
9718 *** The new package `midnight' lets you specify things to be done
9719 within Emacs at midnight--by default, kill buffers that you have not
9720 used in a considerable time. To use this feature, customize
9721 the user option `midnight-mode' to t.
9722
9723 *** The file generic-x.el defines a number of simple major modes.
9724
9725 apache-generic-mode: For Apache and NCSA httpd configuration files
9726 samba-generic-mode: Samba configuration files
9727 fvwm-generic-mode: For fvwm initialization files
9728 x-resource-generic-mode: For X resource files
9729 hosts-generic-mode: For hosts files (.rhosts, /etc/hosts, etc)
9730 mailagent-rules-generic-mode: For mailagent .rules files
9731 javascript-generic-mode: For JavaScript files
9732 vrml-generic-mode: For VRML files
9733 java-manifest-generic-mode: For Java MANIFEST files
9734 java-properties-generic-mode: For Java property files
9735 mailrc-generic-mode: For .mailrc files
9736
9737 Platform-specific modes:
9738
9739 prototype-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V prototype files
9740 pkginfo-generic-mode: For Solaris/Sys V pkginfo files
9741 alias-generic-mode: For C shell alias files
9742 inf-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INF files
9743 ini-generic-mode: For MS-Windows INI files
9744 reg-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Registry files
9745 bat-generic-mode: For MS-Windows BAT scripts
9746 rc-generic-mode: For MS-Windows Resource files
9747 rul-generic-mode: For InstallShield scripts
9748 \f
9749 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 since the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
9750
9751 ** If you want a Lisp file to be read in unibyte mode,
9752 use -*-unibyte: t;-*- on its first line.
9753 That will force Emacs to read that file in unibyte mode.
9754 Otherwise, the file will be loaded and byte-compiled in multibyte mode.
9755
9756 Thus, each lisp file is read in a consistent way regardless of whether
9757 you started Emacs with --unibyte, so that a Lisp program gives
9758 consistent results regardless of how Emacs was started.
9759
9760 ** The new function assoc-default is useful for searching an alist,
9761 and using a default value if the key is not found there. You can
9762 specify a comparison predicate, so this function is useful for
9763 searching comparing a string against an alist of regular expressions.
9764
9765 ** The functions unibyte-char-to-multibyte and
9766 multibyte-char-to-unibyte convert between unibyte and multibyte
9767 character codes, in a way that is appropriate for the current language
9768 environment.
9769
9770 ** The functions read-event, read-char and read-char-exclusive now
9771 take two optional arguments. PROMPT, if non-nil, specifies a prompt
9772 string. SUPPRESS-INPUT-METHOD, if non-nil, says to disable the
9773 current input method for reading this one event.
9774
9775 ** Two new variables print-escape-nonascii and print-escape-multibyte
9776 now control whether to output certain characters as
9777 backslash-sequences. print-escape-nonascii applies to single-byte
9778 non-ASCII characters; print-escape-multibyte applies to multibyte
9779 characters. Both of these variables are used only when printing
9780 in readable fashion (prin1 uses them, princ does not).
9781 \f
9782 * Lisp changes in Emacs 20.3 before the Emacs Lisp Manual was published
9783
9784 ** Compiled Emacs Lisp files made with the modified "MBSK" version
9785 of Emacs 20.2 do not work in Emacs 20.3.
9786
9787 ** Buffer positions are now measured in characters, as they were
9788 in Emacs 19 and before. This means that (forward-char 1)
9789 always increases point by 1.
9790
9791 The function chars-in-region now just subtracts its arguments. It is
9792 considered obsolete. The function char-boundary-p has been deleted.
9793
9794 See below for additional changes relating to multibyte characters.
9795
9796 ** defcustom, defface and defgroup now accept the keyword `:version'.
9797 Use this to specify in which version of Emacs a certain variable's
9798 default value changed. For example,
9799
9800 (defcustom foo-max 34 "*Maximum number of foo's allowed."
9801 :type 'integer
9802 :group 'foo
9803 :version "20.3")
9804
9805 (defgroup foo-group nil "The foo group."
9806 :version "20.3")
9807
9808 If an entire new group is added or the variables in it have the
9809 default values changed, then just add a `:version' to that group. It
9810 is recommended that new packages added to the distribution contain a
9811 `:version' in the top level group.
9812
9813 This information is used to control the customize-changed-options command.
9814
9815 ** It is now an error to change the value of a symbol whose name
9816 starts with a colon--if it is interned in the standard obarray.
9817
9818 However, setting such a symbol to its proper value, which is that
9819 symbol itself, is not an error. This is for the sake of programs that
9820 support previous Emacs versions by explicitly setting these variables
9821 to themselves.
9822
9823 If you set the variable keyword-symbols-constant-flag to nil,
9824 this error is suppressed, and you can set these symbols to any
9825 values whatever.
9826
9827 ** There is a new debugger command, R.
9828 It evaluates an expression like e, but saves the result
9829 in the buffer *Debugger-record*.
9830
9831 ** Frame-local variables.
9832
9833 You can now make a variable local to various frames. To do this, call
9834 the function make-variable-frame-local; this enables frames to have
9835 local bindings for that variable.
9836
9837 These frame-local bindings are actually frame parameters: you create a
9838 frame-local binding in a specific frame by calling
9839 modify-frame-parameters and specifying the variable name as the
9840 parameter name.
9841
9842 Buffer-local bindings take precedence over frame-local bindings.
9843 Thus, if the current buffer has a buffer-local binding, that binding is
9844 active; otherwise, if the selected frame has a frame-local binding,
9845 that binding is active; otherwise, the default binding is active.
9846
9847 It would not be hard to implement window-local bindings, but it is not
9848 clear that this would be very useful; windows tend to come and go in a
9849 very transitory fashion, so that trying to produce any specific effect
9850 through a window-local binding would not be very robust.
9851
9852 ** `sregexq' and `sregex' are two new functions for constructing
9853 "symbolic regular expressions." These are Lisp expressions that, when
9854 evaluated, yield conventional string-based regexps. The symbolic form
9855 makes it easier to construct, read, and maintain complex patterns.
9856 See the documentation in sregex.el.
9857
9858 ** parse-partial-sexp's return value has an additional element which
9859 is used to pass information along if you pass it to another call to
9860 parse-partial-sexp, starting its scan where the first call ended.
9861 The contents of this field are not yet finalized.
9862
9863 ** eval-region now accepts a fourth optional argument READ-FUNCTION.
9864 If it is non-nil, that function is used instead of `read'.
9865
9866 ** unload-feature by default removes the feature's functions from
9867 known hooks to avoid trouble, but a package providing FEATURE can
9868 define a hook FEATURE-unload-hook to be run by unload-feature instead.
9869
9870 ** read-from-minibuffer no longer returns the argument DEFAULT-VALUE
9871 when the user enters empty input. It now returns the null string, as
9872 it did in Emacs 19. The default value is made available in the
9873 history via M-n, but it is not applied here as a default.
9874
9875 The other, more specialized minibuffer-reading functions continue to
9876 return the default value (not the null string) when the user enters
9877 empty input.
9878
9879 ** The new variable read-buffer-function controls which routine to use
9880 for selecting buffers. For example, if you set this variable to
9881 `iswitchb-read-buffer', iswitchb will be used to read buffer names.
9882 Other functions can also be used if they accept the same arguments as
9883 `read-buffer' and return the selected buffer name as a string.
9884
9885 ** The new function read-passwd reads a password from the terminal,
9886 echoing a period for each character typed. It takes three arguments:
9887 a prompt string, a flag which says "read it twice to make sure", and a
9888 default password to use if the user enters nothing.
9889
9890 ** The variable fill-nobreak-predicate gives major modes a way to
9891 specify not to break a line at certain places. Its value is a
9892 function which is called with no arguments, with point located at the
9893 place where a break is being considered. If the function returns
9894 non-nil, then the line won't be broken there.
9895
9896 ** window-end now takes an optional second argument, UPDATE.
9897 If this is non-nil, then the function always returns an accurate
9898 up-to-date value for the buffer position corresponding to the
9899 end of the window, even if this requires computation.
9900
9901 ** other-buffer now takes an optional argument FRAME
9902 which specifies which frame's buffer list to use.
9903 If it is nil, that means use the selected frame's buffer list.
9904
9905 ** The new variable buffer-display-time, always local in every buffer,
9906 holds the value of (current-time) as of the last time that a window
9907 was directed to display this buffer.
9908
9909 ** It is now meaningful to compare two window-configuration objects
9910 with `equal'. Two window-configuration objects are equal if they
9911 describe equivalent arrangements of windows, in the same frame--in
9912 other words, if they would give the same results if passed to
9913 set-window-configuration.
9914
9915 ** compare-window-configurations is a new function that compares two
9916 window configurations loosely. It ignores differences in saved buffer
9917 positions and scrolling, and considers only the structure and sizes of
9918 windows and the choice of buffers to display.
9919
9920 ** The variable minor-mode-overriding-map-alist allows major modes to
9921 override the key bindings of a minor mode. The elements of this alist
9922 look like the elements of minor-mode-map-alist: (VARIABLE . KEYMAP).
9923
9924 If the VARIABLE in an element of minor-mode-overriding-map-alist has a
9925 non-nil value, the paired KEYMAP is active, and totally overrides the
9926 map (if any) specified for the same variable in minor-mode-map-alist.
9927
9928 minor-mode-overriding-map-alist is automatically local in all buffers,
9929 and it is meant to be set by major modes.
9930
9931 ** The function match-string-no-properties is like match-string
9932 except that it discards all text properties from the result.
9933
9934 ** The function load-average now accepts an optional argument
9935 USE-FLOATS. If it is non-nil, the load average values are returned as
9936 floating point numbers, rather than as integers to be divided by 100.
9937
9938 ** The new variable temporary-file-directory specifies the directory
9939 to use for creating temporary files. The default value is determined
9940 in a reasonable way for your operating system; on GNU and Unix systems
9941 it is based on the TMP and TMPDIR environment variables.
9942
9943 ** Menu changes
9944
9945 *** easymenu.el now uses the new menu item format and supports the
9946 keywords :visible and :filter. The existing keyword :keys is now
9947 better supported.
9948
9949 The variable `easy-menu-precalculate-equivalent-keybindings' controls
9950 a new feature which calculates keyboard equivalents for the menu when
9951 you define the menu. The default is t. If you rarely use menus, you
9952 can set the variable to nil to disable this precalculation feature;
9953 then the calculation is done only if you use the menu bar.
9954
9955 *** A new format for menu items is supported.
9956
9957 In a keymap, a key binding that has the format
9958 (STRING . REAL-BINDING) or (STRING HELP-STRING . REAL-BINDING)
9959 defines a menu item. Now a menu item definition may also be a list that
9960 starts with the symbol `menu-item'.
9961
9962 The format is:
9963 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) or
9964 (menu-item ITEM-NAME REAL-BINDING . ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST)
9965 where ITEM-NAME is an expression which evaluates to the menu item
9966 string, and ITEM-PROPERTY-LIST has the form of a property list.
9967 The supported properties include
9968
9969 :enable FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
9970 item is enabled.
9971 :visible FORM Evaluate FORM to determine whether the
9972 item should appear in the menu.
9973 :filter FILTER-FN
9974 FILTER-FN is a function of one argument,
9975 which will be REAL-BINDING.
9976 It should return a binding to use instead.
9977 :keys DESCRIPTION
9978 DESCRIPTION is a string that describes an equivalent keyboard
9979 binding for REAL-BINDING. DESCRIPTION is expanded with
9980 `substitute-command-keys' before it is used.
9981 :key-sequence KEY-SEQUENCE
9982 KEY-SEQUENCE is a key-sequence for an equivalent
9983 keyboard binding.
9984 :key-sequence nil
9985 This means that the command normally has no
9986 keyboard equivalent.
9987 :help HELP HELP is the extra help string (not currently used).
9988 :button (TYPE . SELECTED)
9989 TYPE is :toggle or :radio.
9990 SELECTED is a form, to be evaluated, and its
9991 value says whether this button is currently selected.
9992
9993 Buttons are at the moment only simulated by prefixes in the menu.
9994 Eventually ordinary X-buttons may be supported.
9995
9996 (menu-item ITEM-NAME) defines unselectable item.
9997
9998 ** New event types
9999
10000 *** The new event type `mouse-wheel' is generated by a wheel on a
10001 mouse (such as the MS Intellimouse). The event contains a delta that
10002 corresponds to the amount and direction that the wheel is rotated,
10003 which is typically used to implement a scroll or zoom. The format is:
10004
10005 (mouse-wheel POSITION DELTA)
10006
10007 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
10008 same format as a mouse-click event, and DELTA is a signed number
10009 indicating the number of increments by which the wheel was rotated. A
10010 negative DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated backwards, towards
10011 the user, and a positive DELTA indicates that the wheel was rotated
10012 forward, away from the user.
10013
10014 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
10015
10016 *** The new event type `drag-n-drop' is generated when a group of
10017 files is selected in an application outside of Emacs, and then dragged
10018 and dropped onto an Emacs frame. The event contains a list of
10019 filenames that were dragged and dropped, which are then typically
10020 loaded into Emacs. The format is:
10021
10022 (drag-n-drop POSITION FILES)
10023
10024 where POSITION is a list describing the position of the event in the
10025 same format as a mouse-click event, and FILES is the list of filenames
10026 that were dragged and dropped.
10027
10028 As of now, this event type is generated only on MS Windows.
10029
10030 ** Changes relating to multibyte characters.
10031
10032 *** The variable enable-multibyte-characters is now read-only;
10033 any attempt to set it directly signals an error. The only way
10034 to change this value in an existing buffer is with set-buffer-multibyte.
10035
10036 *** In a string constant, `\ ' now stands for "nothing at all". You
10037 can use it to terminate a hex escape which is followed by a character
10038 that could otherwise be read as part of the hex escape.
10039
10040 *** String indices are now measured in characters, as they were
10041 in Emacs 19 and before.
10042
10043 The function chars-in-string has been deleted.
10044 The function concat-chars has been renamed to `string'.
10045
10046 *** The function set-buffer-multibyte sets the flag in the current
10047 buffer that says whether the buffer uses multibyte representation or
10048 unibyte representation. If the argument is nil, it selects unibyte
10049 representation. Otherwise it selects multibyte representation.
10050
10051 This function does not change the contents of the buffer, viewed
10052 as a sequence of bytes. However, it does change the contents
10053 viewed as characters; a sequence of two bytes which is treated as
10054 one character when the buffer uses multibyte representation
10055 will count as two characters using unibyte representation.
10056
10057 This function sets enable-multibyte-characters to record which
10058 representation is in use. It also adjusts various data in the buffer
10059 (including its markers, overlays and text properties) so that they are
10060 consistent with the new representation.
10061
10062 *** string-make-multibyte takes a string and converts it to multibyte
10063 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care
10064 about the representation, because Emacs converts when necessary;
10065 however, it makes a difference when you compare strings.
10066
10067 The conversion of non-ASCII characters works by adding the value of
10068 nonascii-insert-offset to each character, or by translating them
10069 using the table nonascii-translation-table.
10070
10071 *** string-make-unibyte takes a string and converts it to unibyte
10072 representation. Most of the time, you don't need to care about the
10073 representation, but it makes a difference when you compare strings.
10074
10075 The conversion from multibyte to unibyte representation
10076 loses information; the only time Emacs performs it automatically
10077 is when inserting a multibyte string into a unibyte buffer.
10078
10079 *** string-as-multibyte takes a string, and returns another string
10080 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as multibyte.
10081
10082 *** string-as-unibyte takes a string, and returns another string
10083 which contains the same bytes, but treats them as unibyte.
10084
10085 *** The new function compare-strings lets you compare
10086 portions of two strings. Unibyte strings are converted to multibyte,
10087 so that a unibyte string can match a multibyte string.
10088 You can specify whether to ignore case or not.
10089
10090 *** assoc-ignore-case now uses compare-strings so that
10091 it can treat unibyte and multibyte strings as equal.
10092
10093 *** Regular expression operations and buffer string searches now
10094 convert the search pattern to multibyte or unibyte to accord with the
10095 buffer or string being searched.
10096
10097 One consequence is that you cannot always use \200-\377 inside of
10098 [...] to match all non-ASCII characters. This does still work when
10099 searching or matching a unibyte buffer or string, but not when
10100 searching or matching a multibyte string. Unfortunately, there is no
10101 obvious choice of syntax to use within [...] for that job. But, what
10102 you want is just to match all non-ASCII characters, the regular
10103 expression [^\0-\177] works for it.
10104
10105 *** Structure of coding system changed.
10106
10107 All coding systems (including aliases and subsidiaries) are named
10108 by symbols; the symbol's `coding-system' property is a vector
10109 which defines the coding system. Aliases share the same vector
10110 as the principal name, so that altering the contents of this
10111 vector affects the principal name and its aliases. You can define
10112 your own alias name of a coding system by the function
10113 define-coding-system-alias.
10114
10115 The coding system definition includes a property list of its own. Use
10116 the new functions `coding-system-get' and `coding-system-put' to
10117 access such coding system properties as post-read-conversion,
10118 pre-write-conversion, character-translation-table-for-decode,
10119 character-translation-table-for-encode, mime-charset, and
10120 safe-charsets. For instance, (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1
10121 'mime-charset) gives the corresponding MIME-charset parameter
10122 `iso-8859-1'.
10123
10124 Among the coding system properties listed above, safe-charsets is new.
10125 The value of this property is a list of character sets which this
10126 coding system can correctly encode and decode. For instance:
10127 (coding-system-get 'iso-latin-1 'safe-charsets) => (ascii latin-iso8859-1)
10128
10129 Here, "correctly encode" means that the encoded character sets can
10130 also be handled safely by systems other than Emacs as far as they
10131 are capable of that coding system. Though, Emacs itself can encode
10132 the other character sets and read it back correctly.
10133
10134 *** The new function select-safe-coding-system can be used to find a
10135 proper coding system for encoding the specified region or string.
10136 This function requires a user interaction.
10137
10138 *** The new functions find-coding-systems-region and
10139 find-coding-systems-string are helper functions used by
10140 select-safe-coding-system. They return a list of all proper coding
10141 systems to encode a text in some region or string. If you don't want
10142 a user interaction, use one of these functions instead of
10143 select-safe-coding-system.
10144
10145 *** The explicit encoding and decoding functions, such as
10146 decode-coding-region and encode-coding-string, now set
10147 last-coding-system-used to reflect the actual way encoding or decoding
10148 was done.
10149
10150 *** The new function detect-coding-with-language-environment can be
10151 used to detect a coding system of text according to priorities of
10152 coding systems used by some specific language environment.
10153
10154 *** The functions detect-coding-region and detect-coding-string always
10155 return a list if the arg HIGHEST is nil. Thus, if only ASCII
10156 characters are found, they now return a list of single element
10157 `undecided' or its subsidiaries.
10158
10159 *** The new functions coding-system-change-eol-conversion and
10160 coding-system-change-text-conversion can be used to get a different
10161 coding system than what specified only in how end-of-line or text is
10162 converted.
10163
10164 *** The new function set-selection-coding-system can be used to set a
10165 coding system for communicating with other X clients.
10166
10167 *** The function `map-char-table' now passes as argument only valid
10168 character codes, plus generic characters that stand for entire
10169 character sets or entire subrows of a character set. In other words,
10170 each time `map-char-table' calls its FUNCTION argument, the key value
10171 either will be a valid individual character code, or will stand for a
10172 range of characters.
10173
10174 *** The new function `char-valid-p' can be used for checking whether a
10175 Lisp object is a valid character code or not.
10176
10177 *** The new function `charset-after' returns a charset of a character
10178 in the current buffer at position POS.
10179
10180 *** Input methods are now implemented using the variable
10181 input-method-function. If this is non-nil, its value should be a
10182 function; then, whenever Emacs reads an input event that is a printing
10183 character with no modifier bits, it calls that function, passing the
10184 event as an argument. Often this function will read more input, first
10185 binding input-method-function to nil.
10186
10187 The return value should be a list of the events resulting from input
10188 method processing. These events will be processed sequentially as
10189 input, before resorting to unread-command-events. Events returned by
10190 the input method function are not passed to the input method function,
10191 not even if they are printing characters with no modifier bits.
10192
10193 The input method function is not called when reading the second and
10194 subsequent events of a key sequence.
10195
10196 *** You can customize any language environment by using
10197 set-language-environment-hook and exit-language-environment-hook.
10198
10199 The hook `exit-language-environment-hook' should be used to undo
10200 customizations that you made with set-language-environment-hook. For
10201 instance, if you set up a special key binding for a specific language
10202 environment by set-language-environment-hook, you should set up
10203 exit-language-environment-hook to restore the normal key binding.
10204 \f
10205 * Changes in Emacs 20.1
10206
10207 ** Emacs has a new facility for customization of its many user
10208 options. It is called M-x customize. With this facility you can look
10209 at the many user options in an organized way; they are grouped into a
10210 tree structure.
10211
10212 M-x customize also knows what sorts of values are legitimate for each
10213 user option and ensures that you don't use invalid values.
10214
10215 With M-x customize, you can set options either for the present Emacs
10216 session or permanently. (Permanent settings are stored automatically
10217 in your .emacs file.)
10218
10219 ** Scroll bars are now on the left side of the window.
10220 You can change this with M-x customize-option scroll-bar-mode.
10221
10222 ** The mode line no longer includes the string `Emacs'.
10223 This makes more space in the mode line for other information.
10224
10225 ** When you select a region with the mouse, it is highlighted
10226 immediately afterward. At that time, if you type the DELETE key, it
10227 kills the region.
10228
10229 The BACKSPACE key, and the ASCII character DEL, do not do this; they
10230 delete the character before point, as usual.
10231
10232 ** In an incremental search the whole current match is highlighted
10233 on terminals which support this. (You can disable this feature
10234 by setting search-highlight to nil.)
10235
10236 ** In the minibuffer, in some cases, you can now use M-n to
10237 insert the default value into the minibuffer as text. In effect,
10238 the default value (if the minibuffer routines know it) is tacked
10239 onto the history "in the future". (The more normal use of the
10240 history list is to use M-p to insert minibuffer input used in the
10241 past.)
10242
10243 ** In Text mode, now only blank lines separate paragraphs.
10244 This makes it possible to get the full benefit of Adaptive Fill mode
10245 in Text mode, and other modes derived from it (such as Mail mode).
10246 TAB in Text mode now runs the command indent-relative; this
10247 makes a practical difference only when you use indented paragraphs.
10248
10249 As a result, the old Indented Text mode is now identical to Text mode,
10250 and is an alias for it.
10251
10252 If you want spaces at the beginning of a line to start a paragraph,
10253 use the new mode, Paragraph Indent Text mode.
10254
10255 ** Scrolling changes
10256
10257 *** Scroll commands to scroll a whole screen now preserve the screen
10258 position of the cursor, if scroll-preserve-screen-position is non-nil.
10259
10260 In this mode, if you scroll several screens back and forth, finishing
10261 on the same screen where you started, the cursor goes back to the line
10262 where it started.
10263
10264 *** If you set scroll-conservatively to a small number, then when you
10265 move point a short distance off the screen, Emacs will scroll the
10266 screen just far enough to bring point back on screen, provided that
10267 does not exceed `scroll-conservatively' lines.
10268
10269 *** The new variable scroll-margin says how close point can come to the
10270 top or bottom of a window. It is a number of screen lines; if point
10271 comes within that many lines of the top or bottom of the window, Emacs
10272 recenters the window.
10273
10274 ** International character set support (MULE)
10275
10276 Emacs now supports a wide variety of international character sets,
10277 including European variants of the Latin alphabet, as well as Chinese,
10278 Devanagari (Hindi and Marathi), Ethiopian, Greek, IPA, Japanese,
10279 Korean, Lao, Russian, Thai, Tibetan, and Vietnamese scripts. These
10280 features have been merged from the modified version of Emacs known as
10281 MULE (for "MULti-lingual Enhancement to GNU Emacs")
10282
10283 Users of these scripts have established many more-or-less standard
10284 coding systems for storing files. Emacs uses a single multibyte
10285 character encoding within Emacs buffers; it can translate from a wide
10286 variety of coding systems when reading a file and can translate back
10287 into any of these coding systems when saving a file.
10288
10289 Keyboards, even in the countries where these character sets are used,
10290 generally don't have keys for all the characters in them. So Emacs
10291 supports various "input methods", typically one for each script or
10292 language, to make it possible to type them.
10293
10294 The Emacs internal multibyte encoding represents a non-ASCII
10295 character as a sequence of bytes in the range 0200 through 0377.
10296
10297 The new prefix key C-x RET is used for commands that pertain
10298 to multibyte characters, coding systems, and input methods.
10299
10300 You can disable multibyte character support as follows:
10301
10302 (setq-default enable-multibyte-characters nil)
10303
10304 Calling the function standard-display-european turns off multibyte
10305 characters, unless you specify a non-nil value for the second
10306 argument, AUTO. This provides compatibility for people who are
10307 already using standard-display-european to continue using unibyte
10308 characters for their work until they want to change.
10309
10310 *** Input methods
10311
10312 An input method is a kind of character conversion which is designed
10313 specifically for interactive input. In Emacs, typically each language
10314 has its own input method (though sometimes several languages which use
10315 the same characters can share one input method). Some languages
10316 support several input methods.
10317
10318 The simplest kind of input method works by mapping ASCII letters into
10319 another alphabet. This is how the Greek and Russian input methods
10320 work.
10321
10322 A more powerful technique is composition: converting sequences of
10323 characters into one letter. Many European input methods use
10324 composition to produce a single non-ASCII letter from a sequence which
10325 consists of a letter followed by diacritics. For example, a' is one
10326 sequence of two characters that might be converted into a single
10327 letter.
10328
10329 The input methods for syllabic scripts typically use mapping followed
10330 by conversion. The input methods for Thai and Korean work this way.
10331 First, letters are mapped into symbols for particular sounds or tone
10332 marks; then, sequences of these which make up a whole syllable are
10333 mapped into one syllable sign--most often a "composite character".
10334
10335 None of these methods works very well for Chinese and Japanese, so
10336 they are handled specially. First you input a whole word using
10337 phonetic spelling; then, after the word is in the buffer, Emacs
10338 converts it into one or more characters using a large dictionary.
10339
10340 Since there is more than one way to represent a phonetically spelled
10341 word using Chinese characters, Emacs can only guess which one to use;
10342 typically these input methods give you a way to say "guess again" if
10343 the first guess is wrong.
10344
10345 *** The command C-x RET m (toggle-enable-multibyte-characters)
10346 turns multibyte character support on or off for the current buffer.
10347
10348 If multibyte character support is turned off in a buffer, then each
10349 byte is a single character, even codes 0200 through 0377--exactly as
10350 they did in Emacs 19.34. This includes the features for support for
10351 the European characters, ISO Latin-1 and ISO Latin-2.
10352
10353 However, there is no need to turn off multibyte character support to
10354 use ISO Latin-1 or ISO Latin-2; the Emacs multibyte character set
10355 includes all the characters in these character sets, and Emacs can
10356 translate automatically to and from either one.
10357
10358 *** Visiting a file in unibyte mode.
10359
10360 Turning off multibyte character support in the buffer after visiting a
10361 file with multibyte code conversion will display the multibyte
10362 sequences already in the buffer, byte by byte. This is probably not
10363 what you want.
10364
10365 If you want to edit a file of unibyte characters (Latin-1, for
10366 example), you can do it by specifying `no-conversion' as the coding
10367 system when reading the file. This coding system also turns off
10368 multibyte characters in that buffer.
10369
10370 If you turn off multibyte character support entirely, this turns off
10371 character conversion as well.
10372
10373 *** Displaying international characters on X Windows.
10374
10375 A font for X typically displays just one alphabet or script.
10376 Therefore, displaying the entire range of characters Emacs supports
10377 requires using many fonts.
10378
10379 Therefore, Emacs now supports "fontsets". Each fontset is a
10380 collection of fonts, each assigned to a range of character codes.
10381
10382 A fontset has a name, like a font. Individual fonts are defined by
10383 the X server; fontsets are defined within Emacs itself. But once you
10384 have defined a fontset, you can use it in a face or a frame just as
10385 you would use a font.
10386
10387 If a fontset specifies no font for a certain character, or if it
10388 specifies a font that does not exist on your system, then it cannot
10389 display that character. It will display an empty box instead.
10390
10391 The fontset height and width are determined by the ASCII characters
10392 (that is, by the font in the fontset which is used for ASCII
10393 characters).
10394
10395 *** Defining fontsets.
10396
10397 Emacs does not use any fontset by default. Its default font is still
10398 chosen as in previous versions. You can tell Emacs to use a fontset
10399 with the `-fn' option or the `Font' X resource.
10400
10401 Emacs creates a standard fontset automatically according to the value
10402 of standard-fontset-spec. This fontset's short name is
10403 `fontset-standard'. Bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of the
10404 standard fontset are created automatically.
10405
10406 If you specify a default ASCII font with the `Font' resource or `-fn'
10407 argument, a fontset is generated from it. This works by replacing the
10408 FOUNDARY, FAMILY, ADD_STYLE, and AVERAGE_WIDTH fields of the font name
10409 with `*' then using this to specify a fontset. This fontset's short
10410 name is `fontset-startup'.
10411
10412 Emacs checks resources of the form Fontset-N where N is 0, 1, 2...
10413 The resource value should have this form:
10414 FONTSET-NAME, [CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME]...
10415 FONTSET-NAME should have the form of a standard X font name, except:
10416 * most fields should be just the wild card "*".
10417 * the CHARSET_REGISTRY field should be "fontset"
10418 * the CHARSET_ENCODING field can be any nickname of the fontset.
10419 The construct CHARSET-NAME:FONT-NAME can be repeated any number
10420 of times; each time specifies the font for one character set.
10421 CHARSET-NAME should be the name of a character set, and FONT-NAME
10422 should specify an actual font to use for that character set.
10423
10424 Each of these fontsets has an alias which is made from the
10425 last two font name fields, CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING.
10426 You can refer to the fontset by that alias or by its full name.
10427
10428 For any character sets that you don't mention, Emacs tries to choose a
10429 font by substituting into FONTSET-NAME. For instance, with the
10430 following resource,
10431 Emacs*Fontset-0: -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-24
10432 the font for ASCII is generated as below:
10433 -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-ISO8859-1
10434 Here is the substitution rule:
10435 Change CHARSET_REGISTRY and CHARSET_ENCODING to that of the charset
10436 defined in the variable x-charset-registries. For instance, ASCII has
10437 the entry (ascii . "ISO8859-1") in this variable. Then, reduce
10438 sequences of wild cards -*-...-*- with a single wildcard -*-.
10439 (This is to prevent use of auto-scaled fonts.)
10440
10441 The function which processes the fontset resource value to create the
10442 fontset is called create-fontset-from-fontset-spec. You can also call
10443 that function explicitly to create a fontset.
10444
10445 With the X resource Emacs.Font, you can specify a fontset name just
10446 like an actual font name. But be careful not to specify a fontset
10447 name in a wildcard resource like Emacs*Font--that tries to specify the
10448 fontset for other purposes including menus, and they cannot handle
10449 fontsets.
10450
10451 *** The command M-x set-language-environment sets certain global Emacs
10452 defaults for a particular choice of language.
10453
10454 Selecting a language environment typically specifies a default input
10455 method and which coding systems to recognize automatically when
10456 visiting files. However, it does not try to reread files you have
10457 already visited; the text in those buffers is not affected. The
10458 language environment may also specify a default choice of coding
10459 system for new files that you create.
10460
10461 It makes no difference which buffer is current when you use
10462 set-language-environment, because these defaults apply globally to the
10463 whole Emacs session.
10464
10465 For example, M-x set-language-environment RET Latin-1 RET
10466 chooses the Latin-1 character set. In the .emacs file, you can do this
10467 with (set-language-environment "Latin-1").
10468
10469 *** The command C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system)
10470 specifies the file coding system for the current buffer. This
10471 specifies what sort of character code translation to do when saving
10472 the file. As an argument, you must specify the name of one of the
10473 coding systems that Emacs supports.
10474
10475 *** The command C-x RET c (universal-coding-system-argument)
10476 lets you specify a coding system when you read or write a file.
10477 This command uses the minibuffer to read a coding system name.
10478 After you exit the minibuffer, the specified coding system
10479 is used for *the immediately following command*.
10480
10481 So if the immediately following command is a command to read or
10482 write a file, it uses the specified coding system for that file.
10483
10484 If the immediately following command does not use the coding system,
10485 then C-x RET c ultimately has no effect.
10486
10487 For example, C-x RET c iso-8859-1 RET C-x C-f temp RET
10488 visits the file `temp' treating it as ISO Latin-1.
10489
10490 *** You can specify the coding system for a file using the -*-
10491 construct. Include `coding: CODINGSYSTEM;' inside the -*-...-*-
10492 to specify use of coding system CODINGSYSTEM. You can also
10493 specify the coding system in a local variable list at the end
10494 of the file.
10495
10496 *** The command C-x RET t (set-terminal-coding-system) specifies
10497 the coding system for terminal output. If you specify a character
10498 code for terminal output, all characters output to the terminal are
10499 translated into that character code.
10500
10501 This feature is useful for certain character-only terminals built in
10502 various countries to support the languages of those countries.
10503
10504 By default, output to the terminal is not translated at all.
10505
10506 *** The command C-x RET k (set-keyboard-coding-system) specifies
10507 the coding system for keyboard input.
10508
10509 Character code translation of keyboard input is useful for terminals
10510 with keys that send non-ASCII graphic characters--for example,
10511 some terminals designed for ISO Latin-1 or subsets of it.
10512
10513 By default, keyboard input is not translated at all.
10514
10515 Character code translation of keyboard input is similar to using an
10516 input method, in that both define sequences of keyboard input that
10517 translate into single characters. However, input methods are designed
10518 to be convenient for interactive use, while the code translations are
10519 designed to work with terminals.
10520
10521 *** The command C-x RET p (set-buffer-process-coding-system)
10522 specifies the coding system for input and output to a subprocess.
10523 This command applies to the current buffer; normally, each subprocess
10524 has its own buffer, and thus you can use this command to specify
10525 translation to and from a particular subprocess by giving the command
10526 in the corresponding buffer.
10527
10528 By default, process input and output are not translated at all.
10529
10530 *** The variable file-name-coding-system specifies the coding system
10531 to use for encoding file names before operating on them.
10532 It is also used for decoding file names obtained from the system.
10533
10534 *** The command C-\ (toggle-input-method) activates or deactivates
10535 an input method. If no input method has been selected before, the
10536 command prompts for you to specify the language and input method you
10537 want to use.
10538
10539 C-u C-\ (select-input-method) lets you switch to a different input
10540 method. C-h C-\ (or C-h I) describes the current input method.
10541
10542 *** Some input methods remap the keyboard to emulate various keyboard
10543 layouts commonly used for particular scripts. How to do this
10544 remapping properly depends on your actual keyboard layout. To specify
10545 which layout your keyboard has, use M-x quail-set-keyboard-layout.
10546
10547 *** The command C-h C (describe-coding-system) displays
10548 the coding systems currently selected for various purposes, plus
10549 related information.
10550
10551 *** The command C-h h (view-hello-file) displays a file called
10552 HELLO, which has examples of text in many languages, using various
10553 scripts.
10554
10555 *** The command C-h L (describe-language-support) displays
10556 information about the support for a particular language.
10557 You specify the language as an argument.
10558
10559 *** The mode line now contains a letter or character that identifies
10560 the coding system used in the visited file. It normally follows the
10561 first dash.
10562
10563 A dash indicates the default state of affairs: no code conversion
10564 (except CRLF => newline if appropriate). `=' means no conversion
10565 whatsoever. The ISO 8859 coding systems are represented by digits
10566 1 through 9. Other coding systems are represented by letters:
10567
10568 A alternativnyj (Russian)
10569 B big5 (Chinese)
10570 C cn-gb-2312 (Chinese)
10571 C iso-2022-cn (Chinese)
10572 D in-is13194-devanagari (Indian languages)
10573 E euc-japan (Japanese)
10574 I iso-2022-cjk or iso-2022-ss2 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
10575 J junet (iso-2022-7) or old-jis (iso-2022-jp-1978-irv) (Japanese)
10576 K euc-korea (Korean)
10577 R koi8 (Russian)
10578 Q tibetan
10579 S shift_jis (Japanese)
10580 T lao
10581 T tis620 (Thai)
10582 V viscii or vscii (Vietnamese)
10583 i iso-2022-lock (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
10584 k iso-2022-kr (Korean)
10585 v viqr (Vietnamese)
10586 z hz (Chinese)
10587
10588 When you are using a character-only terminal (not a window system),
10589 two additional characters appear in between the dash and the file
10590 coding system. These two characters describe the coding system for
10591 keyboard input, and the coding system for terminal output.
10592
10593 *** The new variable rmail-file-coding-system specifies the code
10594 conversion to use for RMAIL files. The default value is nil.
10595
10596 When you read mail with Rmail, each message is decoded automatically
10597 into Emacs' internal format. This has nothing to do with
10598 rmail-file-coding-system. That variable controls reading and writing
10599 Rmail files themselves.
10600
10601 *** The new variable sendmail-coding-system specifies the code
10602 conversion for outgoing mail. The default value is nil.
10603
10604 Actually, there are three different ways of specifying the coding system
10605 for sending mail:
10606
10607 - If you use C-x RET f in the mail buffer, that takes priority.
10608 - Otherwise, if you set sendmail-coding-system non-nil, that specifies it.
10609 - Otherwise, the default coding system for new files is used,
10610 if that is non-nil. That comes from your language environment.
10611 - Otherwise, Latin-1 is used.
10612
10613 *** The command C-h t (help-with-tutorial) accepts a prefix argument
10614 to specify the language for the tutorial file. Currently, English,
10615 Japanese, Korean and Thai are supported. We welcome additional
10616 translations.
10617
10618 ** An easy new way to visit a file with no code or format conversion
10619 of any kind: Use M-x find-file-literally. There is also a command
10620 insert-file-literally which inserts a file into the current buffer
10621 without any conversion.
10622
10623 ** C-q's handling of octal character codes is changed.
10624 You can now specify any number of octal digits.
10625 RET terminates the digits and is discarded;
10626 any other non-digit terminates the digits and is then used as input.
10627
10628 ** There are new commands for looking up Info documentation for
10629 functions, variables and file names used in your programs.
10630
10631 Type M-x info-lookup-symbol to look up a symbol in the buffer at point.
10632 Type M-x info-lookup-file to look up a file in the buffer at point.
10633
10634 Precisely which Info files are used to look it up depends on the major
10635 mode. For example, in C mode, the GNU libc manual is used.
10636
10637 ** M-TAB in most programming language modes now runs the command
10638 complete-symbol. This command performs completion on the symbol name
10639 in the buffer before point.
10640
10641 With a numeric argument, it performs completion based on the set of
10642 symbols documented in the Info files for the programming language that
10643 you are using.
10644
10645 With no argument, it does completion based on the current tags tables,
10646 just like the old binding of M-TAB (complete-tag).
10647
10648 ** File locking works with NFS now.
10649
10650 The lock file for FILENAME is now a symbolic link named .#FILENAME,
10651 in the same directory as FILENAME.
10652
10653 This means that collision detection between two different machines now
10654 works reasonably well; it also means that no file server or directory
10655 can become a bottleneck.
10656
10657 The new method does have drawbacks. It means that collision detection
10658 does not operate when you edit a file in a directory where you cannot
10659 create new files. Collision detection also doesn't operate when the
10660 file server does not support symbolic links. But these conditions are
10661 rare, and the ability to have collision detection while using NFS is
10662 so useful that the change is worth while.
10663
10664 When Emacs or a system crashes, this may leave behind lock files which
10665 are stale. So you may occasionally get warnings about spurious
10666 collisions. When you determine that the collision is spurious, just
10667 tell Emacs to go ahead anyway.
10668
10669 ** If you wish to use Show Paren mode to display matching parentheses,
10670 it is no longer sufficient to load paren.el. Instead you must call
10671 show-paren-mode.
10672
10673 ** If you wish to use Delete Selection mode to replace a highlighted
10674 selection when you insert new text, it is no longer sufficient to load
10675 delsel.el. Instead you must call the function delete-selection-mode.
10676
10677 ** If you wish to use Partial Completion mode to complete partial words
10678 within symbols or filenames, it is no longer sufficient to load
10679 complete.el. Instead you must call the function partial-completion-mode.
10680
10681 ** If you wish to use uniquify to rename buffers for you,
10682 it is no longer sufficient to load uniquify.el. You must also
10683 set uniquify-buffer-name-style to one of the non-nil legitimate values.
10684
10685 ** Changes in View mode.
10686
10687 *** Several new commands are available in View mode.
10688 Do H in view mode for a list of commands.
10689
10690 *** There are two new commands for entering View mode:
10691 view-file-other-frame and view-buffer-other-frame.
10692
10693 *** Exiting View mode does a better job of restoring windows to their
10694 previous state.
10695
10696 *** New customization variable view-scroll-auto-exit. If non-nil,
10697 scrolling past end of buffer makes view mode exit.
10698
10699 *** New customization variable view-exits-all-viewing-windows. If
10700 non-nil, view-mode will at exit restore all windows viewing buffer,
10701 not just the selected window.
10702
10703 *** New customization variable view-read-only. If non-nil, visiting a
10704 read-only file automatically enters View mode, and toggle-read-only
10705 turns View mode on or off.
10706
10707 *** New customization variable view-remove-frame-by-deleting controls
10708 how to remove a not needed frame at view mode exit. If non-nil,
10709 delete the frame, if nil make an icon of it.
10710
10711 ** C-x v l, the command to print a file's version control log,
10712 now positions point at the entry for the file's current branch version.
10713
10714 ** C-x v =, the command to compare a file with the last checked-in version,
10715 has a new feature. If the file is currently not locked, so that it is
10716 presumably identical to the last checked-in version, the command now asks
10717 which version to compare with.
10718
10719 ** When using hideshow.el, incremental search can temporarily show hidden
10720 blocks if a match is inside the block.
10721
10722 The block is hidden again if the search is continued and the next match
10723 is outside the block. By customizing the variable
10724 isearch-hide-immediately you can choose to hide all the temporarily
10725 shown blocks only when exiting from incremental search.
10726
10727 By customizing the variable hs-isearch-open you can choose what kind
10728 of blocks to temporarily show during isearch: comment blocks, code
10729 blocks, all of them or none.
10730
10731 ** The new command C-x 4 0 (kill-buffer-and-window) kills the
10732 current buffer and deletes the selected window. It asks for
10733 confirmation first.
10734
10735 ** C-x C-w, which saves the buffer into a specified file name,
10736 now changes the major mode according to that file name.
10737 However, the mode will not be changed if
10738 (1) a local variables list or the `-*-' line specifies a major mode, or
10739 (2) the current major mode is a "special" mode,
10740 not suitable for ordinary files, or
10741 (3) the new file name does not particularly specify any mode.
10742
10743 This applies to M-x set-visited-file-name as well.
10744
10745 However, if you set change-major-mode-with-file-name to nil, then
10746 these commands do not change the major mode.
10747
10748 ** M-x occur changes.
10749
10750 *** If the argument to M-x occur contains upper case letters,
10751 it performs a case-sensitive search.
10752
10753 *** In the *Occur* buffer made by M-x occur,
10754 if you type g or M-x revert-buffer, this repeats the search
10755 using the same regular expression and the same buffer as before.
10756
10757 ** In Transient Mark mode, the region in any one buffer is highlighted
10758 in just one window at a time. At first, it is highlighted in the
10759 window where you set the mark. The buffer's highlighting remains in
10760 that window unless you select to another window which shows the same
10761 buffer--then the highlighting moves to that window.
10762
10763 ** The feature to suggest key bindings when you use M-x now operates
10764 after the command finishes. The message suggesting key bindings
10765 appears temporarily in the echo area. The previous echo area contents
10766 come back after a few seconds, in case they contain useful information.
10767
10768 ** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
10769 selected buffers, so that the default for C-x b is now based on the
10770 buffers recently selected in the selected frame.
10771
10772 ** Outline mode changes.
10773
10774 *** Outline mode now uses overlays (this is the former noutline.el).
10775
10776 *** Incremental searches skip over invisible text in Outline mode.
10777
10778 ** When a minibuffer window is active but not the selected window, if
10779 you try to use the minibuffer, you used to get a nested minibuffer.
10780 Now, this not only gives an error, it also cancels the minibuffer that
10781 was already active.
10782
10783 The motive for this change is so that beginning users do not
10784 unknowingly move away from minibuffers, leaving them active, and then
10785 get confused by it.
10786
10787 If you want to be able to have recursive minibuffers, you must
10788 set enable-recursive-minibuffers to non-nil.
10789
10790 ** Changes in dynamic abbrevs.
10791
10792 *** Expanding dynamic abbrevs with M-/ is now smarter about case
10793 conversion. If the expansion has mixed case not counting the first
10794 character, and the abbreviation matches the beginning of the expansion
10795 including case, then the expansion is copied verbatim.
10796
10797 The expansion is also copied verbatim if the abbreviation itself has
10798 mixed case. And using SPC M-/ to copy an additional word always
10799 copies it verbatim except when the previous copied word is all caps.
10800
10801 *** The values of `dabbrev-case-replace' and `dabbrev-case-fold-search'
10802 are no longer Lisp expressions. They have simply three possible
10803 values.
10804
10805 `dabbrev-case-replace' has these three values: nil (don't preserve
10806 case), t (do), or `case-replace' (do like M-x query-replace).
10807 `dabbrev-case-fold-search' has these three values: nil (don't ignore
10808 case), t (do), or `case-fold-search' (do like search).
10809
10810 ** Minibuffer history lists are truncated automatically now to a
10811 certain length. The variable history-length specifies how long they
10812 can be. The default value is 30.
10813
10814 ** Changes in Mail mode.
10815
10816 *** The key C-x m no longer runs the `mail' command directly.
10817 Instead, it runs the command `compose-mail', which invokes the mail
10818 composition mechanism you have selected with the variable
10819 `mail-user-agent'. The default choice of user agent is
10820 `sendmail-user-agent', which gives behavior compatible with the old
10821 behavior.
10822
10823 C-x 4 m now runs compose-mail-other-window, and C-x 5 m runs
10824 compose-mail-other-frame.
10825
10826 *** While composing a reply to a mail message, from Rmail, you can use
10827 the command C-c C-r to cite just the region from the message you are
10828 replying to. This copies the text which is the selected region in the
10829 buffer that shows the original message.
10830
10831 *** The command C-c C-i inserts a file at the end of the message,
10832 with separator lines around the contents.
10833
10834 *** The command M-x expand-mail-aliases expands all mail aliases
10835 in suitable mail headers. Emacs automatically extracts mail alias
10836 definitions from your mail alias file (e.g., ~/.mailrc). You do not
10837 need to expand mail aliases yourself before sending mail.
10838
10839 *** New features in the mail-complete command.
10840
10841 **** The mail-complete command now inserts the user's full name,
10842 for local users or if that is known. The variable mail-complete-style
10843 controls the style to use, and whether to do this at all.
10844 Its values are like those of mail-from-style.
10845
10846 **** The variable mail-passwd-command lets you specify a shell command
10847 to run to fetch a set of password-entries that add to the ones in
10848 /etc/passwd.
10849
10850 **** The variable mail-passwd-file now specifies a list of files to read
10851 to get the list of user ids. By default, one file is used:
10852 /etc/passwd.
10853
10854 ** You can "quote" a file name to inhibit special significance of
10855 special syntax, by adding `/:' to the beginning. Thus, if you have a
10856 directory named `/foo:', you can prevent it from being treated as a
10857 reference to a remote host named `foo' by writing it as `/:/foo:'.
10858
10859 Emacs uses this new construct automatically when necessary, such as
10860 when you start it with a working directory whose name might otherwise
10861 be taken to be magic.
10862
10863 ** There is a new command M-x grep-find which uses find to select
10864 files to search through, and grep to scan them. The output is
10865 available in a Compile mode buffer, as with M-x grep.
10866
10867 M-x grep now uses the -e option if the grep program supports that.
10868 (-e prevents problems if the search pattern starts with a dash.)
10869
10870 ** In Dired, the & command now flags for deletion the files whose names
10871 suggest they are probably not needed in the long run.
10872
10873 In Dired, * is now a prefix key for mark-related commands.
10874
10875 new key dired.el binding old key
10876 ------- ---------------- -------
10877 * c dired-change-marks c
10878 * m dired-mark m
10879 * * dired-mark-executables * (binding deleted)
10880 * / dired-mark-directories / (binding deleted)
10881 * @ dired-mark-symlinks @ (binding deleted)
10882 * u dired-unmark u
10883 * DEL dired-unmark-backward DEL
10884 * ? dired-unmark-all-files C-M-?
10885 * ! dired-unmark-all-marks
10886 * % dired-mark-files-regexp % m
10887 * C-n dired-next-marked-file M-}
10888 * C-p dired-prev-marked-file M-{
10889
10890 ** Rmail changes.
10891
10892 *** When Rmail cannot convert your incoming mail into Babyl format, it
10893 saves the new mail in the file RMAILOSE.n, where n is an integer
10894 chosen to make a unique name. This way, Rmail will not keep crashing
10895 each time you run it.
10896
10897 *** In Rmail, the variable rmail-summary-line-count-flag now controls
10898 whether to include the line count in the summary. Non-nil means yes.
10899
10900 *** In Rmail summary buffers, d and C-d (the commands to delete
10901 messages) now take repeat counts as arguments. A negative argument
10902 means to move in the opposite direction.
10903
10904 *** In Rmail, the t command now takes an optional argument which lets
10905 you specify whether to show the message headers in full or pruned.
10906
10907 *** In Rmail, the new command w (rmail-output-body-to-file) writes
10908 just the body of the current message into a file, without the headers.
10909 It takes the file name from the message subject, by default, but you
10910 can edit that file name in the minibuffer before it is actually used
10911 for output.
10912
10913 ** Gnus changes.
10914
10915 *** nntp.el has been totally rewritten in an asynchronous fashion.
10916
10917 *** Article prefetching functionality has been moved up into
10918 Gnus.
10919
10920 *** Scoring can now be performed with logical operators like
10921 `and', `or', `not', and parent redirection.
10922
10923 *** Article washing status can be displayed in the
10924 article mode line.
10925
10926 *** gnus.el has been split into many smaller files.
10927
10928 *** Suppression of duplicate articles based on Message-ID.
10929
10930 (setq gnus-suppress-duplicates t)
10931
10932 *** New variables for specifying what score and adapt files
10933 are to be considered home score and adapt files. See
10934 `gnus-home-score-file' and `gnus-home-adapt-files'.
10935
10936 *** Groups can inherit group parameters from parent topics.
10937
10938 *** Article editing has been revamped and is now usable.
10939
10940 *** Signatures can be recognized in more intelligent fashions.
10941 See `gnus-signature-separator' and `gnus-signature-limit'.
10942
10943 *** Summary pick mode has been made to look more nn-like.
10944 Line numbers are displayed and the `.' command can be
10945 used to pick articles.
10946
10947 *** Commands for moving the .newsrc.eld from one server to
10948 another have been added.
10949
10950 `M-x gnus-change-server'
10951
10952 *** A way to specify that "uninteresting" fields be suppressed when
10953 generating lines in buffers.
10954
10955 *** Several commands in the group buffer can be undone with
10956 `C-M-_'.
10957
10958 *** Scoring can be done on words using the new score type `w'.
10959
10960 *** Adaptive scoring can be done on a Subject word-by-word basis:
10961
10962 (setq gnus-use-adaptive-scoring '(word))
10963
10964 *** Scores can be decayed.
10965
10966 (setq gnus-decay-scores t)
10967
10968 *** Scoring can be performed using a regexp on the Date header. The
10969 Date is normalized to compact ISO 8601 format first.
10970
10971 *** A new command has been added to remove all data on articles from
10972 the native server.
10973
10974 `M-x gnus-group-clear-data-on-native-groups'
10975
10976 *** A new command for reading collections of documents
10977 (nndoc with nnvirtual on top) has been added -- `C-M-d'.
10978
10979 *** Process mark sets can be pushed and popped.
10980
10981 *** A new mail-to-news backend makes it possible to post
10982 even when the NNTP server doesn't allow posting.
10983
10984 *** A new backend for reading searches from Web search engines
10985 (DejaNews, Alta Vista, InReference) has been added.
10986
10987 Use the `G w' command in the group buffer to create such
10988 a group.
10989
10990 *** Groups inside topics can now be sorted using the standard
10991 sorting functions, and each topic can be sorted independently.
10992
10993 See the commands under the `T S' submap.
10994
10995 *** Subsets of the groups can be sorted independently.
10996
10997 See the commands under the `G P' submap.
10998
10999 *** Cached articles can be pulled into the groups.
11000
11001 Use the `Y c' command.
11002
11003 *** Score files are now applied in a more reliable order.
11004
11005 *** Reports on where mail messages end up can be generated.
11006
11007 `M-x nnmail-split-history'
11008
11009 *** More hooks and functions have been added to remove junk
11010 from incoming mail before saving the mail.
11011
11012 See `nnmail-prepare-incoming-header-hook'.
11013
11014 *** The nnml mail backend now understands compressed article files.
11015
11016 *** To enable Gnus to read/post multi-lingual articles, you must execute
11017 the following code, for instance, in your .emacs.
11018
11019 (add-hook 'gnus-startup-hook 'gnus-mule-initialize)
11020
11021 Then, when you start Gnus, it will decode non-ASCII text automatically
11022 and show appropriate characters. (Note: if you are using gnus-mime
11023 from the SEMI package, formerly known as TM, you should NOT add this
11024 hook to gnus-startup-hook; gnus-mime has its own method of handling
11025 this issue.)
11026
11027 Since it is impossible to distinguish all coding systems
11028 automatically, you may need to specify a choice of coding system for a
11029 particular news group. This can be done by:
11030
11031 (gnus-mule-add-group NEWSGROUP 'CODING-SYSTEM)
11032
11033 Here NEWSGROUP should be a string which names a newsgroup or a tree
11034 of newsgroups. If NEWSGROUP is "XXX.YYY", all news groups under
11035 "XXX.YYY" (including "XXX.YYY.ZZZ") will use the specified coding
11036 system. CODING-SYSTEM specifies which coding system to use (for both
11037 for reading and posting).
11038
11039 CODING-SYSTEM can also be a cons cell of the form
11040 (READ-CODING-SYSTEM . POST-CODING-SYSTEM)
11041 Then READ-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you read messages from the
11042 newsgroups, while POST-CODING-SYSTEM is used when you post messages
11043 there.
11044
11045 Emacs knows the right coding systems for certain newsgroups by
11046 default. Here are some of these default settings:
11047
11048 (gnus-mule-add-group "fj" 'iso-2022-7)
11049 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text" 'hz-gb-2312)
11050 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.hk" 'hz-gb-2312)
11051 (gnus-mule-add-group "alt.chinese.text.big5" 'cn-big5)
11052 (gnus-mule-add-group "soc.culture.vietnamese" '(nil . viqr))
11053
11054 When you reply by mail to an article, these settings are ignored;
11055 the mail is encoded according to sendmail-coding-system, as usual.
11056
11057 ** CC mode changes.
11058
11059 *** If you edit primarily one style of C (or C++, Objective-C, Java)
11060 code, you may want to make the CC Mode style variables have global
11061 values so that you can set them directly in your .emacs file. To do
11062 this, set c-style-variables-are-local-p to nil in your .emacs file.
11063 Note that this only takes effect if you do it *before* cc-mode.el is
11064 loaded.
11065
11066 If you typically edit more than one style of C (or C++, Objective-C,
11067 Java) code in a single Emacs session, you may want to make the CC Mode
11068 style variables have buffer local values. By default, all buffers
11069 share the same style variable settings; to make them buffer local, set
11070 c-style-variables-are-local-p to t in your .emacs file. Note that you
11071 must do this *before* CC Mode is loaded.
11072
11073 *** The new variable c-indentation-style holds the C style name
11074 of the current buffer.
11075
11076 *** The variable c-block-comments-indent-p has been deleted, because
11077 it is no longer necessary. C mode now handles all the supported styles
11078 of block comments, with no need to say which one you will use.
11079
11080 *** There is a new indentation style "python", which specifies the C
11081 style that the Python developers like.
11082
11083 *** There is a new c-cleanup-list option: brace-elseif-brace.
11084 This says to put ...} else if (...) {... on one line,
11085 just as brace-else-brace says to put ...} else {... on one line.
11086
11087 ** VC Changes [new]
11088
11089 *** In vc-retrieve-snapshot (C-x v r), if you don't specify a snapshot
11090 name, it retrieves the *latest* versions of all files in the current
11091 directory and its subdirectories (aside from files already locked).
11092
11093 This feature is useful if your RCS directory is a link to a common
11094 master directory, and you want to pick up changes made by other
11095 developers.
11096
11097 You can do the same thing for an individual file by typing C-u C-x C-q
11098 RET in a buffer visiting that file.
11099
11100 *** VC can now handle files under CVS that are being "watched" by
11101 other developers. Such files are made read-only by CVS. To get a
11102 writable copy, type C-x C-q in a buffer visiting such a file. VC then
11103 calls "cvs edit", which notifies the other developers of it.
11104
11105 *** vc-version-diff (C-u C-x v =) now suggests reasonable defaults for
11106 version numbers, based on the current state of the file.
11107
11108 ** Calendar changes.
11109
11110 *** A new function, list-holidays, allows you list holidays or
11111 subclasses of holidays for ranges of years. Related menu items allow
11112 you do this for the year of the selected date, or the
11113 following/previous years.
11114
11115 *** There is now support for the Baha'i calendar system. Use `pb' in
11116 the *Calendar* buffer to display the current Baha'i date. The Baha'i
11117 calendar, or "Badi calendar" is a system of 19 months with 19 days
11118 each, and 4 intercalary days (5 during a Gregorian leap year). The
11119 calendar begins May 23, 1844, with each of the months named after a
11120 supposed attribute of God.
11121
11122 ** ps-print changes
11123
11124 There are some new user variables and subgroups for customizing the page
11125 layout.
11126
11127 *** Headers & Footers (subgroup)
11128
11129 Some printer systems print a header page and force the first page to
11130 be printed on the back of the header page when using duplex. If your
11131 printer system has this behavior, set variable
11132 `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' to t.
11133
11134 If variable `ps-banner-page-when-duplexing' is non-nil, it prints a
11135 blank page as the very first printed page. So, it behaves as if the
11136 very first character of buffer (or region) were a form feed ^L (\014).
11137
11138 The variable `ps-spool-config' specifies who is responsible for
11139 setting duplex mode and page size. Valid values are:
11140
11141 lpr-switches duplex and page size are configured by `ps-lpr-switches'.
11142 Don't forget to set `ps-lpr-switches' to select duplex
11143 printing for your printer.
11144
11145 setpagedevice duplex and page size are configured by ps-print using the
11146 setpagedevice PostScript operator.
11147
11148 nil duplex and page size are configured by ps-print *not* using
11149 the setpagedevice PostScript operator.
11150
11151 The variable `ps-spool-tumble' specifies how the page images on
11152 opposite sides of a sheet are oriented with respect to each other. If
11153 `ps-spool-tumble' is nil, ps-print produces output suitable for
11154 bindings on the left or right. If `ps-spool-tumble' is non-nil,
11155 ps-print produces output suitable for bindings at the top or bottom.
11156 This variable takes effect only if `ps-spool-duplex' is non-nil.
11157 The default value is nil.
11158
11159 The variable `ps-header-frame-alist' specifies a header frame
11160 properties alist. Valid frame properties are:
11161
11162 fore-color Specify the foreground frame color.
11163 Value should be a float number between 0.0 (black
11164 color) and 1.0 (white color), or a string which is a
11165 color name, or a list of 3 float numbers which
11166 correspond to the Red Green Blue color scale, each
11167 float number between 0.0 (dark color) and 1.0 (bright
11168 color). The default is 0 ("black").
11169
11170 back-color Specify the background frame color (similar to fore-color).
11171 The default is 0.9 ("gray90").
11172
11173 shadow-color Specify the shadow color (similar to fore-color).
11174 The default is 0 ("black").
11175
11176 border-color Specify the border color (similar to fore-color).
11177 The default is 0 ("black").
11178
11179 border-width Specify the border width.
11180 The default is 0.4.
11181
11182 Any other property is ignored.
11183
11184 Don't change this alist directly; instead use Custom, or the
11185 `ps-value', `ps-get', `ps-put' and `ps-del' functions (see there for
11186 documentation).
11187
11188 Ps-print can also print footers. The footer variables are:
11189 `ps-print-footer', `ps-footer-offset', `ps-print-footer-frame',
11190 `ps-footer-font-family', `ps-footer-font-size', `ps-footer-line-pad',
11191 `ps-footer-lines', `ps-left-footer', `ps-right-footer' and
11192 `ps-footer-frame-alist'. These variables are similar to those
11193 controlling headers.
11194
11195 *** Color management (subgroup)
11196
11197 If `ps-print-color-p' is non-nil, the buffer's text will be printed in
11198 color.
11199
11200 *** Face Management (subgroup)
11201
11202 If you need to print without worrying about face background colors,
11203 set the variable `ps-use-face-background' which specifies if face
11204 background should be used. Valid values are:
11205
11206 t always use face background color.
11207 nil never use face background color.
11208 (face...) list of faces whose background color will be used.
11209
11210 *** N-up printing (subgroup)
11211
11212 The variable `ps-n-up-printing' specifies the number of pages per
11213 sheet of paper.
11214
11215 The variable `ps-n-up-margin' specifies the margin in points (pt)
11216 between the sheet border and the n-up printing.
11217
11218 If variable `ps-n-up-border-p' is non-nil, a border is drawn around
11219 each page.
11220
11221 The variable `ps-n-up-filling' specifies how the page matrix is filled
11222 on each sheet of paper. Following are the valid values for
11223 `ps-n-up-filling' with a filling example using a 3x4 page matrix:
11224
11225 `left-top' 1 2 3 4 `left-bottom' 9 10 11 12
11226 5 6 7 8 5 6 7 8
11227 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4
11228
11229 `right-top' 4 3 2 1 `right-bottom' 12 11 10 9
11230 8 7 6 5 8 7 6 5
11231 12 11 10 9 4 3 2 1
11232
11233 `top-left' 1 4 7 10 `bottom-left' 3 6 9 12
11234 2 5 8 11 2 5 8 11
11235 3 6 9 12 1 4 7 10
11236
11237 `top-right' 10 7 4 1 `bottom-right' 12 9 6 3
11238 11 8 5 2 11 8 5 2
11239 12 9 6 3 10 7 4 1
11240
11241 Any other value is treated as `left-top'.
11242
11243 *** Zebra stripes (subgroup)
11244
11245 The variable `ps-zebra-color' controls the zebra stripes grayscale or
11246 RGB color.
11247
11248 The variable `ps-zebra-stripe-follow' specifies how zebra stripes
11249 continue on next page. Visually, valid values are (the character `+'
11250 to the right of each column indicates that a line is printed):
11251
11252 `nil' `follow' `full' `full-follow'
11253 Current Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11254 1 XXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXX + 1 XXXXXX + 1 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11255 2 XXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXX + 2 XXXXXX + 2 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11256 3 XXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXX + 3 XXXXXX + 3 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11257 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 +
11258 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 +
11259 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 +
11260 7 XXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXX + 7 XXXXXX + 7 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11261 8 XXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXX + 8 XXXXXX + 8 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11262 9 XXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXX + 9 XXXXXX + 9 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11263 10 + 10 +
11264 11 + 11 +
11265 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11266 Next Page -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11267 12 XXXXX + 12 + 10 XXXXXX + 10 +
11268 13 XXXXX + 13 XXXXXXXX + 11 XXXXXX + 11 +
11269 14 XXXXX + 14 XXXXXXXX + 12 XXXXXX + 12 +
11270 15 + 15 XXXXXXXX + 13 + 13 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11271 16 + 16 + 14 + 14 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11272 17 + 17 + 15 + 15 XXXXXXXXXXXXX +
11273 18 XXXXX + 18 + 16 XXXXXX + 16 +
11274 19 XXXXX + 19 XXXXXXXX + 17 XXXXXX + 17 +
11275 20 XXXXX + 20 XXXXXXXX + 18 XXXXXX + 18 +
11276 21 + 21 XXXXXXXX +
11277 22 + 22 +
11278 -------- ----------- --------- ----------------
11279
11280 Any other value is treated as `nil'.
11281
11282
11283 *** Printer management (subgroup)
11284
11285 The variable `ps-printer-name-option' determines the option used by
11286 some utilities to indicate the printer name; it's used only when
11287 `ps-printer-name' is a non-empty string. If you're using the lpr
11288 utility to print, for example, `ps-printer-name-option' should be set
11289 to "-P".
11290
11291 The variable `ps-manual-feed' indicates if the printer requires manual
11292 paper feeding. If it's nil, automatic feeding takes place. If it's
11293 non-nil, manual feeding takes place.
11294
11295 The variable `ps-end-with-control-d' specifies whether C-d (\x04)
11296 should be inserted at end of the generated PostScript. Non-nil means
11297 do so.
11298
11299 *** Page settings (subgroup)
11300
11301 If variable `ps-warn-paper-type' is nil, it's *not* treated as an
11302 error if the PostScript printer doesn't have a paper with the size
11303 indicated by `ps-paper-type'; the default paper size will be used
11304 instead. If `ps-warn-paper-type' is non-nil, an error is signaled if
11305 the PostScript printer doesn't support a paper with the size indicated
11306 by `ps-paper-type'. This is used when `ps-spool-config' is set to
11307 `setpagedevice'.
11308
11309 The variable `ps-print-upside-down' determines the orientation for
11310 printing pages: nil means `normal' printing, non-nil means
11311 `upside-down' printing (that is, the page is rotated by 180 degrees).
11312
11313 The variable `ps-selected-pages' specifies which pages to print. If
11314 it's nil, all pages are printed. If it's a list, list elements may be
11315 integers specifying a single page to print, or cons cells (FROM . TO)
11316 specifying to print from page FROM to TO. Invalid list elements, that
11317 is integers smaller than one, or elements whose FROM is greater than
11318 its TO, are ignored.
11319
11320 The variable `ps-even-or-odd-pages' specifies how to print even/odd
11321 pages. Valid values are:
11322
11323 nil print all pages.
11324
11325 `even-page' print only even pages.
11326
11327 `odd-page' print only odd pages.
11328
11329 `even-sheet' print only even sheets.
11330 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
11331 `even-page', but for values greater than 1, it'll
11332 print only the even sheet of paper.
11333
11334 `odd-sheet' print only odd sheets.
11335 That is, if `ps-n-up-printing' is 1, it behaves like
11336 `odd-page'; but for values greater than 1, it'll print
11337 only the odd sheet of paper.
11338
11339 Any other value is treated as nil.
11340
11341 If you set `ps-selected-pages' (see there for documentation), pages
11342 are filtered by `ps-selected-pages', and then by
11343 `ps-even-or-odd-pages'. For example, if we have:
11344
11345 (setq ps-selected-pages '(1 4 (6 . 10) (12 . 16) 20))
11346
11347 and we combine this with `ps-even-or-odd-pages' and
11348 `ps-n-up-printing', we get:
11349
11350 `ps-n-up-printing' = 1:
11351 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
11352 nil 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20
11353 even-page 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
11354 odd-page 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
11355 even-sheet 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20
11356 odd-sheet 1, 7, 9, 13, 15
11357
11358 `ps-n-up-printing' = 2:
11359 `ps-even-or-odd-pages' PAGES PRINTED
11360 nil 1/4, 6/7, 8/9, 10/12, 13/14, 15/16, 20
11361 even-page 4/6, 8/10, 12/14, 16/20
11362 odd-page 1/7, 9/13, 15
11363 even-sheet 6/7, 10/12, 15/16
11364 odd-sheet 1/4, 8/9, 13/14, 20
11365
11366 *** Miscellany (subgroup)
11367
11368 The variable `ps-error-handler-message' specifies where error handler
11369 messages should be sent.
11370
11371 It is also possible to add a user-defined PostScript prologue code in
11372 front of all generated prologue code by setting the variable
11373 `ps-user-defined-prologue'.
11374
11375 The variable `ps-line-number-font' specifies the font for line numbers.
11376
11377 The variable `ps-line-number-font-size' specifies the font size in
11378 points for line numbers.
11379
11380 The variable `ps-line-number-color' specifies the color for line
11381 numbers. See `ps-zebra-color' for documentation.
11382
11383 The variable `ps-line-number-step' specifies the interval in which
11384 line numbers are printed. For example, if `ps-line-number-step' is set
11385 to 2, the printing will look like:
11386
11387 1 one line
11388 one line
11389 3 one line
11390 one line
11391 5 one line
11392 one line
11393 ...
11394
11395 Valid values are:
11396
11397 integer an integer specifying the interval in which line numbers are
11398 printed. If it's smaller than or equal to zero, 1
11399 is used.
11400
11401 `zebra' specifies that only the line number of the first line in a
11402 zebra stripe is to be printed.
11403
11404 Any other value is treated as `zebra'.
11405
11406 The variable `ps-line-number-start' specifies the starting point in
11407 the interval given by `ps-line-number-step'. For example, if
11408 `ps-line-number-step' is set to 3, and `ps-line-number-start' is set to
11409 3, the output will look like:
11410
11411 one line
11412 one line
11413 3 one line
11414 one line
11415 one line
11416 6 one line
11417 one line
11418 one line
11419 9 one line
11420 one line
11421 ...
11422
11423 The variable `ps-postscript-code-directory' specifies the directory
11424 where the PostScript prologue file used by ps-print is found.
11425
11426 The variable `ps-line-spacing' determines the line spacing in points,
11427 for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
11428 `ps-font-size').
11429
11430 The variable `ps-paragraph-spacing' determines the paragraph spacing,
11431 in points, for ordinary text, when generating PostScript (similar to
11432 `ps-font-size').
11433
11434 The variable `ps-paragraph-regexp' specifies the paragraph delimiter.
11435
11436 The variable `ps-begin-cut-regexp' and `ps-end-cut-regexp' specify the
11437 start and end of a region to cut out when printing.
11438
11439 ** hideshow changes.
11440
11441 *** now supports hiding of blocks of single line comments (like // for
11442 C++, ; for lisp).
11443
11444 *** Support for java-mode added.
11445
11446 *** When doing `hs-hide-all' it is now possible to also hide the comments
11447 in the file if `hs-hide-comments-when-hiding-all' is set.
11448
11449 *** The new function `hs-hide-initial-comment' hides the comments at
11450 the beginning of the files. Finally those huge RCS logs don't stay in your
11451 way! This is run by default when entering the `hs-minor-mode'.
11452
11453 *** Now uses overlays instead of `selective-display', so is more
11454 robust and a lot faster.
11455
11456 *** A block beginning can span multiple lines.
11457
11458 *** The new variable `hs-show-hidden-short-form' if t, directs hideshow
11459 to show only the beginning of a block when it is hidden. See the
11460 documentation for more details.
11461
11462 ** Changes in Enriched mode.
11463
11464 *** When you visit a file in enriched-mode, Emacs will make sure it is
11465 filled to the current fill-column. This behavior is now independent
11466 of the size of the window. When you save the file, the fill-column in
11467 use is stored as well, so that the whole buffer need not be refilled
11468 the next time unless the fill-column is different.
11469
11470 *** use-hard-newlines is now a minor mode. When it is enabled, Emacs
11471 distinguishes between hard and soft newlines, and treats hard newlines
11472 as paragraph boundaries. Otherwise all newlines inserted are marked
11473 as soft, and paragraph boundaries are determined solely from the text.
11474
11475 ** Font Lock mode
11476
11477 *** Custom support
11478
11479 The variables font-lock-face-attributes, font-lock-display-type and
11480 font-lock-background-mode are now obsolete; the recommended way to specify the
11481 faces to use for Font Lock mode is with M-x customize-group on the new custom
11482 group font-lock-highlighting-faces. If you set font-lock-face-attributes in
11483 your ~/.emacs file, Font Lock mode will respect its value. However, you should
11484 consider converting from setting that variable to using M-x customize.
11485
11486 You can still use X resources to specify Font Lock face appearances.
11487
11488 *** Maximum decoration
11489
11490 Fontification now uses the maximum level of decoration supported by
11491 default. Previously, fontification used a mode-specific default level
11492 of decoration, which is typically the minimum level of decoration
11493 supported. You can set font-lock-maximum-decoration to nil
11494 to get the old behavior.
11495
11496 *** New support
11497
11498 Support is now provided for Java, Objective-C, AWK and SIMULA modes.
11499
11500 Note that Font Lock mode can be turned on without knowing exactly what modes
11501 support Font Lock mode, via the command global-font-lock-mode.
11502
11503 *** Configurable support
11504
11505 Support for C, C++, Objective-C and Java can be more easily configured for
11506 additional types and classes via the new variables c-font-lock-extra-types,
11507 c++-font-lock-extra-types, objc-font-lock-extra-types and, you guessed it,
11508 java-font-lock-extra-types. These value of each of these variables should be a
11509 list of regexps matching the extra type names. For example, the default value
11510 of c-font-lock-extra-types is ("\\sw+_t") which means fontification follows the
11511 convention that C type names end in _t. This results in slower fontification.
11512
11513 Of course, you can change the variables that specify fontification in whatever
11514 way you wish, typically by adding regexps. However, these new variables make
11515 it easier to make specific and common changes for the fontification of types.
11516
11517 *** Adding highlighting patterns to existing support
11518
11519 You can use the new function font-lock-add-keywords to add your own
11520 highlighting patterns, such as for project-local or user-specific constructs,
11521 for any mode.
11522
11523 For example, to highlight `FIXME:' words in C comments, put:
11524
11525 (font-lock-add-keywords 'c-mode '(("\\<FIXME:" 0 font-lock-warning-face t)))
11526
11527 in your ~/.emacs.
11528
11529 *** New faces
11530
11531 Font Lock now defines two new faces, font-lock-builtin-face and
11532 font-lock-warning-face. These are intended to highlight builtin keywords,
11533 distinct from a language's normal keywords, and objects that should be brought
11534 to user attention, respectively. Various modes now use these new faces.
11535
11536 *** Changes to fast-lock support mode
11537
11538 The fast-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now process
11539 cache files silently. You can use the new variable fast-lock-verbose, in the
11540 same way as font-lock-verbose, to control this feature.
11541
11542 *** Changes to lazy-lock support mode
11543
11544 The lazy-lock package, one of the two Font Lock support modes, can now fontify
11545 according to the true syntactic context relative to other lines. You can use
11546 the new variable lazy-lock-defer-contextually to control this feature. If
11547 non-nil, changes to the buffer will cause subsequent lines in the buffer to be
11548 refontified after lazy-lock-defer-time seconds of idle time. If nil, then only
11549 the modified lines will be refontified; this is the same as the previous Lazy
11550 Lock mode behavior and the behavior of Font Lock mode.
11551
11552 This feature is useful in modes where strings or comments can span lines.
11553 For example, if a string or comment terminating character is deleted, then if
11554 this feature is enabled subsequent lines in the buffer will be correctly
11555 refontified to reflect their new syntactic context. Previously, only the line
11556 containing the deleted character would be refontified and you would have to use
11557 the command M-g M-g (font-lock-fontify-block) to refontify some lines.
11558
11559 As a consequence of this new feature, two other variables have changed:
11560
11561 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-driven' is renamed `lazy-lock-defer-on-scrolling'.
11562 Variable `lazy-lock-defer-time' can now only be a time, i.e., a number.
11563 Buffer modes for which on-the-fly deferral applies can be specified via the
11564 new variable `lazy-lock-defer-on-the-fly'.
11565
11566 If you set these variables in your ~/.emacs, then you may have to change those
11567 settings.
11568
11569 ** Ada mode changes.
11570
11571 *** There is now better support for using find-file.el with Ada mode.
11572 If you switch between spec and body, the cursor stays in the same
11573 procedure (modulo overloading). If a spec has no body file yet, but
11574 you try to switch to its body file, Ada mode now generates procedure
11575 stubs.
11576
11577 *** There are two new commands:
11578 - `ada-make-local' : invokes gnatmake on the current buffer
11579 - `ada-check-syntax' : check syntax of current buffer.
11580
11581 The user options `ada-compiler-make', `ada-make-options',
11582 `ada-language-version', `ada-compiler-syntax-check', and
11583 `ada-compile-options' are used within these commands.
11584
11585 *** Ada mode can now work with Outline minor mode. The outline level
11586 is calculated from the indenting, not from syntactic constructs.
11587 Outlining does not work if your code is not correctly indented.
11588
11589 *** The new function `ada-gnat-style' converts the buffer to the style of
11590 formatting used in GNAT. It places two blanks after a comment start,
11591 places one blank between a word end and an opening '(', and puts one
11592 space between a comma and the beginning of a word.
11593
11594 ** Scheme mode changes.
11595
11596 *** Scheme mode indentation now uses many of the facilities of Lisp
11597 mode; therefore, the variables to customize it are the variables used
11598 for Lisp mode which have names starting with `lisp-'. The variables
11599 with names starting with `scheme-' which used to do this no longer
11600 have any effect.
11601
11602 If you want to use different indentation for Scheme and Lisp, this is
11603 still possible, but now you must do it by adding a hook to
11604 scheme-mode-hook, which could work by setting the `lisp-' indentation
11605 variables as buffer-local variables.
11606
11607 *** DSSSL mode is a variant of Scheme mode, for editing DSSSL scripts.
11608 Use M-x dsssl-mode.
11609
11610 ** Changes to the emacsclient program
11611
11612 *** If a socket can't be found, and environment variables LOGNAME or
11613 USER are set, emacsclient now looks for a socket based on the UID
11614 associated with the name. That is an emacsclient running as root
11615 can connect to an Emacs server started by a non-root user.
11616
11617 *** The emacsclient program now accepts an option --no-wait which tells
11618 it to return immediately without waiting for you to "finish" the
11619 buffer in Emacs.
11620
11621 *** The new option --alternate-editor allows to specify an editor to
11622 use if Emacs is not running. The environment variable
11623 ALTERNATE_EDITOR can be used for the same effect; the command line
11624 option takes precedence.
11625
11626 ** M-x eldoc-mode enables a minor mode in which the echo area
11627 constantly shows the parameter list for function being called at point
11628 (in Emacs Lisp and Lisp Interaction modes only).
11629
11630 ** C-x n d now runs the new command narrow-to-defun,
11631 which narrows the accessible parts of the buffer to just
11632 the current defun.
11633
11634 ** Emacs now handles the `--' argument in the standard way; all
11635 following arguments are treated as ordinary file names.
11636
11637 ** On MSDOS and Windows, the bookmark file is now called _emacs.bmk,
11638 and the saved desktop file is now called _emacs.desktop (truncated if
11639 necessary).
11640
11641 ** When you kill a buffer that visits a file,
11642 if there are any registers that save positions in the file,
11643 these register values no longer become completely useless.
11644 If you try to go to such a register with C-x j, then you are
11645 asked whether to visit the file again. If you say yes,
11646 it visits the file and then goes to the same position.
11647
11648 ** When you visit a file that changes frequently outside Emacs--for
11649 example, a log of output from a process that continues to run--it may
11650 be useful for Emacs to revert the file without querying you whenever
11651 you visit the file afresh with C-x C-f.
11652
11653 You can request this behavior for certain files by setting the
11654 variable revert-without-query to a list of regular expressions. If a
11655 file's name matches any of these regular expressions, find-file and
11656 revert-buffer revert the buffer without asking for permission--but
11657 only if you have not edited the buffer text yourself.
11658
11659 ** set-default-font has been renamed to set-frame-font
11660 since it applies only to the current frame.
11661
11662 ** In TeX mode, you can use the variable tex-main-file to specify the
11663 file for tex-file to run TeX on. (By default, tex-main-file is nil,
11664 and tex-file runs TeX on the current visited file.)
11665
11666 This is useful when you are editing a document that consists of
11667 multiple files. In each of the included files, you can set up a local
11668 variable list which specifies the top-level file of your document for
11669 tex-main-file. Then tex-file will run TeX on the whole document
11670 instead of just the file you are editing.
11671
11672 ** RefTeX mode
11673
11674 RefTeX mode is a new minor mode with special support for \label, \ref
11675 and \cite macros in LaTeX documents. RefTeX distinguishes labels of
11676 different environments (equation, figure, ...) and has full support for
11677 multifile documents. To use it, select a buffer with a LaTeX document and
11678 turn the mode on with M-x reftex-mode. Here are the main user commands:
11679
11680 C-c ( reftex-label
11681 Creates a label semi-automatically. RefTeX is context sensitive and
11682 knows which kind of label is needed.
11683
11684 C-c ) reftex-reference
11685 Offers in a menu all labels in the document, along with context of the
11686 label definition. The selected label is referenced as \ref{LABEL}.
11687
11688 C-c [ reftex-citation
11689 Prompts for a regular expression and displays a list of matching BibTeX
11690 database entries. The selected entry is cited with a \cite{KEY} macro.
11691
11692 C-c & reftex-view-crossref
11693 Views the cross reference of a \ref or \cite command near point.
11694
11695 C-c = reftex-toc
11696 Shows a table of contents of the (multifile) document. From there you
11697 can quickly jump to every section.
11698
11699 Under X, RefTeX installs a "Ref" menu in the menu bar, with additional
11700 commands. Press `?' to get help when a prompt mentions this feature.
11701 Full documentation and customization examples are in the file
11702 reftex.el. You can use the finder to view the file documentation:
11703 C-h p --> tex --> reftex.el
11704
11705 ** Changes in BibTeX mode.
11706
11707 *** Info documentation is now available.
11708
11709 *** Don't allow parentheses in string constants anymore. This confused
11710 both the BibTeX program and Emacs BibTeX mode.
11711
11712 *** Renamed variable bibtex-mode-user-optional-fields to
11713 bibtex-user-optional-fields.
11714
11715 *** Removed variable bibtex-include-OPTannote
11716 (use bibtex-user-optional-fields instead).
11717
11718 *** New interactive functions to copy and kill fields and complete
11719 entries to the BibTeX kill ring, from where they can be yanked back by
11720 appropriate functions.
11721
11722 *** New interactive functions for repositioning and marking of
11723 entries. They are bound by default to C-M-l and C-M-h.
11724
11725 *** New hook bibtex-clean-entry-hook. It is called after entry has
11726 been cleaned.
11727
11728 *** New variable bibtex-field-delimiters, which replaces variables
11729 bibtex-field-{left|right}-delimiter.
11730
11731 *** New variable bibtex-entry-delimiters to determine how entries
11732 shall be delimited.
11733
11734 *** Allow preinitialization of fields. See documentation of
11735 bibtex-user-optional-fields, bibtex-entry-field-alist, and
11736 bibtex-include-OPTkey for details.
11737
11738 *** Book and InBook entries require either an author or an editor
11739 field. This is now supported by bibtex.el. Alternative fields are
11740 prefixed with `ALT'.
11741
11742 *** New variable bibtex-entry-format, which replaces variable
11743 bibtex-clean-entry-zap-empty-opts and allows specification of many
11744 formatting options performed on cleaning an entry (see variable
11745 documentation).
11746
11747 *** Even more control on how automatic keys are generated. See
11748 documentation of bibtex-generate-autokey for details. Transcriptions
11749 for foreign languages other than German are now handled, too.
11750
11751 *** New boolean user option bibtex-comma-after-last-field to decide if
11752 comma should be inserted at end of last field.
11753
11754 *** New boolean user option bibtex-align-at-equal-sign to determine if
11755 alignment should be made at left side of field contents or at equal
11756 signs. New user options to control entry layout (e.g. indentation).
11757
11758 *** New function bibtex-fill-entry to realign entries.
11759
11760 *** New function bibtex-reformat to reformat region or buffer.
11761
11762 *** New function bibtex-convert-alien to convert a BibTeX database
11763 from alien sources.
11764
11765 *** New function bibtex-complete-key (similar to bibtex-complete-string)
11766 to complete prefix to a key defined in buffer. Mainly useful in
11767 crossref entries.
11768
11769 *** New function bibtex-count-entries to count entries in buffer or
11770 region.
11771
11772 *** Added support for imenu.
11773
11774 *** The function `bibtex-validate' now checks current region instead
11775 of buffer if mark is active. Now it shows all errors of buffer in a
11776 `compilation mode' buffer. You can use the normal commands (e.g.
11777 `next-error') for compilation modes to jump to errors.
11778
11779 *** New variable `bibtex-string-file-path' to determine where the files
11780 from `bibtex-string-files' are searched.
11781
11782 ** Iso Accents mode now supports Latin-3 as an alternative.
11783
11784 ** The command next-error now opens blocks hidden by hideshow.
11785
11786 ** The function using-unix-filesystems has been replaced by the
11787 functions add-untranslated-filesystem and remove-untranslated-filesystem.
11788 Each of these functions takes the name of a drive letter or directory
11789 as an argument.
11790
11791 When a filesystem is added as untranslated, all files on it are read
11792 and written in binary mode (no cr/lf translation is performed).
11793
11794 ** browse-url changes
11795
11796 *** New methods for: Grail (browse-url-generic), MMM (browse-url-mmm),
11797 Lynx in a separate xterm (browse-url-lynx-xterm) or in an Emacs window
11798 (browse-url-lynx-emacs), remote W3 (browse-url-w3-gnudoit), generic
11799 non-remote-controlled browsers (browse-url-generic) and associated
11800 customization variables.
11801
11802 *** New commands `browse-url-of-region' and `browse-url'.
11803
11804 *** URLs marked up with <URL:...> (RFC1738) work if broken across
11805 lines. Browsing methods can be associated with URL regexps
11806 (e.g. mailto: URLs) via `browse-url-browser-function'.
11807
11808 ** Changes in Ediff
11809
11810 *** Clicking Mouse-2 on a brief command description in Ediff control panel
11811 pops up the Info file for this command.
11812
11813 *** There is now a variable, ediff-autostore-merges, which controls whether
11814 the result of a merge is saved in a file. By default, this is done only when
11815 merge is done from a session group (eg, when merging files in two different
11816 directories).
11817
11818 *** Since Emacs 19.31 (this hasn't been announced before), Ediff can compare
11819 and merge groups of files residing in different directories, or revisions of
11820 files in the same directory.
11821
11822 *** Since Emacs 19.31, Ediff can apply multi-file patches interactively.
11823 The patches must be in the context format or GNU unified format. (The bug
11824 related to the GNU format has now been fixed.)
11825
11826 ** Changes in Viper
11827
11828 *** The startup file is now .viper instead of .vip
11829 *** All variable/function names have been changed to start with viper-
11830 instead of vip-.
11831 *** C-\ now simulates the meta-key in all Viper states.
11832 *** C-z in Insert state now escapes to Vi for the duration of the next
11833 Viper command. In Vi and Insert states, C-z behaves as before.
11834 *** C-c \ escapes to Vi for one command if Viper is in Insert or Emacs states.
11835 *** _ is no longer the meta-key in Vi state.
11836 *** The variable viper-insert-state-cursor-color can be used to change cursor
11837 color when Viper is in insert state.
11838 *** If search lands the cursor near the top or the bottom of the window,
11839 Viper pulls the window up or down to expose more context. The variable
11840 viper-adjust-window-after-search controls this behavior.
11841
11842 ** Etags changes.
11843
11844 *** In C, C++, Objective C and Java, Etags tags global variables by
11845 default. The resulting tags files are inflated by 30% on average.
11846 Use --no-globals to turn this feature off. Etags can also tag
11847 variables which are members of structure-like constructs, but it does
11848 not by default. Use --members to turn this feature on.
11849
11850 *** C++ member functions are now recognized as tags.
11851
11852 *** Java is tagged like C++. In addition, "extends" and "implements"
11853 constructs are tagged. Files are recognised by the extension .java.
11854
11855 *** Etags can now handle programs written in Postscript. Files are
11856 recognised by the extensions .ps and .pdb (Postscript with C syntax).
11857 In Postscript, tags are lines that start with a slash.
11858
11859 *** Etags now handles Objective C and Objective C++ code. The usual C and
11860 C++ tags are recognized in these languages; in addition, etags
11861 recognizes special Objective C syntax for classes, class categories,
11862 methods and protocols.
11863
11864 *** Etags also handles Cobol. Files are recognised by the extension
11865 .cobol. The tagged lines are those containing a word that begins in
11866 column 8 and ends in a full stop, i.e. anything that could be a
11867 paragraph name.
11868
11869 *** Regexps in Etags now support intervals, as in ed or grep. The syntax of
11870 an interval is \{M,N\}, and it means to match the preceding expression
11871 at least M times and as many as N times.
11872
11873 ** The format for specifying a custom format for time-stamp to insert
11874 in files has changed slightly.
11875
11876 With the new enhancements to the functionality of format-time-string,
11877 time-stamp-format will change to be eventually compatible with it.
11878 This conversion is being done in two steps to maintain compatibility
11879 with old time-stamp-format values.
11880
11881 In the new scheme, alternate case is signified by the number-sign
11882 (`#') modifier, rather than changing the case of the format character.
11883 This feature is as yet incompletely implemented for compatibility
11884 reasons.
11885
11886 In the old time-stamp-format, all numeric fields defaulted to their
11887 natural width. (With format-time-string, each format has a
11888 fixed-width default.) In this version, you can specify the colon
11889 (`:') modifier to a numeric conversion to mean "give me the historical
11890 time-stamp-format width default." Do not use colon if you are
11891 specifying an explicit width, as in "%02d".
11892
11893 Numbers are no longer truncated to the requested width, except in the
11894 case of "%02y", which continues to give a two-digit year. Digit
11895 truncation probably wasn't being used for anything else anyway.
11896
11897 The new formats will work with old versions of Emacs. New formats are
11898 being recommended now to allow time-stamp-format to change in the
11899 future to be compatible with format-time-string. The new forms being
11900 recommended now will continue to work then.
11901
11902 See the documentation string for the variable time-stamp-format for
11903 details.
11904
11905 ** There are some additional major modes:
11906
11907 dcl-mode, for editing VMS DCL files.
11908 m4-mode, for editing files of m4 input.
11909 meta-mode, for editing MetaFont and MetaPost source files.
11910
11911 ** In Shell mode, the command shell-copy-environment-variable lets you
11912 copy the value of a specified environment variable from the subshell
11913 into Emacs.
11914
11915 ** New Lisp packages include:
11916
11917 *** battery.el displays battery status for laptops.
11918
11919 *** M-x bruce (named after Lenny Bruce) is a program that might
11920 be used for adding some indecent words to your email.
11921
11922 *** M-x crisp-mode enables an emulation for the CRiSP editor.
11923
11924 *** M-x dirtrack arranges for better tracking of directory changes
11925 in shell buffers.
11926
11927 *** The new library elint.el provides for linting of Emacs Lisp code.
11928 See the documentation for `elint-initialize', `elint-current-buffer'
11929 and `elint-defun'.
11930
11931 *** M-x expand-add-abbrevs defines a special kind of abbrev which is
11932 meant for programming constructs. These abbrevs expand like ordinary
11933 ones, when you type SPC, but only at the end of a line and not within
11934 strings or comments.
11935
11936 These abbrevs can act as templates: you can define places within an
11937 abbrev for insertion of additional text. Once you expand the abbrev,
11938 you can then use C-x a p and C-x a n to move back and forth to these
11939 insertion points. Thus you can conveniently insert additional text
11940 at these points.
11941
11942 *** filecache.el remembers the location of files so that you
11943 can visit them by short forms of their names.
11944
11945 *** find-func.el lets you find the definition of the user-loaded
11946 Emacs Lisp function at point.
11947
11948 *** M-x handwrite converts text to a "handwritten" picture.
11949
11950 *** M-x iswitchb-buffer is a command for switching to a buffer, much like
11951 switch-buffer, but it reads the argument in a more helpful way.
11952
11953 *** M-x landmark implements a neural network for landmark learning.
11954
11955 *** M-x locate provides a convenient interface to the `locate' program.
11956
11957 *** M4 mode is a new mode for editing files of m4 input.
11958
11959 *** mantemp.el creates C++ manual template instantiations
11960 from the GCC error messages which indicate which instantiations are needed.
11961
11962 *** mouse-copy.el provides a one-click copy and move feature.
11963 You can drag a region with M-mouse-1, and it is automatically
11964 inserted at point. M-Shift-mouse-1 deletes the text from its
11965 original place after inserting the copy.
11966
11967 *** mouse-drag.el lets you do scrolling by dragging Mouse-2
11968 on the buffer.
11969
11970 You click the mouse and move; that distance either translates into the
11971 velocity to scroll (with mouse-drag-throw) or the distance to scroll
11972 (with mouse-drag-drag). Horizontal scrolling is enabled when needed.
11973
11974 Enable mouse-drag with:
11975 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-throw)
11976 -or-
11977 (global-set-key [down-mouse-2] 'mouse-drag-drag)
11978
11979 *** mspools.el is useful for determining which mail folders have
11980 mail waiting to be read in them. It works with procmail.
11981
11982 *** Octave mode is a major mode for editing files of input for Octave.
11983 It comes with a facility for communicating with an Octave subprocess.
11984
11985 *** ogonek
11986
11987 The ogonek package provides functions for changing the coding of
11988 Polish diacritic characters in buffers. Codings known from various
11989 platforms are supported such as ISO8859-2, Mazovia, IBM Latin2, and
11990 TeX. For example, you can change the coding from Mazovia to
11991 ISO8859-2. Another example is a change of coding from ISO8859-2 to
11992 prefix notation (in which `/a' stands for the aogonek character, for
11993 instance) and vice versa.
11994
11995 To use this package load it using
11996 M-x load-library [enter] ogonek
11997 Then, you may get an explanation by calling one of
11998 M-x ogonek-jak -- in Polish
11999 M-x ogonek-how -- in English
12000 The info specifies the commands and variables provided as well as the
12001 ways of customization in `.emacs'.
12002
12003 *** Interface to ph.
12004
12005 Emacs provides a client interface to CCSO Nameservers (ph/qi)
12006
12007 The CCSO nameserver is used in many universities to provide directory
12008 services about people. ph.el provides a convenient Emacs interface to
12009 these servers.
12010
12011 *** uce.el is useful for replying to unsolicited commercial email.
12012
12013 *** vcursor.el implements a "virtual cursor" feature.
12014 You can move the virtual cursor with special commands
12015 while the real cursor does not move.
12016
12017 *** webjump.el is a "hot list" package which you can set up
12018 for visiting your favorite web sites.
12019
12020 *** M-x winner-mode is a minor mode which saves window configurations,
12021 so you can move back to other configurations that you have recently used.
12022
12023 ** movemail change
12024
12025 Movemail no longer needs to be installed setuid root in order for POP
12026 mail retrieval to function properly. This is because it no longer
12027 supports the RPOP (reserved-port POP) protocol; instead, it uses the
12028 user's POP password to authenticate to the mail server.
12029
12030 This change was made earlier, but not reported in NEWS before.
12031 \f
12032 * Emacs 20.1 changes for MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
12033
12034 ** Changes in handling MS-DOS/MS-Windows text files.
12035
12036 Emacs handles three different conventions for representing
12037 end-of-line: CRLF for MSDOS, LF for Unix and GNU, and CR (used on the
12038 Macintosh). Emacs determines which convention is used in a specific
12039 file based on the contents of that file (except for certain special
12040 file names), and when it saves the file, it uses the same convention.
12041
12042 To save the file and change the end-of-line convention, you can use
12043 C-x RET f (set-buffer-file-coding-system) to specify a different
12044 coding system for the buffer. Then, when you save the file, the newly
12045 specified coding system will take effect. For example, to save with
12046 LF, specify undecided-unix (or some other ...-unix coding system); to
12047 save with CRLF, specify undecided-dos.
12048 \f
12049 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 20.1
12050
12051 ** Byte-compiled files made with Emacs 20 will, in general, work in
12052 Emacs 19 as well, as long as the source code runs in Emacs 19. And
12053 vice versa: byte-compiled files made with Emacs 19 should also run in
12054 Emacs 20, as long as the program itself works in Emacs 20.
12055
12056 ** Windows-specific functions and variables have been renamed
12057 to start with w32- instead of win32-.
12058
12059 In hacker language, calling something a "win" is a form of praise. We
12060 don't want to praise a non-free Microsoft system, so we don't call it
12061 "win".
12062
12063 ** Basic Lisp changes
12064
12065 *** A symbol whose name starts with a colon now automatically
12066 evaluates to itself. Therefore such a symbol can be used as a constant.
12067
12068 *** The defined purpose of `defconst' has been changed. It should now
12069 be used only for values that should not be changed whether by a program
12070 or by the user.
12071
12072 The actual behavior of defconst has not been changed.
12073
12074 *** There are new macros `when' and `unless'
12075
12076 (when CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION (progn BODY...))
12077 (unless CONDITION BODY...) is short for (if CONDITION nil BODY...)
12078
12079 *** Emacs now defines functions caar, cadr, cdar and cddr with their
12080 usual Lisp meanings. For example, caar returns the car of the car of
12081 its argument.
12082
12083 *** equal, when comparing strings, now ignores their text properties.
12084
12085 *** The new function `functionp' tests whether an object is a function.
12086
12087 *** arrayp now returns t for char-tables and bool-vectors.
12088
12089 *** Certain primitives which use characters (as integers) now get an
12090 error if the integer is not a valid character code. These primitives
12091 include insert-char, char-to-string, and the %c construct in the
12092 `format' function.
12093
12094 *** The `require' function now insists on adding a suffix, either .el
12095 or .elc, to the file name. Thus, (require 'foo) will not use a file
12096 whose name is just foo. It insists on foo.el or foo.elc.
12097
12098 *** The `autoload' function, when the file name does not contain
12099 either a directory name or the suffix .el or .elc, insists on
12100 adding one of these suffixes.
12101
12102 *** string-to-number now takes an optional second argument BASE
12103 which specifies the base to use when converting an integer.
12104 If BASE is omitted, base 10 is used.
12105
12106 We have not implemented other radices for floating point numbers,
12107 because that would be much more work and does not seem useful.
12108
12109 *** substring now handles vectors as well as strings.
12110
12111 *** The Common Lisp function eql is no longer defined normally.
12112 You must load the `cl' library to define it.
12113
12114 *** The new macro `with-current-buffer' lets you evaluate an expression
12115 conveniently with a different current buffer. It looks like this:
12116
12117 (with-current-buffer BUFFER BODY-FORMS...)
12118
12119 BUFFER is the expression that says which buffer to use.
12120 BODY-FORMS say what to do in that buffer.
12121
12122 *** The new primitive `save-current-buffer' saves and restores the
12123 choice of current buffer, like `save-excursion', but without saving or
12124 restoring the value of point or the mark. `with-current-buffer'
12125 works using `save-current-buffer'.
12126
12127 *** The new macro `with-temp-file' lets you do some work in a new buffer and
12128 write the output to a specified file. Like `progn', it returns the value
12129 of the last form.
12130
12131 *** The new macro `with-temp-buffer' lets you do some work in a new buffer,
12132 which is discarded after use. Like `progn', it returns the value of the
12133 last form. If you wish to return the buffer contents, use (buffer-string)
12134 as the last form.
12135
12136 *** The new function split-string takes a string, splits it at certain
12137 characters, and returns a list of the substrings in between the
12138 matches.
12139
12140 For example, (split-string "foo bar lose" " +") returns ("foo" "bar" "lose").
12141
12142 *** The new macro with-output-to-string executes some Lisp expressions
12143 with standard-output set up so that all output feeds into a string.
12144 Then it returns that string.
12145
12146 For example, if the current buffer name is `foo',
12147
12148 (with-output-to-string
12149 (princ "The buffer is ")
12150 (princ (buffer-name)))
12151
12152 returns "The buffer is foo".
12153
12154 ** Non-ASCII characters are now supported, if enable-multibyte-characters
12155 is non-nil.
12156
12157 These characters have character codes above 256. When inserted in the
12158 buffer or stored in a string, they are represented as multibyte
12159 characters that occupy several buffer positions each.
12160
12161 *** When enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, a single character in
12162 a buffer or string can be two or more bytes (as many as four).
12163
12164 Buffers and strings are still made up of unibyte elements;
12165 character positions and string indices are always measured in bytes.
12166 Therefore, moving forward one character can increase the buffer
12167 position by 2, 3 or 4. The function forward-char moves by whole
12168 characters, and therefore is no longer equivalent to
12169 (lambda (n) (goto-char (+ (point) n))).
12170
12171 ASCII characters (codes 0 through 127) are still single bytes, always.
12172 Sequences of byte values 128 through 255 are used to represent
12173 non-ASCII characters. These sequences are called "multibyte
12174 characters".
12175
12176 The first byte of a multibyte character is always in the range 128
12177 through 159 (octal 0200 through 0237). These values are called
12178 "leading codes". The second and subsequent bytes are always in the
12179 range 160 through 255 (octal 0240 through 0377). The first byte, the
12180 leading code, determines how many bytes long the sequence is.
12181
12182 *** The function forward-char moves over characters, and therefore
12183 (forward-char 1) may increase point by more than 1 if it moves over a
12184 multibyte character. Likewise, delete-char always deletes a
12185 character, which may be more than one buffer position.
12186
12187 This means that some Lisp programs, which assume that a character is
12188 always one buffer position, need to be changed.
12189
12190 However, all ASCII characters are always one buffer position.
12191
12192 *** The regexp [\200-\377] no longer matches all non-ASCII characters,
12193 because when enable-multibyte-characters is non-nil, these characters
12194 have codes that are not in the range octal 200 to octal 377. However,
12195 the regexp [^\000-\177] does match all non-ASCII characters,
12196 guaranteed.
12197
12198 *** The function char-boundary-p returns non-nil if position POS is
12199 between two characters in the buffer (not in the middle of a
12200 character).
12201
12202 When the value is non-nil, it says what kind of character follows POS:
12203
12204 0 if POS is at an ASCII character or at the end of range,
12205 1 if POS is before a 2-byte length multi-byte form,
12206 2 if POS is at a head of 3-byte length multi-byte form,
12207 3 if POS is at a head of 4-byte length multi-byte form,
12208 4 if POS is at a head of multi-byte form of a composite character.
12209
12210 *** The function char-bytes returns how many bytes the character CHAR uses.
12211
12212 *** Strings can contain multibyte characters. The function
12213 `length' returns the string length counting bytes, which may be
12214 more than the number of characters.
12215
12216 You can include a multibyte character in a string constant by writing
12217 it literally. You can also represent it with a hex escape,
12218 \xNNNNNNN..., using as many digits as necessary. Any character which
12219 is not a valid hex digit terminates this construct. If you want to
12220 follow it with a character that is a hex digit, write backslash and
12221 newline in between; that will terminate the hex escape.
12222
12223 *** The function concat-chars takes arguments which are characters
12224 and returns a string containing those characters.
12225
12226 *** The function sref access a multibyte character in a string.
12227 (sref STRING INDX) returns the character in STRING at INDEX. INDEX
12228 counts from zero. If INDEX is at a position in the middle of a
12229 character, sref signals an error.
12230
12231 *** The function chars-in-string returns the number of characters
12232 in a string. This is less than the length of the string, if the
12233 string contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
12234
12235 *** The function chars-in-region returns the number of characters
12236 in a region from BEG to END. This is less than (- END BEG) if the
12237 region contains multibyte characters (the length counts bytes).
12238
12239 *** The function string-to-list converts a string to a list of
12240 the characters in it. string-to-vector converts a string
12241 to a vector of the characters in it.
12242
12243 *** The function store-substring alters part of the contents
12244 of a string. You call it as follows:
12245
12246 (store-substring STRING IDX OBJ)
12247
12248 This says to alter STRING, by storing OBJ starting at index IDX in
12249 STRING. OBJ may be either a character or a (smaller) string.
12250 This function really does alter the contents of STRING.
12251 Since it is impossible to change the length of an existing string,
12252 it is an error if OBJ doesn't fit within STRING's actual length.
12253
12254 *** char-width returns the width (in columns) of the character CHAR,
12255 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
12256
12257 *** string-width returns the width (in columns) of the text in STRING,
12258 if it were displayed in the current buffer and the selected window.
12259
12260 *** truncate-string-to-width shortens a string, if necessary,
12261 to fit within a certain number of columns. (Of course, it does
12262 not alter the string that you give it; it returns a new string
12263 which contains all or just part of the existing string.)
12264
12265 (truncate-string-to-width STR END-COLUMN &optional START-COLUMN PADDING)
12266
12267 This returns the part of STR up to column END-COLUMN.
12268
12269 The optional argument START-COLUMN specifies the starting column.
12270 If this is non-nil, then the first START-COLUMN columns of the string
12271 are not included in the resulting value.
12272
12273 The optional argument PADDING, if non-nil, is a padding character to be added
12274 at the beginning and end the resulting string, to extend it to exactly
12275 WIDTH columns. If PADDING is nil, that means do not pad; then, if STRING
12276 is narrower than WIDTH, the value is equal to STRING.
12277
12278 If PADDING and START-COLUMN are both non-nil, and if there is no clean
12279 place in STRING that corresponds to START-COLUMN (because one
12280 character extends across that column), then the padding character
12281 PADDING is added one or more times at the beginning of the result
12282 string, so that its columns line up as if it really did start at
12283 column START-COLUMN.
12284
12285 *** When the functions in the list after-change-functions are called,
12286 the third argument is the number of bytes in the pre-change text, not
12287 necessarily the number of characters. It is, in effect, the
12288 difference in buffer position between the beginning and the end of the
12289 changed text, before the change.
12290
12291 *** The characters Emacs uses are classified in various character
12292 sets, each of which has a name which is a symbol. In general there is
12293 one character set for each script, not for each language.
12294
12295 **** The function charsetp tests whether an object is a character set name.
12296
12297 **** The variable charset-list holds a list of character set names.
12298
12299 **** char-charset, given a character code, returns the name of the character
12300 set that the character belongs to. (The value is a symbol.)
12301
12302 **** split-char, given a character code, returns a list containing the
12303 name of the character set, followed by one or two byte-values
12304 which identify the character within that character set.
12305
12306 **** make-char, given a character set name and one or two subsequent
12307 byte-values, constructs a character code. This is roughly the
12308 opposite of split-char.
12309
12310 **** find-charset-region returns a list of the character sets
12311 of all the characters between BEG and END.
12312
12313 **** find-charset-string returns a list of the character sets
12314 of all the characters in a string.
12315
12316 *** Here are the Lisp facilities for working with coding systems
12317 and specifying coding systems.
12318
12319 **** The function coding-system-list returns a list of all coding
12320 system names (symbols). With optional argument t, it returns a list
12321 of all distinct base coding systems, not including variants.
12322 (Variant coding systems are those like latin-1-dos, latin-1-unix
12323 and latin-1-mac which specify the end-of-line conversion as well
12324 as what to do about code conversion.)
12325
12326 **** coding-system-p tests a symbol to see if it is a coding system
12327 name. It returns t if so, nil if not.
12328
12329 **** file-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
12330 for certain file names. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
12331 except that the PATTERN is matched against the file name.
12332
12333 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
12334 which file names the element applies to. PATTERN should be a regexp
12335 to match against a file name.
12336
12337 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
12338 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
12339 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
12340 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
12341 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
12342 specifies the coding system for encoding.
12343
12344 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
12345 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
12346
12347 **** The variable network-coding-system-alist specifies
12348 the coding system to use for network sockets.
12349
12350 Each element has the format (PATTERN . VAL), where PATTERN determines
12351 which network sockets the element applies to. PATTERN should be
12352 either a port number or a regular expression matching some network
12353 service names.
12354
12355 VAL is a coding system, a cons cell containing two coding systems, or
12356 a function symbol. If VAL is a coding system, it is used for both
12357 decoding what received from the network stream and encoding what sent
12358 to the network stream. If VAL is a cons cell containing two coding
12359 systems, the car specifies the coding system for decoding, and the cdr
12360 specifies the coding system for encoding.
12361
12362 If VAL is a function symbol, the function must return a coding system
12363 or a cons cell containing two coding systems, which is used as above.
12364
12365 **** process-coding-system-alist specifies which coding systems to use
12366 for certain subprocess. It works like network-coding-system-alist,
12367 except that the PATTERN is matched against the program name used to
12368 start the subprocess.
12369
12370 **** The variable default-process-coding-system specifies the coding
12371 systems to use for subprocess (and net connection) input and output,
12372 when nothing else specifies what to do. The value is a cons cell
12373 (OUTPUT-CODING . INPUT-CODING). OUTPUT-CODING applies to output
12374 to the subprocess, and INPUT-CODING applies to input from it.
12375
12376 **** The variable coding-system-for-write, if non-nil, specifies the
12377 coding system to use for writing a file, or for output to a synchronous
12378 subprocess.
12379
12380 It also applies to any asynchronous subprocess or network connection,
12381 but in a different way: the value of coding-system-for-write when you
12382 start the subprocess or connection affects that subprocess or
12383 connection permanently or until overridden.
12384
12385 The variable coding-system-for-write takes precedence over
12386 file-coding-system-alist, process-coding-system-alist and
12387 network-coding-system-alist, and all other methods of specifying a
12388 coding system for output. But most of the time this variable is nil.
12389 It exists so that Lisp programs can bind it to a specific coding
12390 system for one operation at a time.
12391
12392 **** coding-system-for-read applies similarly to input from
12393 files, subprocesses or network connections.
12394
12395 **** The function process-coding-system tells you what
12396 coding systems(s) an existing subprocess is using.
12397 The value is a cons cell,
12398 (DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM . ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM)
12399 where DECODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for decoding output from
12400 the subprocess, and ENCODING-CODING-SYSTEM is used for encoding
12401 input to the subprocess.
12402
12403 **** The function set-process-coding-system can be used to
12404 change the coding systems in use for an existing subprocess.
12405
12406 ** Emacs has a new facility to help users manage the many
12407 customization options. To make a Lisp program work with this facility,
12408 you need to use the new macros defgroup and defcustom.
12409
12410 You use defcustom instead of defvar, for defining a user option
12411 variable. The difference is that you specify two additional pieces of
12412 information (usually): the "type" which says what values are
12413 legitimate, and the "group" which specifies the hierarchy for
12414 customization.
12415
12416 Thus, instead of writing
12417
12418 (defvar foo-blurgoze nil
12419 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely.")
12420
12421 you would now write this:
12422
12423 (defcustom foo-blurgoze nil
12424 "*Non-nil means that foo will act very blurgozely."
12425 :type 'boolean
12426 :group foo)
12427
12428 The type `boolean' means that this variable has only
12429 two meaningful states: nil and non-nil. Other type values
12430 describe other possibilities; see the manual for Custom
12431 for a description of them.
12432
12433 The "group" argument is used to specify a group which the option
12434 should belong to. You define a new group like this:
12435
12436 (defgroup ispell nil
12437 "Spell checking using Ispell."
12438 :group 'processes)
12439
12440 The "group" argument in defgroup specifies the parent group. The root
12441 group is called `emacs'; it should not contain any variables itself,
12442 but only other groups. The immediate subgroups of `emacs' correspond
12443 to the keywords used by C-h p. Under these subgroups come
12444 second-level subgroups that belong to individual packages.
12445
12446 Each Emacs package should have its own set of groups. A simple
12447 package should have just one group; a more complex package should
12448 have a hierarchy of its own groups. The sole or root group of a
12449 package should be a subgroup of one or more of the "keyword"
12450 first-level subgroups.
12451
12452 ** New `widget' library for inserting UI components in buffers.
12453
12454 This library, used by the new custom library, is documented in a
12455 separate manual that accompanies Emacs.
12456
12457 ** easy-mmode
12458
12459 The easy-mmode package provides macros and functions that make
12460 developing minor modes easier. Roughly, the programmer has to code
12461 only the functionality of the minor mode. All the rest--toggles,
12462 predicate, and documentation--can be done in one call to the macro
12463 `easy-mmode-define-minor-mode' (see the documentation). See also
12464 `easy-mmode-define-keymap'.
12465
12466 ** Text property changes
12467
12468 *** The `intangible' property now works on overlays as well as on a
12469 text property.
12470
12471 *** The new functions next-char-property-change and
12472 previous-char-property-change scan through the buffer looking for a
12473 place where either a text property or an overlay might change. The
12474 functions take two arguments, POSITION and LIMIT. POSITION is the
12475 starting position for the scan. LIMIT says where to stop the scan.
12476
12477 If no property change is found before LIMIT, the value is LIMIT. If
12478 LIMIT is nil, scan goes to the beginning or end of the accessible part
12479 of the buffer. If no property change is found, the value is the
12480 position of the beginning or end of the buffer.
12481
12482 *** In the `local-map' text property or overlay property, the property
12483 value can now be a symbol whose function definition is a keymap. This
12484 is an alternative to using the keymap itself.
12485
12486 ** Changes in invisibility features
12487
12488 *** Isearch can now temporarily show parts of the buffer which are
12489 hidden by an overlay with a invisible property, when the search match
12490 is inside that portion of the buffer. To enable this the overlay
12491 should have a isearch-open-invisible property which is a function that
12492 would be called having the overlay as an argument, the function should
12493 make the overlay visible.
12494
12495 During incremental search the overlays are shown by modifying the
12496 invisible and intangible properties, if beside this more actions are
12497 needed the overlay should have a isearch-open-invisible-temporary
12498 which is a function. The function is called with 2 arguments: one is
12499 the overlay and the second is nil when it should show the overlay and
12500 t when it should hide it.
12501
12502 *** add-to-invisibility-spec, remove-from-invisibility-spec
12503
12504 Modes that use overlays to hide portions of a buffer should set the
12505 invisible property of the overlay to the mode's name (or another symbol)
12506 and modify the `buffer-invisibility-spec' to include that symbol.
12507 Use `add-to-invisibility-spec' and `remove-from-invisibility-spec' to
12508 manipulate the `buffer-invisibility-spec'.
12509 Here is an example of how to do this:
12510
12511 ;; If we want to display an ellipsis:
12512 (add-to-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
12513 ;; If you don't want ellipsis:
12514 (add-to-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
12515
12516 ...
12517 (overlay-put (make-overlay beginning end) 'invisible 'my-symbol)
12518
12519 ...
12520 ;; When done with the overlays:
12521 (remove-from-invisibility-spec '(my-symbol . t))
12522 ;; Or respectively:
12523 (remove-from-invisibility-spec 'my-symbol)
12524
12525 ** Changes in syntax parsing.
12526
12527 *** The syntax-directed buffer-scan functions (such as
12528 `parse-partial-sexp', `forward-word' and similar functions) can now
12529 obey syntax information specified by text properties, if the variable
12530 `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil.
12531
12532 If the value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is nil, the behavior
12533 is as before: the syntax-table of the current buffer is always
12534 used to determine the syntax of the character at the position.
12535
12536 When `parse-sexp-lookup-properties' is non-nil, the syntax of a
12537 character in the buffer is calculated thus:
12538
12539 a) if the `syntax-table' text-property of that character
12540 is a cons, this cons becomes the syntax-type;
12541
12542 Valid values of `syntax-table' text-property are: nil, a valid
12543 syntax-table, and a valid syntax-table element, i.e.,
12544 a cons cell of the form (SYNTAX-CODE . MATCHING-CHAR).
12545
12546 b) if the character's `syntax-table' text-property
12547 is a syntax table, this syntax table is used
12548 (instead of the syntax-table of the current buffer) to
12549 determine the syntax type of the character.
12550
12551 c) otherwise the syntax-type is determined by the syntax-table
12552 of the current buffer.
12553
12554 *** The meaning of \s in regular expressions is also affected by the
12555 value of `parse-sexp-lookup-properties'. The details are the same as
12556 for the syntax-directed buffer-scan functions.
12557
12558 *** There are two new syntax-codes, `!' and `|' (numeric values 14
12559 and 15). A character with a code `!' starts a comment which is ended
12560 only by another character with the same code (unless quoted). A
12561 character with a code `|' starts a string which is ended only by
12562 another character with the same code (unless quoted).
12563
12564 These codes are mainly meant for use as values of the `syntax-table'
12565 text property.
12566
12567 *** The function `parse-partial-sexp' has new semantics for the sixth
12568 arg COMMENTSTOP. If it is `syntax-table', parse stops after the start
12569 of a comment or a string, or after end of a comment or a string.
12570
12571 *** The state-list which the return value from `parse-partial-sexp'
12572 (and can also be used as an argument) now has an optional ninth
12573 element: the character address of the start of last comment or string;
12574 nil if none. The fourth and eighth elements have special values if the
12575 string/comment is started by a "!" or "|" syntax-code.
12576
12577 *** Since new features of `parse-partial-sexp' allow a complete
12578 syntactic parsing, `font-lock' no longer supports
12579 `font-lock-comment-start-regexp'.
12580
12581 ** Changes in face features
12582
12583 *** The face functions are now unconditionally defined in Emacs, even
12584 if it does not support displaying on a device that supports faces.
12585
12586 *** The function face-documentation returns the documentation string
12587 of a face (or nil if it doesn't have one).
12588
12589 *** The function face-bold-p returns t if a face should be bold.
12590 set-face-bold-p sets that flag.
12591
12592 *** The function face-italic-p returns t if a face should be italic.
12593 set-face-italic-p sets that flag.
12594
12595 *** You can now specify foreground and background colors for text
12596 by adding elements of the form (foreground-color . COLOR-NAME)
12597 and (background-color . COLOR-NAME) to the list of faces in
12598 the `face' property (either the character's text property or an
12599 overlay property).
12600
12601 This means that you no longer need to create named faces to use
12602 arbitrary colors in a Lisp package.
12603
12604 ** Changes in file-handling functions
12605
12606 *** File-access primitive functions no longer discard an extra redundant
12607 directory name from the beginning of the file name. In other words,
12608 they no longer do anything special with // or /~. That conversion
12609 is now done only in substitute-in-file-name.
12610
12611 This makes it possible for a Lisp program to open a file whose name
12612 begins with ~.
12613
12614 *** If copy-file is unable to set the date of the output file,
12615 it now signals an error with the condition file-date-error.
12616
12617 *** The inode number returned by file-attributes may be an integer (if
12618 the number fits in a Lisp integer) or a list of integers.
12619
12620 *** insert-file-contents can now read from a special file,
12621 as long as the arguments VISIT and REPLACE are nil.
12622
12623 *** The RAWFILE arg to find-file-noselect, if non-nil, now suppresses
12624 character code conversion as well as other things.
12625
12626 Meanwhile, this feature does work with remote file names
12627 (formerly it did not).
12628
12629 *** Lisp packages which create temporary files should use the TMPDIR
12630 environment variable to decide which directory to put them in.
12631
12632 *** interpreter-mode-alist elements now specify regexps
12633 instead of constant strings.
12634
12635 *** expand-file-name no longer treats `//' or `/~' specially. It used
12636 to delete all the text of a file name up through the first slash of
12637 any `//' or `/~' sequence. Now it passes them straight through.
12638
12639 substitute-in-file-name continues to treat those sequences specially,
12640 in the same way as before.
12641
12642 *** The variable `format-alist' is more general now.
12643 The FROM-FN and TO-FN in a format definition can now be strings
12644 which specify shell commands to use as filters to perform conversion.
12645
12646 *** The new function access-file tries to open a file, and signals an
12647 error if that fails. If the open succeeds, access-file does nothing
12648 else, and returns nil.
12649
12650 *** The function insert-directory now signals an error if the specified
12651 directory cannot be listed.
12652
12653 ** Changes in minibuffer input
12654
12655 *** The functions read-buffer, read-variable, read-command, read-string
12656 read-file-name, read-from-minibuffer and completing-read now take an
12657 additional argument which specifies the default value. If this
12658 argument is non-nil, it should be a string; that string is used in two
12659 ways:
12660
12661 It is returned if the user enters empty input.
12662 It is available through the history command M-n.
12663
12664 *** The functions read-string, read-from-minibuffer,
12665 read-no-blanks-input and completing-read now take an additional
12666 argument INHERIT-INPUT-METHOD. If this is non-nil, then the
12667 minibuffer inherits the current input method and the setting of
12668 enable-multibyte-characters from the previously current buffer.
12669
12670 In an interactive spec, you can use M instead of s to read an
12671 argument in this way.
12672
12673 *** All minibuffer input functions discard text properties
12674 from the text you enter in the minibuffer, unless the variable
12675 minibuffer-allow-text-properties is non-nil.
12676
12677 ** Echo area features
12678
12679 *** Clearing the echo area now runs the normal hook
12680 echo-area-clear-hook. Note that the echo area can be used while the
12681 minibuffer is active; in that case, the minibuffer is still active
12682 after the echo area is cleared.
12683
12684 *** The function current-message returns the message currently displayed
12685 in the echo area, or nil if there is none.
12686
12687 ** Keyboard input features
12688
12689 *** tty-erase-char is a new variable that reports which character was
12690 set up as the terminal's erase character when time Emacs was started.
12691
12692 *** num-nonmacro-input-events is the total number of input events
12693 received so far from the terminal. It does not count those generated
12694 by keyboard macros.
12695
12696 ** Frame-related changes
12697
12698 *** make-frame runs the normal hook before-make-frame-hook just before
12699 creating a frame, and just after creating a frame it runs the abnormal
12700 hook after-make-frame-functions with the new frame as arg.
12701
12702 *** The new hook window-configuration-change-hook is now run every time
12703 the window configuration has changed. The frame whose configuration
12704 has changed is the selected frame when the hook is run.
12705
12706 *** Each frame now independently records the order for recently
12707 selected buffers, in its buffer-list frame parameter, so that the
12708 value of other-buffer is now based on the buffers recently displayed
12709 in the selected frame.
12710
12711 *** The value of the frame parameter vertical-scroll-bars
12712 is now `left', `right' or nil. A non-nil value specifies
12713 which side of the window to put the scroll bars on.
12714
12715 ** X Windows features
12716
12717 *** You can examine X resources for other applications by binding
12718 x-resource-class around a call to x-get-resource. The usual value of
12719 x-resource-class is "Emacs", which is the correct value for Emacs.
12720
12721 *** In menus, checkboxes and radio buttons now actually work.
12722 The menu displays the current status of the box or button.
12723
12724 *** The function x-list-fonts now takes an optional fourth argument
12725 MAXIMUM which sets a limit on how many matching fonts to return.
12726 A smaller value of MAXIMUM makes the function faster.
12727
12728 If the only question is whether *any* font matches the pattern,
12729 it is good to supply 1 for this argument.
12730
12731 ** Subprocess features
12732
12733 *** A reminder: it is no longer necessary for subprocess filter
12734 functions and sentinels to do save-match-data, because Emacs does this
12735 automatically.
12736
12737 *** The new function shell-command-to-string executes a shell command
12738 and returns the output from the command as a string.
12739
12740 *** The new function process-contact returns t for a child process,
12741 and (HOSTNAME SERVICE) for a net connection.
12742
12743 ** An error in running pre-command-hook or post-command-hook
12744 does clear the variable to nil. The documentation was wrong before.
12745
12746 ** In define-key-after, if AFTER is t, the new binding now always goes
12747 at the end of the keymap. If the keymap is a menu, this means it
12748 goes after the other menu items.
12749
12750 ** If you have a program that makes several changes in the same area
12751 of the buffer, you can use the macro combine-after-change-calls
12752 around that Lisp code to make it faster when after-change hooks
12753 are in use.
12754
12755 The macro arranges to call the after-change functions just once for a
12756 series of several changes--if that seems safe.
12757
12758 Don't alter the variables after-change-functions and
12759 after-change-function within the body of a combine-after-change-calls
12760 form.
12761
12762 ** If you define an abbrev (with define-abbrev) whose EXPANSION
12763 is not a string, then the abbrev does not expand in the usual sense,
12764 but its hook is still run.
12765
12766 ** Normally, the Lisp debugger is not used (even if you have enabled it)
12767 for errors that are handled by condition-case.
12768
12769 If you set debug-on-signal to a non-nil value, then the debugger is called
12770 regardless of whether there is a handler for the condition. This is
12771 useful for debugging problems that happen inside of a condition-case.
12772
12773 This mode of operation seems to be unreliable in other ways. Errors that
12774 are normal and ought to be handled, perhaps in timers or process
12775 filters, will instead invoke the debugger. So don't say you weren't
12776 warned.
12777
12778 ** The new variable ring-bell-function lets you specify your own
12779 way for Emacs to "ring the bell".
12780
12781 ** If run-at-time's TIME argument is t, the action is repeated at
12782 integral multiples of REPEAT from the epoch; this is useful for
12783 functions like display-time.
12784
12785 ** You can use the function locate-library to find the precise file
12786 name of a Lisp library. This isn't new, but wasn't documented before.
12787
12788 ** Commands for entering view mode have new optional arguments that
12789 can be used from Lisp. Low-level entrance to and exit from view mode
12790 is done by functions view-mode-enter and view-mode-exit.
12791
12792 ** batch-byte-compile-file now makes Emacs return a nonzero status code
12793 if there is an error in compilation.
12794
12795 ** pop-to-buffer, switch-to-buffer-other-window and
12796 switch-to-buffer-other-frame now accept an additional optional
12797 argument NORECORD, much like switch-to-buffer. If it is non-nil,
12798 they don't put the buffer at the front of the buffer list.
12799
12800 ** If your .emacs file leaves the *scratch* buffer non-empty,
12801 Emacs does not display the startup message, so as to avoid changing
12802 the *scratch* buffer.
12803
12804 ** The new function regexp-opt returns an efficient regexp to match a string.
12805 The arguments are STRINGS and (optionally) PAREN. This function can be used
12806 where regexp matching or searching is intensively used and speed is important,
12807 e.g., in Font Lock mode.
12808
12809 ** The variable buffer-display-count is local to each buffer,
12810 and is incremented each time the buffer is displayed in a window.
12811 It starts at 0 when the buffer is created.
12812
12813 ** The new function compose-mail starts composing a mail message
12814 using the user's chosen mail composition agent (specified with the
12815 variable mail-user-agent). It has variants compose-mail-other-window
12816 and compose-mail-other-frame.
12817
12818 ** The `user-full-name' function now takes an optional parameter which
12819 can either be a number (the UID) or a string (the login name). The
12820 full name of the specified user will be returned.
12821
12822 ** Lisp packages that load files of customizations, or any other sort
12823 of user profile, should obey the variable init-file-user in deciding
12824 where to find it. They should load the profile of the user name found
12825 in that variable. If init-file-user is nil, meaning that the -q
12826 option was used, then Lisp packages should not load the customization
12827 files at all.
12828
12829 ** format-time-string now allows you to specify the field width
12830 and type of padding. This works as in printf: you write the field
12831 width as digits in the middle of a %-construct. If you start
12832 the field width with 0, it means to pad with zeros.
12833
12834 For example, %S normally specifies the number of seconds since the
12835 minute; %03S means to pad this with zeros to 3 positions, %_3S to pad
12836 with spaces to 3 positions. Plain %3S pads with zeros, because that
12837 is how %S normally pads to two positions.
12838
12839 ** thing-at-point now supports a new kind of "thing": url.
12840
12841 ** imenu.el changes.
12842
12843 You can now specify a function to be run when selecting an
12844 item from menu created by imenu.
12845
12846 An example of using this feature: if we define imenu items for the
12847 #include directives in a C file, we can open the included file when we
12848 select one of those items.
12849 \f
12850 * For older news, see the file ONEWS
12851
12852 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
12853 Copyright information:
12854
12855 Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
12856
12857 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
12858 of this document as received, in any medium, provided that the
12859 copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved,
12860 thus giving the recipient permission to redistribute in turn.
12861
12862 Permission is granted to distribute modified versions
12863 of this document, or of portions of it,
12864 under the above conditions, provided also that they
12865 carry prominent notices stating who last changed them.
12866 \f
12867 Local variables:
12868 mode: outline
12869 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
12870 end:
12871
12872 arch-tag: 1aca9dfa-2ac4-4d14-bebf-0007cee12793