1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 23.
11 See files NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18, and NEWS.1-17
12 for changes in older Emacs versions.
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
24 * About external Lisp packages
27 * Installation Changes in Emacs 23.1
29 ** The default X toolkit is now Gtk+, rather than Lucid.
30 The configure option `--with-gtk' has been removed. Gtk is now the
31 default toolkit, but you can use --with-x-toolkit=gtk if necessary.
34 Fonts are handled by new code capable of dealing with multiple font
35 backends. This uses the freetype and fontconfig libraries.
37 *** Emacs now accepts font names supplied in the fontconfig format
38 (e.g. "monospace-12:bold") and GTK format (e.g. "Monospace Bold 12").
40 *** Added support for local fonts (fonts installed on the machine
41 where Emacs is running).
43 *** Added support for the Xft library for antialiasing.
45 *** Added support for the otf library for complex text layout by
48 *** Added support for the m17n library for text shaping.
50 ** Changes to image support
52 *** configure now checks for libgif before libungif when searching for
55 *** Emacs now supports the SVG image format through librsvg2.
57 *** Emacs now supports multi-page TIFF images.
59 ** New NeXTSTEP-based port
60 This provides support for GNUstep (via the GNUstep libraries) and Mac
61 OS X (via the Cocoa libraries).
63 Specify --with-ns to configure for this. By default, a self-contained
64 app will be built (containing all lisp). To install/share lisp with
65 other emacsen (e.g. X11 build) use --disable-ns-self-contained. See
66 nextstep/README and nextstep/INSTALL in the Emacs source directory.
68 ** Mac OS X is no longer supported via Carbon.
69 Use the NeXTSTEP port, described above.
71 ** The new configuration option "--with-dbus" enables D-Bus language
74 ** Support for many obsolete platforms has been removed.
75 See the list at the end of etc/MACHINES for details.
77 *** Support for systems without alloca has been removed.
79 *** Support for Sun windows has been removed.
81 *** The `emacstool' utility has been removed.
83 ** The following platforms will be removed in a future Emacs version:
84 If you are still using Emacs on one of these platforms, please email
85 emacs-devel@gnu.org to inform the Emacs developers.
87 *** Old GNU/Linux systems based on libc version 5.
89 *** Old FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD systems based on the COFF
92 *** Solaris versions 2.6 and below.
94 *** Solaris on IBM RS6000 machines.
96 *** UNIX System V (the original SysV, not later platforms based on it).
98 *** Unixware on non-x86 machines.
100 *** Platforms not supporting shared libraries (i.e., requiring the
101 NO_SHARED_LIBS compilation flag).
104 ** The configure options `--with-gcc', `--without-gcc' have been removed.
105 Configure will use gcc by default. Set the CC environment variable if
106 you need control over which C compiler is used.
108 ** The refcards are now shipped as PDF files.
111 ** Emacs 23 comes with a new set of default icons.
112 Various resolutions are available as etc/images/icons/hicolor/*/apps/emacs.png.
113 The Emacs 22 icon is available as `emacs22.png' in the same location.
115 * Changes in Emacs 23.1
117 ** Improved X Window System support
119 *** Emacs now supports using both X displays and ttys in one session.
120 With an Emacs server active (M-x server-start), `emacsclient -t'
121 creates a tty frame connected to the running emacs server. You can
122 use any number of different ttys. `emacsclient -c' creates a new X11
123 frame on the current $DISPLAY (or a tty frame if $DISPLAY is not set).
125 You can test for the presence of this feature in your Lisp code by
126 testing for the `multi-tty' feature.
128 **** Emacsclient can now open new terminal frames.
129 Now, the default behavior is to open a new Emacs frame by default.
130 Use the -c option to get the old behavior of opening files in the
131 currently selected Emacs frame.
133 *** Emacs can now start in background, as a daemon when using the
134 --daemon command line argument. It disconnects from the terminal and
135 starts the server. Clients can connect and create graphical or
136 terminal frames using emacsclient.
138 *** The new command close-display-connection closes a connection to a
141 *** Emacs now supports the XEmbed specification.
142 You can embed Emacs in another application on X11. The new command line
143 option --parent-id is used to pass the parent window id to Emacs. See
144 http://standards.freedesktop.org/xembed-spec/xembed-spec-latest.html
145 for details about XEmbed.
147 *** Emacs can now set the frame opacity.
148 The opacity of a frame can be controlled by setting the `alpha' frame
149 parameter. This only takes effect on a compositing window manager for
150 the X Window System, such as Compiz, Beryl and Compiz Fusion, or on
151 Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.
153 The alpha parameter should be an integer between 0 (transparent) and
154 100 (opaque), or a float number between 0.0 and 1.0. It can also be a
155 cons cell (ACTIVE . INACTIVE), where ACTIVE is the opacity of an
156 active frame and INACTIVE is the opactity of non-active frames.
158 The variable `frame-alpha-lower-limit' defines a lower bound for the
159 opacity; the default is 20.
161 ** Internationalization changes
163 *** The Emacs character set is now a superset of Unicode.
164 (It has about four times the code space, which should be plenty).
166 The internal encoding used for buffers and strings is now
167 Unicode-based and called `utf-8-emacs'. This encoding is backwards
168 compatible with Unicode's UTF-8 encoding. The internal encoding
169 previously used by Emacs, `emacs-mule', is still available.
171 During byte-compilation, Emacs 23 uses `utf-8-emacs' to write files.
172 As a result, byte-compiled files containing non-ASCII characters can't
173 be read by earlier versions of Emacs. Files compiled by Emacs 20, 21,
174 or 22 are loaded correctly as emacs-mule (whether or not they contain
175 multibyte characters). This takes somewhat more time, so it may be
176 worth recompiling existing .elc files which don't need to be shared
179 *** There are new coding systems/aliases; see M-x list-coding-systems.
181 *** There is a new charset implementation with many new charsets.
182 See M-x list-character-sets. New charsets can be defined conveniently
183 as tables of unicodes.
185 **** The dimension of a charset is now 1, 2, 3, or 4, and the size of
186 each dimension is no longer limited to 94 or 96.
188 **** A dynamic charset priority list is used to infer the charset of
189 characters for display.
191 *** There are new language environments for Chinese-GBK,
192 Chinese-GB18030, Khmer, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu,
193 Sinhala, and TaiViet.
195 *** The minor modes unify-8859-on-encoding-mode and
196 unify-8859-on-decoding-mode are obsolete.
198 *** `ucs-insert' is bound to `C-x 8 RET' and in addition to hex numbers
199 accepts numbers in hash notation (e.g. #o21430 for octal, or #10r8984 for
200 decimal). It also accepts Unicode character names with completion.
202 *** The `cyrillic-translit' input method supports many new characters.
203 Common typographical characters available from Unicode were added to
204 `cyrillic-translit': punctuation marks, accented characters, fractions,
207 ** Emacs now supports serial port access on GNU/Linux, Unix, and
208 Windows. The new command `serial-term' starts an interactive terminal
209 on a serial port. The serial port can be configured at runtime with
210 the mode-line mouse menu.
214 *** In the Options menu, the "Set Default Font" item applies the
215 selected font to the `default' face on all frames, not just the
216 current frame. Furthermore, if Emacs is compiled with both GTK and
217 Fontconfig support, the "Set Default Font" item uses the GTK font
218 selection dialog instead of an Emacs pop-up menu.
220 *** The font setting chosen by "Set Default Font" is saved if the
221 "Save Options" item is used.
223 *** The Tools menu contains a new Encryption/Decryption submenu.
224 This contains commands provided by EasyPG, the newly-included
225 interface to GnuPG (see New Modes and Packages).
227 *** In the Options menu, the "Truncate Long Lines in the Buffer" entry
228 has been replaced with a submenu offering three different ways to
229 handle long lines: truncation, continuation at the window edge, and
230 the new word wrapping behavior (see Editing Changes, below).
232 *** Improvements to menus for major and minor modes
233 More major and minor modes now have a mode specific menu, and existing
234 mode menus have been improved to include more functionality.
238 *** The mode-line displays a `@', instead of `-', if the
239 default-directory for the current buffer is on a remote machine.
241 *** The mode-line displays a mode menu when mouse-1 is clicked on a
242 minor mode, in the same way as it already did for major modes.
244 *** The `mode-line-emphasis' face is used to highlight certain
245 mode-line information (e.g. waiting for a VC command to finish).
247 *** The mode-line tooltips have been improved to provide more details.
249 *** The VC, line/colum number and minor mode indicators on the mode
250 line are now interactive: mouse-1 can be used on them to pop up a menu.
252 ** File deletion can make use of the Recycle Bin or system Trash folder.
253 Set `delete-by-moving-to-trash' non-nil to use this. Deleted files
254 and directories will then be sent to the Recyle Bin on Windows, and
255 to `trash-directory' on other systems.
257 ** Directory-local variables can now be defined.
258 By default, Emacs looks in .dir-settings.el for directory-local
259 variables. For more information, see `set-directory-project' and
260 `define-project-bindings'.
262 ** Emacs can now use `auth-source' for authentication.
263 `smtpmail' and `url' (Tramp and Gnus also) use `auth-source' to obtain
264 login names and passwords. The match, if found, is reported
265 in *Messages* with the password blanked out.
267 ** `where-is-preferred-modifier' can specify your favorite modifier.
270 * Startup Changes in Emacs 23.1
273 ** The option `inhibit-startup-screen' (with aliases to old names
274 `inhibit-splash-screen' and `inhibit-startup-message') doesn't inhibit
275 display of the initial message in the *scratch* buffer. If you don't
276 want to display the initial message in the *scratch* buffer at startup,
277 you can set the option `initial-scratch-message' to nil.
279 ** New user option `initial-buffer-choice' specifies what to display
280 after starting Emacs: startup screen, *scratch* buffer, visiting a
283 ** New alias `argv' for `command-line-args-left'
284 This is a convenience alias, so that one can write `(pop argv)'
285 inside of --eval command line arguments in order to access
288 ** The abbrev file is no longer read at startup in batch mode.
290 ** Emacs now supports invocation by an X session manager.
291 It can save a session and restore it later. See the documentation of
292 the functions `emacs-session-save' and `emacs-session-restore'.
293 (Actually, this feature was introduced with Emacs 22, but it was not
296 * Incompatible Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
298 ** In Dired, `dired-flag-garbage-files' is rebound from `&' to `%&'
299 on the regexp command prefix map.
302 ** In Dired-x, all command guesses for ! are now added to the default
303 list accessible by M-n instead of pushing all guesses temporarily into
307 ** In Isearch mode, a special case of typing `C-w' at the beginning of
308 the minibuffer that toggles word search (i.e. using key sequences
309 `C-s RET C-w' or `C-s M-e C-w') is obsolete. You can use the global key
310 `M-s w' to start word search, or type `M-s w' in Isearch mode to
313 ** In Text mode, `center-line' and `center-paragraph' are rebound
314 from `M-s' and `M-S' to global keys `M-o M-s' and `M-o M-S' on the
315 global prefix map `M-o' intended for such formatting commands.
318 ** The following input methods were removed in Emacs 22.2, but this was
319 not advertised: danish-alt-postfix, esperanto-alt-postfix,
320 finnish-alt-postfix, german-alt-postfix, icelandic-alt-postfix,
321 norwegian-alt-postfix, scandinavian-alt-postfix, spanish-alt-postfix,
322 and swedish-alt-postfix. Use the versions without "alt-", which are
326 * Editing Changes in Emacs 23.1
329 ** The C-n and C-p line-motion commands now move by screen lines,
330 taking continued lines and variable-width characters into account.
331 Setting `line-move-visual' to nil reverts this to the previous
332 behavior (motion by logical lines based on buffer contents alone).
335 ** C-x C-c now invokes `save-buffers-kill-terminal', and C-z now
336 invokes `suspend-frame'. This change is for compatibility with the
337 new multi-tty support (see `Improved X Window System support' above).
341 *** Transient Mark mode is now on by default.
343 *** mark-even-if-inactive now defaults to t
345 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, C-SPC C-SPC pushes a mark without
348 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-q now fills the region if the
349 region is active. Otherwise, it fills the current paragraph.
351 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, M-$ now checks spelling of the
352 region if the region is active. Otherwise, it checks spelling of the
355 *** When Transient Mark mode is on, TAB now indents the region if the
358 *** `use-empty-active-region' controls whether an empty active region
359 in Transient Mark mode should make commands operate on that empty
362 ** Temporarily active regions
364 *** The new variable shift-select-mode, non-nil by default, controls
365 shift-selection. When Shift Select mode is on, shift-translated
366 motion keys (e.g. S-left and S-down) activate and extend a temporary
367 region, similar to mouse-selection.
369 *** Temporarily active regions, created using shift-selection or
370 mouse-selection, are not necessarily deactivated in the next command.
371 They are only deactivated after point motion commands that are not
372 shift-translated, or after commands that would ordinarily deactivate
373 the mark in Transient Mark mode (e.g., any command that modifies the
376 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
378 *** When M-n in the minibuffer reaches the end of the list of defaults,
379 it adds the completion list to the end, so next M-n continues putting
380 completion items to the minibuffer. The same principle applies to
381 incremental search commands as well: C-s or C-M-s starts searching
382 the default values and after the end of defaults they continue
383 searching minibuffer completion items.
385 *** Minibuffer input of shell commands now comes with completion.
387 *** In the `C-x d' (Dired) prompt, typing M-n gives the visited file
388 name of the current buffer.
390 *** In the M-! (shell-command) prompt, M-n provides some default commands.
391 These are guessed using the file extension of the current file, based
392 on the file-handlers specified in the operating system's `mailcap'
393 file. The ! command in Dired (dired-do-shell-command) works
394 similarly, using the file displayed on the current line.
396 *** A list of regexp default values is available via M-n for `occur',
397 `keep-lines', `flush-lines' and `how-many'. This list includes the active
398 region in transient-mark-mode, the word under the cursor, the last Isearch
399 regexp, the last Isearch string and the last replacement regexp.
401 *** When enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil, operations which use
402 switch-to-buffer (such as C-x b and C-x C-f) do not fail any more when
403 used in a minibuffer or a dedicated window. Instead, they fallback on
404 using pop-to-buffer, which will use some other window. This change
405 has no effect when enable-recursive-minibuffers is nil (the default).
407 *** Isearch started in the minibuffer searches in the minibuffer history.
408 Reverse Isearch commands (C-r, C-M-r) search in previous minibuffer
409 history elements, and forward Isearch commands (C-s, C-M-s) search in
410 next history elements. When the reverse search reaches the first history
411 element, it wraps to the last history element, and the forward search
412 wraps to the first history element. When the search is terminated, the
413 history element containing the search string becomes the current.
415 *** The variable read-file-name-completion-ignore-case overrides
416 completion-ignore-case for file name completion.
418 *** The variable read-buffer-completion-ignore-case overrides
419 completion-ignore-case for buffer name completion.
421 *** `completion-styles' can be customized to choose your favorite
424 *** The default completion styles include a form of partial-completion.
426 *** The new command `minibuffer-force-complete' chooses one of the
427 possible completions, rather than stopping at the common prefix.
429 *** If `completion-auto-help' is `lazy', Emacs shows the completions
430 buffer only on the second attempt to complete. This was already
431 supported in `partial-completion-mode'.
435 *** S-down-mouse-1 now pops up a menu for changing the font and text
436 size of the default face in the current buffer. The face is changed
437 via face remapping (see below).
441 ** Primary selection changes
443 *** If `select-active-regions' is t, setting the mark automatically
444 makes the new region into the primary selection (for interaction with
445 other window applications). If you enable this, you might want to
446 bind `mouse-yank-primary' to Mouse-2.
448 *** You can disable kill ring commands from accessing the primary
449 selection by setting `x-select-enable-primary' to nil.
451 ** Continuation lines can now be wrapped at word boundaries
452 (word-wrapping). This is controlled by the new per-buffer variable
453 `word-wrap'. Word wrapping does not take place if continuation lines
454 are not shown, e.g. if truncate-lines is non-nil. The most convenient
455 way to enable word-wrapping is using the new minor mode Visual Line
456 mode; in addition to setting `word-wrap' to t, this rebinds some
457 editing commands to work on screen lines rather than text lines. See
458 New Modes and Packages, below.
460 ** Window management changes
462 *** truncate-partial-width-windows now accepts integer values, which
463 specify a minimum window width for partial-width windows, below which
464 lines are truncated. The default has been changed to 50.
466 *** The new command balance-windows-area balances windows both
467 vertically and horizontally.
469 *** pop-to-buffer now always sets input focus when the popped-to window
470 is on a different frame.
472 *** New functions window-parameters, window-parameter, set-window-parameter.
474 ** Miscellaneous changes:
476 *** C-l is bound to the new command recenter-top-bottom, rather than recenter.
477 This moves the current line to window center, top and bottom on
478 successive invokations.
480 *** scroll-preserve-screen-position also preserves the column position.
482 *** If `yank-pop-change-selection' is t, rotating the kill ring also
483 updates the selection or clipboard to the current yank, just as M-w
484 would do so with the text it copies to the kill ring.
486 *** C-M-% now shows replacement as it would look in the buffer, with
487 `\N' and `\&' substituted according to the match. Old behavior can be
488 restored by customizing `query-replace-show-replacement'.
490 *** The command shell prompts for the default directory, when it is
491 called with a prefix and the default directory is a remote file name.
492 This is because some file name handlers (like ange-ftp) are not able to
493 run processes remotely.
495 *** The new command kill-matching-buffers kills buffers whose name
498 *** The new commands `pp-macroexpand-expression' and
499 `pp-macroexpand-last-sexp' pretty-print macro expansions.
501 *** The new command `set-file-modes' allows to set file's mode bits.
502 The mode bits can be specified in symbolic notation, like with GNU
503 Coreutils, in addition to an octal number.
505 *** If you set find-file-confirm-nonexistent-file to t, then C-x C-f
506 requires confirmation before opening a non-existent file.
509 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
511 ** FIXME add details of new packages imported from lisp/gnus.
512 [Maybe some information from doc/misc/gnus-coding.texi can be reused]
514 ** Auto Composition Mode is a minor mode that composes characters
515 automatically when they are displayed. It is globally on by default.
516 It uses `auto-composition-function' (default `auto-compose-chars').
518 ** Bubbles, a new game, is similar to SameGame.
520 ** bug-reference.el provides clickable links to bug reports.
522 ** dbus.el provides D-Bus language bindings.
523 D-Bus is an inter-process communication mechanism for applications
524 residing on the same host. See the manual for details.
526 ** Doc View mode allows viewing of PDF, PostScript and DVI documents.
527 One can also search for a regular expression in the document. For
528 details, see the commentary in doc-view.el.
530 PDF and DVI files are now opened in Doc View mode by default.
532 In Postcript mode, C-c C-c launches Doc View minor mode for viewing
535 ** EasyPG provides an interface to the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).
536 It includes a GnuPG keyring browser, cryptographic operations on
537 regions and files, and automatic encryption of *.gpg files. For
538 details, see the EasyPG Assistant User's Manual.
540 ** json.el is a library for parsing and generating JSON
541 (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format.
543 ** linum.el is a new minor mode to display line numbers for the
546 ** mairix.el is an interface to mairix, a free tool for indexing and
547 searching locally stored mail. It allows you to query mairix and
548 display the search results with Rmail, Gnus and VM. Note that there
549 is an existing Gnus back end, nnmairix.el, which should be used with
552 ** minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode shows the minibuffer depth in the prompt.
555 This is a new mode for editing XML documents. It allows a schema to
556 be associated with the XML document being edited, using Relax NG as
557 the schema language. The schema is used to provide two key features:
559 *** Continuous validation. nXML validates as you type, highlighting
560 any invalid parts of your document.
562 *** Completion. nXML can assist you in entering an element name,
563 attribute name or data value by using information about what is
564 allowed by the schema in that context.
566 ** proced.el provides a Dired-like interface for operating on processes.
567 Proced makes an Emacs buffer containing a listing of the current
568 processes (using ps(1)). You can use the normal Emacs commands to
569 move around in this buffer, and special Proced commands to operate on
570 the processes listed.
572 ** Remember Mode is a mode for jotting down things to remember.
573 Notes can be saved to a Diary file. For details, see the Remember
576 ** RST mode is a major mode for editing ReSTructured-Text files.
579 ** Visual Line mode provides support for editing by visual lines.
580 It turns on word-wrapping in the current buffer, and rebinds C-a, C-e,
581 and C-k to commands that operate by visual lines instead of logical
582 lines. This is a more reliable replacement for longlines-mode.
583 This can also be turned on using the menu bar, via
584 Options -> Line Wrapping in this Buffer -> Word Wrap
586 ** xesam.el is an implementation of Xesam, an interface to (desktop)
587 search engines like Beagle, Strigi, and Tracker. The Xesam API
588 requires D-Bus for communication.
590 ** zeroconf.el offers service discovery and service publishing
591 interfaces according to the zeroconf specification. It communicates
592 with Avahi, a zeroconf implementation, via D-Bus messages on systems
593 which have installed this software.
595 ** There is a new `whitespace' package.
596 (The pre-existing one has been renamed to `old-whitespace'.)
597 Now, besides reporting bogus blanks, the whitespace package has a
598 minor mode and a global minor mode to visualize blanks (TAB, (HARD)
599 SPACE and NEWLINE). The visualization is made via faces and/or display
600 table. It can also indicate lines that extend beyond a given column,
601 trailing blanks, and empty lines at the start or end of a buffer.
602 See `whitespace-style' for more details. The `whitespace-action' option
603 specifies what to do when a buffer is visited, killed, or written.
606 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 23.1
608 ** Abbrev has been rewritten in Elisp and extended with more flexibility.
609 *** New functions: abbrev-get, abbrev-put, abbrev-table-get, abbrev-table-put,
610 abbrev-table-p, abbrev-insert, abbrev-table-menu.
611 *** Special hook `abbrev-expand-functions' obsoletes `pre-abbrev-expand-hook'.
612 *** `make-abbrev-table', `define-abbrev', `define-abbrev-table' all take
613 extra arguments for arbitrary properties.
614 *** New variable `abbrev-minor-mode-table-alist'.
615 *** `local-abbrev-table' can hold a list of abbrev-tables.
616 *** Abbrevs have now the following special properties:
617 `:count', `:system', `:enable-function', `:case-fixed'.
618 *** Abbrev-tables have now the following special properties:
619 `:parents', `:case-fixed', `:enable-function', `:regexp',
620 `abbrev-table-modiff'.
623 *** `apropos-library' describes the elements defined in a given library.
624 *** Set `apropos-compact-layout' is you want a more compact (but wider) layout.
626 ** Archive Mode has basic support to browse Rar archives.
630 *** New command `bibtex-initialize' (re)initializes BibTeX buffers.
632 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' options `whitespace', `braces', and
633 `string', disabled by default.
635 *** New variable `bibtex-cite-matcher-alist' contains rules to
636 identify cited keys in BibTeX entries, used by `bibtex-find-crossref'.
638 *** Command `bibtex-url' allows multiple URLs per entry.
640 ** Calendar and diary
643 *** There is a new date style, `iso', essentially year/month/day.
644 The variable `european-calendar-style' is obsolete - use `calendar-date-style'.
645 Similarly, the commands `american-calendar' and `european-calendar'
646 should be replaced by `calendar-set-date-style'.
649 *** The calendar namespace has been rationalized.
650 All functions and variables now begin with a `calendar-', `diary-', or
651 `holiday-' prefix. The various calendar systems have secondary
652 prefixes, eg `calendar-french-'. The old names you are likely to use
653 directly still exist, for the time being, as aliases, but please start
657 *** The whitespace in the calendar layout can be customized.
659 calendar-left-margin, calendar-intermonth-spacing, calendar-column-width,
660 calendar-day-header-width, and calendar-day-digit-width.
663 *** Text (e.g. ISO weeks) can be displayed between the calendar months.
664 See the variables calendar-intermonth-header and calendar-intermonth-text.
667 *** The function `holiday-chinese' computes holidays on the Chinese calendar.
668 It has been used to add items to the list `holiday-oriental-holidays'.
671 *** `diary-remind' accepts a negative number -DAYS as a shorthand for
672 the list (1 2 ... DAYS).
676 *** The new command C-c C-f (change-log-find-file) finds the file
677 associated with the current log entry.
679 *** The new command C-c C-c (change-log-goto-source) goes to the
680 source code associated with a log entry.
682 ** Compile and grep modes
684 *** The mode-line entry for the *compilation* and *grep* buffer is color coded.
685 It has different colors for to show that: (a) the command is still
686 running, (b) successful completion, (c) error.
688 *** compilation-auto-jump-to-first-error tells `compile' to jump to
689 the first error encountered during compilations.
691 *** The `cc' alias for C++ files in `grep-file-aliases' has been
692 improved. `hh' can be used to match C++ header files and `cchh' both
693 C++ sources and headers.
697 *** You can specify your copyright holders' names.
698 Only copyright lines with holders matching `copyright-names-regexp' are
699 considered for update.
701 *** Copyrights can be at the end of the buffer.
702 This is controlled by `copyright-at-end-flag' (used by, e.g., change-log-mode).
706 *** defcustom accepts new keyword arguments, `:safe' and `:risky', which
707 set a variable's `safe-local-variable' and `risky-local-variable' property.
711 *** diff-refine-hunk highlights word-level details of changes in a diff hunk.
712 It's used automatically as you move through hunks, see
713 diff-auto-refine-mode. It is bound to `C-c C-b'.
715 *** diff-add-change-log-entries-other-window iterates through the diff
716 buffer and tries to create ChangeLog entries for each change.
717 It is bound to `C-x 4 A'.
719 *** The new function `diff-show-trailing-whitespaces' shows
720 trailing whitespace problems in the modified lines of a diff buffer.
724 *** In Dired, C-x C-q now runs the command wdired-change-to-wdired-mode,
725 and C-x C-q in wdired-mode exits it with asking a question about
728 *** `&' runs the command `dired-do-async-shell-command' that executes
729 the command asynchronously without the need to manually add ampersand
730 to the end of the command. Its output appears in the buffer `*Async Shell
733 *** `M-s f C-s' and `M-s f M-C-s' run Isearch that matches only at file names.
734 When a new user option `dired-isearch-filenames' is non-nil, then even
735 ordinary Isearch started with `C-s' and `C-M-s' matches only at file names
736 in the Dired buffer. You can toggle file names matching on or off
737 by typing `M-s f' in Isearch mode.
739 *** `M-s a C-s' and `M-s a M-C-s' run multi-file Isearch on the marked files.
740 They visit the first marked file in the sequence and display the usual Isearch
741 prompt for a string or a regexp where all Isearch commands are available.
743 *** `Q' in Dired provides two new keys for multi-file replacement.
744 The upper case key `Y' replaces all remaining matches in all remaining files
745 with no more questions. The upper case key `N' stops doing replacements
746 in the current file and skips to the next file. These multi-file keys
747 are available for all commands that use `tags-query-replace'
748 including `dired-do-query-replace-regexp', `vc-dir-query-replace-regexp',
749 `reftex-query-replace-document'.
753 *** The line length of fixed-form Fortran is not fixed at 72 any more.
754 Customize the variable `fortran-line-length' to change it.
757 *** In Fortran mode, M-; is now bound to the standard comment-dwim,
758 rather than fortran-indent-comment.
761 *** (The increasingly misnamed) F90 mode supports Fortran 2003 syntax.
765 *** The Gnus package has been updated
766 There are many news features, bug fixes and improvements; see the file
767 GNUS-NEWS or the node "No Gnus" in the Gnus manual for details.
769 *** In Emacs 23, Gnus uses Emacs' new internal coding system `utf-8-emacs' for
770 saving articles drafts and ~/.newsrc.eld. These file may not be read
771 correctly in Emacs 22 and below. If you want to Gnus across different Emacs
772 versions, you may set `mm-auto-save-coding-system' to `emacs-mule'.
774 *** Password are consistently loaded through `auth-source'
775 Gnus can use `auth-source' for POP and IMAP passwords. Also see that
776 `smtpmail' and `url' support `auth-source' for SMTP and HTTP/HTTPS/RSS
777 authentication respectively.
780 *** New macro `with-help-window' should set up help windows better
781 than `with-output-to-temp-buffer' with `print-help-return-message'.
783 *** New option `help-window-select' permits to customize whether help
784 window shall be automatically selected when invoking help.
786 *** New variable `help-window-point-marker' permits to specify new
787 position of point in help window (for example in `view-lossage').
791 *** New command `isearch-forward-word' bound globally to `M-s w' starts
792 incremental word search. New command `isearch-toggle-word' bound to the
793 same key `M-s w' in Isearch mode toggles word searching on or off
794 while Isearch is active.
796 *** New command `isearch-highlight-regexp' bound to `M-s h r' in Isearch
797 mode runs `highlight-regexp' (`hi-lock-face-buffer') with the current
798 search string as its regexp argument. The same key `M-s h r' and
799 other keys on the `M-s h' prefix are bound globally to the command
800 `highlight-regexp' and other hi-lock commands.
802 *** New command `isearch-occur' bound to `M-s o' in Isearch mode
803 runs `occur' with the current search string. The same key `M-s o'
804 is bound globally to the command `occur'.
806 *** Isearch can now search through multiple ChangeLog files.
807 When running Isearch in a ChangeLog file, if the search fails,
808 then another C-s tries searching the previous ChangeLog,
809 if there is one (e.g. go from ChangeLog to ChangeLog.12).
810 This is enabled if multi-isearch-search is non-nil.
812 *** Two new commands to start Isearch on a list of marked buffers
813 for buff-menu.el and ibuffer.el are bound to the keys `M-s a C-s' and
816 *** The part of an Isearch that failed to match is highlighted in
819 *** `C-h C-h' in Isearch mode displays isearch-specific Help screen,
820 `C-h b' displays all Isearch key bindings, `C-h k' displays the full
821 documentation of the given Isearch key sequence, `C-h m' displays
822 documentation of Isearch mode. All the rest Help commands exit Isearch mode
823 and execute their global definitions.
825 *** When started in the minibuffer, Isearch searches in the minibuffer
826 history. See `Minibuffer changes', above.
831 *** Upgraded to MH-E version 8.1. See MH-E-NEWS for details.
834 *** The file etc/emacs.py now supports both Python 2 and 3, meaning
835 that either version can be used as inferior Python by python.el.
837 *** Python mode now has `pdbtrack' functionality. When using pdb to
838 debug a Python program, pdbtrack notices the pdb prompt and displays
839 the source file and line that the program is stopped at, much the same
840 way as gud-mode does for debugging C programs with gdb.
844 *** The default value of `recentf-keep' prevents from checking of
845 remote files, if there is no established connection to the
846 corresponding remote host.
850 *** New option latex-indent-within-escaped-parens
851 permits to customize indentation of LaTeX environments delimited
856 *** If the gpm mouse server is running and t-mouse-mode is enabled,
857 Emacs uses a Unix socket in a GNU/Linux console to talk to server,
858 rather than faking events using the client program mev. This C level
859 approach provides mouse highlighting and help echoing in the
865 *** New connection methods.
866 The new methods "plinkx", "plink2", "psftp", "sftp" and "fish" have
867 been introduced. There are also new so-called gateway methods
868 "tunnel" and "socks".
870 *** Multihop syntax has been removed.
871 The pseudo-method "multi" has been removed. Instead of, multi hops
872 can be specified by the new variable `tramp-default-proxies-alist'.
874 *** More default settings.
875 Default values can be set via the variables `tramp-default-user',
876 `tramp-default-user-alist' and `tramp-default-host'.
878 *** Connection information is cached.
879 In order to reduce connection setup, information about used
880 connections are kept persistent in a file. The name of this file is
881 defined in the variable `tramp-persistency-file-name'.
883 *** Control of remote processes.
884 Running processes on a remote host can be controlled by settings in
885 `tramp-remote-path' and `tramp-remote-process-environment'.
887 *** Success of remote copy is checked.
888 When the variable `file-precious-flag' is set, the success of a remote
889 file copy is checked via the file's checksum.
891 *** Passwords can be read from an authentification file.
892 Tramp uses the package `auth-source' to read passwords from a file, if
895 ** VC and related modes
897 *** VC now supports applying VC operations to a set of files at a time.
898 This enables VC to work much more effectively with changeset-oriented
899 version-control systems such as Subversion, GNU Arch, Mercurial, Git
900 and Bzr. VC will now pass a multiple-file commit to these systems as
903 *** vc-dir is a new command that displays file names and their VC
904 status. It allows to apply various VC operations to a file, a
905 directory or a set of files/directories.
907 *** Clicking on the VC mode-line entry now pops the VC menu.
909 *** The VC mode-line entry now has a tooltip that explains the VC file status.
911 *** In VC Annotate mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
912 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
913 by typing the D key. Using the "Show changeset diff of revision at
914 line" menu entry does the same thing.
916 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type v to toggle the annotation visibility.
918 *** In VC Annotate mode, you can type f to show the file revision on
921 *** Asynchronous VC commands display [Waiting...] in the mode-line
922 of the corresponding buffer as long as the asynchronous process is
925 *** Log entries can be modified using the key "e" in log-view.
926 For now only CVS, RCS, SCCS and SVN support this functionality.
927 This is done by the `modify-change-comment' backend function.
929 *** In log-view-mode, for VC systems that support changesets, you can
930 see the diff for the whole changeset (not only for the current file)
931 by typing the D key or using the "Changeset Diff" menu entry.
933 *** In Log Edit mode, C-c C-d now shows the diff for the files involved.
935 *** vc-git supports the "git grep" command.
937 *** VC Support for Meta-CVS has been removed for lack of maintainer able
938 to update it to the new VC.
942 *** comint-mode uses `start-file-process' now (see Lisp Changes).
943 If `default-directory' is a remote file name, subprocesses are started
944 on the corresponding remote system.
946 *** Eldoc highlights the function argument under point
947 with the face `eldoc-highlight-function-argument'.
949 *** In Etags, the --members option is now the default.
950 Use --no-members if you want the old default behavior of not tagging
951 struct members in C, members variables in C++ and variables in PHP.
953 *** The `gdb' command only works with the graphical interface now.
954 Use `gud-gdb' if you want the (old) text command mode.
956 *** goto-address.el provides two new minor modes, goto-address-mode and
957 goto-address-prog-mode, which buttonize URLS and email addresses.
959 *** The new command `eshell/info' runs info in an eshell buffer.
961 *** The new variable `ffap-rfc-directories' specifies a list of local
962 directories in which `ffap-rfc' will first search for RFCs.
964 *** hide-ifdef-mode allows shadowing ifdef-blocks instead of hiding them.
965 See option `hide-ifdef-shadow' and function `hide-ifdef-toggle-shadowing'.
967 *** `icomplete-prospects-height' now supercedes `icomplete-prospects-length'.
969 *** Info displays breadcrumbs in the header of the page.
970 See Info-breadcrumbs-depth to control it.
972 *** net-utils has an `iwconfig' command, similar to the existing `ifconfig'.
973 It is used to configure wireless interfaces.
975 *** The pcmpl-unix package supports hostname completion for ssh and scp.
977 *** sgml-electric-tag-pair-mode lets you simultaneously edit matched tag pairs.
979 *** smerge-refine highlights word-level details of changes in conflict.
980 It's used automatically as you move through conflicts, see
981 smerge-auto-refine-mode.
983 *** talk.el has been extended for multiple tty support.
985 *** A new command `display-time-world' has been added to the Time
986 package. It creates a buffer with an updating time display using
989 *** The appearance of superscript and subscript in TeX is more customizable.
990 See the documentation of the variables: tex-fontify-script,
991 tex-font-script-display, tex-suscript-height-ratio, and
992 tex-suscript-height-minimum.
994 *** view-remove-frame-by-deleting is now by default t
995 since users found iconification of view-mode frames distracting.
997 *** WoMan tries to add locale-specific manual page directories to the
998 search path. This can be disabled by setting `woman-locale' to nil.
1001 * Changes in Emacs 23.1 on non-free operating systems
1003 ** Case is now considered significant in completion on MS-Windows.
1004 The default value of `completion-ignore-case' is now nil on
1005 MS-Windows, the same as it is for other operating systems. The
1006 variable doesn't apply to reading a file name -- in that case Emacs
1007 heeds `read-file-name-completion-ignore-case' instead.
1010 ** IPv6 is supported on MS-Windows.
1011 Emacs now supports IPv6 on Windows XP and later, and earlier versions
1012 of Windows with third party IPv6 stacks installed. In Emacs 22, IPv6 was
1013 supported on other platforms, but not on Windows due to using the winsock
1014 1.1 header file, even though Emacs was linking to the winsock 2 library.
1017 ** Busy cursor (hourglass) now displays on MS-Windows.
1018 When Emacs is busy, an hourglass mouse cursor is displayed on Windows.
1019 In Emacs 22 only X supported the busy cursor.
1022 ** Battery status is available on MS-Windows
1023 Emacs can now display the battery status in the mode-line when enabled with
1024 display-battery-mode or from the Options menu. More verbose battery
1025 information is also available with the command `battery'. In Emacs 22
1026 battery status was supported only on GNU/Linux and Mac.
1028 ** More keys available on MS-Windows.
1029 Keys normally associated with IMEs, and some exotic keys not normally found
1030 on standard keyboards have been given names so they can be bound to functions
1031 inside Emacs. If there are keys on your keyboard that have not been exposed
1032 to Emacs in the past, try C-h k to see if they are available now.
1034 Emacs can now bind functions to the extra buttons for media player and
1035 browser control present on some keyboards. These buttons are disabled
1036 by default, since enabling them prevents their system-wide use when
1037 Emacs has focus. To enable them, set the variable
1038 w32-pass-multimedia-buttons to nil. See the doc string of that variable
1039 for the list of extra keys that are available.
1041 ** BDF fonts no longer supported on MS-Windows.
1042 The font backend was completely rewritten for this release. The focus
1043 on Windows has been getting acceptable performance and full unicode
1044 support, including complex script shaping for native Windows fonts. A
1045 rewrite of the BDF font support has not happened due to lack of time
1046 and developers. If demand still exists for such a backend even with
1047 the improved language support for native Windows fonts, future
1048 development in this direction will most likely be based on the
1049 freetype library, giving access to a wider range of font formats.
1052 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1055 ** Variables cannot be both buffer-local and frame-local any more.
1058 ** `functionp' returns nil for special forms.
1059 I.e., it only returns t for objects that can be passed to `funcall'.
1062 ** The behavior of map-char-table has changed. It may call the
1063 specified function with a cons (FROM . TO) as a key if characters in
1064 that range have the same value.
1068 *** The function `dired-call-process' has been removed.
1070 *** The multibyteness of process filters is now determined by the
1071 coding-system used for decoding. The functions
1072 `process-filter-multibyte-p' and `set-process-filter-multibyte' are
1076 ** The variable `byte-compile-warnings' can now be a list starting with `not',
1077 meaning to disable the specified warnings. The meaning of this list
1078 may therefore be the reverse of what you expect (of course, this is
1079 only an issue if you make use of the new `not' syntax). Rather than
1080 checking/manipulating elements directly, use the new functions
1081 `byte-compile-warning-enabled-p', `byte-compile-disable-warning', and
1082 `byte-compile-enable-warning.'
1085 ** `mode-name' is no longer guaranteed to be a string.
1086 Use `(format-mode-line mode-name)' to ensure a string value.
1088 ** Internationalization changes
1090 *** The value of the function `charset-id' is now always 0.
1092 *** The functions `register-char-codings' and `coding-system-spec'
1095 *** The cpXXX coding systems are now supported automatically.
1096 The functions cp-...-codepage, which you had to use in Emacs 22 to
1097 enable support for these coding systems, have been deleted.
1099 *** The following features have been removed. They were used for
1100 displaying various scripts with specific fonts, and are no longer
1101 needed now that OpenType font support is available:
1103 **** `devanagari' and `devan-util', and all associated devanagari-* and
1104 dev-* functions and variables (formerly used for Devanagari script).
1106 **** `kannada' and `knd-util', and all associated kannada-* and knd-*
1107 functions and variables (formerly used for Kannada script).
1109 **** `malayalam' and `mlm-util', and all associated malayalam-* and
1110 mlm-* functions and variables (formerly used for Malayalam script).
1112 **** `tamil' and `tml-util, and all associated tamil-* and tml-*
1113 functions and variables (formerly used for Tamil script).
1116 * Lisp Changes in Emacs 23.1
1118 ** New coding system alias `emacs-internal'.
1121 ** New primitives `list-system-processes' and `system-process-attributes'
1122 let Lisp programs access the processes that are running on the local
1123 machine. See the doc strings of these functions for more details.
1124 Not all platforms support accessing this information; on those that
1125 don't, these primitives will return nil.
1128 ** New variable `user-emacs-directory'.
1129 Use this instead of "~/.emacs.d".
1132 ** If a local hook function has a non-nil `permanent-local-hook'
1133 property, `kill-all-local-variables' does not remove it from the local
1134 value of the hook variable; it remains even if you change major modes.
1137 ** `frame-inherited-parameters' lets new frames inherit parameters from
1141 ** New keymap `input-decode-map' overrides like key-translation-map, but
1142 applies before function-key-map. Also it is terminal-local contrary to
1143 key-translation-map. Terminal-specific key-sequences are generally added to
1144 this map rather than to function-key-map now.
1147 ** `ignore-errors' is now a standard macro (does not require the CL package).
1150 ** `interprogram-paste-function' can now return one string or a list
1151 of strings. In the latter case, Emacs puts the second and following
1152 strings on the kill ring.
1155 ** In `condition-case', a handler can specify "let the debugger run first".
1156 You do this by writing `debug' in the list of conditions to be handled,
1161 ((debug error) nil))
1164 ** clone-indirect-buffer now runs the clone-indirect-buffer-hook.
1167 ** `beginning-of-defun-function' now takes one argument, the count
1168 given to `beginning-of-defun'.
1171 ** `file-remote-p' has new optional parameters IDENTIFICATION and CONNECTED.
1172 IDENTIFICATION specifies which part of the remote identifier has to be
1173 returned. With CONNECTED passed non-nil, it is checked whether a
1174 remote connection has been established already.
1177 ** The new macro `declare-function' suppresses compiler warnings about
1178 undefined functions.
1180 ** Changes to interactive function handling
1183 *** The new interactive spec code ^ says to first call
1184 handle-shift-selection if shift-select-mode is non-nil, before reading
1185 the command arguments. This is used for shift-selection (see above).
1188 *** Built-in functions can now have an interactive specification that
1189 is not a prompt string. If the `intspec' parameter of a `DEFUN'
1190 starts with a `(', the string is evaluated as a Lisp form.
1193 *** The interactive-form of a function can be added post-facto via the
1194 `interactive-form' symbol property. Mostly useful to add complex
1195 interactive forms to subroutines.
1200 *** Commands should use `use-region-p' to test whether there is
1201 an active region that they should operate on.
1203 *** `region-active-p' returns non-nil when Transient Mark mode is
1204 enabled and there is an active region. This is NOT the best function
1205 to use to test whether a command should operate on the region instead
1206 of the usual behavior -- for that, use `use-region-p'.
1209 *** If a command sets `transient-mark-mode' to (only . OLDVAL), that
1210 means to activate transient-mark-mode temporarily, until the next
1211 unshifted point motion command or mark deactivation. Afterwards,
1212 reset transient-mark-mode to the value OLDVAL. The values `only' and
1213 `identity', introduced in Emacs 22, are now deprecated.
1215 ** Emacs session information
1218 *** The new variables `before-init-time' and `after-init-time' record the
1219 value of `current-time' before and after Emacs loads the init files.
1222 *** The new function `emacs-uptime' returns the uptime of an Emacs instance.
1225 *** The new function `emacs-init-time' returns the duration of the
1226 Emacs initialization.
1228 ** Changes affecting display-buffer
1231 *** New value nil for split-height-threshold inhibits vertical splitting
1232 unless there's no other window.
1235 *** New option split-width-threshold controls horizontal splitting.
1238 *** A window can be split horizontally even when it's not full-width.
1241 *** New option split-window-preferred-function can be set to a function
1242 to override the default splitting mechanism of display-buffer.
1245 *** If pop-up-frames has the value `graphic-only', display-buffer only
1246 makes a separate frame on graphic displays.
1248 ** Minibuffer and completion changes
1250 *** A list of default values can be specified for the DEFAULT argument of
1251 functions `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-command',
1252 `read-variable', `read-buffer', `completing-read'. Elements of this list
1253 are available for inserting into the minibuffer by typing `M-n'.
1254 For empty input these functions return the first element of this list.
1257 *** New function `read-regexp' uses the regexp history and some useful
1258 regexp defaults (string at point, last Isearch/replacement regexp/string)
1259 via M-n when reading a regexp in the minibuffer.
1262 *** minibuffer-local-must-match-filename-map is now named
1263 minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map.
1266 *** `all-completions' may now return the base size in the last cdr.
1267 Since this means the returned list is not properly nil-terminated, this
1268 is an incompatible change and is thus enabled by the new variable
1269 completion-all-completions-with-base-size.
1272 *** The `require-match' argument to `completing-read' accepts a new value
1275 ** Search and replacement changes
1277 *** The regexp form \(?<num>:<regexp>\) specifies the group number explicitly.
1279 *** New function `match-substitute-replacement' returns the result of
1280 `replace-match' without actually using it in the buffer.
1283 *** The new variable `replace-search-function' determines the function
1284 to use for searching in query-replace and replace-string. The
1285 function it specifies is called by `perform-replace' when its 4th
1289 *** The new variable `replace-re-search-function' determines the
1290 function to use for searching in `query-replace-regexp',
1291 `replace-regexp', `query-replace-regexp-eval', and
1292 `map-query-replace-regexp'. The function it specifies is called by
1293 `perform-replace' when its 4th argument is non-nil.
1296 *** New keymap `search-map' bound to `M-s' provides global bindings
1297 for search related commands.
1300 *** New keymap `multi-query-replace-map' contains additonal keys bound
1301 to `automatic-all' and `exit-current' for multi-buffer interactive replacement.
1304 *** The variable `inhibit-changing-match-data', if non-nil, prevents
1305 the search and match primitives from changing the match data.
1308 *** New functions `word-search-forward-lax' and `word-search-backward-lax'.
1309 These are like `word-search-forward and `word-search-backward', except
1310 that the end of the search string need not match a word boundary,
1311 unless it ends in whitespace.
1313 ** File handling changes
1316 *** set-file-modes is now interactive and can take the mode value in
1317 symbolic notation thanks to auxiliary functions.
1320 *** file-local-variables-alist stores an alist of file-local
1321 variables defined in the current buffer.
1325 *** The new function `start-file-process' is similar to `start-process',
1326 but obeys file handlers. The file handler is chosen based on
1327 `default-directory'. The functions `start-file-process-shell-command'
1328 and `process-file-shell-command' are also new; they call internally
1329 `start-file-process' and `process-file', respectively.
1332 *** The new function `process-lines' executes an external program and
1333 returns its output as a list of lines.
1335 ** Character code, representation, and charset changes.
1337 The character code space is now 0x0..0x3FFFFF with no gap.
1338 Characters of code 0x0..0x10FFFF are Unicode characters of the same code points.
1339 Characters of code 0x3FFF80..0x3FFFFF are raw 8-bit bytes.
1342 Generic characters no longer exist.
1344 In buffers and strings, characters are represented by UTF-8 byte
1345 sequences in a multibyte buffer/string.
1347 The concept of a charset has changed. A single character may belong
1348 to multiple charsets (e.g. a-grave, U+00E0, belongs to charsets
1349 unicode, iso-8859-1, iso-8859-3, etc).
1351 *** The functions `split-char' and `make-char' now accept up to 4
1352 positional codes instead of just 2.
1354 *** The functions `encode-char' and `decode-char' now accept any character sets.
1356 *** The function `define-charset' now accepts a completely different
1357 form of arguments (old-style arguments still work).
1359 *** The value of the function `char-charset' depends on the current
1360 priorities of charsets.
1362 *** The function get-char-code-property now accepts many Unicode base
1363 character properties. They are `name', `general-category',
1364 `canonical-combining-class', `bidi-class', `decomposition',
1365 `decimal-digit-value', `digit-value', `numeric-value', `mirrored',
1366 `old-name', `iso-10646-comment', `uppercase', `lowercase', and
1369 *** The functions `modify-syntax-entry' and `modify-category-entry' now
1370 accept a cons of characters as the first argument, and modify all
1371 entries in that range of characters.
1374 *** `translation-table-for-input' is now obsolete.
1378 **** `characterp' returns t if and only if the argument is a character.
1379 This replaces `char-valid-p', which is now obsolete.
1381 **** `max-char' returns the maximum character code (currently #x3FFFFF).
1383 **** `define-charset-alias' defines an alias of a charset.
1385 **** `set-charset-priority' sets priorities of charsets.
1387 **** `charset-priority-list' returns a prioritized list of charsets.
1389 **** `unibyte-string' makes a unibyte string from bytes.
1391 **** `define-char-code-property' defines a character code property.
1393 **** `char-code-property-description' returns the description string of
1394 a character code property.
1398 **** `find-word-boundary-function-table' is a char-table of functions to
1399 search for a word boundary.
1401 **** `char-script-table' is a char-table of script names.
1403 **** `char-width-table' is a char-table of character widths.
1405 **** `print-charset-text-property' controls how to handle `charset' text
1406 property on printing a string.
1408 **** `printable-chars' is a char-table of printable characters.
1410 ** Code conversion changes
1412 *** The new function `define-coding-system' should be used to define a
1413 coding system instead of `make-coding-system' (which is now obsolete).
1415 *** The functions `encode-coding-region' and `decode-coding-region'
1416 have an optional 4th argument to specify where the result of
1417 conversion should go.
1419 *** The functions `encode-coding-string' and `decode-coding-string'
1420 have an optional 4th argument specifying a buffer to store the result
1423 *** The functions `set-coding-priority' and `make-coding-system' are obsolete.
1427 **** `with-coding-priority' executes Lisp code using the specified
1428 coding system priority order.
1430 **** `check-coding-systems-region' checks if the text in the region is
1431 encodable by the specified coding systems.
1433 **** `coding-system-aliases' returns a list of aliases of a coding system.
1435 **** `coding-system-charset-list' returns a list of charsets supported
1438 **** `coding-system-priority-list' returns a list of coding systems
1439 ordered by their priorities.
1441 **** `set-coding-system-priority' sets priorities of coding systems.
1443 ** There is a new input method, Robin, different from Quail.
1444 It has three functionalities:
1445 i) a simple input method (converts an ASCII sequence into a string).
1446 ii) converts an existing buffer substring into another string
1447 iii) reverse conversion (each character produced by a
1448 robin rule can hold the original ASCII sequence as a char-code-property)
1450 *** The new function `robin-define-package' defines a Robin package.
1452 *** The new function `robin-modify-package' modifies an existing Robin package.
1454 *** The new function `robin-use-package' starts using a Robin package
1457 *** The new function `string-to-unibyte' is like `string-as-unibyte'
1458 but signals an error if STRING contains a non-ASCII, non-eight-bit
1461 ** Changes related to the new font backend
1463 Which font backends to use can be specified by the X resource "FontBackend".
1464 For instance, to use both X core fonts and Xft fonts:
1466 Emacs.FontBackend: x,xft
1468 If this resource is not set, Emacs tries to use all font backends
1469 available on your graphic device.
1471 *** New frame parameter `font-backend' specifies a list of
1472 font-backends supported by the frame's graphic device. On X, they are
1473 currently `x' and `xft'.
1475 *** The function `set-fontset-font' now accepts a script name as the
1476 second argument, and has an optional 5th argument to control how to
1481 **** `fontp' checks if the argument is a font-spec or font-entity.
1483 **** `font-spec' creates a new font-spec object.
1485 **** `font-get' returns a font property value.
1487 **** `font-put' sets a font property value.
1489 **** `font-face-attributes' returns a plist of face attributes set by a font.
1491 **** `list-fonts' returns a list of font-entities matching a font spec.
1493 **** `font-font' returns the font-entity best matching the given font spec.
1495 **** `list-families' returns a list of family names of available fonts.
1497 **** `font-xlfd-name' returns an XLFD name of a given font spec, font
1498 entity, or font object.
1500 **** `clear-font-cache' clears all font caches.
1502 ** Changes related to multiple-terminal (multi-tty) support
1504 *** $TERM is now set to `dumb' for subprocesses. If you want to know the
1505 $TERM inherited by Emacs you will have to look inside initial-environment.
1507 *** $DISPLAY is now dynamically inherited from the frame's `display'.
1509 *** The `window-system' variable is now frame-local. The new
1510 `initial-window-system' variable contains the `window-system' value
1511 for the first frame. `window-system' is also now a function that
1512 takes a frame argument.
1514 *** The `keyboard-translate-table' variable and the terminal and
1515 keyboard coding systems are now terminal-local.
1517 *** You can specify a terminal device (`tty' parameter) and a terminal
1518 type (`tty-type' parameter) to `make-terminal-frame'.
1520 *** The function `make-frame-on-display' now works during a tty
1521 session, and `make-frame-on-tty' works during a graphical session.
1523 *** A new data type for terminals with functions: `get-device-terminal',
1524 `terminal-parameters', `terminal-parameter', `set-terminal-parameter'.
1526 *** Function key sequences are now mapped using `local-function-key-map',
1527 a new variable. This inherits from the global variable function-key-map,
1528 which is not used directly any more.
1533 **** before-hack-local-variables-hook is called after setting new
1534 variable file-local-variables-alist, and before actually applying the
1535 file-local variables.
1537 **** `suspend-tty-functions' and `resume-tty-functions' are called
1538 after a tty frame has been suspended or resumed, respectively. The
1539 functions are called with the terminal id of the frame being
1540 suspended/resumed as a parameter.
1542 **** The special hook `delete-terminal-functions' is called before
1543 deleting a terminal.
1549 **** `make-frame-on-tty' creates a new frame on another tty device.
1557 *** `initial-environment' holds the environment inherited from Emacs's parent.
1559 ** Redisplay changes
1561 *** For underlined characters, the distance between the underline and
1562 the baseline is controlled by a new variable, `underline-minimum-offset'.
1564 *** You can now pass the value of the `invisible' property to
1565 invisible-p to check whether it would cause the text to be invisible.
1566 Convenient when checking invisibility of text with no buffer position
1567 (e.g. in before/after-strings).
1569 *** `clear-image-cache' can be told to flush only images of a specific file.
1571 *** `vertical-motion' can now be given a goal column.
1572 It now accepts a cons cell (COLS . LINES) in its first argument, which
1573 says to stop, where possible, at a pixel x-position equal to COLS
1574 times the default column width.
1576 ** The Lisp interpreter now treats non-breaking space as whitespace.
1578 ** Miscellaneous new functions
1581 *** `format-seconds' converts a number of seconds into a readable
1582 string of days, hours, etc.
1585 *** `apply-partially' performs a "curried" application of a function.
1588 *** `read-shell-command' does what its name says, with completion. It
1589 uses the minibuffer-local-shell-command-map for that.
1592 *** `buffer-swap-text' swaps text between two buffers. This can be
1593 useful for modes such as tar-mode, archive-mode, RMAIL.
1596 *** `read-color' reads a color name using the minibuffer.
1599 *** `face-all-attributes' returns an alist describing all the basic
1600 attributes of a given face.
1603 *** `window-full-width-p' returns t if a window is as wide as its
1607 *** `split-string-and-unquote' splits a string into a list of substrings
1608 on the boundaries of a given delimiter, and unquotes the substrings that
1609 are quoted. Useful for taking apart shell commands.
1612 *** `combine-and-quote-strings' produces a single string from a list of strings
1613 sticking a separator string in between each pair, and quoting those
1614 strings that include the separator as their substring. Useful for
1615 consing shell command lines from the individual arguments.
1618 *** `image-refresh' refreshes all images associated with a given image
1622 *** The two new functions `looking-at-p' and `string-match-p' can do
1623 the same matching as `looking-at' and `string-match' without changing
1626 *** The two new functions `make-serial-process' and
1627 `serial-process-configure' provide a Lisp interface to the new serial
1628 port support (see Emacs changes, above).
1630 ** Miscellaneous new variables
1632 *** `this-command-keys-shift-translated' is non-nil if the key
1633 sequence invoking the current command was found by shift-translation.
1635 *** `window-point-insertion-type' determines the insertion-type of the
1636 marker used for window-point.
1638 *** bookmark provides `bookmark-make-record-function' so special major
1639 modes like Info can teach bookmark.el how to save and restore the
1642 *** `next-error-recenter' specifies how next-error should recenter the
1643 visited source file. Its value can be a number (for example, 0 for
1644 top line, -1 for bottom line), or nil for no recentering.
1646 *** `fill-forward-paragraph-function' specifies which function the
1647 filling code should use to find paragraph boundaries.
1649 *** `custom-note-var-changed' tells Custom to treat the change in a
1650 certain variable as having been made within Custom.
1653 * New Packages for Lisp Programming in Emacs 23.1
1655 ** The new package avl-tree.el deals with the AVL tree data structure.
1658 ** The new package check-declare.el verifies the accuracy of
1659 declare-function macros (see Lisp Changes, above).
1661 ** find-cmd.el can build `find' commands using lisp syntax.
1663 ** The package misearch.el has been added. It allows Isearch to search
1664 through multiple buffers. A variable `multi-isearch-next-buffer-function'
1665 defines the function to call to get the next buffer to search in the series
1666 of multiple buffers. Top-level commands `multi-isearch-buffers',
1667 `multi-isearch-buffers-regexp', `multi-isearch-files' and
1668 `multi-isearch-files-regexp' accept a single argument that specifies
1669 a list of buffers/files to search for a string/regexp.
1671 ** The new major mode `special-mode' is intended as a parent for
1672 major modes such as those that set the "'mode-class 'special" property.
1675 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1676 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1678 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1679 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1680 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1681 (at your option) any later version.
1683 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1684 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1685 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1686 GNU General Public License for more details.
1688 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1689 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1694 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"
1697 arch-tag: e759449d-88b3-4de4-9900-3a6c3dfa23e2