1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
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 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.2
26 ** New configure option '--enable-gcc-warnings', intended for developers.
27 If building with GCC, this enables compile-time checks that warn about
28 possibly-questionable C code. On a recent GNU system there should be
29 no warnings; on older and on non-GNU systems the generated warnings
32 ** The configure option '--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
33 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
36 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
39 ** On FreeBSD and NetBSD, configure no longer adds /usr/local/lib and
40 /usr/pkg/lib to the linker search path. You must add them yourself if
44 ** On Mac OS X, configure no longer automatically adds the Fink /sw
45 directories to the search path. You must add them yourself if you want them.
48 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.2
50 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
51 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
52 been adding them there, put them somewhere else, eg site-lisp.
55 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
57 ** New functions `system-users', `system-groups' return lists of the user
58 name, group names known to the system (where possible).
60 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
61 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about which bzr revision was used.
63 ** ImageMagick support, if available, is automatically enabled.
64 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
65 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
66 automatically at startup, or when customizing imagemagick-types-enable
67 or imagemagick-types-inhibit.
69 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
70 ImageMagick to view images. You must call imagemagick-register-types
71 afterwards if you do not use customize to change this.
73 *** The new variable `imagemagick-types-enable' also affects which
74 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
75 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
78 ** String values for `initial-buffer-choice' also apply to emacsclient
79 frames, if emacsclient is only told to open a new frame without
80 specifying any file to visit or expression to evaluate.
83 ** You can prevent the creation of lock files by setting `create-lockfiles'
84 to nil. Use with caution, and only if you really need to.
87 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
88 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
92 *** New option `mode-line-default-help-echo' specifies the help text
93 (shown in a tooltip or in the echo area) for any part of the mode line
94 that does not have its own specialized help text.
97 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.2
101 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
102 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
103 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
105 ** M-x move-to-column, if called interactively with no prefix arg, now
106 prompts for a column number.
108 ** `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to customize
109 `mouse-avoidance-mode' further.
111 ** `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' will now move to the path name separator
112 character when doing minibuffer filename prompts.
114 ** `goto-char' is now bound to `M-g c'.
117 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
120 - Support for ghdl (free vhdl compiler). Now default.
121 - Add/update support for VHDL-AMS packages.
122 - Update to VHDL'02 standard.
123 - Accept \r and \f as whitespace.
127 Faces for changes now use the same diff color scheme as in modern VCSes
128 where deletions are displayed in red (new faces `diff-refine-removed'
129 and `smerge-refined-removed' and new definition of `diff-removed'),
130 insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added' and
131 `smerge-refined-added' and new definition of `diff-added').
132 The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use
133 the face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added'
134 to highlight changes in context diffs.
136 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode
137 on high color displays.
140 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses electric-pair-mode instead of skeleton-pair.
141 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
142 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
144 ** reStructuredText mode
146 *** Rebind nearly all keys making room for more keys and complying
147 better to usage in other modes. Describe bindings with C-c C-h.
149 *** Major revision of indentation working very similar to other
150 modes. TAB is your friend.
152 *** Major revision of filling working fine with most of
153 reStructuredText syntax. Support auto-filling.
155 *** Major revision of comment handling.
157 *** Major revision of fontification working with `jit-lock-mode'.
159 *** Cover reStructuredText syntax more closely. Improve
160 the experience for Sphinx users.
162 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
164 *** Extend correct and improve customization.
166 *** Negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
168 *** Reset window configuration after displaying TOC.
170 *** Package version in `rst-version'.
172 ** New `derived-mode' filter for Ibuffer, bound to `/ M'.
173 `/ m' is now bound to filter by used-mode, which used to be bound to `/ M'.
177 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
178 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
179 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
181 **** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
182 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
186 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
187 Customize cal-html-holidays to change this.
191 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
193 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
194 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
197 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
198 channel keys found, if any.
202 *** The option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
203 specifying URL types which should be converted to remote file names at
204 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
208 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
210 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
211 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
213 ** The `server-auth-key' variable can be used to set a permanent
214 shared key for Emacs Server.
216 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
217 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
219 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
221 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
226 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
229 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
232 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
233 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
236 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
237 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
240 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
243 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
244 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
248 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
251 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
254 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
255 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
258 ** Tabulated List and packages derived from it
260 *** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S', sorts the column
261 at point, or the Nth column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
265 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
266 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
267 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
268 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components
269 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
271 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
272 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
273 in case that is not properly encoded.
275 ** Obsolete packages:
278 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
279 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
280 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
291 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
293 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.2
296 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
297 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
298 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
301 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
302 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
305 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
306 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
307 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
309 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed:
311 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
312 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
315 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.2
317 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
318 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
320 ** `macro-declaration-function' is obsolete, use `macro-declarations-alist'.
322 ** New function `set-temporary-overlay-map'.
324 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
326 ** New error type and new function `user-error'. Doesn't trigger the debugger.
330 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
331 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
333 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
334 table, but with a different prefix.
338 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
339 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
340 by the underlying C implementation.
342 ** `automount-dir-prefix' is obsolete.
343 ** `buffer-has-markers-at' is obsolete.
345 * Changes in Emacs 24.2 on non-free operating systems
347 ** New configure.bat options on MS-Windows:
349 *** --without-libxml2 omits support for libxml2, even if its presence
352 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
353 Emacs now supports mouse highlight, help-echo (in the echo area), and
354 mouse-autoselect-window.
357 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
359 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
360 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
361 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
364 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
365 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
366 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
367 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
369 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
370 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
371 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
372 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
374 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
375 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
376 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
377 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
378 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
380 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
381 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
382 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
383 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
385 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
386 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
388 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
389 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
390 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
393 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
394 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
395 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
397 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
398 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
399 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
401 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
402 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
404 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
405 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
408 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
410 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
411 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
412 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
414 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
415 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
416 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
420 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
424 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
425 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
427 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
429 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
430 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
432 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
434 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
435 default completion style in certain circumstances.
437 *** New completion style `substring'.
439 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
441 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
445 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
446 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
447 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
448 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
449 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
450 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
452 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
453 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
454 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
456 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
457 and Mail mode changes
459 ** Emacs server and client changes
461 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
463 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
465 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
466 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
468 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
469 its exit status is 1.
471 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
472 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
473 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
475 ** Internationalization changes
477 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
478 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
479 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
480 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
481 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
482 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
484 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
485 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
487 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
488 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
489 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
490 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
493 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
494 the right window edge.
496 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
497 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
498 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
499 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
500 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
502 *** New input methods: farsi, farsi-translit, bulgarian-alt-phonetic.
504 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
507 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
508 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
509 automatically select it.
511 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
512 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
513 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
515 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
516 selected for installation.
518 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
520 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
521 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
522 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
524 ** Custom theme changes
526 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
527 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
529 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
530 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
531 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
532 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
533 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
534 built-in Custom themes.
536 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
537 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
538 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
539 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
541 ** Improved GTK integration
543 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
544 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
546 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
547 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
548 the default is taken from desktop settings.
550 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
551 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
552 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
555 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
556 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
558 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
559 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
561 ** Graphical interface changes
563 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
564 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
565 displayed as a space.
567 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
568 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
570 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
571 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
572 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
576 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
577 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
579 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
580 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
581 do the right thing in batch mode.
585 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
586 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
587 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
588 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
590 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
592 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
593 scroll a line instead of full screen.
595 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
596 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
598 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
599 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
600 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
601 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
602 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
604 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
605 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
606 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
607 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
610 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
611 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
613 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
614 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
615 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
616 now includes the SELinux context.
618 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
619 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
623 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
624 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
626 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
627 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
629 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
631 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
632 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
633 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
636 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
637 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
638 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
639 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
640 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
642 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
643 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
645 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
646 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
647 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
648 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
653 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
654 in the quitted window.
656 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
657 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
659 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
661 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
662 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
663 for choosing the displaying window).
665 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
666 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
668 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
669 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
671 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
672 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
673 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
674 from which such space was obtained.
676 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
677 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
678 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
679 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
680 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
682 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
683 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
684 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
686 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
687 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
689 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
690 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
691 been shown in a specific window.
693 ** Minibuffer changes
695 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
696 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
697 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
699 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
700 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
701 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
703 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
705 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
707 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
708 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
709 successful operation.
711 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
712 for `list-colors-display'.
714 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
717 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
721 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
724 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
727 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
729 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
731 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
732 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
733 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
734 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
737 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
738 also deletes newlines around point.
742 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
743 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
744 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
747 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
748 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
749 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
751 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
752 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
753 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
754 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
756 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
758 ** Selection changes.
760 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
761 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
762 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
763 mouse commands use the primary selection.
765 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
766 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
768 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
769 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
770 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
771 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
773 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
774 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
775 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
776 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
777 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
779 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
781 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
782 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
783 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
785 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
787 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
788 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
789 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
791 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
792 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
794 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
795 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
796 between applications.
798 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
800 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
801 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
802 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
803 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
804 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
806 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
808 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
809 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
811 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
812 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
813 number to count from and for a format string.
815 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
816 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
817 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
818 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
819 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
821 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
822 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
823 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
824 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
825 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
827 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
828 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
829 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
830 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
831 follows `replace-match'.
834 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
836 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
840 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
841 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
842 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
843 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
845 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
847 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
849 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
853 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
855 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
856 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
858 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
860 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
861 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
863 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
864 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
866 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
867 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
868 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
870 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
872 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
873 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
875 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
876 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
877 Use `appt-activate' instead.
879 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
880 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
881 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
883 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
884 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
888 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
889 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
891 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
893 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
894 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
897 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
898 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
899 parsed as a statement continuation.
901 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
905 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
906 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
908 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
909 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
910 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
912 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
913 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
914 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
919 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
920 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
921 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
923 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
924 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
926 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
928 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
929 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
933 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
936 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
937 optionally do not register names.
939 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
940 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
944 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
945 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
946 instead of using the current buffer.
948 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
949 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
953 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
954 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
956 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
957 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
958 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
959 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
963 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
964 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
965 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
969 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
970 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
971 debugging of several threads.
975 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
976 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
980 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
981 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
982 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
983 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
984 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
986 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
987 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
988 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
991 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
993 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
995 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
996 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
997 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
999 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
1000 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1002 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
1004 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
1006 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
1007 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
1008 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
1009 default), this performs tag completion.
1011 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
1012 See ORG-NEWS for details.
1014 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
1015 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
1016 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
1020 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
1021 in the Rmail incoming message.
1023 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
1024 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
1025 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
1029 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
1030 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
1031 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
1033 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
1034 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
1038 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
1039 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
1040 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
1043 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
1044 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
1045 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
1046 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
1047 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
1048 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
1049 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
1050 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
1052 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
1053 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
1055 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
1057 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
1059 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
1060 the credentials file.
1062 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
1063 If you had that set, you need to put
1065 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
1067 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
1071 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
1072 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
1074 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
1075 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
1076 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
1077 connection is established.
1079 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
1080 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
1082 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
1083 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
1084 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
1085 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
1087 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
1088 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
1089 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
1090 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
1091 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
1092 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
1094 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
1095 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
1097 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
1098 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
1099 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
1101 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
1102 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
1104 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
1108 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
1112 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
1114 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
1115 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
1117 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
1118 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
1120 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
1121 default value to "".
1123 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1124 for remote machines which support SELinux.
1126 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
1127 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
1128 the degree of parallelism.
1130 ** VC and related modes
1132 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
1133 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
1134 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
1135 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
1136 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
1138 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
1140 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
1141 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
1142 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
1143 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
1144 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
1146 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1147 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1149 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
1150 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
1151 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
1152 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1153 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1154 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1156 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1157 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1159 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1160 this was not advertised at the time.
1162 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1163 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1164 this was not advertised at the time.
1170 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1172 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
1173 You can get a comparable behavior with:
1174 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
1175 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
1177 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1179 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1181 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1183 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1184 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1186 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1190 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1191 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1193 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1194 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1196 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1198 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1200 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1203 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1205 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1206 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1208 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1209 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1210 matching closing one.
1212 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
1213 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
1214 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
1215 electric-indent-functions.
1217 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
1218 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
1219 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
1221 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1222 from which other modes can be derived.
1224 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1226 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
1227 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
1228 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
1229 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
1232 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1233 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1235 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1236 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1238 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1240 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
1241 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
1242 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
1243 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
1244 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
1245 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1248 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1250 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
1251 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
1253 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1255 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
1256 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
1257 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
1258 command still toggles the minor mode.
1260 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1261 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
1262 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
1263 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
1264 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
1266 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
1267 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
1268 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
1269 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
1270 argument `bidi-class'.
1272 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1273 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1274 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1275 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1277 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1278 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1279 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1282 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
1283 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
1284 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
1285 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
1286 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1287 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1288 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
1290 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
1291 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
1292 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
1293 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
1296 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
1297 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
1298 replaced all known uses.
1300 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1301 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
1302 major mode is special).
1304 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1306 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1307 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1308 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1309 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1310 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1311 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1313 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1314 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1316 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1317 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
1318 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
1319 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
1321 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
1322 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
1323 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
1325 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1327 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
1328 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
1329 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
1331 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
1332 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
1333 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
1334 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
1335 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
1336 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
1337 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
1338 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
1339 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
1340 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
1341 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
1342 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
1343 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
1344 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
1345 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
1346 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
1347 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
1348 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
1349 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
1350 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
1351 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
1353 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1354 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1356 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
1357 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
1358 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
1359 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
1360 *** `e' (`float-e').
1362 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1363 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1365 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
1366 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
1367 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
1368 `finder-keywords-hash'.
1370 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
1371 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
1372 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
1375 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1377 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1378 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
1379 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
1380 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
1383 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1384 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1386 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1387 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1389 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1391 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1392 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1394 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1395 declared as dynamically bound.
1397 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
1399 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
1400 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
1401 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1403 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1405 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1406 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1408 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1409 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
1410 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
1411 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1412 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
1413 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
1415 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
1416 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
1417 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
1421 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1422 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1423 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1424 buffer) in the window tree.
1426 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1429 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1430 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1431 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1432 act on any window including internal ones.
1434 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
1435 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
1436 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
1437 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
1438 and `window-body-height' are provided.
1440 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
1441 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
1442 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
1443 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
1444 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
1446 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
1447 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
1448 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
1449 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
1450 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
1451 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
1453 *** Window resizing functions.
1454 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
1455 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
1456 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
1458 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1459 live window on that frame instead.
1461 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
1462 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
1463 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
1464 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
1465 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
1466 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
1468 *** Window-local buffer lists.
1469 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
1470 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
1471 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
1472 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
1473 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
1475 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
1476 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1477 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1478 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1480 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
1481 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
1482 The old names are kept as aliases.
1486 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
1487 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
1488 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
1489 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
1491 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1493 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
1494 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
1495 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
1496 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
1497 are user-customizable variables.
1499 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1501 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
1502 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
1503 frame or window as an Elisp object.
1507 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
1508 properties of the current completion:
1509 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1510 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1512 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
1513 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
1515 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
1517 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1518 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1519 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1520 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1521 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1522 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1523 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1525 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
1526 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
1527 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
1529 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
1530 behavior of `completing-read'.
1532 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
1533 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
1535 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
1536 Instead, the offending function is removed.
1540 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
1541 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
1542 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
1543 non-nil return value.
1545 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
1546 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
1547 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
1548 advertised at the time.)
1552 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
1553 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
1555 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
1557 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
1559 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
1560 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
1561 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
1563 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
1564 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
1566 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
1567 named Emacs server instances.
1569 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
1570 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
1572 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
1573 for higher-resolution time stamps.
1575 ** New input reading functions
1577 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
1578 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
1580 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
1581 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
1584 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
1586 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
1587 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
1588 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
1591 ** Syntax parsing changes
1593 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
1594 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
1595 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
1596 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
1597 Together with this new variable come a new hook
1598 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
1599 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
1600 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
1603 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
1605 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
1607 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
1609 ** Major and minor mode changes
1611 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
1612 as well as those in the -*- line.
1614 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
1617 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
1618 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
1619 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
1621 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
1622 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
1624 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
1625 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
1626 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
1628 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
1630 ** File-handling changes
1632 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
1633 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
1634 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
1635 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
1637 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
1639 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
1640 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
1641 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
1645 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
1647 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
1649 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
1651 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
1654 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
1655 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
1657 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
1658 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
1660 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
1661 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
1662 ImageMagick installation supports.
1664 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
1665 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
1668 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
1669 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
1671 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
1672 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
1673 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
1674 `image-transform-set-scale'.
1676 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
1677 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
1678 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
1679 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
1681 ** XML and HTML parsing
1682 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
1683 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
1684 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
1685 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
1687 ** Networking and encryption changes
1689 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
1690 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
1691 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
1692 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
1693 must also be supplied.
1695 *** New library gnutls.el.
1696 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
1697 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
1698 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
1699 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
1700 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
1701 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
1704 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
1705 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
1706 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
1710 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
1712 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
1713 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
1714 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
1715 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
1716 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
1717 displayed with a "spinning bar".
1719 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
1720 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
1722 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
1723 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
1724 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
1725 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
1726 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
1727 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
1729 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
1731 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
1732 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
1733 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
1734 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
1736 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
1737 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
1739 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
1740 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
1741 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
1742 an empty uninterned symbol.
1744 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
1746 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
1748 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
1749 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
1751 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
1752 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
1754 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
1756 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
1757 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
1759 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
1762 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
1764 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
1765 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
1767 ** New configure.bat options
1769 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
1771 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
1773 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
1775 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
1777 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
1779 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
1780 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
1782 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
1783 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
1785 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
1786 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
1789 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1790 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1792 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1793 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1794 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1795 (at your option) any later version.
1797 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1798 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1799 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1800 GNU General Public License for more details.
1802 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1803 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1808 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"