Clean up and simplify buffer display routines.
[bpt/emacs.git] / etc / NEWS
1 GNU Emacs NEWS -- history of user-visible changes.
2
3 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
4 See the end of the file for license conditions.
5
6 Please send Emacs bug reports to bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org.
7 If possible, use M-x report-emacs-bug.
8
9 This file is about changes in Emacs version 24.
10
11 See files NEWS.23, NEWS.22, NEWS.21, NEWS.20, NEWS.19, NEWS.18,
12 and NEWS.1-17 for changes in older Emacs versions.
13
14 You can narrow news to a specific version by calling `view-emacs-news'
15 with a prefix argument or by typing C-u C-h C-n.
16
17 Temporary note:
18 +++ indicates that the appropriate manual has already been updated.
19 --- means no change in the manuals is called for.
20 When you add a new item, please add it without either +++ or ---
21 so we will look at it and add it to the manual.
22
23 \f
24 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.2
25
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
30 may be useful.
31
32 ** The configure option '--disable-maintainer-mode' has been removed,
33 as it was confusingly-named and rarely useful.
34
35 ---
36 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
37
38 ---
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
41 you want them.
42
43 ---
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.
46
47 \f
48 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.2
49
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.
53
54 \f
55 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
56
57 ** New functions `system-users', `system-groups' return lists of the user
58 name, group names known to the system (where possible).
59
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.
62
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 a relevant imagemagick-
67 option.
68
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.
72
73 *** The new variable `imagemagick-enabled-types' also affects which
74 ImageMagick types are treated as images. The function
75 `imagemagick-filter-types' returns the list of types that will be
76 treated as images.
77
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.
81
82 +++
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.
85
86 +++
87 ** Using "unibyte: t" in Lisp source files is obsolete.
88 Use "coding: raw-text" instead.
89
90 ** Mode line changes
91
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.
95
96 *** You can now click mouse-3 in the coding system indicator to
97 invokes `set-buffer-file-coding-system'.
98
99 \f
100 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.2
101
102 ** Search changes
103
104 *** Global `M-s _' starts a symbol (identifier) incremental search,
105 and `M-s _' in Isearch toggles symbol search mode.
106 `M-s c' in Isearch toggles search case-sensitivity.
107
108 ** M-x move-to-column, if called interactively with no prefix arg, now
109 prompts for a column number.
110
111 ** `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to customize
112 `mouse-avoidance-mode' further.
113
114 ** `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' will now move to the path name separator
115 character when doing minibuffer filename prompts.
116
117 ** `goto-char' is now bound to `M-g c'.
118
119 \f
120 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
121
122 ** CL's main entry is now (require 'cl-lib).
123 `cl-lib' is like the old `cl' except that it uses the namespace cleanly,
124 i.e. all its definitions have the "cl-" prefix.
125
126 If `cl' provided a feature under the name `foo', then `cl-lib' provides it
127 under the name `cl-foo' instead, with the exceptions of the few definitions
128 that had to use `foo*' to avoid conflicts with pre-existing Elisp entities,
129 which have not been renamed to `cl-foo*' but just `cl-foo'.
130
131 The old `cl' is now deprecated and is nothing more than a bunch of aliases that
132 provide the old non-prefixed names.
133
134 ** VHDL-mode
135 - Support for ghdl (free vhdl compiler). Now default.
136 - Add/update support for VHDL-AMS packages.
137 - Update to VHDL'02 standard.
138 - Accept \r and \f as whitespace.
139
140 ** Diff mode
141
142 Faces for changes now use the same diff color scheme as in modern VCSes
143 where deletions are displayed in red (new faces `diff-refine-removed'
144 and `smerge-refined-removed' and new definition of `diff-removed'),
145 insertions in green (new faces `diff-refine-added' and
146 `smerge-refined-added' and new definition of `diff-added').
147 The variable `diff-use-changed-face' defines whether to use
148 the face `diff-changed', or `diff-removed' and `diff-added'
149 to highlight changes in context diffs.
150
151 ** Ediff now uses the same color scheme as Diff mode
152 on high color displays.
153
154 ** `sh-script'
155 *** Pairing of parens/quotes uses electric-pair-mode instead of skeleton-pair.
156 *** `sh-electric-here-document-mode' now controls auto-insertion of here-docs.
157 *** `sh-use-smie' lets you choose a new indentation and navigation code.
158
159 ** reStructuredText mode
160
161 *** Rebind nearly all keys making room for more keys and complying
162 better to usage in other modes. Describe bindings with C-c C-h.
163
164 *** Major revision of indentation working very similar to other
165 modes. TAB is your friend.
166
167 *** Major revision of filling working fine with most of
168 reStructuredText syntax. Support auto-filling.
169
170 *** Major revision of comment handling.
171
172 *** Major revision of fontification working with `jit-lock-mode'.
173
174 *** Cover reStructuredText syntax more closely. Improve
175 the experience for Sphinx users.
176
177 *** `rst-insert-list' inserts new list or continues existing lists.
178
179 *** Extend correct and improve customization.
180
181 *** Negative prefix argument always works for `rst-adjust'.
182
183 *** Reset window configuration after displaying TOC.
184
185 *** Package version in `rst-version'.
186
187 ** New `derived-mode' filter for Ibuffer, bound to `/ M'.
188 `/ m' is now bound to filter by used-mode, which used to be bound to `/ M'.
189
190 ** Apropos
191
192 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
193 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
194 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
195
196 **** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
197 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
198
199 ** Calendar
200
201 *** The calendars produced by cal-html include holidays.
202 Customize cal-html-holidays to change this.
203
204 ** Customize
205
206 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
207
208 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
209 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
210 these commands now).
211
212 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
213 channel keys found, if any.
214
215 ** FFAP
216
217 *** The option `ffap-url-unwrap-remote' can now be a list of strings,
218 specifying URL types which should be converted to remote file names at
219 the FFAP prompt. The default is now '("ftp").
220
221 ** Follow mode
222
223 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
224
225 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
226 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
227
228 ** The `server-auth-key' variable can be used to set a permanent
229 shared key for Emacs Server.
230
231 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
232 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
233
234 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
235
236 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
237
238 ** D-Bus
239
240 +++
241 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
242
243 +++
244 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
245
246 +++
247 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
248 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
249
250 +++
251 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
252 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
253
254 +++
255 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
256
257 +++
258 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
259 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
260 details.
261
262 +++
263 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
264
265 +++
266 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
267
268 +++
269 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
270 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
271 server properties.
272
273 ** Tabulated List and packages derived from it
274
275 *** New command `tabulated-list-sort', bound to `S', sorts the column
276 at point, or the Nth column if a numeric prefix argument is given.
277
278 ** URL
279
280 *** Structs made by `url-generic-parse-url' have nil `attributes' slot.
281 Previously, this slot stored semicolon-separated attribute-value pairs
282 appended to some imap URLs, but this is not compatible with RFC 3986.
283 So now the `filename' slot stores the entire path and query components
284 and the `attributes' slot is always nil.
285
286 *** New function `url-encode-url' for encoding a URI string.
287 The `url-retrieve' function now uses this to encode its URL argument,
288 in case that is not properly encoded.
289
290 ** Obsolete packages:
291
292 *** assoc.el
293 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
294 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
295 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
296
297 *** bruce.el
298
299 *** mailpost.el
300
301 *** mouse-sel.el
302
303 *** patcomp.el
304
305 \f
306 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
307 \f
308 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.2
309
310 +++
311 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
312 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
313 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
314 `custom-variable-p'.
315
316 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
317 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
318
319 +++
320 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
321 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
322 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
323
324 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed:
325
326 *** `facemenu-unlisted-faces'
327 *** `rmail-decode-mime-charset'
328
329 \f
330 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.2
331
332 ** `defun' also accepts a (declare DECLS) form, like `defmacro'.
333 The interpretation of the DECLS is determined by `defun-declarations-alist'.
334
335 ** `macro-declaration-function' is obsolete, use `macro-declarations-alist'.
336
337 ** New function `set-temporary-overlay-map'.
338
339 ** New macros `setq-local' and `defvar-local'.
340
341 ** New error type and new function `user-error'. Doesn't trigger the debugger.
342
343 ** The functions get-lru-window, get-mru-window and get-largest-window
344 now accept a third argument to avoid chosing the selected window.
345
346 ** Completion
347
348 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
349 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
350
351 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
352 table, but with a different prefix.
353
354 ** Time
355
356 *** `current-time-string' no longer requires that its argument's year
357 must be in the range 1000..9999. It now works with any year supported
358 by the underlying C implementation.
359
360 ** `automount-dir-prefix' is obsolete.
361 ** `buffer-has-markers-at' is obsolete.
362 \f
363 * Changes in Emacs 24.2 on non-free operating systems
364
365 ** New configure.bat options on MS-Windows:
366
367 *** --without-libxml2 omits support for libxml2, even if its presence
368 is detected.
369
370 ** When invoked with the -nw switch to run on the Windows text-mode terminal,
371 Emacs now supports mouse highlight, help-echo (in the echo area), and
372 mouse-autoselect-window.
373
374 \f
375 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
376
377 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
378 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
379 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
380 --without-gconf.
381
382 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
383 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
384 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
385 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
386
387 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
388 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
389 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
390 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
391
392 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
393 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
394 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
395 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
396 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
397
398 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
399 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
400 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
401 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
402
403 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
404 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
405
406 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
407 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
408 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
409 to about 2 GiB.
410
411 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
412 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
413 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
414
415 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
416 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
417 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
418
419 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
420 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
421
422 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
423 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
424
425 \f
426 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
427
428 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
429 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
430 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
431
432 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
433 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
434 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
435 Nextstep builds).
436
437 \f
438 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
439
440 ** Completion
441
442 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
443 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
444
445 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
446
447 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
448 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
449
450 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
451
452 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
453 default completion style in certain circumstances.
454
455 *** New completion style `substring'.
456
457 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
458
459 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
460
461 ** Mail changes
462
463 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
464 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
465 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
466 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
467 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
468 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
469
470 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
471 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
472 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
473
474 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
475 and Mail mode changes
476
477 ** Emacs server and client changes
478
479 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
480
481 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
482
483 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
484 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
485
486 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
487 its exit status is 1.
488
489 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
490 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
491 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
492
493 ** Internationalization changes
494
495 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
496 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
497 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
498 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
499 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
500 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
501
502 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
503 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
504
505 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
506 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
507 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
508 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
509 paragraph.
510
511 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
512 the right window edge.
513
514 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
515 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
516 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
517 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
518 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
519
520 *** New input methods: farsi, farsi-translit, bulgarian-alt-phonetic.
521
522 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
523 (U+2010 and U+2011).
524
525 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
526 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
527 automatically select it.
528
529 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
530 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
531 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
532
533 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
534 selected for installation.
535
536 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
537
538 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
539 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
540 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
541
542 ** Custom theme changes
543
544 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
545 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
546
547 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
548 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
549 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
550 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
551 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
552 built-in Custom themes.
553
554 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
555 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
556 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
557 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
558
559 ** Improved GTK integration
560
561 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
562 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
563
564 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
565 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
566 the default is taken from desktop settings.
567
568 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
569 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
570 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
571 entries for this.
572
573 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
574 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
575
576 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
577 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
578
579 ** Graphical interface changes
580
581 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
582 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
583 displayed as a space.
584
585 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
586 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
587
588 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
589 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
590 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
591
592 ** Exiting changes
593
594 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
595 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
596
597 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
598 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
599 do the right thing in batch mode.
600
601 ** Scrolling changes
602
603 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
604 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
605 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
606 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
607
608 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
609
610 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
611 scroll a line instead of full screen.
612
613 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
614 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
615
616 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
617 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
618 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
619 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
620 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
621
622 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
623 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
624 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
625 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
626 margin.
627
628 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
629 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
630
631 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
632 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
633 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
634 now includes the SELinux context.
635
636 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
637 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
638
639 ** Trash changes
640
641 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
642 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
643
644 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
645 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
646
647 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
648
649 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
650 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
651 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
652 subdirectories.
653
654 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
655 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
656 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
657 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
658 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
659
660 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
661 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
662
663 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
664 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
665 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
666 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
667 corresponding way.
668
669 ** Window changes
670
671 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
672 in the quitted window.
673
674 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
675 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
676
677 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
678
679 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
680 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
681 for choosing the displaying window).
682
683 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
684 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
685
686 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
687 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
688
689 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
690 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
691 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
692 from which such space was obtained.
693
694 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
695 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
696 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
697 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
698 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
699
700 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
701 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
702 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
703
704 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
705 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
706
707 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
708 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
709 been shown in a specific window.
710
711 ** Minibuffer changes
712
713 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
714 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
715 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
716
717 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
718 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
719 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
720
721 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
722
723 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
724
725 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
726 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
727 successful operation.
728
729 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
730 for `list-colors-display'.
731
732 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
733
734 \f
735 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
736
737 ** Search changes
738
739 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
740 `isearch-yank-line'.
741
742 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
743 `isearch-yank-kill'.
744
745 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
746
747 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
748
749 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
750 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
751 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
752 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
753 alias for it.
754
755 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
756 also deletes newlines around point.
757
758 ** Deletion changes
759
760 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
761 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
762 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
763 instead.
764
765 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
766 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
767 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
768
769 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
770 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
771 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
772 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
773
774 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
775
776 ** Selection changes.
777
778 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
779 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
780 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
781 mouse commands use the primary selection.
782
783 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
784 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
785
786 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
787 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
788 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
789 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
790
791 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
792 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
793 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
794 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
795 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
796
797 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
798
799 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
800 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
801 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
802
803 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
804
805 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
806 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
807 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
808
809 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
810 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
811
812 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
813 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
814 between applications.
815
816 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
817
818 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
819 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
820 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
821 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
822 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
823
824 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
825
826 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
827 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
828
829 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
830 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
831 number to count from and for a format string.
832
833 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
834 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
835 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
836 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
837 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
838
839 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
840 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
841 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
842 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
843 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
844
845 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
846 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
847 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
848 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
849 follows `replace-match'.
850
851 \f
852 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
853
854 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
855
856 ** BibTeX mode
857
858 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
859 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
860 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
861 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
862
863 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
864
865 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
866
867 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
868
869 ** Browse-url
870
871 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
872
873 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
874 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
875
876 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
877
878 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
879 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
880
881 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
882 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
883
884 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
885 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
886 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
887
888 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
889
890 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
891 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
892
893 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
894 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
895 Use `appt-activate' instead.
896
897 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
898 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
899 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
900
901 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
902 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
903
904 ** CC Mode
905
906 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
907 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
908
909 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
910
911 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
912 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
913 not the top level.
914
915 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
916 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
917 parsed as a statement continuation.
918
919 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
920
921 ** Compilation mode
922
923 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
924 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
925
926 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
927 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
928 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
929
930 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
931 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
932 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
933 buffer was used.
934
935 ** Customize
936
937 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
938 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
939 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
940
941 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
942 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
943
944 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
945
946 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
947 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
948
949 ** D-Bus
950
951 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
952 or session bus.
953
954 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
955 optionally do not register names.
956
957 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
958 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
959
960 ** Dired-x
961
962 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
963 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
964 instead of using the current buffer.
965
966 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
967 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
968
969 ** ERC changes
970
971 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
972 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
973
974 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
975 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
976 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
977 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
978
979 ** Eshell changes
980
981 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
982 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
983 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
984
985 ** gdb-mi
986
987 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
988 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
989 debugging of several threads.
990
991 ** Image mode
992
993 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
994 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
995
996 ** Info
997
998 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
999 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
1000 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
1001 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
1002 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
1003
1004 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
1005 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
1006 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
1007 by default.
1008
1009 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
1010
1011 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
1012
1013 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
1014 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
1015 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
1016
1017 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
1018 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
1019
1020 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
1021
1022 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
1023
1024 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
1025 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
1026 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
1027 default), this performs tag completion.
1028
1029 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
1030 See ORG-NEWS for details.
1031
1032 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
1033 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
1034 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
1035
1036 ** Rmail
1037
1038 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
1039 in the Rmail incoming message.
1040
1041 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
1042 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
1043 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
1044
1045 ** Shell mode
1046
1047 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
1048 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
1049 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
1050
1051 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
1052 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
1053
1054 ** SMTPmail
1055
1056 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
1057 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
1058 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
1059 to change this.
1060
1061 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
1062 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
1063 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
1064 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
1065 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
1066 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
1067 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
1068 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
1069
1070 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
1071 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
1072
1073 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
1074
1075 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
1076
1077 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
1078 the credentials file.
1079
1080 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
1081 If you had that set, you need to put
1082
1083 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
1084
1085 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
1086
1087 ** SQL mode
1088
1089 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
1090 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
1091
1092 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
1093 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
1094 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
1095 connection is established.
1096
1097 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
1098 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
1099
1100 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
1101 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
1102 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
1103 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
1104
1105 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
1106 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
1107 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
1108 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
1109 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
1110 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
1111
1112 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
1113 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
1114
1115 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
1116 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
1117 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
1118
1119 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
1120 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
1121
1122 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
1123
1124 ** TeX modes
1125
1126 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
1127
1128 ** Tramp
1129
1130 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
1131
1132 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
1133 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
1134
1135 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
1136 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
1137
1138 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
1139 default value to "".
1140
1141 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
1142 for remote machines which support SELinux.
1143
1144 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
1145 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
1146 the degree of parallelism.
1147
1148 ** VC and related modes
1149
1150 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
1151 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
1152 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
1153 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
1154 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
1155
1156 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
1157
1158 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
1159 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
1160 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
1161 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
1162 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
1163
1164 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
1165 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
1166
1167 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
1168 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
1169 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
1170 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1171 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1172 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1173
1174 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1175 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1176
1177 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1178 this was not advertised at the time.
1179
1180 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1181 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1182 this was not advertised at the time.
1183
1184 ** Obsolete modes
1185
1186 *** abbrevlist.el
1187
1188 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1189
1190 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
1191 You can get a comparable behavior with:
1192 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
1193 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
1194
1195 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1196
1197 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1198
1199 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1200
1201 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1202 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1203
1204 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1205
1206 ** Miscellaneous
1207
1208 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1209 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1210
1211 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1212 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1213
1214 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1215
1216 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1217
1218 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1219
1220 \f
1221 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1222
1223 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1224 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1225
1226 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1227 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1228 matching closing one.
1229
1230 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
1231 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
1232 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
1233 electric-indent-functions.
1234
1235 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
1236 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
1237 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
1238
1239 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1240 from which other modes can be derived.
1241
1242 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1243
1244 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
1245 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
1246 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
1247 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
1248 secrets.
1249
1250 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1251 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1252
1253 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1254 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1255
1256 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1257
1258 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
1259 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
1260 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
1261 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
1262 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
1263 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1264
1265 \f
1266 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1267
1268 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
1269 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
1270
1271 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1272
1273 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
1274 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
1275 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
1276 command still toggles the minor mode.
1277
1278 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1279 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
1280 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
1281 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
1282 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
1283
1284 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
1285 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
1286 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
1287 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
1288 argument `bidi-class'.
1289
1290 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1291 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1292 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1293 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1294
1295 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1296 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1297 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1298 of the header line.
1299
1300 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
1301 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
1302 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
1303 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
1304 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1305 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1306 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
1307
1308 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
1309 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
1310 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
1311 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
1312 older Emacsen too.
1313
1314 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
1315 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
1316 replaced all known uses.
1317
1318 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1319 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
1320 major mode is special).
1321
1322 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1323
1324 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1325 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1326 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1327 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1328 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1329 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1330
1331 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1332 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1333
1334 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1335 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
1336 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
1337 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
1338
1339 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
1340 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
1341 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
1342
1343 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1344
1345 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
1346 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
1347 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
1348
1349 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
1350 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
1351 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
1352 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
1353 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
1354 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
1355 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
1356 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
1357 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
1358 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
1359 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
1360 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
1361 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
1362 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
1363 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
1364 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
1365 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
1366 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
1367 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
1368 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
1369 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
1370
1371 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1372 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1373
1374 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
1375 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
1376 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
1377 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
1378 *** `e' (`float-e').
1379
1380 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1381 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1382
1383 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
1384 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
1385 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
1386 `finder-keywords-hash'.
1387
1388 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
1389 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
1390 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
1391
1392 \f
1393 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1394
1395 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1396 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
1397 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
1398 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
1399 file.
1400
1401 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1402 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1403
1404 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1405 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1406
1407 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1408
1409 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1410 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1411
1412 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1413 declared as dynamically bound.
1414
1415 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
1416
1417 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
1418 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
1419 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1420
1421 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1422
1423 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1424 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1425
1426 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1427 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
1428 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
1429 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1430 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
1431 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
1432
1433 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
1434 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
1435 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
1436
1437 ** Window changes
1438
1439 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1440 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1441 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1442 buffer) in the window tree.
1443
1444 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1445 windows.
1446
1447 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1448 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1449 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1450 act on any window including internal ones.
1451
1452 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
1453 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
1454 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
1455 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
1456 and `window-body-height' are provided.
1457
1458 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
1459 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
1460 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
1461 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
1462 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
1463
1464 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
1465 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
1466 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
1467 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
1468 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
1469 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
1470
1471 *** Window resizing functions.
1472 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
1473 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
1474 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
1475
1476 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1477 live window on that frame instead.
1478
1479 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
1480 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
1481 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
1482 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
1483 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
1484 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
1485
1486 *** Window-local buffer lists.
1487 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
1488 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
1489 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
1490 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
1491 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
1492
1493 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
1494 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1495 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1496 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1497
1498 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
1499 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
1500 The old names are kept as aliases.
1501
1502 *** Display actions
1503
1504 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
1505 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
1506 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
1507 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
1508
1509 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1510
1511 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
1512 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
1513 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
1514 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
1515 are user-customizable variables.
1516
1517 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1518
1519 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
1520 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
1521 frame or window as an Elisp object.
1522
1523 ** Completion
1524
1525 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
1526 properties of the current completion:
1527 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1528 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1529
1530 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
1531 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
1532
1533 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
1534
1535 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1536 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1537 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1538 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1539 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1540 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1541 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1542
1543 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
1544 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
1545 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
1546
1547 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
1548 behavior of `completing-read'.
1549
1550 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
1551 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
1552
1553 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
1554 Instead, the offending function is removed.
1555
1556 ** New hook types
1557
1558 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
1559 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
1560 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
1561 non-nil return value.
1562
1563 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
1564 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
1565 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
1566 advertised at the time.)
1567
1568 ** Debugger changes
1569
1570 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
1571 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
1572
1573 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
1574
1575 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
1576
1577 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
1578 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
1579 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
1580
1581 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
1582 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
1583
1584 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
1585 named Emacs server instances.
1586
1587 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
1588 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
1589
1590 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
1591 for higher-resolution time stamps.
1592
1593 ** New input reading functions
1594
1595 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
1596 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
1597
1598 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
1599 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
1600 invalid input.
1601
1602 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
1603
1604 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
1605 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
1606 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
1607 obsolete alias.
1608
1609 ** Syntax parsing changes
1610
1611 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
1612 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
1613 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
1614 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
1615 Together with this new variable come a new hook
1616 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
1617 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
1618 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
1619 syntactic rules.
1620
1621 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
1622
1623 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
1624
1625 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
1626
1627 ** Major and minor mode changes
1628
1629 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
1630 as well as those in the -*- line.
1631
1632 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
1633 should be derived.
1634
1635 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
1636 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
1637 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
1638
1639 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
1640 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
1641
1642 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
1643 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
1644 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
1645
1646 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
1647
1648 ** File-handling changes
1649
1650 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
1651 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
1652 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
1653 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
1654
1655 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
1656
1657 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
1658 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
1659 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
1660
1661 ** Image API
1662
1663 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
1664
1665 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
1666
1667 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
1668
1669 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
1670 is being animated.
1671
1672 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
1673 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
1674
1675 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
1676 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
1677
1678 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
1679 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
1680 ImageMagick installation supports.
1681
1682 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
1683 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
1684 functions.
1685
1686 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
1687 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
1688
1689 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
1690 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
1691 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
1692 `image-transform-set-scale'.
1693
1694 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
1695 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
1696 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
1697 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
1698
1699 ** XML and HTML parsing
1700 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
1701 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
1702 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
1703 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
1704
1705 ** Networking and encryption changes
1706
1707 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
1708 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
1709 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
1710 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
1711 must also be supplied.
1712
1713 *** New library gnutls.el.
1714 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
1715 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
1716 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
1717 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
1718 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
1719 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
1720 greater than 0.
1721
1722 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
1723 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
1724 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
1725
1726 ** Isearch
1727
1728 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
1729
1730 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
1731 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
1732 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
1733 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
1734 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
1735 displayed with a "spinning bar".
1736
1737 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
1738 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
1739
1740 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
1741 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
1742 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
1743 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
1744 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
1745 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
1746
1747 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
1748
1749 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
1750 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
1751 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
1752 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
1753
1754 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
1755 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
1756
1757 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
1758 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
1759 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
1760 an empty uninterned symbol.
1761
1762 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
1763
1764 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
1765
1766 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
1767 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
1768
1769 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
1770 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
1771
1772 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
1773
1774 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
1775 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
1776
1777 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
1778
1779 \f
1780 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
1781
1782 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
1783 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
1784
1785 ** New configure.bat options
1786
1787 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
1788
1789 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
1790
1791 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
1792
1793 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
1794
1795 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
1796
1797 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
1798 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
1799
1800 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
1801 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
1802
1803 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
1804 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
1805
1806 \f
1807 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1808 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1809
1810 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1811 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1812 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1813 (at your option) any later version.
1814
1815 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1816 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1817 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1818 GNU General Public License for more details.
1819
1820 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1821 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1822
1823 \f
1824 Local variables:
1825 mode: outline
1826 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
1827 end: