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
33 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
36 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.2
38 ** Emacs no longer searches for `leim-list.el' files beneath the standard
39 lisp/ directory. There should not be any there anyway. If you have
40 been adding them there, put them somewhere else, eg site-lisp.
43 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
45 ** New functions `system-users', `system-groups' return lists of the user
46 name, group names known to the system (where possible).
48 ** If your Emacs was built from a bzr checkout, the new variable
49 `emacs-bzr-version' contains information about which bzr revision was used.
51 ** ImageMagick support, if available, is automatically enabled.
52 It is no longer necessary to call `imagemagick-register-types'
53 explicitly to install ImageMagick image types; that function is called
54 automatically when setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit'.
56 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
57 ImageMagick to view images, set
59 ** String values for `initial-buffer-choice' also apply to emacsclient
60 frames, if emacsclient is only told to open a new frame without
61 specifying any file to visit or expression to evaluate.
64 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.2
66 ** M-x move-to-column, if called interactively with no prefix arg, now
67 prompts for a column number.
69 ** `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to customize
70 `mouse-avoidance-mode' further.
72 ** `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' will now move to the path name separator
73 character when doing minibuffer filename prompts.
75 ** `goto-char' is now bound to `M-g c'.
78 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
80 ** New `derived-mode' filter for Ibuffer, bound to `/ M'.
81 `/ m' is now bound to filter by used-mode, which used to be bound to `/ M'.
85 *** The faces used by Apropos are now directly customizable.
86 These faces are named `apropos-symbol', `apropos-keybinding', and so on;
87 see the `apropos' Custom group for details.
89 **** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
90 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
94 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
96 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
97 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
100 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
101 channel keys found, if any.
105 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
107 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
108 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
110 ** The `server-auth-key' variable can be used to set a permanent
111 shared key for Emacs Server.
113 ** In Perl mode, new option `perl-indent-parens-as-block' causes non-block
114 closing brackets to be aligned with the line of the opening bracket.
116 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
118 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
123 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
126 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
129 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
130 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
133 *** The function `dbus-call-method' works non-blocking now, it can be
134 interrupted by C-g. `dbus-call-method-non-blocking' is obsolete.
137 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
140 *** The argument list of `dbus-register-signal' has been extended,
141 according to the new match rule types of D-Bus. See the manual for
145 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
148 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
151 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
152 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
155 ** Obsolete packages:
158 In most cases, assoc+member+push+delq work just as well.
159 And in any case it's just a terrible package: ugly semantics, terrible
160 inefficiency, and not namespace-clean.
167 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
169 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.2
172 ** Docstrings starting with `*' no longer indicate user options.
173 Only variables defined using `defcustom' are considered user options.
174 The function `user-variable-p' is now an obsolete alias for
177 ** `face-spec-set' no longer sets frame-specific attributes when the
178 third argument is a frame (that usage was obsolete since Emacs 22.2).
181 ** The arguments of `dbus-register-signal' are no longer just strings,
182 but keywords or keyword-string pairs. The old argument list will
183 still be supported for Emacs 24.x.
186 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.2
190 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
191 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
193 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
194 table, but with a different prefix.
196 * Changes in Emacs 24.2 on non-free operating systems
198 ** New configure.bat options on MS-Windows:
200 *** --without-libxml2 omits support for libxml2, even if its presence
204 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
206 ** Emacs can be compiled with Gtk+ 3.0 if you pass --with-x-toolkit=gtk3
207 to configure. Note that other libraries used by Emacs, RSVG and GConf,
208 also depend on Gtk+. You can disable them with --without-rsvg and
211 ** Emacs can be compiled with GnuTLS support.
212 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
213 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
214 `--without-gnutls'. See below for GnuTLS features.
216 ** Emacs can be compiled with SELinux support.
217 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
218 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
219 `--without-selinux'. See below for SELinux features.
221 ** Emacs can be compiled with ImageMagick support.
222 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
223 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
224 `--without-imagemagick'. See below for ImageMagick features.
225 This feature is not available for the Nextstep or MS ports.
227 ** Emacs can be compiled with libxml2 support.
228 This happens by default if a suitably recent version of the library is
229 found at build time. To prevent this, use the configure option
230 `--without-xml2'. See below for libxml2 features.
232 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
233 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
235 ** New configure option --with-wide-int.
236 With it, Emacs integers typically have 62 bits, even on 32-bit machines.
237 On 32-bit hosts, this raises the limit on buffer sizes from about 512 MiB
240 ** New configure options: --with-mmdf, --with-mail-unlink, --with-mailhost.
241 These provide no new functionality, they just remove the need to edit
242 lib-src/Makefile by hand in order to use the associated features.
244 ** New configure option --enable-use-lisp-union-type.
245 This is only useful for Emacs developers to debug certain types of bugs.
246 This is not a new feature; only the configure flag is new.
248 ** The standalone programs digest-doc and sorted-doc are removed.
249 Emacs now uses Lisp commands `doc-file-to-man' and `doc-file-to-info'.
251 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
252 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
255 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
257 ** The --unibyte, --multibyte, --no-multibyte, and --no-unibyte
258 command line arguments, and the EMACS_UNIBYTE environment variable, no
259 longer have any effect. (They were declared obsolete in Emacs 23.)
261 ** New command line option `--no-site-lisp' removes site-lisp directories
262 from load-path. -Q now implies this. This option does not affect the
263 EMACSLOADPATH environment variable (and hence has no effect for
267 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
271 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
272 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
274 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
276 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
277 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
279 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
281 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
282 default completion style in certain circumstances.
284 *** New completion style `substring'.
286 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
288 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
292 *** The first time you try sending mail, Emacs asks for a mail method.
293 This is implemented by a new default for `send-mail-function', which
294 is `sendmail-query-once'. This offers to use the smtpmail package, or
295 to use the old defaults relying on external mail facilities
296 (`sendmail-send-it' on GNU/Linux and other Unix-like systems, and
297 `mailclient-send-it' on Windows).
299 *** Typing C-c m in the buffer made by M-x report-emacs-bug transfers
300 the report to your desktop's preferred mail client, if there is one.
301 This uses either the "xdg-email" utility, or Mac OS's "open" command.
303 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
304 and Mail mode changes
306 ** Emacs server and client changes
308 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
310 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
312 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
313 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
315 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
316 its exit status is 1.
318 *** New emacsclient argument --parent-id ID.
319 This opens a client frame in parent X window ID, via XEmbed, similar
320 to the --parent-id argument to Emacs.
322 ** Internationalization changes
324 *** Emacs now supports display and editing of bidirectional text.
325 Right-to-left (RTL) scripts, such as Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew, are
326 displayed in the correct visual order as expected by users of those
327 scripts. The display reordering is a "full bidirectionality" class
328 implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm (UBA). Buffers
329 with no RTL text should look exactly the same as before.
331 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
332 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
334 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-paragraph-direction'.
335 If nil (the default), Emacs determines the base direction of each
336 paragraph from its text, as specified by the UBA. Setting the value
337 to `right-to-left' or `left-to-right' forces a base direction on each
340 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
341 the right window edge.
343 *** Enhanced support for characters with no glyphs in available fonts,
344 or, on text terminals, characters that cannot be encoded by the
345 terminal coding system. The new option `glyphless-char-display-control'
346 specifies how to display them: as a hexadecimal code in a box, a thin
347 1-pixel space, an empty box, etc.
349 *** New input methods: farsi, farsi-translit, bulgarian-alt-phonetic.
351 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
354 *** New Hebrew translation of the Emacs Tutorial.
355 Type `C-u C-h t' to choose it in case your language setup doesn't
356 automatically select it.
358 ** An Emacs Lisp package manager is now included.
359 This is a convenient way to download and install additional packages,
360 from a package repository at http://elpa.gnu.org.
362 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
363 selected for installation.
365 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
367 *** By default, all installed packages are loaded automatically when
368 Emacs starts up. To disable this, set `package-enable-at-startup' to
369 nil. To specify the packages to load, customize `package-load-list'.
371 ** Custom theme changes
373 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
374 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
376 *** New option `custom-theme-load-path' is the load path for themes.
377 Emacs no longer looks for Custom themes in `load-path'. The default
378 value of `custom-theme-load-path' says to look for themes in
379 `custom-theme-directory', followed by a subdirectory of
380 `data-directory' named "themes/", which contains a small selection of
381 built-in Custom themes.
383 *** New option `custom-safe-themes' records known-safe theme files.
384 If a theme is not in this list, Emacs queries before loading it, and
385 offers to save the theme to `custom-safe-themes' automatically. By
386 default, all themes included in Emacs are treated as safe.
388 ** Improved GTK integration
390 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
391 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
393 *** GTK tool bars can have just text, just images or images and text.
394 Customize `tool-bar-style' to choose the style. On a Gnome desktop,
395 the default is taken from desktop settings.
397 *** GTK tool bars can be placed on any edge of the frame.
398 The frame-parameter tool-bar-position controls this. It takes the
399 values top, left, right or bottom. The Options => Show/Hide menu has
402 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
403 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
405 *** Emacs uses GTK tooltips by default if built with GTK.
406 You can disable this by changing `x-gtk-use-system-tooltips' to nil.
408 ** Graphical interface changes
410 *** On graphical displays, the mode-line no longer ends in dashes.
411 Also, the first dash (which does not indicate anything) is just
412 displayed as a space.
414 *** `menu-bar-select-buffer-function' lets you choose another operation
415 instead of `switch-to-buffer' when selecting an item in the Buffers menu.
417 *** Lucid menus and dialogs can display antialiased fonts if Emacs is
418 built with Xft. These fonts can be set via X resources, for example:
419 Emacs.pane.menubar.font: Courier-12
423 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
424 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
426 *** `kill-emacs-hook' is now also run in batch mode.
427 Third-party code which adds to `kill-emacs-hook' should check if they
428 do the right thing in batch mode.
432 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-command' and `scroll-down-command'
433 (bound to C-v/[next] and M-v/[prior]) do not signal errors at top/bottom
434 of buffer at first key-press (instead they move to top/bottom of buffer)
435 when `scroll-error-top-bottom' is non-nil.
437 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
439 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
440 scroll a line instead of full screen.
442 *** New property `scroll-command' should be set on a command's symbol to
443 define it as a scroll command affected by `scroll-preserve-screen-position'.
445 *** If you customize `scroll-conservatively' to a value greater than 100,
446 Emacs will never recenter point in the window when it scrolls due to
447 cursor motion commands or commands that move point (e.f., `M-g M-g').
448 Previously, you needed to use `most-positive-fixnum' as the value of
449 `scroll-conservatively' to achieve the same effect.
451 *** "Aggressive" scrolling now honors the scroll margins.
452 If you customize `scroll-up-aggressively' or
453 `scroll-down-aggressively' and move point off the window, Emacs now
454 scrolls the window so as to avoid positioning point inside the scroll
457 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
458 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
460 *** Emacs preserves the SELinux file context when backing up.
461 Also, the function `copy-file' has an extra optional argument for
462 preserving SELinux context, and the return value of `backup-buffer'
463 now includes the SELinux context.
465 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
466 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
470 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
471 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
473 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
474 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
476 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
478 *** You can stop directory local vars from applying to subdirectories.
479 Add an element (subdirs . nil) to the alist portion of any variables
480 settings to indicate that the section should not apply to
483 *** Directory local variables can apply to some file-less buffers.
484 Affected modes include dired, vc-dir, and log-edit. For example,
485 adding "(diff-mode . ((mode . whitespace)))" to .dir-locals.el will
486 turn on `whitespace-mode' for *vc-diff* buffers. Modes should call
487 `hack-dir-local-variables-non-file-buffer' to support this.
489 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
490 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
492 *** The variable `inhibit-first-line-modes-regexps' has been renamed
493 to `inhibit-local-variables-regexps'. As the name suggests, it now
494 applies to ALL file local variables, not just -*- lines. The
495 associated `inhibit-first-line-modes-suffixes' has been renamed in the
500 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
501 in the quitted window.
503 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
504 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
506 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
508 **** New option `display-buffer-base-action' specifies a list of
509 user-determined display "actions" (functions and optional arguments
510 for choosing the displaying window).
512 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
513 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
515 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
516 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
518 *** New option `window-combination-limit'.
519 The new option `window-combination-limit' allows to return the space
520 obtained for resizing or creating a window more reliably to the window
521 from which such space was obtained.
523 *** New option `window-combination-resize'.
524 The new option `window-combination-resize' allows to split a window that
525 otherwise cannot be split because it's too small by stealing space from
526 other windows in the same combination. Subsequent resizing or deletion
527 of the window will resize all windows in the same combination as well.
529 *** New option `frame-auto-hide-function' lets you choose between
530 iconifying or deleting a frame when burying a buffer in a dedicated
531 frame, or quitting a window showing a buffer in a frame of its own.
533 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
534 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
536 *** New commands `switch-to-prev-buffer' and `switch-to-next-buffer'.
537 These functions allow to navigate through the live buffers that have
538 been shown in a specific window.
540 ** Minibuffer changes
542 *** The inactive minibuffer has its own major mode `minibuffer-inactive-mode'.
543 This is handy for minibuffer-only frames, and is also used for the feature
544 where mouse-1 pops up *Messages*"', which can now easily be changed.
546 *** Minibuffers set `truncate-lines' to nil.
547 If you want to change the value to something else, you could use
548 for example `minibuffer-setup-hook'.
550 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
552 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
554 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
555 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
556 successful operation.
558 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
559 for `list-colors-display'.
561 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
564 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
568 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
571 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
574 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
576 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
578 *** M-= is bound to `count-words-region', not `count-lines-region'.
579 The `count-words-region' command, when called interactively, reports
580 the number of lines, words, and characters in the region. It is a
581 superset of the old `count-lines-region', which is now an obsolete
584 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
585 also deletes newlines around point.
589 *** New option `delete-active-region'.
590 If non-nil, [delete] and DEL delete the region if it is active and no
591 prefix argument is given. If set to `kill', those commands kill
594 *** New command `delete-forward-char', bound to [delete].
595 This is meant for interactive use, and obeys `delete-active-region'.
596 The command `delete-char' does not obey `delete-active-region'.
598 *** `delete-backward-char' is now a Lisp function.
599 Apart from obeying `delete-active-region', its behavior is unchanged.
600 However, the byte compiler now warns if it is called from Lisp; Lisp
601 callers should use delete-char with a negative argument instead.
603 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
605 ** Selection changes.
607 The default handling of clipboard and primary selections has been
608 changed to conform with modern X applications. In short, most
609 commands for killing and yanking text now use the clipboard, while
610 mouse commands use the primary selection.
612 In the following, we provide a list of these changes, followed by a
613 list of steps to get the old behavior back if you prefer that.
615 *** `select-active-regions' now defaults to t.
616 Merely selecting text (e.g. with drag-mouse-1) no longer puts it in
617 the kill ring. The selected text is put in the primary selection, if
618 the system possesses a separate primary selection facility (e.g. X).
620 **** `select-active-regions' also accepts a new value, `only'.
621 This means to only set the primary selection for temporarily active
622 regions (usually made by mouse-dragging or shift-selection);
623 "ordinary" active regions, such as those made with C-SPC followed by
624 point motion, do not alter the primary selection.
626 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
628 *** mouse-2 is now bound to `mouse-yank-primary'.
629 This pastes from the primary selection, ignoring the kill-ring.
630 Previously, mouse-2 was bound to `mouse-yank-at-click'.
632 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
634 *** `x-select-enable-primary' now defaults to nil.
635 Thus, commands that kill text or copy it to the kill-ring (such as
636 M-w, C-w, and C-k) also use the clipboard---not the primary selection.
638 **** The "Copy", "Cut", and "Paste" items in the "Edit" menu are now
639 exactly equivalent to M-w, C-w, and C-y respectively.
641 **** Note that on MS-Windows, `x-select-enable-clipboard' was already
642 non-nil by default, as Windows does not support the primary selection
643 between applications.
645 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
647 **** Change `select-active-regions' to nil.
648 **** Change `mouse-drag-copy-region' to t.
649 **** Change `x-select-enable-primary' to t (on X only).
650 **** Change `x-select-enable-clipboard' to nil.
651 **** Bind `mouse-yank-at-click' to mouse-2.
653 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
655 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
656 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
658 ** New command `C-x r N' (`rectangle-number-lines') numbers the lines
659 in the current rectangle. With a prefix argument, this prompts for a
660 number to count from and for a format string.
662 ** `redisplay-dont-pause' now defaults to t.
663 This makes Emacs feel more responsive to editing commands that arrive
664 at high rate, e.g. if you lean on some key, because stopping redisplay
665 in the middle (when this variable is nil) forces more expensive
666 updates later on, and Emacs appears to be unable to keep up.
668 ** The behavior of <TAB> for active regions in Text mode has changed.
669 In Text and related modes, typing <TAB> (`indent-for-tab-command')
670 when the region is active causes Emacs to indent all the lines in the
671 region, aligning them with the line previous to the first line in the
672 region (or with the left margin if there is no previous line).
674 ** When `occur' is called with a prefix argument, matching strings are
675 collected into the `*Occur*' buffer without line numbers. If there
676 are parenthesized subexpressions in the specified regexp, `occur'
677 reads replacement text that may contain \\& and \\N whose convention
678 follows `replace-match'.
681 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
683 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
687 *** BibTeX mode now supports biblatex.
688 Use the variable `bibtex-dialect' to select different BibTeX dialects.
689 `bibtex-entry-field-alist' is now an obsolete alias for
690 `bibtex-BibTeX-entry-alist'.
692 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
694 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
696 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
700 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
702 *** The default browser used by the package is now the "xdg-open" program,
703 on platforms that support it. This calls your desktop's preferred browser.
705 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
707 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
708 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
710 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
711 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
713 *** The function specified by `appt-disp-window-function' may be passed
714 lists of arguments if multiple appointments are due at similar times.
715 If you are using a custom function for this, you should update it.
717 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
719 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
720 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
722 *** The obsolete (since Emacs 22.1) method of enabling the appt
723 package by adding `appt-make-list' to `diary-hook' has been removed.
724 Use `appt-activate' instead.
726 *** Some appt variables (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
727 appt-issue-message (use the function appt-activate)
728 appt-visible/appt-msg-window (use the variable appt-display-format)
730 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
731 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
735 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
736 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
738 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
740 *** `c-beginning-of-defun' and `c-end-of-defun' now respect nested scopes.
741 Thus C-M-a will, by default, go to the beginning of the immediate function,
744 *** "Macros with semicolons" can be registered for correct indentation.
745 Where such a macro ends a line (no semicolon) the next statement is no longer
746 parsed as a statement continuation.
748 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
752 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
753 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
755 *** New variable `compilation-filter-start', which is bound while
756 `compilation-filter-hook' runs. It records the start position of the
757 text inserted by `compilation-filter'.
759 *** `compilation-error-screen-columns' and `compilation-first-column'
760 are obeyed in the editing buffer. So programming language modes can
761 set them, whereas previously only the value in the *Compilation*
766 *** Customize buffers now contain a search field.
767 The search is performed using `customize-apropos'.
768 To turn off the search field, set `custom-search-field' to nil.
770 *** Custom options now start out hidden if at their default values.
771 Use the arrow to the left of the option name to toggle visibility.
773 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
775 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
776 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
780 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
783 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
784 optionally do not register names.
786 *** The new function `dbus-register-service' registers a known service
787 name on a D-Bus without also registering a property or a method.
791 *** C-x C-j (`dired-jump') and C-x 4 C-j (`dired-jump-other-window'),
792 if called with a prefix argument, read a file name from the minibuffer
793 instead of using the current buffer.
795 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
796 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
800 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
801 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
803 *** New variable `erc-coding-system-precedence': If we use `undecided'
804 as the server coding system, this variable will then be consulted.
805 The default is to decode strings that can be decoded as utf-8 as
806 utf-8, and do the normal `undecided' decoding for the rest.
810 *** The default value of `eshell-directory-name' has changed
811 to be an "eshell" directory in `user-emacs-directory'.
812 The old "~/.eshell/" directory is still used if it exists, though.
816 *** The M-x gdb command now uses the GDB Machine Interface protocol.
817 It now supports multithread non-stop debugging and simultaneous
818 debugging of several threads.
822 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
823 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
827 *** New command M-x info-display-manual displays a named Info manual.
828 If that manual is already visited in some Info buffer, it displays
829 that buffer. (This is handy if you have many manuals in many *info*
830 buffers, and don't remember the name of the buffer visiting the manual
831 you want to consult.) Otherwise, it loads and displays the manual.
833 *** `e' is now bound to `end-of-buffer' rather than to `Info-edit'.
834 This is for compatibility with the stand-alone Info reader program,
835 and also because `Info-edit' is a rarely used command that is disabled
838 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
840 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
842 *** The command M-x mail-attach-file was renamed to M-x mail-insert-file.
843 (Its name is misleading, since it has nothing to do with MIME
844 attachments.) The old name is now an obsolete alias to the new name.
846 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
847 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
849 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
851 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
853 ** nXML mode no longer binds C-RET to `nxml-complete'.
854 Completion is now performed via `completion-at-point', bound to C-M-i
855 or M-TAB. If `nxml-bind-meta-tab-to-complete-flag' is non-nil (the
856 default), this performs tag completion.
858 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
859 See ORG-NEWS for details.
861 ** Prolog mode has been completely revamped, with lots of additional
862 functionality such as more intelligent indentation, electricity,
863 support for more variants, including Mercury, and a lot more.
867 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
868 in the Rmail incoming message.
870 *** The variable `rmail-message-filter' no longer has any effect.
871 This change was made in Emacs 23.1 but was not advertised at the time.
872 Try using `rmail-show-message-hook' instead.
876 *** M-x shell prompts for the shell path name if the default directory
877 is a remote file name and neither the environment variable $ESHELL nor
878 the variable `explicit-shell-file-name' is set.
880 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
881 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
885 *** SMTPmail now uses encrypted connections (via STARTTLS) by default
886 if the mail server supports them. This uses either built-in GnuTLS
887 support, or the starttls.el library. Customize `smtpmail-stream-type'
890 *** The variable `smtpmail-auth-credentials' has been removed.
891 By default, the information is now stored in the file ~/.authinfo.
892 This was the default value of smtpmail-auth-credentials. If you had
893 customized smtpmail-auth-credentials to a list of user names and
894 passwords, those settings are not used. During your first connection
895 to the smtp server, Emacs will prompt for the user name and password,
896 and offer to save them to ~/.authinfo. Or you can manually copy the
897 credentials to ~/.authinfo. For example, if you had
899 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
900 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
902 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
904 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
906 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
907 the credentials file.
909 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
910 If you had that set, you need to put
912 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
914 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
918 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
919 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
921 *** New options controlling prompting for login parameters.
922 Each supported product has a custom variable `sql-*-login-params',
923 which is a list of the parameters to be prompted for before a
924 connection is established.
926 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
927 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
929 *** Product-specific SQL interactive commands now take prefix arguments.
930 These commands (`sql-sqlite', `sql-postgres', `sql-mysql', etc.),
931 given a prefix argument, prompt for a name for the SQL interactive
932 buffer. This reduces the need for calling `sql-rename-buffer'.
934 *** SQL interactive modes suppress command continuation prompts, and
935 replace tabs with spaces. The first change impacts multiple line SQL
936 statements entered with C-j between each line, statements yanked into
937 the buffer and statements sent with `sql-send-*' functions. The
938 second prevents the MySQL and Postgres interpreters from listing
939 object name completions when sent text via `sql-send-*' functions.
941 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
942 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
944 *** New "Save Connection" menu item in SQLi buffers.
945 This gathers the login params specified for the SQLi session, if it
946 was not started by a connection, and saves them as a new connection.
948 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
949 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
951 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
955 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
959 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
961 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
962 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
964 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
965 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
967 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
970 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
971 for remote machines which support SELinux.
973 ** New function `url-queue-retrieve', which behaves like url-retrieve,
974 but with limits (`url-queue-parallel-processes', `url-queue-timeout') on
975 the degree of parallelism.
977 ** VC and related modes
979 *** Support for pulling on distributed version control systems.
980 The command C-x v + (`vc-pull') runs a "pull" operation, if it is
981 supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to update the
982 current branch and working tree. A prefix argument means to prompt
983 the user for specifics, e.g. a pull location.
985 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
987 *** Support for merging on distributed version control systems.
988 The command C-x v m (`vc-merge') now runs a "merge" operation, if it
989 is supported (currently with Bzr, Git, and Mercurial), to merge
990 changes from another branch into the current one. It prompts for
991 specifics, e.g. a merge source.
993 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
994 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
996 *** Log entries in some Log View buffers can be toggled to display a
997 longer description by typing RET (log-view-toggle-entry-display).
998 This is currently supported for Bzr, Git, and Mercurial (to support
999 another backend, define a `log-view-expanded-log-entry-function').
1000 In the Log View buffers made by C-x v L (`vc-print-root-log'), you can
1001 use this to display the full log entry for the revision at point.
1003 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1004 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1006 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1007 this was not advertised at the time.
1009 *** `vc-toggle-read-only' is an obsolete alias for `toggle-read-only'.
1010 Since Emacs 23, it has done the same thing as `toggle-read-only', but
1011 this was not advertised at the time.
1017 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1019 *** partial-completion-mode (complete.el) is obsolete.
1020 You can get a comparable behavior with:
1021 (setq completion-styles '(partial-completion initials))
1022 (setq completion-pcm-complete-word-inserts-delimiters t)
1024 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1026 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1028 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1030 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1031 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1033 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1037 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1038 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1040 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1041 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1043 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1045 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1047 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1050 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1052 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1053 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1055 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1056 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1057 matching closing one.
1059 ** New global minor mode electric-indent-mode.
1060 When enabled, typing certain characters triggers reindentation.
1061 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-indent-chars or
1062 electric-indent-functions.
1064 ** New global minor mode electric-layout-mode.
1065 When enabled, typing certain characters automatically inserts newlines.
1066 Major modes wishing to use this can set electric-layout-rules.
1068 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1069 from which other modes can be derived.
1071 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1073 ** secrets.el is an implementation of the Secret Service API, an
1074 interface to password managers like GNOME Keyring or KDE Wallet. The
1075 Secret Service API requires D-Bus for communication. The command
1076 `secrets-show-secrets' offers a buffer with a visualization of the
1079 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1080 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1082 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1083 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1085 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1087 ** New emacs-lock.el package.
1088 The previous version has been moved to obsolete/old-emacs-lock.el.
1089 Now, there is a proper minor mode `emacs-lock-mode'. Protection
1090 against exiting Emacs and killing the buffer can be set separately.
1091 The mechanism for automatically turning off protection for buffers
1092 with dead inferior processes has been generalized.
1095 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1097 ** Passing a nil argument to a minor mode function call now ENABLES
1098 the minor mode unconditionally. This is so that you can write e.g.
1100 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1102 to enable foo-mode in Text mode buffers, removing the need for
1103 `turn-on-foo-mode' style functions. This affects all mode commands
1104 defined by `define-minor-mode'. If called interactively, the mode
1105 command still toggles the minor mode.
1107 ** The return value of `backup-buffer' has changed.
1108 It is now a list of three elements, where the second element is a list
1109 describing the original file's SELinux context. If Emacs or the
1110 system lacks SELinux support, the context list is (nil nil nil nil).
1111 See "Basic SELinux support" above, under "Changes in Emacs 24.1".
1113 ** `char-direction-table' and the `char-direction' function were deleted.
1114 They were buggy and inferior to the new support of bidirectional
1115 editing introduced in Emacs 24. If you need the bidirectional
1116 properties of a character, use `get-char-code-property' with the last
1117 argument `bidi-class'.
1119 ** `copy-directory' now copies the source directory as a subdirectory
1120 of the target directory, if the latter is an existing directory. The
1121 new optional arg COPY-CONTENTS, if non-nil, makes the function copy
1122 the contents directly into a pre-existing target directory.
1124 ** For mouse click input events in the text area, the Y pixel
1125 coordinate in the POSITION list now counts from the top of the text
1126 area, excluding any header line. Previously, it counted from the top
1129 ** Support for "old-style" backquotes, obsolete for 10+ years, has
1130 been further reduced. Now a backquote not followed by a space is
1131 always treated as a "new-style" backquote. Please remove all
1132 "old-style" backquotes from your code. If your code uses backquotes
1133 as documented in the Elisp manual, and compiles without warning, then
1134 you have nothing to do in this regard. Code not following the
1135 appropriate conventions may fail to compile.
1137 The most common cause of trouble seems to be an old-style backquote
1138 followed by a newline. Another cause of trouble is vector notation
1139 for key sequence notation: instead of [(control ,)] and [(control ')],
1140 you should write [(control ?,)] and [(control ?')], which will work in
1143 ** The macro `eval-at-startup' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but this
1144 was not advertised at the time. The function `custom-initialize-delay'
1145 replaced all known uses.
1147 ** `view-buffer' now treats special mode-class in the same way that
1148 `view-file' has since Emacs 22 (i.e. it won't enable View mode if the
1149 major mode is special).
1151 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1153 *** During startup, Emacs no longer adds entries for `menu-bar-lines'
1154 and `tool-bar-lines' to `default-frame-alist' and `initial-frame-alist'.
1155 With these alist entries omitted, `make-frame' checks the value of the
1156 variable `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode' to determine whether to create
1157 a menu-bar or tool-bar, respectively. If the alist entries are added,
1158 they override the value of `menu-bar-mode'/`tool-bar-mode'.
1160 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1161 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1163 ** Regions created by mouse dragging are now normal active regions,
1164 similar to those created by shift-selection (see Selection changes
1165 above). In previous Emacs versions, these regions were delineated by
1166 `mouse-drag-overlay'; that variable has been removed.
1168 ** The fourth argument of `filter-buffer-substring' has been removed.
1169 If you want to remove text properties from the final result, simply
1170 pass the result through substring-no-properties.
1172 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1174 ** The following obsolete functions and aliases have been removed
1175 (the appropriate new function is given in parentheses; "not needed"
1176 means you can just remove all calls to the function in question):
1178 *** `comint-kill-output' (`comint-delete-output')
1179 *** `decompose-composite-char' (`char-to-string')
1180 *** `outline-visible' (`outline-invisible-p')
1181 *** `internal-find-face' (`facep')
1182 *** `internal-get-face' (`facep and check-face')
1183 *** `frame-update-faces' (not needed)
1184 *** `frame-update-face-colors' (`frame-set-background-mode')
1185 *** `x-frob-font-weight' and `x-frob-font-slant' (`make-face-*' functions)
1186 *** `x-make-font-bold and x-make-font-demibold (`make-face-bold')
1187 *** `x-make-font-italic' and `x-make-font-oblique' (`make-face-italic')
1188 *** `x-make-font-bold-italic' (`make-face-bold-italic')
1189 *** `x-make-font-unbold' (`make-face-unbold')
1190 *** `x-make-font-unitalic' (`make-face-unitalic')
1191 *** `mldrag-drag-mode-line' (`mouse-drag-mode-line')
1192 *** `mldrag-drag-vertical-line' (`mouse-drag-vertical-line')
1193 *** `iswitchb-default-keybindings' (`iswitchb-mode')
1194 *** `char-bytes' (== 1)
1195 *** `isearch-return-char' (`isearch-printing-char')
1196 *** `make-local-hook' (not needed)
1197 *** `set-screen-height' (`set-frame-height')
1198 *** `set-screen-width' (`set-frame-width')
1200 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1201 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1203 *** `checkdoc-minor-keymap' (`checkdoc-minor-mode-map')
1204 *** `vc-header-alist' (`vc-BACKEND-header')
1205 *** `directory-sep-char' (== ?/)
1206 *** `font-lock-defaults-alist' (`font-lock-defaults')
1207 *** `e' (`float-e').
1209 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1210 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1212 ** The format of the finder-inf.el file has changed, since the Finder
1213 mechanism is now based on the package system. The variable
1214 `finder-package-info' is replaced by `package--builtins' and
1215 `finder-keywords-hash'.
1217 ** When generating autoloads, `update-directory-autoloads' no longer
1218 assumes every inspected file is in your `load-path'. It instead
1219 generates relative names according to the current `load-path'.
1222 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1224 ** Code can now use lexical scoping by default instead of dynamic scoping.
1225 The `lexical-binding' variable enables lexical scoping for local
1226 variables. It is typically set via a file-local variable in the first
1227 line of the file, in which case it applies to all the code in that
1230 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1231 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1233 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1234 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1236 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1238 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1239 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1241 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1242 declared as dynamically bound.
1244 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
1246 ** An Emacs Lisp testing tool is now included.
1247 Emacs Lisp developers can use this tool to write automated tests for
1248 their code. See the ERT info manual for details.
1250 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1252 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1253 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1255 *** New function `bidi-string-mark-left-to-right'.
1256 Given a string containing characters from right-to-left scripts, this
1257 function returns another string which can be safely inserted into a
1258 buffer, such that any following text will be always displayed to the
1259 right of that string. (This works by appending an invisible Unicode
1260 "LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK" character if the argument string might need it.)
1262 This is useful when the buffer has overall left-to-right paragraph
1263 direction and you need to insert a string whose contents are not known
1264 in advance, without disrupting the layout of the line.
1268 *** Window tree functions are accessible in Elisp.
1269 Functions are provided to return the parent, siblings or child windows
1270 of any window including internal windows (windows not associated with a
1271 buffer) in the window tree.
1273 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1276 **** Window manipulation can deal with internal windows.
1277 Many window handling functions like `split-window', `delete-window', or
1278 `delete-other-windows' as well as the window resizing functions can now
1279 act on any window including internal ones.
1281 *** window-total-height/-width vs window-body-height/-width.
1282 The function `window-height' has been renamed to `window-total-height'
1283 and `window-width' has been renamed to `window-body-width'. The old
1284 names are provided as aliases. Two new functions `window-total-width'
1285 and `window-body-height' are provided.
1287 *** Window parameters specific to window handling functions.
1288 For each window you can specify a parameter to override the default
1289 behavior of a number of functions like `split-window', `delete-window'
1290 and `delete-other-windows'. The variable `ignore-window-parameters'
1291 allows to ignore processing such parameters.
1293 *** New semantics of third argument of `split-window'.
1294 The third argument of `split-window' has been renamed to SIDE and can be
1295 set to any of the values 'below, 'right, 'above, or 'left to make the
1296 new window appear on the corresponding side of the window that shall be
1297 split. Any other value of SIDE will cause `split-window' to split the
1298 window into two side-by-side windows as before.
1300 *** Window resizing functions.
1301 A new standard function for resizing windows called `window-resize' has
1302 been introduced. This and all other functions for resizing windows no
1303 longer delete any windows when they become too small.
1305 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1306 live window on that frame instead.
1308 *** `adjust-window-trailing-edge' adjustments.
1309 `adjust-window-trailing-edge' can now deal with fixed-size windows and
1310 is able to resize other windows if a window adjacent to the trailing
1311 edge cannot be shrunk any more. This makes its behavior more similar to
1312 that of Emacs 21 without compromising, however, its inability to delete
1313 windows which was introduced in Emacs 22.
1315 *** Window-local buffer lists.
1316 Windows now have local buffer lists. This means that removing a buffer
1317 from display in a window will preferably show the buffer previously
1318 shown in that window with its previous window-start and window-point
1319 positions. This also means that the same buffer may be automatically
1320 shown twice even if it already appears in another window.
1322 *** `switch-to-buffer' has a new optional argument FORCE-SAME-WINDOW,
1323 which if non-nil requires the buffer to be displayed in the currently
1324 selected window, signaling an error otherwise. If nil, another window
1325 can be used, e.g. if the selected one is strongly dedicated.
1327 *** `split-window-vertically' and `split-window-horizontally' renamed
1328 to `split-window-below' and `split-window-right' respectively.
1329 The old names are kept as aliases.
1333 **** The second arg to `display-buffer' and `pop-to-buffer' is now
1334 named ACTION, and takes a display action of the same form as
1335 `display-buffer-base-action' (see Changes, above). A non-nil,
1336 non-list value is treated specially, as the old meaning.
1338 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1340 **** The procedure of `display-buffer' etc. to choose a window is
1341 determined by combining `display-buffer-overriding-action',
1342 `display-buffer-alist', the ACTION arg, `display-buffer-base-action',
1343 and `display-buffer-fallback-action'. The second and fourth of these
1344 are user-customizable variables.
1346 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1348 *** New functions `window-state-get' and `window-state-put'.
1349 These functions allow to save and restore the state of an arbitrary
1350 frame or window as an Elisp object.
1354 *** New variable `completion-extra-properties' used to specify extra
1355 properties of the current completion:
1356 - :annotate-function, same as the old completion-annotate-function.
1357 - :exit-function, function to call after completion took place.
1359 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
1360 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
1362 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
1364 *** New `metadata' method for completion tables. The metadata thus returned
1365 can specify various details of the data returned by `all-completions':
1366 - `category' is the kind of objects returned (e.g., `buffer', `file', ...),
1367 used to select a style in completion-category-overrides.
1368 - `annotation-function' to add annotations in *Completions*.
1369 - `display-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries in *Completions*.
1370 - `cycle-sort-function' to specify how to sort entries when cycling.
1372 *** `minibuffer-local-filename-must-match-map' is not used any more.
1373 Instead, the bindings in `minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map'
1374 are combined with `minibuffer-local-must-match-map'.
1376 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
1377 behavior of `completing-read'.
1379 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
1380 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
1382 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
1383 Instead, the offending function is removed.
1387 *** New function `run-hook-wrapped' for running an abnormal hook by
1388 passing the hook functions as arguments to a "wrapping" function.
1389 Like `run-hook-with-args-until-success', it stops at the first
1390 non-nil return value.
1392 *** New macro `with-wrapper-hook' for running an abnormal hook as a
1393 set of "wrapping" filters, similar to around advice.
1394 (A version of this macro was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not
1395 advertised at the time.)
1399 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
1400 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
1402 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
1404 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
1406 *** The debugger can now "continue" from an error, which means it will
1407 jump to the error handler as if the debugger had not been invoked
1408 instead of jumping all the way to the top-level.
1410 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
1411 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
1413 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
1414 named Emacs server instances.
1416 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
1417 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
1419 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
1420 for higher-resolution time stamps.
1422 ** New input reading functions
1424 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
1425 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
1427 *** The command `read-color' now requires a match for a color name
1428 or RGB triplet, instead of signaling an error if the user provides
1431 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
1433 ** `image-library-alist' is renamed to `dynamic-library-alist'.
1434 The variable is now used to load all kind of supported dynamic libraries,
1435 not just image libraries. The previous name is still available as an
1438 ** Syntax parsing changes
1440 *** New variable `syntax-propertize-function'.
1441 This replaces `font-lock-syntactic-keywords' which is now obsolete.
1442 This allows syntax-table properties to be set independently from font-lock:
1443 just call syntax-propertize to make sure the text is propertized.
1444 Together with this new variable come a new hook
1445 syntax-propertize-extend-region-functions, as well as two helper functions:
1446 syntax-propertize-via-font-lock to reuse old font-lock-syntactic-keywords
1447 as-is; and syntax-propertize-rules which provides a new way to specify
1450 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
1452 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
1454 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
1456 ** Major and minor mode changes
1458 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
1459 as well as those in the -*- line.
1461 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
1464 **** `prog-mode-hook' can be used to enable features for programming
1465 modes, e.g. (add-hook 'prog-mode-hook 'flyspell-prog-mode) to enable
1466 on-the-fly spell checking for comments and strings.
1468 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
1469 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
1471 *** Enabled globalized minor modes can be disabled in specific major modes.
1472 If the global mode is global-FOO-mode, then run (FOO-mode -1) in the
1473 major mode's hook, where FOO-mode toggles the mode on a per-buffer basis.
1475 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
1477 ** File-handling changes
1479 *** `delete-file' and `delete-directory' now accept optional arg TRASH.
1480 Trashing is performed if TRASH and `delete-by-moving-to-trash' are
1481 both non-nil. Interactively, TRASH defaults to t, unless a prefix
1482 argument is supplied (see Trash changes, above).
1484 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
1486 ** Tool-bars can display separators.
1487 Tool-bar separators are handled like menu separators in menu-bar maps,
1488 i.e. via menu entries of the form `(menu-item "--")'.
1492 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
1494 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
1496 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
1498 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
1501 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
1502 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
1504 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
1505 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
1507 **** New function `imagemagick-types', defined if ImageMagick support
1508 is enabled, returns a list of image file extensions that your
1509 ImageMagick installation supports.
1511 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
1512 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
1515 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
1516 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
1518 **** With ImageMagick support, there are extra Image mode commands to
1519 resize and rotate images: `image-transform-fit-to-height',
1520 `image-transform-fit-to-width', `image-transform-set-rotation', and
1521 `image-transform-set-scale'.
1523 ** `compose-mail' now accepts an optional 8th arg, RETURN-ACTION, and
1524 passes it to the mail user agent function. This argument specifies an
1525 action for returning to the caller after finishing with the mail. For
1526 example, this is used by Rmail to optionally delete a mail window.
1528 ** XML and HTML parsing
1529 If Emacs is compiled with libxml2 support, there are two new
1530 functions: `libxml-parse-html-region' (which parses "real world" HTML)
1531 and `libxml-parse-xml-region' (which parses XML). Both return an
1532 Emacs Lisp parse tree.
1534 ** Networking and encryption changes
1536 *** `open-network-stream' can now be used to open an encrypted stream.
1537 It now accepts an optional `:type' parameter for initiating a TLS
1538 connection, directly or via STARTTLS. To do STARTTLS, additional
1539 parameters (`:end-of-command', `:success', `:capabilities-command')
1540 must also be supplied.
1542 *** New library gnutls.el.
1543 The new function `gnutls-available-p' returns non-nil if Emacs is
1544 built with GnuTLS support. The main entry points are
1545 `open-gnutls-stream' and `gnutls-negotiate'. It's easiest to use
1546 these functions through `open-network-stream', because that can
1547 upgrade connections through STARTTLS opportunistically or use plain
1548 SSL, depending on your needs. For debugging, set `gnutls-log-level'
1551 *** New primitive `secure-hash' that supports many secure hash algorithms:
1552 md5, sha1, sha2, sha224, sha256, sha384, and sha512. The lisp library
1553 sha1.el has been removed. The `sha1' feature is provided by default.
1557 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
1559 ** Progress reporters can now "spin".
1560 The MIN-VALUE and MAX-VALUE arguments of `make-progress-reporter' can
1561 now be nil, or omitted. This makes a "non-numeric" reporter. Each
1562 time you call `progress-reporter-update' on that progress reporter,
1563 with a nil or omitted VALUE argument, the reporter message is
1564 displayed with a "spinning bar".
1566 ** New variable `revert-buffer-in-progress-p' is true while a buffer is
1567 being reverted, even if the buffer has a local `revert-buffer-function'.
1569 ** New variables `delayed-warnings-list' and `delayed-warnings-hook'.
1570 If delayed-warnings-list is non-nil, the command loop calls
1571 `delayed-warnings-hook' after `post-command-hook'. At present, this
1572 is only used by Emacs on some platforms to display warnings during
1573 startup, which might otherwise not be noticed. This uses the
1574 functions `display-delayed-warnings' and `collapse-delayed-warnings'.
1576 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
1578 ** New function `make-composed-keymap' that constructs a new keymap
1579 from multiple input maps. You can use this to make a keymap that
1580 inherits from multiple maps, eg:
1581 (set-keymap-parent newmap (make-composed-keymap othermap parent))
1583 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
1584 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
1586 ** New reader macro ## that stands for the empty symbol.
1587 This means that the empty symbol can now be read back. Also, #: by itself
1588 (when not immediately followed by a possible symbol character) stands for
1589 an empty uninterned symbol.
1591 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
1593 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
1595 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
1596 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
1598 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
1599 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
1601 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
1603 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
1604 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
1606 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
1609 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
1611 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
1612 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
1614 ** New configure.bat options
1616 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
1618 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
1620 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
1622 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
1624 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
1626 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
1627 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
1629 ** Customize ns-auto-hide-menu-bar to have the menu-bar hidden, but
1630 reappear on mouse-over. (Requires OS X 10.6 or later.)
1632 ** On Mac OS X, dragging a file into Emacs visits the file, like on
1633 other platforms, rather than inserting its contents into the buffer.
1636 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1637 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1639 GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1640 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1641 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1642 (at your option) any later version.
1644 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1645 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1646 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1647 GNU General Public License for more details.
1649 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1650 along with GNU Emacs. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
1655 paragraph-separate: "[
\f]*$"