* lisp/follow.el: Rework, eliminating reliance on advice.
[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 ---
33 ** Emacs uses libtinfo in preference to libncurses, if available.
34
35 \f
36 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.2
37
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.
41
42 \f
43 * Changes in Emacs 24.2
44
45 ** New functions `system-users', `system-groups' return lists of the user
46 name, group names known to the system (where possible).
47
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.
50
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'.
55
56 *** Setting `imagemagick-types-inhibit' to t now disables the use of
57 ImageMagick to view images, set
58
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.
62
63 \f
64 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.2
65
66 ** M-x move-to-column, if called interactively with no prefix arg, now
67 prompts for a column number.
68
69 ** `mouse-avoidance-banish-position' can now be used to customize
70 `mouse-avoidance-mode' further.
71
72 ** `C-M-f' and `C-M-b' will now move to the path name separator
73 character when doing minibuffer filename prompts.
74
75 ** `goto-char' is now bound to `M-g c'.
76
77 \f
78 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
79
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'.
82
83 ** Apropos
84
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.
88
89 **** The old options whose values specified faces to use were removed
90 (i.e. `apropos-symbol-face', `apropos-keybinding-face', etc.).
91
92 ** Customize
93
94 *** `custom-reset-button-menu' now defaults to t.
95
96 *** Non-option variables are never matched in `customize-apropos' and
97 `customize-apropos-options' (i.e. the prefix argument does nothing for
98 these commands now).
99
100 ** erc will look up server/channel names via auth-source and use the
101 channel keys found, if any.
102
103 ** Follow mode
104
105 *** The obsolete variable `follow-mode-off-hook' has been removed.
106
107 *** Follow mode no longer works by using advice.
108 The option `follow-intercept-processes' has been removed.
109
110 ** The `server-auth-key' variable can be used to set a permanent
111 shared key for Emacs Server.
112
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.
115
116 ** FIXME something happened to ses.el, 2012-04-17.
117
118 ** which-function-mode now applies to all applicable major modes by default.
119
120 ** D-Bus
121
122 +++
123 *** New variables `dbus-compiled-version' and `dbus-runtime-version'.
124
125 +++
126 *** The D-Bus object manager interface is implemented.
127
128 +++
129 *** Variables of type :(u)int32 and :(u)int64 accept floating points,
130 if their value does not fit into Emacs's integer range.
131
132 +++
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.
135
136 +++
137 *** Signals can be sent also as unicast message.
138
139 +++
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
142 details.
143
144 +++
145 *** `dbus-init-bus' supports private connections.
146
147 +++
148 *** There is a new function `dbus-setenv'.
149
150 +++
151 ** notifications.el supports now version 1.2 of the Notifications API.
152 The function `notifications-get-capabilities' returns the supported
153 server properties.
154
155 ** Obsolete packages:
156
157 *** assoc.el
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.
161
162 *** mailpost.el
163
164 *** mouse-sel.el
165
166 \f
167 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.2
168 \f
169 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.2
170
171 +++
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
175 `custom-variable-p'.
176
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).
179
180 +++
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.
184
185 \f
186 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.2
187
188 ** Completion
189
190 *** New function `completion-table-with-quoting' to handle completion
191 in the presence of quoting, such as file completion in shell buffers.
192
193 *** New function `completion-table-subvert' to use an existing completion
194 table, but with a different prefix.
195 \f
196 * Changes in Emacs 24.2 on non-free operating systems
197
198 ** New configure.bat options on MS-Windows:
199
200 *** --without-libxml2 omits support for libxml2, even if its presence
201 is detected.
202
203 \f
204 * Installation Changes in Emacs 24.1
205
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
209 --without-gconf.
210
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.
215
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.
220
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.
226
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.
231
232 ** By default, the installed Info and man pages are compressed.
233 You can disable this by configuring --without-compress-info.
234
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
238 to about 2 GiB.
239
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.
243
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.
247
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'.
250
251 ** The standalone program `fakemail' is removed.
252 If you need it, feedmail.el provides a superset of the functionality.
253
254 \f
255 * Startup Changes in Emacs 24.1
256
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.)
260
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
264 Nextstep builds).
265
266 \f
267 * Changes in Emacs 24.1
268
269 ** Completion
270
271 *** Many packages now use the `completion-at-point' command,
272 rather than implementing separate completion commands.
273
274 *** `completion-at-point' now handles tags and semantic completion.
275
276 *** Completion in a non-minibuffer now tries to detect the end of completion
277 and pops down the *Completions* buffer accordingly.
278
279 *** New option `completion-cycle-threshold' allows completion cycling.
280
281 *** New option `completion-category-overrides' for overriding the
282 default completion style in certain circumstances.
283
284 *** New completion style `substring'.
285
286 *** Completion of buffer names uses `substring' completion by default.
287
288 *** The option `widget-complete-field' has been removed.
289
290 ** Mail changes
291
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).
298
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.
302
303 *** See Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages for SMTPmail changes
304 and Mail mode changes
305
306 ** Emacs server and client changes
307
308 *** New option `server-port' specifies the port for TCP Emacs servers.
309
310 *** New emacsclient argument -q/--quiet suppresses some status messages.
311
312 *** New emacsclient argument --frame-parameters specifies the frame
313 parameters of any newly-created graphical frame.
314
315 *** If emacsclient shuts down due to Emacs signaling an error,
316 its exit status is 1.
317
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.
321
322 ** Internationalization changes
323
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.
330
331 **** New buffer-local variable `bidi-display-reordering'.
332 To disable display reordering in a buffer, change this to nil.
333
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
338 paragraph.
339
340 Paragraphs with right-to-left base direction are displayed starting at
341 the right window edge.
342
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.
348
349 *** New input methods: farsi, farsi-translit, bulgarian-alt-phonetic.
350
351 *** `nobreak-char-display' now also highlights Unicode hyphen chars
352 (U+2010 and U+2011).
353
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.
357
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.
361
362 *** M-x list-packages shows a list of packages, which can be
363 selected for installation.
364
365 *** New command `describe-package', bound to `C-h P'.
366
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'.
370
371 ** Custom theme changes
372
373 *** New command `M-x customize-themes', which provides a convenient
374 interface for enabling and disabling Custom themes.
375
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.
382
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.
387
388 ** Improved GTK integration
389
390 *** GTK scroll-bars are now placed on the right by default.
391 The function `set-scroll-bar-mode' can change this.
392
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.
396
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
400 entries for this.
401
402 *** The default colors for selected text (the `region' face) are taken
403 from the GTK theme when Emacs is built with GTK.
404
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.
407
408 ** Graphical interface changes
409
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.
413
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.
416
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
420
421 ** Exiting changes
422
423 *** Emacs now calls `kill-emacs' if it receives SIGTERM or SIGHUP,
424 or if it receives a SIGINT signal in batch mode.
425
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.
429
430 ** Scrolling changes
431
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.
436
437 *** New option `scroll-error-top-bottom' (see above).
438
439 *** New scrolling commands `scroll-up-line' and `scroll-down-line'
440 scroll a line instead of full screen.
441
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'.
444
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.
450
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
455 margin.
456
457 ** Basic SELinux support has been added.
458 This requires Emacs to be linked with libselinux at build time.
459
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.
464
465 *** New functions `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
466 get and set the SELinux context of a file.
467
468 ** Trash changes
469
470 *** `delete-by-moving-to-trash' now only affects commands that specify
471 trashing. This avoids inadvertently trashing temporary files.
472
473 *** Calling `delete-file' or `delete-directory' with a prefix argument
474 now forces true deletion, regardless of `delete-by-moving-to-trash'.
475
476 ** File- and directory-local variable changes
477
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
481 subdirectories.
482
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.
488
489 *** Using "mode: MINOR-MODE" to enable a minor mode is deprecated.
490 Instead, use "eval: (minor-mode 1)".
491
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
496 corresponding way.
497
498 ** Window changes
499
500 *** The `quit-window' command now restores the last buffer displayed
501 in the quitted window.
502
503 *** Resizing an Emacs frame now preserves proportional window sizes,
504 modulo restrictions like window minimum sizes and fixed-size windows.
505
506 *** The behavior of `display-buffer' is now customizable in detail.
507
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).
511
512 This takes precedence over the default display action, which is
513 specified by `display-buffer-fallback-action'.
514
515 **** New option `display-buffer-alist' maps buffer name regexps to
516 display actions, taking precedence over `display-buffer-base-action'.
517
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.
522
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.
528
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.
532
533 *** New commands `maximize-window' and `minimize-window'.
534 These maximize and minimize the size of a window within its frame.
535
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.
539
540 ** Minibuffer changes
541
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.
545
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'.
549
550 ** `auto-mode-case-fold' is now enabled by default.
551
552 ** `backup-by-copying-when-mismatch' now defaults to t.
553
554 ** New basic faces `error', `warning', `success'.
555 These are used to highlight text indicating failure, caution or
556 successful operation.
557
558 ** New option `list-colors-sort' defines the color sort order
559 for `list-colors-display'.
560
561 ** The variable `focus-follows-mouse' now always defaults to nil.
562
563 \f
564 * Editing Changes in Emacs 24.1
565
566 ** Search changes
567
568 *** C-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-kill', instead of
569 `isearch-yank-line'.
570
571 *** M-y in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-pop', instead of
572 `isearch-yank-kill'.
573
574 *** M-s C-e in Isearch is now bound to `isearch-yank-line'.
575
576 ** New commands `count-words-region' and `count-words'.
577
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
582 alias for it.
583
584 ** The command `just-one-space' (M-SPC), if given a negative argument,
585 also deletes newlines around point.
586
587 ** Deletion changes
588
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
592 instead.
593
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'.
597
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.
602
603 *** The option `mouse-region-delete-keys' has been deleted.
604
605 ** Selection changes.
606
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.
611
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.
614
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).
619
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.
625
626 **** `mouse-drag-copy-region' now defaults to nil.
627
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'.
631
632 *** `x-select-enable-clipboard' now defaults to t on all platforms.
633
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.
637
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.
640
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.
644
645 *** To return to the previous behavior, do the following:
646
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.
652
653 *** Support for X cut buffers has been removed.
654
655 *** X clipboard managers are now supported.
656 To inhibit this, change `x-select-enable-clipboard-manager' to nil.
657
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.
661
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.
667
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).
673
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'.
679
680 \f
681 * Changes in Specialized Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
682
683 ** Archive Mode has basic support for browsing and updating 7z archives.
684
685 ** BibTeX mode
686
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'.
691
692 *** New command `bibtex-search-entries', bound to C-c C-a.
693
694 *** New `bibtex-entry-format' option `sort-fields', disabled by default.
695
696 *** New variable `bibtex-search-entry-globally'.
697
698 ** Browse-url
699
700 *** New option `browse-url-mailto-function' specifies how to handle "mailto:"s.
701
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.
704
705 ** Calendar, Diary, and Appt
706
707 *** Diary entries can contain non-printing "comments".
708 See the variable `diary-comment-start'.
709
710 *** Appointments can specify their individual warning times.
711 See the variable `appt-warning-time-regexp'.
712
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.
716
717 *** New function `diary-hebrew-birthday'.
718
719 *** Elements of `calendar-day-abbrev-array' and `calendar-month-abbrev-array'
720 may no longer be nil, but must all be strings.
721
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.
725
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)
729
730 *** Some diary function aliases (obsolete since Emacs 22.1) have been removed:
731 view-diary-entries, list-diary-entries, show-all-diary-entries
732
733 ** CC Mode
734
735 *** New feature to "guess" the style in an existing buffer.
736 The main entry point is M-x c-guess.
737
738 *** Java Mode now supports Java 5.0 (Tiger) and 6 (Mustang).
739
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,
742 not the top level.
743
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.
747
748 ** Comint and modes derived from it use the standard completion code.
749
750 ** Compilation mode
751
752 *** Compilation mode can be used without Font Lock mode.
753 `compilation-parse-errors-function' is now obsolete.
754
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'.
758
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*
762 buffer was used.
763
764 ** Customize
765
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.
769
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.
772
773 *** custom-buffer-sort-alphabetically now defaults to t.
774
775 *** The color widget now has a "Choose" button, which allows you to
776 choose a color via `list-colors-display'.
777
778 ** D-Bus
779
780 *** It is now possible to access buses other than the default system
781 or session bus.
782
783 *** The `dbus-register-method' and `dbus-register-property' functions
784 optionally do not register names.
785
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.
788
789 ** Dired-x
790
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.
794
795 *** The "dired local variables" feature of Dired-x is obsolete.
796 The standard directory local variables feature replaces it.
797
798 ** ERC changes
799
800 *** New options `erc-autojoin-timing' and `erc-autojoin-delay',
801 controlling attempts to autojoin a channel.
802
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.
807
808 ** Eshell changes
809
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.
813
814 ** gdb-mi
815
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.
819
820 ** Image mode
821
822 *** RET (`image-toggle-animation') toggles animation, if applicable.
823 Animation plays once, unless the option `image-animate-loop' is non-nil.
824
825 ** Info
826
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.
832
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
836 by default.
837
838 ** Mail mode changes (not Message mode)
839
840 *** New command M-x mail-add-attachment for adding MIME attachments
841
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.
845
846 ** MH-E has been updated to MH-E version 8.3.1.
847 See MH-E-NEWS for details.
848
849 ** Modula-2 mode provides auto-indentation.
850
851 ** mpc.el: Can use pseudo tags of the form tag1|tag2 as a union of two tags.
852
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.
857
858 ** Org mode has been updated to version 7.8.09.
859 See ORG-NEWS for details.
860
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.
864
865 ** Rmail
866
867 *** The command `rmail-epa-decrypt' decrypts OpenPGP data
868 in the Rmail incoming message.
869
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.
873
874 ** Shell mode
875
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.
879
880 *** TAB is now bound to the standard `completion-at-point' command,
881 which now implements the pcomplete rules for shell command completion.
882
883 ** SMTPmail
884
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'
888 to change this.
889
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
898
899 (setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
900 '(("mail.example.org" 25 "jim" "s!cret")))
901
902 then the equivalent line in ~/.authinfo would be
903
904 machine mail.example.org port 25 login jim password s!cret
905
906 See the auth-source manual for more information, e.g. on encrypting
907 the credentials file.
908
909 *** The variable `smtpmail-starttls-credentials' has been removed.
910 If you had that set, you need to put
911
912 machine smtp.whatever.foo port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
913
914 in your ~/.authinfo file instead.
915
916 ** SQL mode
917
918 *** New options `sql-port', `sql-connection-alist', `sql-send-terminator',
919 and `sql-oracle-scan-on'.
920
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.
925
926 *** The command `sql-product-interactive' now takes a prefix argument,
927 which causes it to prompt for an SQL product.
928
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'.
933
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.
940
941 *** New command `sql-connect' starts a predefined SQLi session,
942 using the login parameters from `sql-connection-alist'.
943
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.
947
948 *** New commands for listing database objects and details:
949 sql-list-all and sql-list-table.
950
951 *** An API for manipulating SQL product definitions has been added.
952
953 ** TeX modes
954
955 *** latex-electric-env-pair-mode keeps \begin..\end matched on the fly.
956
957 ** Tramp
958
959 *** New inline access method "ksu" (kerberized su).
960
961 *** The following access methods are discontinued: "ssh1_old",
962 "ssh2_old", "scp1_old", "scp2_old", "imap", "imaps" and "fish".
963
964 *** The user option `remote-file-name-inhibit-cache' controls whether
965 remote file attributes are cached for better performance.
966
967 *** The option `ange-ftp-binary-file-name-regexp' has changed its
968 default value to "".
969
970 *** Handlers for `file-selinux-context' and `set-file-selinux-context'
971 for remote machines which support SELinux.
972
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.
976
977 ** VC and related modes
978
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.
984
985 *** `vc-update' is now an alias for `vc-pull'.
986
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.
992
993 *** New option `vc-revert-show-diff' controls whether `vc-revert'
994 shows a diff while querying the user. It defaults to t.
995
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.
1002
1003 *** New command `vc-ediff' allows visual comparison of two revisions
1004 of a file similar to `vc-diff', but using ediff backend.
1005
1006 *** The option `vc-initial-comment' was removed in Emacs 23.2, but
1007 this was not advertised at the time.
1008
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.
1012
1013 ** Obsolete modes
1014
1015 *** abbrevlist.el
1016
1017 *** erc-hecomplete.el (use erc-pcomplete.el instead)
1018
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)
1023
1024 *** pc-mode.el is obsolete (CUA mode is much more comprehensive).
1025
1026 *** pgg is obsolete (use EasyPG instead).
1027
1028 *** sregex.el is obsolete, since rx.el is a strict superset.
1029
1030 *** s-region.el and pc-select.el are obsolete.
1031 They are superseded by shift-select-mode, enabled by default since 23.1.
1032
1033 *** vc-mcvs.el is obsolete (for lack of a maintainer).
1034
1035 ** Miscellaneous
1036
1037 *** The Landmark game is now invoked with `landmark', not `lm'.
1038 Its functions and variables have been similarly renamed.
1039
1040 *** In `ido-file-completion-map', C-v is no longer bound to `ido-toggle-vc'.
1041 (This interfered with cua-mode.)
1042
1043 *** f90.el has some support for Fortran 2008 syntax.
1044
1045 *** `copyright-fix-years' can optionally convert consecutive years to ranges.
1046
1047 *** New command `nato-region' converts text to NATO phonetic alphabet.
1048
1049 \f
1050 * New Modes and Packages in Emacs 24.1
1051
1052 ** Occur Edit mode applies edits made in *Occur* buffers to the
1053 original buffers. It is bound to "e" in Occur mode.
1054
1055 ** New global minor mode electric-pair-mode.
1056 When enabled, typing an open parenthesis automatically inserts the
1057 matching closing one.
1058
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.
1063
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.
1067
1068 ** tabulated-list.el provides a generic major mode for tabulated data,
1069 from which other modes can be derived.
1070
1071 ** pcase.el provides the ML-style pattern matching macro `pcase'.
1072
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
1077 secrets.
1078
1079 ** notifications.el provides an implementation of the Desktop
1080 Notifications API. It requires D-Bus for communication.
1081
1082 ** soap-client.el supports access to SOAP web services from Emacs.
1083 soap-inspect.el is an interactive inspector for SOAP WSDL structures.
1084
1085 ** New generic mode, xmodmap-generic-mode, for xmodmap files.
1086
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.
1093
1094 \f
1095 * Incompatible Lisp Changes in Emacs 24.1
1096
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.
1099
1100 (add-hook 'text-mode-hook 'foo-mode)
1101
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.
1106
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".
1112
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'.
1118
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.
1123
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
1127 of the header line.
1128
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.
1136
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
1141 older Emacsen too.
1142
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.
1146
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).
1150
1151 ** Menu and tool bar changes
1152
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'.
1159
1160 *** The menu bar bindings's caches are not used any more.
1161 Use (where-is-internal <def> nil t) instead.
1162
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.
1167
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.
1171
1172 ** cl.el no longer provides `cl-19'.
1173
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):
1177
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')
1199
1200 ** The following obsolete variables and varaliases have been removed
1201 (the appropriate new variable is given in parentheses):
1202
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').
1208
1209 ** The following obsolete files were removed:
1210 sc.el, x-menu.el, rnews.el, rnewspost.el
1211
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'.
1216
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'.
1220
1221 \f
1222 * Lisp changes in Emacs 24.1
1223
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
1228 file.
1229
1230 *** `eval' takes a new optional argument `lexical' to choose the new lexical
1231 binding instead of the old dynamic binding mode.
1232
1233 *** Lexically scoped interpreted functions are represented with a new form
1234 of function value which looks like (closure ENV ARGS &rest BODY).
1235
1236 *** New macro `letrec' to define recursive local functions.
1237
1238 *** `defvar' and `defconst' now mark the variable as special (dynamic).
1239 So do `defcustom' and other forms that call `defvar' as a subroutine.
1240
1241 *** New function `special-variable-p' to check whether a variable is
1242 declared as dynamically bound.
1243
1244 *** The form ((lambda ...) ...) is deprecated.
1245
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.
1249
1250 ** Changes for bidirectional display and editing
1251
1252 *** New function `current-bidi-paragraph-direction'.
1253 This returns the base direction of the paragraph at point.
1254
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.)
1261
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.
1265
1266 ** Window changes
1267
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.
1272
1273 **** New function `window-valid-p' gives non-nil for live and internal
1274 windows.
1275
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.
1280
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.
1286
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.
1292
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.
1299
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.
1304
1305 *** Deleting the selected window now selects the most recently selected
1306 live window on that frame instead.
1307
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.
1314
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.
1321
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.
1326
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.
1330
1331 *** Display actions
1332
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.
1337
1338 **** New variable `display-buffer-overriding-action'.
1339
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.
1345
1346 See the docstring of `display-buffer' for details.
1347
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.
1351
1352 ** Completion
1353
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.
1358
1359 *** Functions on `completion-at-point-functions' can return any of the
1360 properties valid for `completion-extra-properties'.
1361
1362 *** `completion-annotate-function' is obsolete.
1363
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.
1371
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'.
1375
1376 *** New variable `completing-read-function' allows overriding the
1377 behavior of `completing-read'.
1378
1379 ** `glyphless-char-display' can now distinguish between graphical and
1380 text terminal display, via a char-table entry that is a cons cell.
1381
1382 ** `pre-command-hook'/`post-command-hook' are not reset to nil on error.
1383 Instead, the offending function is removed.
1384
1385 ** New hook types
1386
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.
1391
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.)
1396
1397 ** Debugger changes
1398
1399 *** New macro `condition-case-unless-debug' (this was actually added in
1400 Emacs 23.1 as condition-case-no-debug, but not advertised)
1401
1402 *** The macro `with-demoted-errors' was added in Emacs 23.1, but not advertised.
1403
1404 *** Variable `stack-trace-on-error' removed.
1405
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.
1409
1410 *** Set `debug-on-event' to enter the debugger on events like SIGUSR1.
1411 This can be useful when `inhibit-quit' is set.
1412
1413 ** The new function `server-eval-at' allows evaluation of Lisp forms on
1414 named Emacs server instances.
1415
1416 ** `call-process' and `call-process-region' allow a `(:file "file")' spec
1417 to redirect STDOUT to a file.
1418
1419 ** The function `format-time-string' now supports the %N directive,
1420 for higher-resolution time stamps.
1421
1422 ** New input reading functions
1423
1424 *** New function `read-char-choice' reads a restricted set of
1425 characters, discarding any inputs not inside the set.
1426
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
1429 invalid input.
1430
1431 **** `facemenu-read-color' is now an alias for `read-color'.
1432
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
1436 obsolete alias.
1437
1438 ** Syntax parsing changes
1439
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
1448 syntactic rules.
1449
1450 *** Syntax tables support a new "comment style c" additionally to style b.
1451
1452 ** New hook `post-self-insert-hook', run after `self-insert-command'.
1453
1454 ** frame-local variables cannot be let-bound any more.
1455
1456 ** Major and minor mode changes
1457
1458 *** `set-auto-mode' now respects mode: local variables at the end of files,
1459 as well as those in the -*- line.
1460
1461 *** `prog-mode' is a new major mode from which programming modes
1462 should be derived.
1463
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.
1467
1468 *** New hook `change-major-mode-after-body-hook', run by
1469 `run-mode-hooks' just before any other mode hooks.
1470
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.
1474
1475 *** `define-minor-mode' accepts new keywords :variable, :after-hook.
1476
1477 ** File-handling changes
1478
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).
1483
1484 *** New file predicates: `file-equal-p', `file-in-directory-p'.
1485
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 "--")'.
1489
1490 ** Image API
1491
1492 *** Animated images support (currently animated gifs only).
1493
1494 **** `image-animated-p' returns non-nil if an image can be animated.
1495
1496 **** `image-animate' animates a supplied image spec.
1497
1498 **** `image-animate-timer' returns the timer object for an image that
1499 is being animated.
1500
1501 *** `image-extension-data' has been renamed to `image-metadata'.
1502 The old name is an obsolete alias to the new one.
1503
1504 *** Image mode can view any image type that ImageMagick supports.
1505 This requires Emacs to be built with ImageMagick support.
1506
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.
1510
1511 **** New function `imagemagick-register-types' enables ImageMagick
1512 image types in Image mode and in `create-image' and other helper
1513 functions.
1514
1515 **** New option `imagemagick-types-inhibit' excludes certain
1516 ImageMagick image types from `imagemagick-register-types'.
1517
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'.
1522
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.
1527
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.
1533
1534 ** Networking and encryption changes
1535
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.
1541
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'
1549 greater than 0.
1550
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.
1554
1555 ** Isearch
1556
1557 *** New hook `isearch-update-post-hook' that runs in `isearch-update'.
1558
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".
1565
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'.
1568
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'.
1575
1576 ** rx.el has a new `group-n' construct for explicitly numbered groups.
1577
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))
1582
1583 ** New function `string-prefix-p'.
1584 (This was actually added in Emacs 23.2 but was not advertised at the time.)
1585
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.
1590
1591 ** New math functions `isnan', `copysign', `frexp', `ldexp'.
1592
1593 ** The following functions and variables are obsolete:
1594
1595 *** `tooltip-use-echo-area' is obsolete.
1596 Rather than setting this to t, disable Tooltip mode instead.
1597
1598 *** buffer-substring-filters is obsolete.
1599 Use `filter-buffer-substring-functions' instead.
1600
1601 *** `byte-compile-disable-print-circle' is obsolete.
1602
1603 *** `deferred-action-list' and `deferred-action-function' are obsolete.
1604 Use `post-command-hook' instead.
1605
1606 *** `font-lock-maximum-size' is obsolete.
1607
1608 \f
1609 * Changes in Emacs 24.1 on non-free operating systems
1610
1611 ** On MS Windows, Emacs warns when using the obsolete init file _emacs,
1612 and also when HOME is set to C:\ by default.
1613
1614 ** New configure.bat options
1615
1616 *** --enable-checking builds Emacs with extra runtime checks.
1617
1618 *** --distfiles specifies files to be included in binary distribution.
1619
1620 *** --without-gnutls disables automatic GnuTLS detection.
1621
1622 *** --lib for general library linkage, works with the USER_LIBS build variable.
1623
1624 ** New make target `dist' to create binary distribution for MS Windows.
1625
1626 ** The Lisp function `w32-default-color-map' is now obsolete.
1627 (It is only used internally in the Emacs C code.)
1628
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.)
1631
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.
1634
1635 \f
1636 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1637 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
1638
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.
1643
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.
1648
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/>.
1651
1652 \f
1653 Local variables:
1654 mode: outline
1655 paragraph-separate: "[ \f]*$"
1656 end: